Skilifts.org / SORT Forum

I just read about the Fool Creek Fire burning in Montana, which is now less than a quarter mile from the Teton Pass ski area. The place has an SLI double and a 1960's Poma lift. It is somewhat suprising to me that ski areas do not get burned more often. When I was at Sun Valley, there was a fire that had just been put out about 500 yards from the Sun Valley Resort golf course. At Brundage, a fire was burning a mile away and they were irrigating the base are like crazy with the snowmaking system.

http://www.greatfallstribune.com/apps/pbcs.../708160303/1002

I'm hating being on vacation and not there:

From Castanet.net:

Fire East Of Big White
by Wayne Moore - Story: 32762
August 16, 2007 / 2:56 pm



A forest fire is burning out of control east of Big White.

The fire, about eight km east of Big White, is burning near Never Touch Lake in the Kettle River area.

It has grown to about 75 hectares in size and was discovered about noon Thursday.

The Ministry of Forests is fighting the blaze.

Southeast Fire Centre Information Officer, Corwin Odland, says they are fighting the fire aggressively from the air. Ground crews are in the area, however, he says the fire is too aggressive to safely tackle it from the ground.

"The area is somewhat remote, there's no communities in the area" says Odland. There is a campground north of the fire on the lake, however, it is empty."

He says the cause of the fire is still under investigation.

"There was lightning on the 10th and 11th of this month, and we are seeing some hangover fires from that."

Odland says with the rain accompanying the lightning, sometimes a fire will burn underground for a while before popping up.

Ironically, the fire was discovered on the fourth anniversary of the lightning strike which started the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire.

1703hrs just talked to one of my troops, it's about 5 miles out and very windy.
This post has been edited by mikest2: 16 August 2007 - 04:04 PM

Good luck Mike, hopefully it stays away from you! We had five fires within a mile of the resort when that storm rolled through it late July, it looked like they were going to get away for a while, but they hit them hard with air tankers and then it rained really hard for a day and they all went out! We've been very lucky - we've fought a couple fires over the past couple years, but they were just little. We're also the initial attack crew at the resort :)

Yikes. Hope it stays away.

As of this morning the fire is 500 Ha (1200 acres)
Here's the location:

East of Big White is good, no? I would think the prevaling winds would be from the west...but as we know, the larger the fire the better chance of it creating its own weather pattern.
Good Luck

Dino

a few years ago, whiteface put out a fire with its snow making system.

1400hrs BCFS update:

Fire Summary Interface / Evacuations
South Nevertouch Lake (N60564)
Location: Approx. 50 km E of Kelowna and 13 km E-NE of Big White

Size: 450.0 ha (estimated)

Cause: Human
Details under investigation.

Status: Active

Discovered:
Thursday, August 16, 2007

Last updated: (#394)
8/17/2007 2:04:00 PM

History for this fire.
This is not an interface fire.
Resources
45 firefighters 2 helicopters
8 heavy equipment

Four groups of Air tankers and the Martin Mars are actioning this fire heavily.



Details
Located approximately 13 km N-NE of Big White and approximately 50 km East of Kelowna

Crews today plan to work up the east and west flanks with heavy equipment supported by medium helicopters and ground forces. Efforts will concentrate on west flank.

The weather is expected to remain warm and dry, with a chance of lightning and isolated showers around storm cells. Winds may be gusty and coming from the SW, which should push the fire away from Big White.

Map & Photos
There are no maps or photos available for this fire.

Quote

Makes it that much more frustrating...

spunkyskier01, on Aug 17 2007, 03:00 PM, said:

Back a few years at Copper, we had a lightning caused fire start in the trees near one of our lifts. We mob'ed the Mountain Emergency Crew (Slope Maint. & Lift Maint.), got our fire fighting gear and the water tanker (Clyde) to the site and had it supressed in no time flat.
Then the fun started - The Forest Service boys showed up and were PISSED that we had dealt with a fire on Forest Service land - without proper USDA approved NOMEX clothing, no Wildland Fire Training, rubber watch bands (good one!), etc. etc.
While the higher ups dealt with the USDA, we went to the bar and "high fives" were passed around.
Go figure.

Dino

I've heard about that one. Seems that they should have congratulated you guys about it rather than claimed you were 'interfering' and ''over your head' (the way James and Marty tell it, that's part of was the Forest Circus said)

water tanker (Clyde) ????

J.H. keeps the Snowmaking System charged during the Fire Season. Caches of shovels, SM hoses and fire nozzles adapted to SM hose are located at key spots.

The amount of water supplied with a SM system blows away any other wildland firefighting techniques except HARD RAIN.

Carl

JustJeepIt, on Aug 17 2007, 11:40 PM, said:

Yeah, some of our older equipment has names- one of our front-end loaders is Fat Alice, for example- Clyde lives at the fork of our two major mountain roads, the better to be dispatched wherever he may be needed.

Starting to look better, link to BCFS fire news

http://bcwildfire.ca/hprScripts/WildfireNe...=normal#Proj203

What would it mean to Big White if it had been burned some amount? Would they be open? Or close up shop?

Snoqualmie guy, on Aug 19 2007, 05:33 PM, said:

Hard call, but I don't work with any quitters.

There is a fire burning now on the backside of Bald Mountain at Sun Valley. This looks like smoke to me! Winds are at 45mph, and the fire has grown from 3 acres on Friday to 14,000 tonight A mandatory evacuation order has been issued for areas near the ski area, and Bald Mountain is closed to all recreation. Luckily, I don't think Baldy is in too much danger with the largest snowmaking system in the world!
This post has been edited by Skier: 19 August 2007 - 11:39 PM

In the east there was a small fire at the top of Pico Mtn near the summit during the summer of 2001. It was spotted by myself and others working the top of the alpine slide just b-4 closing.
This post has been edited by skisox34: 20 August 2007 - 09:24 AM

Does snowmaking work as well as water to put out a fire?