PSA: Winch Cats and Skiers Don’t Mix

[thetrailboss]

There was an incident last night at Burke where a skier who had skinned up ran into the winch cable of the winch cat. The Mountain had made it clear that this trail was off limits after hours but apparently the “experienced” skier didn’t get the message. As a result, no more skinning...at least temporarily. Be smart out there!

NIGHT TIME UPHILL SUSPENDED. | Uphill travel is being temporarily suspended from the hours of 4pm-1am as of Friday the 5th of February. We will get back to you about how we proceed... | By Burke Mountain - Facebook

Uphill travel is being temporarily suspended from the hours of 4pm-1am as of Friday the 5th of February. We will get back to you about how we proceed...

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[thetrailboss]

Uphill Policy

Uphill Policy | Burke Mountain Resort

skiburke.com

 

[drjeff]

Those winch cables are no joke. As the number you see on the winch on a cat, like 3.5 or 5.0 is the maximum number of tons of pulling pressure the winch can put on the cable. And if that cable is encountered by an after hours uphill traveler, and remember most winch cats have over a half mile of cable on the winch spool, so an uphill after hours traveler may have no clue sound or vision wise that a winch cat is working on a particular slope, plenty of harm can happen, and there's numerous pictures of shattered winch cat windshields online via a quick Google search that illustrate what can (and numerous times a year happen, when a cable or what it's anchored to let's loose its no joke!!

 

[VTKilarney]

Burke has been very good in their communications about staying off the mountain when the winch cat is operating. This person must not be on their email list and must not have looked at the website.

 

[machski]

Those winch cables are no joke. As the number you see on the winch on a cat, like 3.5 or 5.0 is the maximum number of tons of pulling pressure the winch can put on the cable. And if that cable is encountered by an after hours uphill traveler, and remember most winch cats have over a half mile of cable on the winch spool, so an uphill after hours traveler may have no clue sound or vision wise that a winch cat is working on a particular slope, plenty of harm can happen, and there's numerous pictures of shattered winch cat windshields online via a quick Google search that illustrate what can (and numerous times a year happen, when a cable or what it's anchored to let's loose its no joke!!

Not only this, but that cable can jump and move quite rapidly and unexpectedly. This is the problem with skinning at resorts outside of normal ski hours. You beat be paying attention to grooming plans and dialed into communications and mountain policy.

 

[VTKilarney]

Does Burke really need a winchcat for the Dippers?

 

[drjeff]

Does Burke really need a winchcat for the Dippers?

Definitely helps them push snow at times for the BMA athletes to create the desired terrain contours they may be looking for for training and racing

 

[machski]

SR has used their winch cats in the past on some of the wider blue trails when they need a deep till to break out super hard pack. The extra stability from the cable helps.

 

[JimG.]

Burke has been very good in their communications about staying off the mountain when the winch cat is operating. This person must not be on their email list and must not have looked at the website.

Or didn't care.

 

[thetrailboss]

SR has used their winch cats in the past on some of the wider blue trails when they need a deep till to break out super hard pack. The extra stability from the cable helps.

Exactly. Burke has managed over the years with standard snow cats. In 2007-2008 or so they demoed a Bison and groomed some of the steeper runs with it. I noticed a difference. This isn't the "first" winch cat that has appeared at Burke. Over the years they have "demoed" a few in the middle of the season to help with Warren's Way.

 

[thetrailboss]

Or didn't care.

Or this. I am 2,000 miles away and get Burke's Emails still. I have seen on multiple days the Mountain telling folks to stay off the "usual suspects" for a winch cat--Warren's, the Dippers, and Willoughby. The encounter was on....Upper Dipper. So the cat was not in the wrong. What I imagine happened was the skier might have been crossing to get to the woods or Powderhorn/Wilderness.

 

[FBGM]

Those cable whips will cut you in half. I had a Coyote one night years back get smacked by my cable. Didn’t kill it, just smacked him on the site and sent him for a small tumble.

 

[Newpylong]

A winch can be helpful on even steep blues. The ability to be able to effectively push snow in both directions saves time and fuel.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Roundtop bought a winch cat 3 seasons ago to move snow on some steeper pitches. Otherwise they always had to groom going down and it made those pitches difficult to keep snow on. They now groom those slopes up and they are much better. They are narrow and get hammered for hours each day by many people who don't really know how to ski steeper terain like that.

If you're buying a new cat and you need to move snow on steeper pitches it's a no brainer.