They Keep The Mountain Running - Life At The Summit

had any weird things or strange things happen up here while you're working? >> I've seen like people up here in the middle of the night and >> they're blowing it up when you're on the lift. You'll know it'll >> snowing so hard you can't even see the ground in front of the snow cut in the night. Rock hopper hair. Ever wonder what it's like to work at a ski area? I met a couple guys and they're going to tell you all about it. Let's take a little hike up to the top of Mount Ashland in beautiful southwest Oregon. We'll start here at Mount Ashland ski area. That's Mount Shasta, California right out there. So, it looks like we've got a mile to go up to Mount Ashland, but it's all uphill. And I might mention that no bikes are allowed on the trails up to the top. All right, let's hit the trail and head up to the top. This is where you'll start. Looks like a little four-wheel drive road. You just continue up and head up on the trail. As you can see back there, the ski lodge is behind us. Not far up the trail, you'll see a ski lift. And if you look on down the valley, pretty nice views out there. And way off in the distance, I think that's Grizzly Peak, that real pointy one out there. Just keep following the signs and they'll lead you along the trail. Just see the trail right over there. It's not long, maybe a/4 mile until you end up in the woods going through the beautiful forest. And the higher you go, the better the views become. The trail might get a little bit rocky at times, but that'll probably be the least of your worries. Your biggest enemy on this trail is probably going to be gravity because it is a little bit steep at times or most of the way. And your other enemy is probably going to be altitude. So, if you're not used to this kind of hiking, you really want to pace yourself, I think. But look, on the bright side, on a cool fall day, it'll get you warmed up. And if you come here on a weekday in the fall, there's a good chance you'll have this entire trail to yourself. We're definitely getting up there in elevation. This old tree must have seen a lot in its lifetime. I always really like those fluorescent green lykan that seem to grow on the side of old trees. Looks like we're coming up toward the world's biggest volleyball up there at the summit. I'm not sure exactly how high Mount Ashland is. I'm thinking it's maybe around 7,500 ft, but I'm going to have to check on that. I'm here on the summit of Mount Ashland. Come up the top here, Mount Ashlin. We got Elliot and Mike, and they're going to tell us a little bit about what life is like working here. So, what's it like being up here and working and and what is that big thing behind you? >> We're not too sure what this is. You know, it's got something to do with the government. It's a weather ball is what we know of so far. Like, I'm not sure if that's exactly where we get our weather from for our reports or not, but yeah, that's a that's the weather station, I guess. >> Yeah, that's what I'd say. >> Yeah. Some people say mind control, but >> I don't know. >> Probably just we're not allowed in there. Well, it could be mind control cuz that's why they get you guys to work for free here, right? >> Oh, yeah. Feel free. >> Oh, might as well be free. >> Guys, are you here year round now or what's going on? >> Yeah. Uh, I work here year round. He works here year round. Uh, in the winter I run the snow and I'm out here all night. So, >> yeah, I'm a lift operator. This is actually the lift that I operate in the winter time. And, uh, yeah. But and right now we're just up here working on this >> snow fence. >> Snow fence right now so we can uh >> Yeah, right over there. >> Yeah, the fence over there. Yeah, it just helps uh snow kind of collect in the right spots for us. >> Any weird things or strange things happen up here while you're working? >> Uh I mean I'm up here all night and I'm like me and like other operators were the only ones up here. I mean, I've seen like people up here in the middle of the night with like laser pointers at the top of the hill and all sorts of crazy stuff like that, but nothing too crazy, you know. >> Yeah. >> Nothing really too crazy. It's It's pretty cool little environment up here. >> Pretty quiet up here in the summertime. Just a lot of lot of deer. >> Yeah. >> And it's a pretty big lots of deer and ravens and hawks flying around. That's about it out here in the summertime. Pretty chill. >> So, it's a pretty good place to be then. Pretty good place to work. Pretty good place. >> Good vibes, man. >> Yeah. Good people. Good vibes. >> Yeah. If it's 100° in the valley, it's 80° up here. So, it's a good getaway, too. >> Yeah. It's not as bad as working. >> Yeah. Especially in the summer, it hasn't been as bad. Definitely pretty cold in the winter time. Snow is deep as I'm standing and like up to my head probably. >> Yeah. It's like probably up here at least. >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. For sure. What's the elevation up here? >> 75. 33 or some. Yeah. 7530 around there. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, you get quite a bit of snow and it stays till like what the end of April maybe. >> Yeah. We're open till like midappril I think. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. We get snow over here until June. It'll stay over here in the >> Yeah, you can ride You can ride the bowl. Yeah. Till late in the summer. >> There's Yeah. There's at least like a little line down depending on the year. >> Yeah. And we got some like rare like high altitude trees I guess that only grow in like glaciers and stuff over there. So I guess that's like technically a glacier area. >> There used to be a glacier at the bottom of the bowl but it melted I don't know how long ago but >> pretty cool. >> What do you do mostly in the summer then? >> Uh cut trees in the forest. >> Mostly just been Yeah. Falling a lot of trees. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. >> Run a chainsaw a lot. Yeah. And the past few weeks you've been up here working on this fence though. >> No offense. >> So yeah, it's about it's about about all we >> that's about our life right now. >> Yeah. Not much else besides that really. At least this year. Maybe other years they they'll have us do other stuff, but this summer that's pretty much what we've been doing. >> And then the winter you just run lift mainly. >> Yeah, he runs the lift and then I run the what grims the mountain. So it's a snow cap. It's a heavy equipment. It's a big piece of machinery. It's got like a tiller on the back and Yeah, >> we're mountain running, man. Can't run without us. >> Exactly. >> That's right. You guys keep the uh the mountain running. Oh, yeah. >> Keep the ski area going. >> Oh, yeah. >> Sure do. >> Yeah. Love doing it, too. >> Wouldn't Wouldn't work rather work anywhere else, I don't think. >> It gets pretty bad up here, you know. We'll get like 40 50 mph winds, snowing so hard you can't even see the ground in front of the snow cat in the night. You know, imagine like you're driving through the fog with your headlights on, but I'm in a snow coat that's got LEDs all around it. So, it's just lit up all white, you know, and then you're you so like we have to groom certain runs. So, say I have to groom this run right here and I'm coming up and I can't see anything. I'm looking for certain trees just to tell me like my point of direction, like if I have to go this way or if I have to go this way. I'm looking for a window to cross through from one run one run to the other. Like it gets pretty gnarly up here with the with the white outs in the snow conditions. Like man, like you literally can't see the bottom of the blade in front of your snowcat like at all. So you're watching, you might come through a glimpse. You might see, oh, there's like there's two little lines or three little lines from my previous pass. Okay, I got to follow that. And then it's gone again. You're like, okay, I'm I'm following that straight line. And it's almost like when you mow uh like professionally how like they do like straight lines every time. We try to do straight lines in the snowcat every time too. So you can kind of follow your lines like if you lose it at least you keep straight. You'll be on the same path you know kind of like that. So really it's like operating by feel almost out here in the white outs. It gets pretty gnarly. >> And every day you get say say we get a blizzard with four feet of snow. are rebuilding the ramps every day because like I can't expect him to come out here with a shovel and there's 10 ft of snow, you know, like so every night we're rebuilding these ramps constantly to make sure maybe even twice in a night, you know, because we think that we can do it once in the beginning of the night, next thing you know it turns into a blizzard. We get a foot of snow in two hours and now we have to rebuild the ramps over again after we just regroomed. You can't tell anything that's groomed. Everything looks like powder and it looks like we weren't even there, but we've been working all night. Like it gets gnarly out here, dude. It's pretty sweet conditions, honestly. >> Good heart race. Gets your adrenaline pumping. It's awesome. >> And you seriously work all night long, right? Like what are your hours? >> You clock in around 9:00 p.m. I get off at 9:00 a.m. 8:00 a.m. On a good night, if I'm lucky, I'll get off like 6:00. >> You're just running Snowcat all through literally all through the night into the morning. >> Oh yeah. If you guys are in town and you look up here on the on the top of the mountain, you probably see me like literally just lit up. >> And then you've got some kind of scoop thing. What's going on with that? >> The snow that he can't get that's around the lifts and stuff with the cat. We got these big snow scoops here that we like by hand have to dig everything out with. And yeah, it's like I it probably if the snow's wet, they probably probably weighs like 70 80 100 lb depending on how much is on there. It's a lot lot of heavy lifting, moving a lot of snow by hand around the lifts to Yeah. get the mountain ready and stuff for the people. >> So you guys are basically sculpting this snow and just moving it around. Yeah, pretty much farming it kind of in a sense and or Yeah. sculpting it. Yeah. >> Elliot's the big, you know, he's got the major stuff. >> We move the big amount and then he really fine-tunes it with little dial. >> Yeah. Right around the lifts for for people to get off and on and off safely. >> Okay. Well, if you get really ambitious, I guess you could make a little snow sculpture, too, huh? >> Oh, yeah. It's been done. We we we'll make snowmen and stuff occasionally like >> and then you'll find the snowcat operators run them over for fun. >> Smooshing them. >> I've done it once or twice. >> We We expect it. We expect it. >> You just take the blade and it's like a goal. You just like lift it up with the wing and just crush the whole thing. Sorry, but it's fun. >> Yeah. We'll make like snow couches and stuff sometimes to sit out here, too. >> That's pretty sweet. Yeah, >> fun working. >> Good time, man. Mountain vibes are always a good place to work. >> Yeah. >> Oh, absolutely. And people are fun up here. Great time on the mountains. Probably the best place to work. >> Yeah. >> If you if you're like a younger guy or like someone that's like high enthusiasm and stuff >> or especially if you like to ski or snowboard, definitely the place to be. >> Or if you want to get into skiing or snowboarding, it's a good way to do that. Like getting out here. free season pass, free lessons, all that good stuff. >> The ability to be here to ride and learn. So, it's it's definitely it's a good place for anybody who wants to be up here or learn to be. >> Yeah. >> You can't get the benefits of a mountain anywhere else. Like, we can ride pretty much anywhere around here for free. If we wanted to go to Shasta, we just ask our mountain employees or something, they'd write us a paper and we'd go to Shasta. Bachelor, same thing. I think it's only five people can go to Bachelor at a time, but same thing. Yeah, >> it's pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, you get a choice of mountains to ski on. >> Yeah. I I snowboarded in Tahoe. >> Two years ago, I went to Tahoe for a week and was boarding down there for free for a week. Just had to pay for like my staying and stuff. >> Food. >> Yeah. >> Some benefits. We don't get health care, but we we got that going for us. >> Man, do we get the shred. >> And you know what? You're probably healthier up here anyway cuz of good clean air and and it's just the good vibes and everything, right? >> Oh yeah, for sure. >> They have to blast it to make sure for uh avalanche control. So that builds so much snow here. We'll have like a lip and like what 10 foot drop. >> Yeah, there's like a cornice that forms which is like the big ice chunk that forms cuz of the wind and snow >> and they'll have to blow that off with dynamite cuz Yeah. It could either cause a bad avalanche or it could fall off and crush somebody or something. So, they blast it off with dynamite >> and the ski patrol trained professionals will go around the edge of the bowl and throw dynamite to blow it all up when there's snow in here to cause they're essentially trying to cause small avalanches. >> Yeah. They want it to blow up to show. >> Yeah. So, that way it's >> any loose snow can go. >> Yeah. >> I mean, we really don't know. We're not professionals, but this is what we know as of like standing around being bystanders or like co-workers talking about it and stuff, you know? >> But like >> it's fun when they're blowing it up when you're on the lift. You'll know it'll get you give you a nice little jump. >> You can feel it anywhere. You could be at the lodge and you you know when they're blowing it up. >> Yeah, >> you can feel it. You can hear it. You can feel it. It's loud. >> Yeah, >> it's pretty cool. >> Definitely. This is some of the gnarliest terrain Mount Ashlin has to offer right here. >> Yeah. So, this is the double black diamond. This >> and it goes all the way across. You can ride this all the way across to the other side and ride all the way down the other side of the edge and you can drop into any of those shoots across. >> Yeah. >> And then you can drop all the way through the trees and ride all the way around the mountain and connect back on the other side over there. >> Yeah. >> It's pretty cool. >> Yeah. >> That's like one of the best tree runs on the mountain. That's That's some of my favorite spots to go ride. This is where I like to ride. >> This is a hidden gem. >> I think I'll put the drone up and have you guys check that out cuz this should be a pretty spot to have a look at the surrounding landscape. Certainly is a good place to get a view. And you can see Mount Chasta out there in the distance here on the summit of Mount Ashlin. Got a couple little friends there, some deer. So, that pointy peak in the distance that I thought might be Grizzly Peak probably is Mount Mclofflin as it turns out. If I'm wrong, let me know. Bad news. So, I was getting some drone footage, really nice drone footage, and then the drone dropped from the sky like a dead duck without warning. And it's somewhere out here on the side of Mount Ashland, and it's going to be pretty impossible to find. I've been looking for it for a couple of hours now. And the thing is with this type of manzanita and all this scrub brush, it could have dropped down into the shadows of this scrub, which would make it like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. It's just not going to be easy. Pretty much impossible, I think. And it was a new drone and uh only took it out once before. Didn't give a warning. It just on the phone it just said uh power failure stopped recording and it just boom dropped and that was the end of that. So if it dropped within this manzanita it's probably thoroughly hidden. Manzanita may have cushioned the impact and the drone might be okay but good luck finding it out here. Now, if it dropped into a rocky area, well, I might be able to find it. But I've looked in the open wide areas and I haven't found it yet. I searched for the drone for a couple of hours, but no sign of it. And it's getting late. So, I got to get back to the car and park it for the night somewhere. So, I've got to get back down off this mountain as it is getting dark. I hope you enjoyed coming up to Mount Ashlin with me. Don't forget to give me a like on the video, share and subscribe. Until next time, this is the Rockapper. See you.