Everything at the bottom terminal will most likely have to go. The haul rope might also have to be replaced if there is severe heat damage. The lift towers should be fine but can't tell from the pictures.
The good news is that luckily it's a Riblet and spare parts should be easy to find. The question is though, is it really worth the effort to rebuild the ski area now that the main lift is damaged? Hopefully everything is covered by insurance.
0
Trinty Mountain Resort, Ski Green Valley Burned
Started by egieszl, Oct 23 2007 05:16 PM
37 replies to this topic
#23
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- Member
- 4,314 Posts:
Established User
Posted 29 October 2007 - 01:31 PM
CALIFORNIA’S TRINITY MOUNTAIN TORCHED BY FIRE
SAM Magazine—Green Valley Lake, Calif., Oct. 29, 2007—Trinity Mountain Resort was burned last week by the Slide fire. No lives were lost, but ten percent of the homes in Green Valley Lake were destroyed, and the one and only chairlift at Trinity was also burned.
The damage could have been worse. The area had recently remodeled the base lodge, which was spared by the fire. Forest Service crews had cleared combustibles away from the lodge just a few weeks earlier, and that may have helped save it.
Trinity is the latest incarnation of a resort that has existed since 1945. In the 1990s, known as Big Air Green Valley, it gained recognition as the first snowboard-only resort in the country. It had been owned by a church for several years before it was purchased by Randy Pattison two years ago. Pattison planned (and still plans) to transform the area into a family-friendly, alcohol- and tobacco-free resort.
To do so, he’ll have to rebuild the bottom-drive, top-tension 1,200-foot Riblet double chair that was the primary uphill transportation. While a complete damage assessment can not be done until the current evacuation order is lifted, both the top and bottom terminals burned, and the haul rope is a loss. Pattison had dropped his insurance last spring because, after two poor seasons, he couldn’t afford it. He is looking for any assistance neighbors and other winter resorts can provide. Address inquiries or offers of assistance to randy@trinitymountainresort.com.
SAM Magazine—Green Valley Lake, Calif., Oct. 29, 2007—Trinity Mountain Resort was burned last week by the Slide fire. No lives were lost, but ten percent of the homes in Green Valley Lake were destroyed, and the one and only chairlift at Trinity was also burned.
The damage could have been worse. The area had recently remodeled the base lodge, which was spared by the fire. Forest Service crews had cleared combustibles away from the lodge just a few weeks earlier, and that may have helped save it.
Trinity is the latest incarnation of a resort that has existed since 1945. In the 1990s, known as Big Air Green Valley, it gained recognition as the first snowboard-only resort in the country. It had been owned by a church for several years before it was purchased by Randy Pattison two years ago. Pattison planned (and still plans) to transform the area into a family-friendly, alcohol- and tobacco-free resort.
To do so, he’ll have to rebuild the bottom-drive, top-tension 1,200-foot Riblet double chair that was the primary uphill transportation. While a complete damage assessment can not be done until the current evacuation order is lifted, both the top and bottom terminals burned, and the haul rope is a loss. Pattison had dropped his insurance last spring because, after two poor seasons, he couldn’t afford it. He is looking for any assistance neighbors and other winter resorts can provide. Address inquiries or offers of assistance to randy@trinitymountainresort.com.
- Peter<br />
Liftblog.com
Liftblog.com
#24
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- Member
- 1,164 Posts:
Whistler Skiier
- Interests:Downhill Skiing, Nordic Skiing, Web Development, Outdoors in general, ect.
Posted 29 October 2007 - 03:03 PM
It always is the way, when you aren't insured, something bad will happen...Too bad for them..
#26
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- Industry II
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Established User
- Interests:Skiing, Running, Mountain Biking, Baseball, Hiking, ski history, and Chairlifts.
Posted 29 October 2007 - 04:59 PM
best of luck to them, maybe a ski area like Vail that just removed Highline would be willing to donate their drive to Trinity. Does anyone on this forum work for Vail Resorts?
#27
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- Administrator I
- 1,204 Posts:
Mountain Operations
Posted 29 October 2007 - 06:19 PM
Recieved an email at work today from a friend who is trying to extinguish fires in the SoCal. It gives a little insight from another perspective. I think its worth a read:
Hi from San Diego,
Here's an update from sunny San Diego, the place where I often sit around doing nothing, waiting for the dispatch alarm to ring.
Well I don't have that problem now as most of San Diego County is on fire, as well as several other parts of Southern California.
Sorry for the mass e-mail, but I'm pretty busy right now as you can imagine.
Thanks for your e-mails and messages over the last few days.
Yes, I'm trying to be safe. But there's still a certain amount of risk in this job.
Especially when there is so much smoke, helicopters buzzing around on different radio channels, and horrendously strong winds.
But what an enjoyable and exciting week it has been. I love my job.
The winds have now died, so we are getting an upper hand on the fires, but there's a lot of clean-up yet to be done.
The fire managers are also getting ahead too, so things are a little more organized and the aircraft are pretty much on the same channels now.
However this just means the three radios we have to listen to are now just a constant stream of voices and noise in our helmets.
I know many of you thought my fire-season would have ended by now, and were surprised to hear my reply that our busy period was just about to begin.
I started my 12-day shift last Thursday. There were already warnings being issued for a severe "Santa Ana" wind event due to start on Sunday morning.
These strong, hot, east winds seem to be very easy to predict. They are caused by a high pressure zone over Colorado, and a low over the Pacific Ocean.
The air rushes from the high to the low, across the deserts of Nevada and Arizona.....gathering heat in the process, then it accelerates down the coastal mountain canyons into the cities of Southern California.
Just as predicted, the winds shifted to the east on Sunday morning, then continued to gain strength and heat over the next few hours until standing outside resembled being in front of the world's largest hair-dryer. Several people said this was the strongest Santa Ana they had witnessed in many years.
The air is very dry and it doesn't seem very long before you notice your hair is dried out and 'frizzy', and you are constantly blinking because of the super- fine dust that flies through the air.
We heard some fires had started near Los Angeles and one in Malibu.
The first fire in our area broke out by mid-morning on Sunday. This would be known as the Harris Fire.
By the time we arrived on scene less than 20 minutes later it was tearing across the grass and sage brush at an amazing rate.
A huge amount of air and ground resources were ordered, and put to work as they came on scene.
Shortly after arriving, a fire-fighting bulldozer cutting a fire-break was trapped in the fire-front.
He called for water drops, ploughed a clearing around himself, lowered the heat- proof curtains in the cab, deployed his breathing gear and waited it out.
With the winds being so strong, the smoke column was pulled low over the top of him.
Though we could hear him calling for assistance on the radio, we could not see him or do anything to support him.
Thankfully within a few minutes, the worst had passed by him, and he was able to crawl his blackened bulldozer back to it's truck and trailer.
This was the first reminder of what is so bad about fires driven by a Santa Ana.
That is, they move so very quickly and throw embers so far in front of themselves that it is easy to be over-run by the fire.
But Santa Ana fires have two other main threats.
Firstly, the hot, powerful desert winds make the flames impossible to stop. Even lighting a back-fire to burn back to the main fire and starve it of fuel doesn't work because the flames don't get sucked back into the main column.....they just get driven westward in front of the fire they were supposed to stop.
Added to this is the problem that the fires race westward, from the foothills down into the cities, rather than the other way which is typical of fires burning with the usual westerly winds.
As we chased the fire across the semi-populated area, a relatively calm but horrific call for help came out from the Captain of one of the fire engines on the fire.
He and the 3 other members of his crew had been over-run by the fire.
They also had two civilians in their area.
The crews all carry fire shelters, a type of aluminum-foil blanket that they can hide under in an attempt to protect themselves.
The civilians of course had nothing.
Whether the blankets had been used was unknown. All that was clear over the radio was that there were several serious injuries, possibly fatal, and that not only did the Captain not know his exact location, but also some of his crew were missing.
I had a load of water in my helicopter's belly-tank and flew to the head of the fire, where I assumed the crew was located.
The winds were blowing at almost 70 kilometers per hour and flying was extremely rough. I dropped the water on a hot-spot to try to gain some horsepower for maneuvering in the tough conditions.
The smoke was thick and grey, and flowing low across the ground like a flooding river. Though the worst of the flames had passed, the smoke still came off everything in the fire's wake....burning houses, cars and sheds, as well as land that was now stripped of any vegetation.
A local Battalion Chief was trying to drive into the accident scene but was almost engulfed by flames and was only saved by the Air Attack Officer in a plane overhead warning him to get out of the area as another flame front was approaching.
Air Ambulances were ordered, and I continued to search for the crew.
The wind and smoke were making things very difficult. Finally the Captain called that he could hear my helicopter but couldn't see me.
It took several more minutes to creep into the location as the Captain tried to give me directions.
I finally spotted the Captain and managed to land in a tiny junction of two dirt roads nearby.
For some reason he didn't approach the helicopter, and I couldn't shut it down to help them as I was balancing on some uneven ground. Suddenly I was enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke and couldn't see more than about 20 feet.
Breathing was okay, because I was sheltered in the cockpit. However the air outside was ash-filled, dusty, and smoky.
I knew I had to get the helicopter out of there as soon as possible, so I lifted-off as soon as the worst of the smoke passed, and hovered back out to clearer air.
From a distance I could see there was another clearing in the smoke approaching so I called the Captain and asked if his people were ready to be evacuated.
I was shocked to hear that he still couldn't find all his crew, but I hovered back into the road junction to pick-up whoever I could.
Once I landed, I called to the Captain over the radio to get onboard. As he approached I saw he had two other fire-fighters and a civilian with him.
The crew were wearing their yellow flame-resistant jackets but appeared to be in a lot of pain. The civilian was wearing a ripped t-shirt and jeans, and he was covered in ash and soot.
After everyone was onboard I looked over my shoulder to check the rear door was closed. What I saw shocked me.
The civilian's clothes weren't ripped but burnt through, and his hands and face weren't covered in soot but completely burnt and blackened.
Again I lifted-off and crawled out through the smoke while getting bounced and tossed by the winds. Then I headed for a field beside a nearby fire-station where other fire crews were standing-by to unload the patients from the back seat, and start medical care.
As I lifted-off back to the accident scene the air ambulance helicopters were arriving to transport the patients to hospital.
Upon arriving back on scene I noticed the smoke had cleared a little.
The first 4x4 truck was arriving to help in the search for what was thought to be two more people. I directed the driver into the correct area, then started a search from the air.
The fire-truck belonging to the fire crew was a black, smouldering burnt-out steel skeleton, sitting on four exploded tires that were still burning.
After a little while the ground personnel found the other fire fighter and called me in to evacuate him. I had no idea where he had been in the time we had been searching for him, or what sort of hell he had been through in the last 20 minutes or so.
Once again I squeezed my helicopter into the tiny road junction, and the patient was loaded into the back seat.
Within a few minutes of him being found I was dropping him off at the fire station where he was unloaded and treated before transport.
The first patients were now being loaded onto the air ambulances and taken for extensive treatment at the San Diego Burn Centre.
Though sadly one person died at this house as the fire raced through the town, all five people I extracted had survived.
A few have been put into medical comas for several days now to ease the burden of breathing with such badly damaged airways, but all are expected to recover, though they will bear the scars of that afternoon for the rest of their lives.
Later that day a fire started east of our base in Ramona.
This covered our airport in smoke and grounded the air-tankers.
The pilots were somewhat grateful though, as the wind speeds and turbulence were terrible.
Our return to the base at dusk that evening was a macabre experience with such wild winds and a low pall of smoke hanging over the airport and town.
This fire, the Witch Fire, also caused an evacuation of Ramona as the fire marched into town.
The roads were completely plugged with thousands of cars moving nowhere in a grid-lock.
Luckily the fire missed the traffic jam, otherwise the death rate would have been appalling.
I managed to book hotel rooms several miles away for myself, the helicopter mechanic, and the fuel-truck driver.
We drove a back-road to avoid most of the traffic, but the 25 km trip still took over an hour.
After a few hours sleep, we headed back to Ramona airport.
The Police road-blocks were everywhere, and some were easy for us to pass because we were helicopter crew, while some others were really difficult because the Officer obviously had his badge on too tight !!
Since then we've been staying at our condos in town, despite the evacuation order. I had seen the town from above and realized there was no real threat remaining.
There has been no water supply, several power-cuts, no restaurants, and only one supermarket open from 7am to 7pm, which has made life a little more fatiguing.
Also the constant wind, fine dust, smoke and blowing ash has you constantly blinking and coughing.
By early on Monday morning, news reports were coming out about how many houses were lost in the first evening as what was now several fires had headed down from the hills into the highly populated areas.
I was sent down towards the city to help with 'structure protection'.
This is where we focus just on houses being immediately threatened, and let any other open areas of vegetation burn.
Attached is a photo of me dropping water near Poway around mid-day, though the smoke makes it look like dusk.
(photo by Sean M Haffey, San Diego Union Tribune) Television news footage can never really show the level of destruction present after a disaster like this.
Everywhere we went there seemed to be houses reduced literally to piles of ashes.
All day Monday was spent battling the winds, while flying in, out, under and around the smoke columns in an attempt to save houses in the city.
I would suck up a tank of water from a resevoir, then return to a threatened neighbourhood to try and figure out where my water-drop would do the most good.
Then repeat the process over and over.
It was sad to see the largest flames licking through a neighbourhood, and not to be able to help against such a powerful force.
But I really think we saved quite a few houses that day where we could, and considering the conditions, that's about all we can hope for.
For the last three days I have been assigned to the Harris fire again where the houses are in a more hilly and rural setting.
I have mainly been dropping water, sometimes with 8 helicopters in a circuit, constantly scooping and dropping all in an attempt to stop the persistant march of the fire.
There should also be another photo attached of a fire racing up a hillside towards a house.
(I apologise for the poor photo quality but it was quite smoky, turbulent, and I was trying to fly a helicopter at the time too).
There is a fire engine in the driveway that is part of a 'strike-team'.
These are fire-trucks that have come from cities all over the state and are then assembled into large convoys.
These crews are 'city' crews and therefore specialise in structure fires rather than vegetation fires.
Once the convoy arrives at a threatened neighbourhood, each engine and its 4 person crew is appointed to a house to do what they can to save it as the fire comes through.
The helicopters let most of the vegetation burn-off as the fire approaches, and concentrate our efforts on the flames nearest the houses.
Dropping on flames this hot makes for a very exciting ride as the thermal currents are very strong. With flames this big the dropped water just evaporates on its descent, so we drop the water on the green vegetation in front of the flames in the hope that the fire will die down a little as it passes the house.
Shortly afterwards, once the fire has passed through, the engines will leave that house and be re-assigned to another house in the path of the fire.
And so it goes, 24 hours a day, for several days if necessary.
At least we are only on duty for 14 hours a day. I have great respect for these crews on the ground after seeing some of the things I have, especially this week.
I have also been leading US military Black-hawk helicopters into targets.
California's Governor, Arnold Swarzenegger, and President Bush have authorised the use of these helicopters.
But just because you put a huge bucket under these monsters, it doesn't mean the crews know how to use them effectively.
Let's face it, I wouldn't know what to do in a combat zone just because I mounted some guns on my helicopter and practiced firing them a few times.
So I have often flown circuits of a threatened area, cutting in front of a Black-hawk as it comes out of the dip point, then leading it in to the target and describing what speed to drop at, how much wind-drift to allow for, and point-out exactly where to start the drop.
Right at that time I spin into a tight turn to watch the drop, give some constructive criticism, then look for the next Black-hawk coming out of the dip- point so that I can repeat the process again.
These military helicopters usually travel in groups of 3 or 6 at a time so it has been very exciting, and great to see not only the huge improvement in their efforts, but what a difference it can make to get that much of the tax-payers'
water onto the right part of the fire.
I've been working very long days, and have used the few spare moments to write this letter. I hope you found it interesting to read about what I do when that alarm finally rings.
Thanks again for your thoughts and messages, Love and Best wishes, Mike.
Here is a pic of Mike at work:
Credit Sean M Haffey
Hi from San Diego,
Here's an update from sunny San Diego, the place where I often sit around doing nothing, waiting for the dispatch alarm to ring.
Well I don't have that problem now as most of San Diego County is on fire, as well as several other parts of Southern California.
Sorry for the mass e-mail, but I'm pretty busy right now as you can imagine.
Thanks for your e-mails and messages over the last few days.
Yes, I'm trying to be safe. But there's still a certain amount of risk in this job.
Especially when there is so much smoke, helicopters buzzing around on different radio channels, and horrendously strong winds.
But what an enjoyable and exciting week it has been. I love my job.
The winds have now died, so we are getting an upper hand on the fires, but there's a lot of clean-up yet to be done.
The fire managers are also getting ahead too, so things are a little more organized and the aircraft are pretty much on the same channels now.
However this just means the three radios we have to listen to are now just a constant stream of voices and noise in our helmets.
I know many of you thought my fire-season would have ended by now, and were surprised to hear my reply that our busy period was just about to begin.
I started my 12-day shift last Thursday. There were already warnings being issued for a severe "Santa Ana" wind event due to start on Sunday morning.
These strong, hot, east winds seem to be very easy to predict. They are caused by a high pressure zone over Colorado, and a low over the Pacific Ocean.
The air rushes from the high to the low, across the deserts of Nevada and Arizona.....gathering heat in the process, then it accelerates down the coastal mountain canyons into the cities of Southern California.
Just as predicted, the winds shifted to the east on Sunday morning, then continued to gain strength and heat over the next few hours until standing outside resembled being in front of the world's largest hair-dryer. Several people said this was the strongest Santa Ana they had witnessed in many years.
The air is very dry and it doesn't seem very long before you notice your hair is dried out and 'frizzy', and you are constantly blinking because of the super- fine dust that flies through the air.
We heard some fires had started near Los Angeles and one in Malibu.
The first fire in our area broke out by mid-morning on Sunday. This would be known as the Harris Fire.
By the time we arrived on scene less than 20 minutes later it was tearing across the grass and sage brush at an amazing rate.
A huge amount of air and ground resources were ordered, and put to work as they came on scene.
Shortly after arriving, a fire-fighting bulldozer cutting a fire-break was trapped in the fire-front.
He called for water drops, ploughed a clearing around himself, lowered the heat- proof curtains in the cab, deployed his breathing gear and waited it out.
With the winds being so strong, the smoke column was pulled low over the top of him.
Though we could hear him calling for assistance on the radio, we could not see him or do anything to support him.
Thankfully within a few minutes, the worst had passed by him, and he was able to crawl his blackened bulldozer back to it's truck and trailer.
This was the first reminder of what is so bad about fires driven by a Santa Ana.
That is, they move so very quickly and throw embers so far in front of themselves that it is easy to be over-run by the fire.
But Santa Ana fires have two other main threats.
Firstly, the hot, powerful desert winds make the flames impossible to stop. Even lighting a back-fire to burn back to the main fire and starve it of fuel doesn't work because the flames don't get sucked back into the main column.....they just get driven westward in front of the fire they were supposed to stop.
Added to this is the problem that the fires race westward, from the foothills down into the cities, rather than the other way which is typical of fires burning with the usual westerly winds.
As we chased the fire across the semi-populated area, a relatively calm but horrific call for help came out from the Captain of one of the fire engines on the fire.
He and the 3 other members of his crew had been over-run by the fire.
They also had two civilians in their area.
The crews all carry fire shelters, a type of aluminum-foil blanket that they can hide under in an attempt to protect themselves.
The civilians of course had nothing.
Whether the blankets had been used was unknown. All that was clear over the radio was that there were several serious injuries, possibly fatal, and that not only did the Captain not know his exact location, but also some of his crew were missing.
I had a load of water in my helicopter's belly-tank and flew to the head of the fire, where I assumed the crew was located.
The winds were blowing at almost 70 kilometers per hour and flying was extremely rough. I dropped the water on a hot-spot to try to gain some horsepower for maneuvering in the tough conditions.
The smoke was thick and grey, and flowing low across the ground like a flooding river. Though the worst of the flames had passed, the smoke still came off everything in the fire's wake....burning houses, cars and sheds, as well as land that was now stripped of any vegetation.
A local Battalion Chief was trying to drive into the accident scene but was almost engulfed by flames and was only saved by the Air Attack Officer in a plane overhead warning him to get out of the area as another flame front was approaching.
Air Ambulances were ordered, and I continued to search for the crew.
The wind and smoke were making things very difficult. Finally the Captain called that he could hear my helicopter but couldn't see me.
It took several more minutes to creep into the location as the Captain tried to give me directions.
I finally spotted the Captain and managed to land in a tiny junction of two dirt roads nearby.
For some reason he didn't approach the helicopter, and I couldn't shut it down to help them as I was balancing on some uneven ground. Suddenly I was enveloped in a huge cloud of smoke and couldn't see more than about 20 feet.
Breathing was okay, because I was sheltered in the cockpit. However the air outside was ash-filled, dusty, and smoky.
I knew I had to get the helicopter out of there as soon as possible, so I lifted-off as soon as the worst of the smoke passed, and hovered back out to clearer air.
From a distance I could see there was another clearing in the smoke approaching so I called the Captain and asked if his people were ready to be evacuated.
I was shocked to hear that he still couldn't find all his crew, but I hovered back into the road junction to pick-up whoever I could.
Once I landed, I called to the Captain over the radio to get onboard. As he approached I saw he had two other fire-fighters and a civilian with him.
The crew were wearing their yellow flame-resistant jackets but appeared to be in a lot of pain. The civilian was wearing a ripped t-shirt and jeans, and he was covered in ash and soot.
After everyone was onboard I looked over my shoulder to check the rear door was closed. What I saw shocked me.
The civilian's clothes weren't ripped but burnt through, and his hands and face weren't covered in soot but completely burnt and blackened.
Again I lifted-off and crawled out through the smoke while getting bounced and tossed by the winds. Then I headed for a field beside a nearby fire-station where other fire crews were standing-by to unload the patients from the back seat, and start medical care.
As I lifted-off back to the accident scene the air ambulance helicopters were arriving to transport the patients to hospital.
Upon arriving back on scene I noticed the smoke had cleared a little.
The first 4x4 truck was arriving to help in the search for what was thought to be two more people. I directed the driver into the correct area, then started a search from the air.
The fire-truck belonging to the fire crew was a black, smouldering burnt-out steel skeleton, sitting on four exploded tires that were still burning.
After a little while the ground personnel found the other fire fighter and called me in to evacuate him. I had no idea where he had been in the time we had been searching for him, or what sort of hell he had been through in the last 20 minutes or so.
Once again I squeezed my helicopter into the tiny road junction, and the patient was loaded into the back seat.
Within a few minutes of him being found I was dropping him off at the fire station where he was unloaded and treated before transport.
The first patients were now being loaded onto the air ambulances and taken for extensive treatment at the San Diego Burn Centre.
Though sadly one person died at this house as the fire raced through the town, all five people I extracted had survived.
A few have been put into medical comas for several days now to ease the burden of breathing with such badly damaged airways, but all are expected to recover, though they will bear the scars of that afternoon for the rest of their lives.
Later that day a fire started east of our base in Ramona.
This covered our airport in smoke and grounded the air-tankers.
The pilots were somewhat grateful though, as the wind speeds and turbulence were terrible.
Our return to the base at dusk that evening was a macabre experience with such wild winds and a low pall of smoke hanging over the airport and town.
This fire, the Witch Fire, also caused an evacuation of Ramona as the fire marched into town.
The roads were completely plugged with thousands of cars moving nowhere in a grid-lock.
Luckily the fire missed the traffic jam, otherwise the death rate would have been appalling.
I managed to book hotel rooms several miles away for myself, the helicopter mechanic, and the fuel-truck driver.
We drove a back-road to avoid most of the traffic, but the 25 km trip still took over an hour.
After a few hours sleep, we headed back to Ramona airport.
The Police road-blocks were everywhere, and some were easy for us to pass because we were helicopter crew, while some others were really difficult because the Officer obviously had his badge on too tight !!
Since then we've been staying at our condos in town, despite the evacuation order. I had seen the town from above and realized there was no real threat remaining.
There has been no water supply, several power-cuts, no restaurants, and only one supermarket open from 7am to 7pm, which has made life a little more fatiguing.
Also the constant wind, fine dust, smoke and blowing ash has you constantly blinking and coughing.
By early on Monday morning, news reports were coming out about how many houses were lost in the first evening as what was now several fires had headed down from the hills into the highly populated areas.
I was sent down towards the city to help with 'structure protection'.
This is where we focus just on houses being immediately threatened, and let any other open areas of vegetation burn.
Attached is a photo of me dropping water near Poway around mid-day, though the smoke makes it look like dusk.
(photo by Sean M Haffey, San Diego Union Tribune) Television news footage can never really show the level of destruction present after a disaster like this.
Everywhere we went there seemed to be houses reduced literally to piles of ashes.
All day Monday was spent battling the winds, while flying in, out, under and around the smoke columns in an attempt to save houses in the city.
I would suck up a tank of water from a resevoir, then return to a threatened neighbourhood to try and figure out where my water-drop would do the most good.
Then repeat the process over and over.
It was sad to see the largest flames licking through a neighbourhood, and not to be able to help against such a powerful force.
But I really think we saved quite a few houses that day where we could, and considering the conditions, that's about all we can hope for.
For the last three days I have been assigned to the Harris fire again where the houses are in a more hilly and rural setting.
I have mainly been dropping water, sometimes with 8 helicopters in a circuit, constantly scooping and dropping all in an attempt to stop the persistant march of the fire.
There should also be another photo attached of a fire racing up a hillside towards a house.
(I apologise for the poor photo quality but it was quite smoky, turbulent, and I was trying to fly a helicopter at the time too).
There is a fire engine in the driveway that is part of a 'strike-team'.
These are fire-trucks that have come from cities all over the state and are then assembled into large convoys.
These crews are 'city' crews and therefore specialise in structure fires rather than vegetation fires.
Once the convoy arrives at a threatened neighbourhood, each engine and its 4 person crew is appointed to a house to do what they can to save it as the fire comes through.
The helicopters let most of the vegetation burn-off as the fire approaches, and concentrate our efforts on the flames nearest the houses.
Dropping on flames this hot makes for a very exciting ride as the thermal currents are very strong. With flames this big the dropped water just evaporates on its descent, so we drop the water on the green vegetation in front of the flames in the hope that the fire will die down a little as it passes the house.
Shortly afterwards, once the fire has passed through, the engines will leave that house and be re-assigned to another house in the path of the fire.
And so it goes, 24 hours a day, for several days if necessary.
At least we are only on duty for 14 hours a day. I have great respect for these crews on the ground after seeing some of the things I have, especially this week.
I have also been leading US military Black-hawk helicopters into targets.
California's Governor, Arnold Swarzenegger, and President Bush have authorised the use of these helicopters.
But just because you put a huge bucket under these monsters, it doesn't mean the crews know how to use them effectively.
Let's face it, I wouldn't know what to do in a combat zone just because I mounted some guns on my helicopter and practiced firing them a few times.
So I have often flown circuits of a threatened area, cutting in front of a Black-hawk as it comes out of the dip point, then leading it in to the target and describing what speed to drop at, how much wind-drift to allow for, and point-out exactly where to start the drop.
Right at that time I spin into a tight turn to watch the drop, give some constructive criticism, then look for the next Black-hawk coming out of the dip- point so that I can repeat the process again.
These military helicopters usually travel in groups of 3 or 6 at a time so it has been very exciting, and great to see not only the huge improvement in their efforts, but what a difference it can make to get that much of the tax-payers'
water onto the right part of the fire.
I've been working very long days, and have used the few spare moments to write this letter. I hope you found it interesting to read about what I do when that alarm finally rings.
Thanks again for your thoughts and messages, Love and Best wishes, Mike.
Here is a pic of Mike at work:
Credit Sean M Haffey
...Mike
#30
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- Industry II
- 3 Posts:
New User
Posted 30 October 2007 - 11:58 AM
Thanks everybody for your thoughts and prayers. We are unsure about the condition of the poma. We are still under a mandatory evacuation and should be until this Friday at the soonest. As soon as we can get up there to assess the damage we will let everybody know what parts we might be looking for. The lodge, snowcats and snowmobiles survived the fire. The Forest Service and our lender are NOT pleased about the insurance issue so we will have to wait and see what we can do to turn this around. We have many issues to take care of to be able to make this resort survive so we need any help we can get. Thanks Chuck for letting me know about the trailer at the ranch. Randy
#31
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- Administrator II
- 6,242 Posts:
Forum Administrator
- Interests:Hi, I'm Cameron!
Posted 30 October 2007 - 01:35 PM
TMR, you should call Schweitzer Mountain Resort. I bet you can reuse almost all the parts from its former Chair #1 which it took down this year. Hopefully it hasn't been scrapped yet!
However, I think your tension return is different, but the drive unit should work.
You could also see if the USFS district for Lake Tahoe still has the Riblet parts from when it removed the lifts from Iron Mountain. However, they were all top drive overhead setups.
However, I think your tension return is different, but the drive unit should work.
You could also see if the USFS district for Lake Tahoe still has the Riblet parts from when it removed the lifts from Iron Mountain. However, they were all top drive overhead setups.
- Cameron
#32
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- Industry I
- 1,333 Posts:
Minnesota Skier!
Posted 30 October 2007 - 02:23 PM
Also, you can give Breckenridge, Keystone, and Vail a call. All three of them would deffinatley have some old Riblet parts sitting around that they may be willing to donate! Best of luck to you guys on re-building!
#33
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- Industry I
- 716 Posts:
Established User
- Interests:driving large trucks and learning all that I can about lifts
Posted 30 October 2007 - 04:31 PM
best wishes to all affected by thse fires.
#34
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- Member
- 79 Posts:
Established User
Posted 30 October 2007 - 05:06 PM
SkiBachelor, on Oct 30 2007, 01:35 PM, said:
TMR, you should call Schweitzer Mountain Resort. I bet you can reuse almost all the parts from its former Chair #1 which it took down this year. Hopefully it hasn't been scrapped yet!
However, I think your tension return is different, but the drive unit should work.
You could also see if the USFS district for Lake Tahoe still has the Riblet parts from when it removed the lifts from Iron Mountain. However, they were all top drive overhead setups.
However, I think your tension return is different, but the drive unit should work.
You could also see if the USFS district for Lake Tahoe still has the Riblet parts from when it removed the lifts from Iron Mountain. However, they were all top drive overhead setups.
The following link takes you to the contact information for the El Dorado National Forest, so you can ask about the Riblet parts from Iron Mountain. Good luck.
http://www.fs.fed.us...dorado/contact/
#35
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- Industry II
- 598 Posts:
Established User
- Interests:cycling, snowboarding, running, scuba
Posted 31 October 2007 - 07:07 AM
Thanks to Mike from all of us down here, I just heard them talk about that incident on the radio out here (KFI 640). They are lifting the evacuation for Arrowbear and Running Springs tomorrow but Green Valley is still shut down. Sonds good to go home, I have been sleeping in my office for about 10 days now, and I am one of the luckier people.
#36
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- Industry II
- 27 Posts:
Established User
Posted 31 October 2007 - 11:10 AM
as many others have said, my condolences to the staff of Trinity mountain. Just terrible! Since nobody has posted it yet, here are some damage photos taken from trinity's website:
Attached File(s)
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burnedlift.jpg (485.57K)
Number of downloads: 36
#37
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- Member
- 92 Posts:
Established User
Posted 31 October 2007 - 11:18 AM
Another resort that may have a lot of left over Riblet parts would be Snowmass Ski Area.
Maybe even neighboring Snow Valley could donate one of the few lifts that sit unused on their hill.
For some reason I thought TMR had two pomas and also a rope tow besides the chair.
I'm really sorry about TMR since the number of SoCal ski areas has really shrunk in recent years. I'm sure the community will rebuild. I just hope this business will be able to as well.
Maybe even neighboring Snow Valley could donate one of the few lifts that sit unused on their hill.
For some reason I thought TMR had two pomas and also a rope tow besides the chair.
I'm really sorry about TMR since the number of SoCal ski areas has really shrunk in recent years. I'm sure the community will rebuild. I just hope this business will be able to as well.
This post has been edited by egieszl: 31 October 2007 - 11:18 AM
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