Tubing for Tots
Greg Olsen, GM at Montage, Pa., and his mountain manager, Mike Kalteski, came up with this great idea—a snow-tubing park just for kids. The park shown here is 170 feet long with a 30-foot vertical drop. It is in addition to the main tubing hill which is serviced by two handle tows. For the kids park no lift is needed. The kids walk up on the slope side and pick one of 4 lanes to slide down. Use of the kid’s snow tubing hill generally requires a tubing ticket, but some areas, like Eaglecrest in Alaska, have additional small hills just for kids that are free of charge.
Hay Isn’t Just for Horses
Rocking Horse Ranch, New York, was looking for a practical way to pad the obstacles in and around their snow tubing area and found it in this handy material: hay.
A ranch resort in the summer, Rocking Horse did not have to go very far for the material. The key to this idea was to contain the hay in some brightly marked, waterproof plastic bag. John Holland, ranch foreman, found just the bag he needed in an empty Willy Bag from Idaho Sewing for Sports. The bag, measuring 80 inches by 60 inches, has a volume of about 3 feet cubed and is the exact size for a bale of hay. The clever technique is to put the whole bale of hay into the willy bag and then cut the bailing twine. This lets the hay come apart inside the bag. A flap and a zipper keep the hay in and water out.
According to Linda Tikalsky, a loss prevention specialist, the New York State Code Rule, Article 18, specifies that hay may be used as padding when “encased in a water proof cover,” which prevents it from becoming water logged.
A Little Extra Power
Mohawk Mountain, Conn., found that when they needed to hook up the auxiliary power to their Cosmos chair lift, it always took longer than they liked. The problem was that the power source for the hydraulic motor was roaming the hill when needed the most. It seems the unusual Cosmos lift called for a grooming vehicle to supply external power in the event the main electric drive failed.
Steve Hedden, inventor and tinker, and also VP of Mohawk, was tired of always having to wait for the groomer and came up with this idea. He purchased a 13 HP Honda air-cooled industrial engine and a 6-gallon-per-minute hydraulic pump from Northern Tool and Equipment from their catalogue. The Honda auxiliary-powered motor is tied into the lift safeties and can be controlled from the operator’s station. Now it is a snap to hook up the APU and it only takes five minutes.
