A first trip ‘round the world, part 46

At Mt. Buller, there was plenty of fog, a lot rain and drizzle, sometime - thank God! - some snow and, from time to time, ice sculptures on lifts that were out of this world. 

It's also true that the high humidity, the semi-permanent drizzle conditions, the quasi-maritime climate, all seized by a sudden snap of cold and frost, created a "perfect storm" for this kind of phenomenon.

On such days, early morning, while we were still snug in our beds, the lift crew was already working at trying to remove the frost that was paralyzing our chairlift, so the mountain could open on time. 

With the kind of climate we were under, our Pomas, T-Bars and Chairlift were often bearing the brunt of all these elements. 

The extreme and volatile weather conditions we were under, on a few occasions, meant that our ski lifts were fully iced-up, frozen in place, and unable to run. 

The lift crew had to first assess how much ice was covering the bull-wheel, the ropes and the towers. 

Then, in freezing cold temperatures and with howling winds, the crew had to climb up the towers armed with aluminum hammers, and banged away to break the frozen ice off the lift. 

As they chipped away at the ice, the vibrations from their hammers often removed the ice on the next chairs, and on long sections of the cables, between towers, as well as on the sheaves attached to these. Sometime, when exposed, the bull-wheel was a real challenge to free from the ice. 

Of course on our lone chairlift and everywhere else, it was critical to make sure that all the ice would be removed to prevent later fall and possible injury to skiers below. 

While I've never seen these kinds of buildup of ice in the Alps or the American Rockies, I guess these situations also happen to a certain extent in places like British Columbia, Japan, Scandinavia and of course, New Zealand...