Restoring a classic ski lake

[skidawg]

@Dirt ? What guns?

[KRoundy]

@Horton So, what did you decide to do?

[Horton]

@KRoundy it's a long-term project. I don't really know what we're going to do. My brother had the water level way up high last weekend when I skied and I kind of felt like it might be good enough. I wouldn't let the public in their ski but maybe I need to find just a few most dangerous spots and fix those and leave the rest of it alone. I don't know. If I make any significant changes it will be next summer.

[Justin]

Sorry if it's been mentioned, but you could possibly rent a pneumatic / air powered cut off saw or saws-all and run it off an air compressor on shore with a long airline. It would save you a ton of time and labour and make short work of the rebar.

[keithh2oskier]

@Horton, what would it take to drain the lake over the next few years and just almost start from scratch? Is it the cost of the water? It sounds like the lake isnt really being utilized at all? Just wondering if it makes sense financially to not pump the water in, let the lake drain, and do all the work in a relatively short term as opposed to struggling with rebar in 4 ft of water which would be a very time consuming process.

[Horton]

@keithh2oskier yes that would be the smart thing to do if I really controlled the lake and was going to ski there a lot. My mother still lives at the end of the lake and likes to look out her office window and see the lake. There are things like the fish in the lake that she thinks are important to not lose. ( I could care less about the fish but it is not my lake). There is also the fact that there are a LOT of trees that get their water from the lake. We can NOT lose the trees no matter what.

 

Remember I am looking for the fast and dirty solution so I can ski there 2 or 3 times a year. I live on a ski lake 2 1/2 hours way from Horton Lake and I have to drag a boat over the mountains anytime I want to ski there. Additionally without a full redig it is never going to ski great and that is not in the budget.

[BraceMaker]

You mentioned full to half full is that 4' at full board or half fill?

[Horton]

@BraceMaker heading north 1 ball is less than 4 feet and 6 ball is 4'9"ish. That is full.

 

[BraceMaker]

I guess in that case if winter is the dry season why not let it draw down a couple feet. Even irrigate the trees purposefully to assist

[The_MS]

Drain it and send the water to combat the fires

[Deanoski]

4 feet is plenty deep that's depth of most of borderline and they jump

[Cnewbert]

@Horton if you really are looking for the fast and dirty solution as you say you are, I think you should revisit my suggestion a while back of simply placing a longish section of pipe over the protruding rebar and bending it flat against the bottom. Each one would only take a matter of a few seconds. Concern was expressed that they would break off. I don’t think they will though anything is possible, but why not try one? If that one bends without breaking then keep moving on down the line. If at any point one breaks then discontinue. But if it works you could have all of them done and safely out of the way in no time at all and still have anchor points for the buoy lines.

[Horton]

@Cnewbert the rebar has a T at the top and a lot of it is already a pretzel

[eleeski]

@Horton You are totally over thinking this. Just get bolt cutters (what contractors use to regularly cut rebar) and cut the excess off. Leave a couple inches sticking up. Tie on a sub buoy to the unused stubs to keep from kicking the stub. For the stubs that you will use for the course, bolt on a wire rope clamp if just tying off to the stub works loose.

 

At 4 feet deep, hitting a stub hard enough to cause injury is extremely unlikely. Marking the stubs with a sub buoy will make them easy to find when you want them later (and protect your feet). An afternoon's work.

 

Eric

[Horton]

@eleeski for once I agree with you. Never going to happen again. I will likely do a little extra about the sharp stub but besides that you are right.

[Not_The_Pug]

Mark this day in History, @horton agrees with @eleeski Not likely to ever happen again.

[Hockdog]

Are socks with sandals next for @Horton?

[buoyboy1]

After cutting, if there is only a few of inches of rebar exposed from the bottom, using brick with holes and stacking one or two high you could easily cover them up.

[BraceMaker]

@buoyboy1 good point - you could go easier than that and cut sections of ~3-4" PVC pipe about 1' long. slide it over the line from t he sub buoy and once that's floated it would drop over the stub.

 

If you clip on the subs so long as the PVC is larger than the clip it would be simple to drop into place.

[Horton]

@buoyboy1 that is the current plan

[RichardDoane]

Most cement/sand/gravel yards make something from the leftovers. These rounds would make easy drop in anchors if they had an eye bolt.

 

[BrianKennedy91]

New Anchors

 

[BrianKennedy91]

 

[Horton]

@BrianKennedy91 what do they weigh?

[h2onhk]

what are the 2 pieces of PVC for in each anchor?

[MISkier]

@h2onhk, I believe those are sleeves that you use to drive rebar through to prevent lateral movement of the anchors.

[Ed_Johnson]

That is exactly what we used for our permanent certified course on our Lake in Orlando. Bought a whole package of those boxes from Skier to Skier. They worked great because we could pre-position all the anchors around while surveying each buoy, then once they were perfectly set, drive rebar through the PVC Sleeves.