Winter Snows at Holloway Bar

The practice of placer gold mining is mostly a summer affair. Placer mining uses lots of water to help separate the gold from the surrounding materials. Once the fall frosts and winter snows arrive, the mining operation is shut down and the miners retreat to the warmth of their home fires to plan the next year's mining adventure.

However, the mine isn't maintenance free in the winter. Usually when the days start to get longer and the sun's warmth can be felt through the cold northern air, it's time for a February trip to the placer mine for some hard work – shovelling snow!


The mine road sits covered in snow. It's not accessible at all this time of year unless you happen to have a dogsled or set of snowshoes with you. While the Holloway Bar dogs do come along on these snow shovelling excursions, I don't think they'd be happy pulling a miner's sled through deep snow – so access has to be by snowshoes.

The snow and ice provides the ultimate security system – it's very tough going to get to the mine from the nearby highway, and tracks of anyone attempting to walk in are very clear for weeks if not months.


After walking into the mine past the now-silent equipment, the first thing you notice is the amount of snow on everything. This isn't the light, fluffy snow that northerners often see during cold weather – it's packed in tight by the mountain winds making it a solid, heavy mass.

While some may leave their facilities untouched during the winter months, they may return in the spring to many damaged or even a collapsed roof or two. This densly packed snow is very heavy, and it will become a lot heavier once the spring sun starts melting the top layers, so it's important to clear it off of the buildings and equipment to prevent damaging things too much.


So far, the winter of 2008/2009 has resulted in much more snow than previous years. While maybe not indicative of global warming, it does signify that things might be changing a little in the world. Years ago, the Yukon and Northern BC were known mainly for the winter colds – which still happen quite frequently – but lately, the cold snaps have been interspersed with much more snow during the warmer periods.

The Cassiar mountains seem to be hit hard this year, and reports have come in of the camps of others who haven't been as ambitious suffering some damage due to the weight of the snow. This bottom of this trailer is sitting a meter or more off of the ground and even before the snow was shovelled off of the roof, the snow level came to the bottom of the windows (don't try to open the door!) - so Christina is probably standing on some 2+ meters of packed snow on her snowshoes.


The equipment that was winterized in the fall and parked for the winter is also covered by great mounds of snow and ice from the warmer days – so much that the air cleaner on the dump truck actually bent under the weight of the snow this year. If Scott and Christina hasn't been able to get to the mine to remove some of this weight, it would have surely resulted in much more damage.


The powerhouse that contains the water turbine and power control center is almost completely buried by snow. The roof's been cleaned now – you can see the amount of snow that was knocked off this tiny area – so it will survive to house the power generating equipment for another year.

By the end of May, most of the snows will be gone in areas that get the sun, but there will still be ice and snow at the top of the waterline, so it might be June before the water is flowing enough to again generate power. The backup generator will have to be used to charge the camp batteries for the first few weeks of mine operation.

While this snow is a bit of a burden to northern residents, you also have to consider that it's fuel for the camp water turbine – when it melts in the spring and rushes off the hill, it'll flow through the turbine and generate camp power.


This is the 100 lb. propane bottle that operates the camp fridge, stove and hot water tank – but Scott had to dig down a couple of feet just to find the top of the tank to turn on the propane and hopefully light the stove for cooking. Refridgeration isn't necessary this time of the year and there is no running water to heat, but this snow shovelling trip, the second one this year so far, required staying at camp for a couple of nights and preparing a few meals.


You can't really tell from this picture, but Scott is standing on the roof of the Chevy mine truck. It's been completely buried by the snowfall this winter – and the snow is so packed and windblown, there's not even a bump where the truck is parked. But, it is there (or at least it was there last fall when the mine was shut down for the winter).


Even the old Holloway Bar miner looks a little snowed in – there won't be much action in his gold pan for a few months yet. One of the things that we've tried to show you on this weblog and on our website, www.hollowaybar.com, is a glimpse at some of the not-so-obvious parts of being a gold miner and living in the North.

It's not all fun and games and tripping over large nuggets sticking out of the ground (although that would be a welcome event!) - but a ton of hard work throughout the year.


Spring will come, the snows will eventually melt, and the mine will operate for another northern mining season – but the first task at hand in the spring will be to do some maintenance – like fixing this webcam that bent under the pressures of this year's heavy snowfall.


This trip to the mine, while requiring three or four days of heavy work shovelling snow, will lessen the startup tasks significantly in the spring – but there is still a long list of things to be done next year. Of course, gold mining is near the top of the list, but there are many things that need to be done to support the mining venture – and most of those things fall under the “camp maintenance” heading.

See you in the spring!