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January 2006

Rethink Sled Culture

Incidents betweens skiers and snowmobiles are rare but serious. Do your practices reflect the latest thinking on sled use and safety?

Written by Rick Kahl | 0 comment

No doubt about it, snowmobiles make work at a winter resort easier. Especially for larger areas and those with sprawling lift systems, snowmobiles are sometimes the best means of transportation by far. But a few serious incidents involving snowmobiles recently have many areas rethinking the use of sleds. “Snowmobile accidents are bad for the business, the employees, the guests,” says Tim White, NSAA education director. “It’s time to take a careful look at why and when and how you use them.”

While incidents involving snowcats and sleds have been declining, they are still a major concern. Hence the increased attention from NSAA at its educational seminars in the past few years. That attention has culminated in a new set of snowmobile guidelines which, at press time, NSAA planned to make available on its website (www.nsaa.org) by early December, with hard copies available by mid-December.

The guidelines are not simply aimed at reducing injuries to guests, but keeping employees safe, too. “Workers’ comp is a big issue as well,” says Maynard Russell of Acordia. Too many workers get hurt while using sleds, frequently injuring their backs when trying to pull their machines out of a snowbank or simply turning them around.


Changing the Snowmobile Culture
One reason snowmobile use resists change: using a snowmobile is a sign of an employee’s status. “It’s time to rethink the snowmobile culture,” says White. “Snowmobiles are a status symbol. That part of the culture has to change.” The solution is to objectively determine which uses are essential.

The overriding goal is to reduce the amount of snowmobile use at a resort. The more hours the machines operate while guests are on the hill, the greater the chances that something will go wrong. Therefore, says Russell, employees should ask, “is this trip truly justified?” every time they get on a machine. Often, employees take a snowmobile because they are lazy or feel they need to travel fast. The better alternative in many cases is to ski and use the lifts. Another option is to designate an experienced driver to run a taxi service. The fewer inexperienced drivers, the better.

HoliMont, N.Y., and Elk Mountain, Pa., have both taken the ultimate step and eliminated snowmobile use during operating hours. (SAM will detail HoliMont’s program in the March issue.) HoliMont instituted its policy more than 10 years ago, and has not wavered since. “No matter how good we are, as long as we have skiers on the mountain, we run that risk [of a skier-sled collision]. So either we have to get rid of the skiers or get rid of the equipment,” says GM Dave Riley. “It’s not easy, because it involves changing the culture. We had a few longtime lift mechanics that didn’t ski, for example.” The solution? Ski lessons.

Elk Mountain had not allowed the use of snowmobiles on the slopes for more than 35 years until it changed its policy in 2000; it now allows a single sled on the hill. GM Gregg Confer reluctantly gave in to the change when he became convinced that the benefits outweighed the danger.

That’s the calculation that managers nationwide have been making. And increasingly, they are limiting the use of sleds. Sprawling Killington, where snowmobiles are a necessity, once had more than 100 machines; less than half that number are currently in use. Steamboat has cut its fleet from 50 to 30, and reduced slope time during operating hours. American Skiing Company areas generally run their machines at slower speeds.

This type of culture change can come from only one place—the top. “Top management has to take the lead, and lead by example,” says White. The same is true for supervisors and managers. This does more than cut down on the potential for incidents. “There’s lots of evidence that getting on skis and lifts will improve the overall operation,” he says. “It puts you in touch with what the guests are experiencing.” Riley agrees; while Holimont’s snowmobile ban has altered the way many departments work, “it has also made them more effective, because they spend more time on the hill,” he says.

How to convince departments to cut or eliminate snowmobile use? Incentives, says White. To get lift maintenance workers and others to reach their destinations via skis, offer equipment discounts or subsidized gear. Then, to make sure sleds are used only when necessary, use a dispatch system for each use. If employees know that use is discouraged and monitored, they will be more inclined to use alternate transportation.


Who Gets to Ride?
General consensus is that areas should limit the number of employees authorized to drive sleds. “Since some snowmobiles can exceed 100 mph, ask yourself, would you give that driver a new Corvette?” says Russell. To answer that question, check all potential sled drivers’ motor vehicle driving records. “If the driver doesn’t have a clean driving record, it looks bad,” Russell says. Since the courts will look at motor vehicle driving records, you should, too.

For a variety of liability and practical reasons, Russell suggests that areas allow only full-time employees to drive. He recommends against allowing volunteer ski patrollers, unless they are well trained (and covered by insurance).


Rules of the Road
NSAA’s educational seminars have been urging increased training for snowmobile drivers. Most areas use some combination of classroom work, written exams, and on-hill training regarding the rules of the road and generally approved uses. Some require a yearly written exam as a refresher for veterans.

Onhill training is key. Sleds require advanced driving and riding skills, which makes practice time a good idea. How and where can you make that available? When Elk’s Confer put his staff through a two-hour riding certification program offered by Honda for the area’s ATVs, “We all learned something from it, even though we’ve been riding for 15 to 20 years,” he says.

Whatever policies an area adopts, someone has to make sure all departments follow them. At the Rocky Mountain Lift Association meeting last May, one attendee suggested setting up a snowmobile committee to set and enforce policies.


Making a Snowmobile BLT
Beyond minimizing use, creating incentives for using skis, and training drivers in best practices, “make the machine BLT,” says White—that is, brighter, louder, taller. Flags on ten-foot masts are good, “even though they are a maintenance headache,” says Russell. A windsock is a good alternative to a flag, as it can be seen more easily from the front. Flashing lights can also enhance visibility. A few areas have added sirens to their machines; at Taos, electrical chief Dan Craybill added some inexpensive ayuga horns from Radio Shack. “It stopped people in their tracks,” says Russell. A few areas are experimenting with strobes and LED lights, reflective tape, and large NASCAR-type numbers—to make each machine (and driver) easy to identify—as additional visibility measures.

Some of these additional measures may be especially important for use on new four-stroke machines. While these are quieter, better on gas and produce fewer polluting emissions, they come with their own set of special considerations. They are less quick to react and almost twice as heavy as older two-stroke machines. These changes make them generally less maneuverable. The extra weight means that drivers can hurt their backs if they get stuck or need to turn the machine around by hand. And because they are quiet, guests may not hear them coming out on the hill.


Where Can They Go?
Route selection is another safety consideration. More and more areas are directing drivers to recommended routes. Again, the goal is to keep sleds out of the flow of guest traffic as much as possible.

At the RMLA session, several areas indicated they funnel sleds to specific access lanes, even if that means taking a few minutes more to reach a destination. One area is seeking Forest Service approval for snowmobile-only routes, to keep them off the slopes.

Snowmobile “corridors,” marked off with fencing, can prove useful. Winter Park was among the first to pioneer this idea. The area created narrow fenced corridors—marked at the top as snowmobile routes—along the tree line, often on the outside edge of a trail. Russell termed this an especially good idea at dropoffs, where downslope visibility is poor. But he noted that not all trails allow for that type of treatment, and that not all areas would benefit from it.

Even if you designate specific routes, make sure operators remain alert for skiers and riders. Guests often think that any trail down the mountain is for them. Warning signs—such as “snowmobile route”—help, but can’t guarantee that skiers and riders will stay clear.


Workers’ Comp Issues
While most attention has focused on steps that safeguard guests from sleds, some recommended practices protect sled drivers themselves. One example: before you head out, do a quick inspection of the brakes, flags, and other safety equipment. Make sure the sled is slope-worthy. Russell notes that features such as electronic ignition and reverse gear can reduce back injuries by reducing the amount of pulling, tugging, and overexertion that often accompany sled use.

Awareness of other mountain ops is also important, especially the use of winch cats. It’s essential for snowmobilers to know when and where winch operations are taking place, so they don’t injure themselves on the winch cable. For that reason, winch operations should be communicated to all departments that might be out on the hill for any reason.

Snowmobiles remain an important piece of many areas’ transportation network. Their flexibility of use and speed, though, make it tempting to use them for many tasks that can be accomplished as well, or nearly so, by using skis, boards and lifts. The management task for winter resorts is to determine which sled uses are essential and limit staff to those ends.



The Guest Editor’s Take
Every point in this article deserves further review and scrutiny by area operators. At one time I was that lift mechanic or manager, in a hurry, riding a snowmobile up a run during operations. My view changed years ago.

Resorts can define for themselves what use is considered a “convenience” and what is considered “necessary.” It is so easy to use a snowmobile because it is a convenient method of transportation, when in many instances there are alternate modes of transportation. . .our feet, skis, board, lift, etc.

The article refers to “fast transportation.” Two things—don’t purchase the high performance (100mph-fast) snowmobile. Buy the utility machine that meets the industrial application desired. Second, fast refers to the time it takes to get from point A to point B. We all have lifts, and in many cases a lift is the straightest line. Lift utilization can be just as fast (or faster) for the job.

Training is important. An increased focus on training and operations can help reduce future incidents and might have helped to prevent previous incidents on the slopes.

Snowmobile acquisition and maintenance is also very expensive. Limiting purchase and use can help reduce costs. At the same time, these savings can provide for the labor increase some feel will become apparent through the limitations.

Great information for our industry. Thank you, SAM. —Ron Nova