Fun on the Ski Hill

J

JJackson

Location
Flagstaff Arizona
Decided to bring two of the crews up to Snow Bowl for a little fun on the slopes. Tree broke and fell on lines and did not cause any outage, did have light contact burns. Found on Sunday afternoon by ski patrol looking for a lost kid. Was able to work it early Monday morning with a line kill at about 7:30 and lights (and ski lifts) back on by 10:30 (took some time to set up grounds, take them down and drive back down the mountain to switch to turn the juice off than on. Fun working at 9000 Feet or more with about a good 4 feet of snow under us. Crew did a wonderful job and did not waste any time and did it safely.

 
Crews did all the work, all I did was coordinate the operation and freeze my feet off while standing around learning a few new things from them. I would like to work with the but the union would not allow me to, but then there's always some training time to play.
 
I know it seems like a silly question but did your tree crews put on their own grounds and work off the pole? Or was it the utility co.?
 
Not a silly question at all, thanks for asking. No we had a line crew ground from the top and had the switch open on the bottom of the mountain (nothing else between the switch and the crew. He did work off the pole, had a few ropes set in the tree to try and lift but did not have the GRCS available and were using fiddle blocks and 5:1 systems, did not have a great angle for lift. Foreman climbed pole with climb line placed through a friction saver over the cross arm (used gaffs and lanyard as well. This is not standard but we had to lighten the tree, as limbs were cut off it raised up enough to clear the neutral (on top in this case) and were able to pull it away from the lines and lower it. Normally we would not touch a pole but in this case with the lines de-energized and lifting if off whole not an options this was the best plan of action and was safe.

The funniest incident is that the foreman was moving on the pole with lanyard off and on Geckos with the euro spikes, he slipped a little and the linemen had a little panic. None of us flinched as he still was tied in with his climb line to cross arm. Guess they're not use to having 2 tie ins. Then again the have to use a hand saw to top a pole where my guys can use a chain saw to block down a tree with two tie ins.
 
That tree was tangled in the ground from the neutral, and I don't personally feel this set of lines would have taken it. I had a crew drop a tree on the span below the pole a few years ago and it has its share of splices. One thing not in the pics is a large vertical crack on the lower part of the tree, also at this elevation they tend to be hollow when they reach this size, none of the crew wanted anything to do with the trunk. We have "let it ride" for smaller trees or trees that are not on the pole. Cutting it down piece by piece until it's near vertical and pulling over with a line set near the top.
 
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I had a crew drop a tree on the span below the pole a few years ago and it has its share of splices.

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You got trees around your going to have splices.
 
What size wire? Looks like 1/0 starnded, but its a shite picture. The poles also look to be set shallow, and old. I probabaly wouldnt have let it ride either, epsecially with the linesman watching. They are paying you to correct the problem safely, not create more work.
 
Yeah the poles do move some, very rock and bad access, though the ski hill may start a 2 year project in the spring to run the lines underground next to the proposed water pipes for snow making.
 
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