Felling an outlaw

[rbtree]

Nice shot.That is what we used to live for, a day like that. Did you shoot the photo? Yes, the conditions are sketchy out there, but everyone knew early on that they would be with all the layers and temperature gradient snow. Might as well just work till conditions improve.

Yes sir, I did. Here's the rest of the set from that trip to Whistler, shooting a couple big mt competitive skiers. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72157594147481365/ And at Alpental, which has some simply amazing terrain---- (and 6 feet of new in the last 6 days just now) http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72057594117305846/
We're catching up fast, but I noticed that Jackson leads the US with over 300" of snow this season!

I used to get published a fair bit. My first was circa 1982, shot on a side country run at Crystal Mt called Orgasm Meadows. Here's some shots of Canuckian Matt, who is a superb arborist, and ski race coach, skiing the south BC at Crystal (save for the last shot, in the Alpental BC) He competed in a couple ITCC's (world tree climbing champ's) http://www.flickr.com/photos/rbtree/sets/72157604068592430/



My first trip to JH was 1977. Got the 150 vert pin...took me 5 ski days and a tad...Then, about 1997, was there on a media trip. Late opening one day as it was snowing at least 3 an hour. Patrol had to run some routes twice. Tram never opened that day. While waiting for the Gondola, did several laps on Casper. What a blast it was blowing through some pillows (coulda been buried stumps) which was beyond neck deep...more like subterrainean. Next day, they bussed most of us to Targhee. Twas good but a tad wind affected. But I contracted strep throat, and wasn't up for skiing for the last couple days of the trip. Upon returning to JH, Wayne, my ski model travel bud, scored a day of shooting with legend Wade McCoy...while I grumbled and took drugs....

This is typical of the terrain in the Alpental BC, surprise cliffs everywhere, spines, and short sections that roll over to either cliffs, or faces up to about as steep as a cow's face

 

[woodworkingboy]

Is there a person in the above picture?

 

[old irish]

Nice action shots Roger. It takes a lot of effort to set up for those and a lot of timeing and luck. I don't ski Jackson or Targhee anymore, just the backcountry, Teton Pass. I have skied up your way. Spent a week with Hans Mosher at a place called Battle Abbey. That was back when touring North America was just getting going. He was pretty well established with the Heli skiing (CMH). I heard some years later that he got killed in a cycling accident. A Canadian friend called to tell me about it and couldn't stop crying. Wonder what happened to his wife Margaret?

 

[rbtree]

Yep, Jay! Here's another. We were blessed with about 4 feet of new snow that day, if not more!!
Sorry for the page stretchers, and thread derail....

 

[rbtree]

Old Irish,
I never skied with Hans Gmoser or CMH. But a group of us did fill a chopper for one week each in 83 and 84, with Kootenay Heli-Ski, flying out of Nakusp. It was their second and third year of operating in that area, so we got to ski and name 17 new runs. They named us the Seattle Yetis...We skied more in the Selkirks than in the Monashees, and they concentrated in a drainage known as Fallopian Creek. One can easily imagine the run names. Years later, a gal pal and group were there, skiing a run named Virgin. It had been skied previously that day, and may have warmed up. The avalanche claimed a Seattle doctor and the guide Kim Momb's lives. Momb also was a well known big mt climber, who had been on Everest. My friend Kim was spared, but never heli-skied again...

Years later, CMH took over KHS's operation. Hans was clearly a pioneer! I didn't know he'd died....

 

[old irish]

Damn you are almost as old as I am. Was raised in Seattle, Nathan Hale High the first year it opened. like '63? I misspelled Han's last name, you had it right. It has been at least 5 years since he passed. I think some ass wipe ran him over (probably a logger in a hurry to get to work). Man, I sure don't miss the rain.

 

[woodworkingboy]

Great action photos, Roger. I can't imagine what that must feel like to go powering down that steep blasting through snow.

 

[rbtree]

old Irish. I graduated HS in 1967...in Victoria BC.We'd immigrated 3 yrs before. I kept hearing Nacny Greene talk...but I didn't ski, though I did ice skate and played some hockey...Then, ~25 years later, I met Nancy in Banff.... Beat her by a whisker in the media race, then a few years later, skied with her at Sun Peaks, where she and her hubby have a hotel, and played a big part in getting that place a destination resort. Amazing lady, bubbly and positive all the time; a great ambassador for the sport. Every day at 10, anyone can ski with her for a couple hours.

Jay, I seen lots of stories, images and video from the amazing powder on Hokkaido. What a powder trap, with the weather coming out of Russia.

 

[old irish]

Roger. I see in your photo selection a lot of Trumpeter Swan photos. Good ones too. You might be interested to know that I live basically on Red Rock Lakes Wildlife. It was established in 1930 to save the last remaining Trumpeters, who have since made a comeback.

 

[rbtree]

Cool. Bookmarked! http://www.fws.gov/redrocks/ Someday I'd like to make a couple month trip, hitting many of the top wildlife preserves in the country.....But, I only have one decent birding lens, which replaced the two stolen ones (retail $7k). It will be a while before I can get the one I want, a 500 f/4, used for around $5500.... plus teleconverters, which were also lifted. Drug addled ex employees. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

If it's sunny Sunday, I'll go back to the Skagit, in hopes of catching the snow geese up close, in flight...and more of anything else that pops up! But sun is in doubt, with the weather shift back to wet, though a bit of a ridge is supposed to build by about Saturday. The 5400 measuring station at the top of Alpental is already recording the 2nd deepest snowpack in the country, I'm sure, at 168", besides Paradise at Rainier at 174!!!

 

[HolmenTree]

Here's a 15 ft red cedar a friend of mine felled in the early '80s on the north end of Vancouver Island. He used a Jonsered 920, he said he cut bigger stuff. This one was pushing 50,000 bf.

Was just going through some old logging mags and one quote I found from 1953 went like this: A pro logger can fell a 16-foot softwood in 18 minutes with a modern chain saw equipped with a 8-foot bar.

 

[stig]

Cool. Bookmarked! http://www.fws.gov/redrocks/ Someday I'd like to make a couple month trip, hitting many of the top wildlife preserves in the country.....But, I only have one decent birding lens, which replaced the two stolen ones (retail $7k). It will be a while before I can get the one I want, a 500 f/4, used for around $5500.... plus teleconverters, which were also lifted. Drug addled ex employees. Grrrrrrrrrrrrr.

If it's sunny Sunday, I'll go back to the Skagit, in hopes of catching the snow geese up close, in flight...and more of anything else that pops up! But sun is in doubt, with the weather shift back to wet, though a bit of a ridge is supposed to build by about Saturday. The 5400 measuring station at the top of Alpental is already recording the 2nd deepest snowpack in the country, I'm sure, at 168", besides Paradise at Rainier at 174!!!

I did that in 89, Roger.
Crossed from California to Florida and hit every wildlife preserve on the way.
Great fun. I managed to see some 300 species of North American birds and a few tropical incidentals, like Bahama swallow.
There are a number of really prime spots along the rio Grande.

 

[old irish]

Great shot Holmen. I am amazed that a 15' Cedar, given the usual rate of taper, would have 50mbf. don't know about what the logging mags. say, but like Gerry and I have both stated it takes two men all day to fell a 16' plus Redwood. The thing is, you have to prepare and hit the layout or you lose the tree and your job. Good stuff what.

 

[HolmenTree]

Great shot Holmen. I am amazed that a 15' Cedar, given the usual rate of taper, would have 50mbf. don't know about what the logging mags. say, but like Gerry and I have both stated it takes two men all day to fell a 16' plus Redwood. The thing is, you have to prepare and hit the layout or you lose the tree and your job. Good stuff what.

Irish, I just looked back at my old diary notes about John's info felling this cedar, it was scaled at 48,000 and had a height of 180'. I never saw the actual scale slip but just from word of mouth.
From looking at the photo it looks like it grew on fairly level ground between some mountain ridges. Had it grown on or near a bottom of a slope it would probably have grown a lot taller.

Yeah I'm puzzled with that 1953 Chain Saw Age magazine quote about a modern saw with 8' b/c cutting a 16' softwood in 18 minutes. Being a trade magazine for chainsaws the message would equal a automobile industry's quote under perfect conditions.
In 1953 there were chainsaws available with the power to cut a 16' softwood stem in 18 minutes [I'm thinking back cut only] most notably the IEL Pioneer Super Twin. But having an 8' bar with no helper handle that big saw would need one heck of a strong and highly skilled operator to fall with it one man only.

 

[old irish]

Thanks for the info Holmen. The Cedars in your neck of the woods probably don't taper as much as some down here. Especially our inland Cedar. The 18' Redwood that I fell had 80,000 ft., but it was a real barrel for a long ways.

 

[HolmenTree]

Here's some good reading...... Stig would like this along with Jerry Beranek where the faller in this story also comes from Fort Bragg, California.

In 1974 a 30cc [1.83 cubic inch] Echo chainsaw fells a 5' 7" Redwood in 55 minutes of actual running time.

 

[Jomo]

Great article Holmen thanks!

I found it a comforting read cuz I'm one of those wusses who runs the smallest saw possible!

On accounta I'm so frail, old n stuff.

Yup I hold onto my 14 inch 200 trimsaw right up into 27 inch wood? As long as she's pullin and throwing good chips?

I'm a happy camper!

And thanks to Stihl's new inverted cone lock washers?

My mufflers don't rattle off no more!

Thanks Stihl! Better late than never!

Jomo

 

[stig]

Thanks, Willard.
Good read.

 

[flushcut]

You must have one helluva library HT!

 

[MasterBlaster]

Awesome scans!!!

 

[old irish]

Thanks Holmen. Enjoyed it. I used to know Canevari logging. Most of their crew was from the Italian contingent.

 

[HolmenTree]

Thanks Holmen. Enjoyed it. I used to know Canevari logging. Most of their crew was from the Italian contingent.

Your welcome old irish. I figured they were Italian by how their names were spelled......Bruno Felleri, a good name for a tree feller

 

[cory]

Yeah Willard, that was awesome, keep it coming

 

[gf beranek]

That was good. Thank you.

 

[Bixler]