Lyndon
Bronze Member
If you pull Skiiers with a Water Skiing Tow rope, have someone sit right at the back door and watch. It would be all too easy for a skier to get pulled into the top side of the tracks which would result in an instant fatality, and a real messy one too! And have them hold on to the rope, not tied. The top of the track is going forward at twice the ground speed and we had a tow rope sucked up in the tracks once before. fortunately the skiier let go.
Snow Cat Fatalities: the 3 most common Snow Cat Fatalities are: Rolling a Snow Cat, Backing over a passenger, and Running into a Snow Cat.
Skiiers, Snow Boarders and Snow Mobilers running into a Snow cat that is slow moving or stopped has become such a problem that vertually all of the major Ski Areas have gone to Grooming at Night when there are no people on the slopes. We installed lots of lights, strobe lights, and Fiberglass Flags and still had several close calls. The Fiberglass Falgs are available from Bike Stores and Jeep and Dune Buggy places. Snowmobiles are capeable of 100MPH speeds. If your creeping along in your Snow Cat at 10 MPH you just as well be a rock in the road.
I've only been into Snow Cats since '93, but I've been a Skiier since the '60's. I've read about a Snow Cat Fatality almost ever year that occured when a passenger got out of a Snow Cat, and then was backed over by the operator. A lot of Snow Cat operators have been killed by rolling the machines. We had one near my house a few years back.
Avoid avalanche slopes and logging roads that have been cut into the sides of steep hills. If the trees have been "Clear Cut" the snow will resume the shape of the hill. Don't run your Snow Cat Here. In the Cascades we've had a bunch of accidents from snowmobilers doing this. Play Safe and Have Fun.
Snow Cat Fatalities: the 3 most common Snow Cat Fatalities are: Rolling a Snow Cat, Backing over a passenger, and Running into a Snow Cat.
Skiiers, Snow Boarders and Snow Mobilers running into a Snow cat that is slow moving or stopped has become such a problem that vertually all of the major Ski Areas have gone to Grooming at Night when there are no people on the slopes. We installed lots of lights, strobe lights, and Fiberglass Flags and still had several close calls. The Fiberglass Falgs are available from Bike Stores and Jeep and Dune Buggy places. Snowmobiles are capeable of 100MPH speeds. If your creeping along in your Snow Cat at 10 MPH you just as well be a rock in the road.
I've only been into Snow Cats since '93, but I've been a Skiier since the '60's. I've read about a Snow Cat Fatality almost ever year that occured when a passenger got out of a Snow Cat, and then was backed over by the operator. A lot of Snow Cat operators have been killed by rolling the machines. We had one near my house a few years back.
Avoid avalanche slopes and logging roads that have been cut into the sides of steep hills. If the trees have been "Clear Cut" the snow will resume the shape of the hill. Don't run your Snow Cat Here. In the Cascades we've had a bunch of accidents from snowmobilers doing this. Play Safe and Have Fun.