cat run to a tower

[JimVT]

Washington state tower 4000ft elevation .we assisted in getting a small crew to the tower for a power failure . just one cat and a tracked sidexside.

mt rainier

mt baker

left tower about at the first lower antenna our coax broke.

roof damage from falling ice from the tower.
this is heavy thick steel on the roof.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

Fabulous pictures.

Thank you for sharing

 

[1boringguy]

JimVT,

Is that building damage from just recently? Abnormal ice buildup this year? A result of those warm storms that came through the pnw a few weeks ago?

 

[JimVT]

JimVT,

Is that building damage from just recently? Abnormal ice buildup this year? A result of those warm storms that came through the pnw a few weeks ago?

that damage is from rime ice . the roof I don't think was replaced and could be 40 year of damage.
the coax damage was from this year and most likely from ice and wind. the storms your thinking of did build up ice . the camera that turns on the tower froze from ice several times.
this is how it builds up. me at Puyallup ridge lookout tower.

 

[Snowy Rivers]

It's amazing the power of ice, snow and wind.....
Back in the day we spent a weekend at the "Si Si butte" Lookout over there in Olallie country.

A big Azz storm blew in and it snowed, rained, freezing rain, then snow again over the course of the weekend.

That tower shook both nights, with wind likely hitting 75 mph plus.
OMG what a ride.

Through it all the little pot belly wood stove kept us warm....

The shuddering and shaking of the tower was a tad unnerving the first night...
We had a 5th of Jack with us...(Medicinal purposes only) and that made night 2 a breeze..
We picked up a total of about 4 feet of layered snow, ice, more snow....and finally some nice powder..

Was a great weekend overall
The sledding sucked...but what a ride in the tower....

 

[1boringguy]

that damage is from rime ice . the roof I don't think was replaced and could be 40 year of damage.
the coax damage was from this year and most likely from ice and wind. the storms your thinking of did build up ice . the camera that turns on the tower froze from ice several times.
this is how it builds up. me at Puyallup ridge lookout tower.

That's kind of what I envisioned. Soak the rime ice with water, freezes up with solid ice, and the weight and force of it coming down is increased considerably. Yea, 40 years that's some tough duty.

RS,

I've visited quite a few lookout towers over the years of summer and winter adventures. Never was up in one during a storm but always imagined it might be quite a ride in those steel towers. Especially being hit by lightning which surely occurs during the highly relevant use times of a lookout tower.

 

[JimVT]

I had my snow trac vw engine cylinders and crankcase fill with gas while parked all day near this tower. weather was bad sleet ,snow ,wind and now as I was clearing the cylinders with the hood open a small chunk of ice fell .hit me on the back of my head and some must have hit the hood because it fell down on me. it was getting late and dark when I started it and noticed the crankcase was over flowing because of gas in it.
I backed it away 40 ft and abandon it. it sat from Christmas to after new years and I went back to get it.
we rode out with legacy tower crew in a blizzard after dark. in a pistenbully scout.
after that when warming and ice I don't park close on the down wind side.
maybe I should start a thread on rime ice ,I have a few pictures.

 

[Cidertom]

One of the tower sites I used to have was the KGON/Stonehenge tower above ohsu in Portland. It lost a chunk of ice onetime that went through a neighbors roof, and wound up in the basement. During heavy ice conditions Portland closes the roads around it due to shedding ice chunks.