Tower Removal
The long awaited last of the spring chapters, Tower removal!
Saturday March 26 – While the Mountain was busy, you likely would not have noticed the crews pre-cutting all the tower bases and removing the communications line (comm line). These towers were installed back in 1978 by digging the foundation hole and setting the tower at length into an alignment plate at the base of the hole. Then concrete poured into the excavation, at the very top a form was used to create a collar to soil grade level. This photo from what I am guessing is the summer of 1978 soon after tower 1 was poured, notice the front of Cuzzins and the big boulder in front.
Because of this install method our only logical choice was to cut the tower tubes just above the concrete line. The pre-cutting left a 6″ tab or uncut section on the downhill side and two 4″ tabs uphill or in thirds. This allowed a short cut when we arrived to actually drop the tower, leafing the downhill 6” section of steel to act as a hinge when we lower the tower.
Here Chris Burke is cutting tower 4 in preparation.
Affectionately called “Fred”, our 1986 LMC is outfitted with oxygen/acetylene cutting tanks for the job.
Meanwhile the Electrical staff began the task of removing the 7000’ of Comm. Line. This bundle of wires is the communication from top to bottom as well as communication to every tower safety switch. When installed, the comm. line with its steel support cable is pulled tight with roughly 1500lbs of tension. Cutting the comm. line from atop the tower, the tension is released rapidly making for a exciting ride atop a 40’ tower. Hank, our lead electrical guy took on the bulk of the task.
The climb is a good workout alone.
Handling the heavy ratcheting cable cutter is another bear of a job.
On Sunday Bemis Line Construction out of Jacksonville brought in a Digger Derrick machine, basically a small crane on tracks. We wanted to run a test on a few towers at the base of the mountain prior to towing the rig all the way to the summit. With a background of Reggae Music from Cuzzin’s deck we set up and removed Towers 2 through 4 and all went just as planned. First set the crane in position and secure the tower, then cut the remaining tabs of steel on the uphill side. With a snow cat on the downhill connected by rope, a gentle tug gets the tower headed in the right direction and the crane slowly lowers the tower. Sheave trains are then removed to an awaiting snow cat and trailer. The top of the tower is secured to the forks of the cat and towed backwards downhill. Averaging 10 a day or better this job would be complete in just under 2 and a half days without a hitch.
Chris sets the lifting slings in position.
Elia secures the tower head to the forks on his cat and skids the tower off to storage.
The towers all look a little less ominous lined up on the snow.
The last tower drops on Wednesday morning March 30, Dennis in the foreground.
For now the major work is done for now until the snow melts. In the next few weeks we will prep the chairs for shipping and complete disassembly of the towers.
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Dave,
You guys made a difficult job look easy ! Thanks for the updates and the photos. I was sitting in my office watching, but it seemed like I was there….. What a great job due to a great crew !! Cudos to them!!!!! What your crew did in a week or so made it seem like a breeze, super planning….Maybe when your not busy you could sub your crews out for “Lift Demo’s”?
dude please use the excess steal and make rails for carinthia outa of that!!!!!!!!
YES TOTALLYYYYYYYY
THAT WOOD BE SOOOOOOOOO AWESOME
Sorry but the towers are being reused at other Peak Resorts.
It is strange to think it is gone, and how well the process to remove the lift went. At least the lift is being recycled at other Peak resorts! Long live the Summit Local.
ya we coud use some steel for carinthia for a skiezzier park
make a bunch out lift tower jibs for carithia, brighton did that with some old towers, when the put in Milly express
Outstanding job by both the documentation crew as well as the actual demo team. It went so well you all are such pros, what else would I expect from Mt Snow.
Hopefully we will get more updates as the build starts, and please keep the videoes coming.
wow! can’t wait to see the new lift.
I don’t understand why if nothing else can be done until the snow melts was it so important to take this lift down while the mountain was still up and running. The center of the main mountain was disrupted, the towers are laying in the middle of a nice beginner slope. My father always said failing to plan is planning to fail. This is perfect example. I only wonder if the rush to take this down was to benefit other Peak resorts at the expense of Mount Snow.
As we’ve noted in a few places, the towers needed to be slid down the snow to reduce the impact on the environment. Since the snow can go away very quickly, it was imperative that we acted as soon as we could so that we had enough snow to move those towers. I’ll let Dave answer if you have any further questions or doubts about it.
I find that strange…..Snow is needed to remove the old towers…. really..was it needed to install them as well?…. Will Mt. Snow need to wait for another snow fall to slide the new towers up the mountain? or is this a bunch of BS?
Most of Mount snow is on National Forest land… It is required to reduce the impact on the environment..
the new towers probably won’t be slid up the hill, that could damage them, they will probably put them on a cart or something, which they can use in the summer.
new towers will be helicoptered in, i believe.
Our lift removal plan was well thought through and precisely what we wanted. The lift manufacturer and Mount Snow entered into contract; part of the contract was to have the lift towers removed in time to allow unencumbered access for the new install. We decided to remove the towers while snow was available for lifting pads and access vs. waiting for mud, making a mess requiring extensive clean up and re-vegetation. Our midweek skiers and riders were minimally affected and the trail where lift towers were stored was closed as originally scheduled.
Not arguing whether it was your plan or not……… The point is the lift did not need to come down as early as it did….. It was more about the illusion of progress and advertising and marketing the new six pack than having to get it down while there was still snow on the ground…….. The mountain will have more than enough snow for the next two weeks to accomplish what was needed….. The funny thing is I really don’t care…..I ski’d the mountain over 100 days….. but the idea that the old lift had to come down when it did was a lot more about marketing the new lift than anything else.
Al, you’re completely wrong. I can assure you that the lift removal timing had nothing to do with marketing or the “illusion of progress”. Honestly the new lift markets itself, regardless of when we took down the old one. I just looked outside and right now there is barely any snow on the ground on the bottom portion of the lift. If we had waited until today (first day of off-season) they would have been pulling the towers through a whole hell of a lot of mud, with snowmobiles?, and then we’d have to replant grass afterwards. Not to mention like Dave said, we were under contractual obligation to remove the towers at a certain time.
you may say there would ahve been plenty of snow in a few weeks, and there may very well have been. but mother nature has done some pretty crazy things, if we got substantial rain, or a few very sunny days, that “whole lot of snow” could have turned into mud, not to mention the rocks that are covering mount snow. i think that it was good to just get the dismantle project over with, now all there is to look forward too is the 6 pack bubbles!
it about time! Sad to see the legendary summit cripple #17 be taken down! I see a major progress here, with the new lift you will have happier guests!! a six pack going in!! yay happier life, All my time I worked up at the mountain I have always wanted to see the removal of some towers and the install of new towers! It’s pretty amazing I do say so myself!!
I don’t know what it is?? I am drawn to this mountain, from the summer to the winter.. I am drawn to mount snow! It sucks you in!! Its not all about the people or co-workers, its about the experience you get from working on the mountain. From sun rises to sun sets, snow mobile rides to learning how to snowboard for the first time! I am happy to say I worked there, all those lifts! Thank you for the experience, I never missed a day. I was always there ready to work, I had many of the lifts down packed and still remember how they are done from a High speed quad to fix grip “triple, double and Quad zilla over on bear trap”!
Its apart of me, 4-5 years and I never was fully noticed for what I achieved. I have met some good friends working in Lifts, some I didn’t want to see because they made me feel depressed. So I stayed away from all of it, I did what I was supposed to do.. I worked there and no one can take that away from me, not even rumors!
Sad to say it is all behind me now, from morning prep to evening shut downs! Banging tires, cleaning rails, checking all the switches and morning line checks! I didn’t care if I was at the top or bottom! I cared because that was my job and one of the finest cheapest jobs i’ve ever worked at!
I could see myself as a lift manager, I could see myself as a supervisor.. I could take hours and hours of typing of training manuals and even more hours teaching on the job training! Thank you Dave for hiring me, thank you Kelly for noticing me! Thank you Bob Marsh, thank you Keith Sprague! Thank you Scott fly, thank you macanics!! Thank you Dennis Bills! You all trained me, you all taught me!
Thank you MOUNT SNOW!!
Talk about the glass is half full! Wouldn’t want you people on my team!! Mount Snow did exactly what they should have. Well done and excellant planning!!
If I were on your team, you would be on the bench.
The pictures of the tower removal are great. The percision of the work with a small crew who completed the job in such a short time shows the teamwork and planning. I am gald the towers can be used again. I will be looking for more pictures of the towers going up. Can not wait to ride the new chair next season.
I agree with Dave Moulton,.Great decision.
It looks like cleanin up on snow did help to make quick work of the towers. Wish you guys could have stayed upon longer but that will keep my excited for november. see you in the trails, Peace
Will the mountain cams be back up on the website when the new lift constructions begins? Thanks……
the cams are still accessible http://mountsnow.com/live-cams/ – but i will add a link in the Winter dropdown as well. thanks
Any inconvenience is a small price to accept to enable an exceptional future.