Original subtitles

To keep these avalanche -prone mountains safe.

We've just had a problem, Houston.

The piston bully polar snowcat.

The ultimate snow and ice hauling monster.

If we make a mistake, somebody's going to die from that.

Blowing this half a million dollar beast apart.

We'll discover its technological secrets.

From super tough lightweight snow tracks.

To 25 ,000 volt xenon headlights.

that turn night into day will reveal how this

extraordinary ice -crawling monster evolved to rise above all other

machines.

Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, British Columbia.

site of the 2010 Winter Olympics and premier destination for two million

and snowboarders a year.

The resort's peaks soar over 2 ,000 meters high.

With a mammoth 8 ,000 acres of terrain, it is North America's largest ski range.

But high in the mountains, with around 27 million metric tons of snow falling

it every year,

This winter wonderland can quickly turn into a danger zone, with avalanches and

icy slopes posing a deadly threat.

No trail at Whistler can open to the public until it's completely safe and

snow is sculpted into the perfect skiing surface.

This challenge falls to snow grooming manager Stan Kelly.

How are you doing today?

Stan heads up the resort's elite crew of snow haulers.

We're charged with maintaining all the slopes and not having any avalanche

concerns for our guests.

We move the snow around and cover over all the rocks and fill in the holes and

then people can ski on top of it.

We'll be working really hard this week.

Hey, how's the crew doing?

His team is gearing up to prepare the 8 ,000 acre site.

for the biggest weekend of the year.

Is anybody available to work any extra shifts?

If you give me a day's notice, I can.

To do this, he needs the help of a remarkable machine.

Ten meters long and weighing in at 11 metric tons, the Piston Bully 600 Polar

Snowcat, constructed from more than 10 ,000 parts.

She's one of the most advanced snow -hauling machines ever built.

Steel -tipped aluminum tracks spread 11 metric tons of muscle across the snow.

Ford gas -powered 25 ,000 -volt headlights blaze a path through even the

thickest blizzards.

And a 13 -liter, 450 -horsepower diesel engine

conquers the steepest slopes.

All of these features work together to make this snow and ice hauler the

toughest crawler on the mountain.

This is my snowcat. This is what I run on Whistler Mountain. It makes

everybody's life easier.

Skiers, snowboarders, everybody loves it.

With over 20 years on the job, Steve Dewar is one of the most experienced

drivers on the mountain.

All right, man, we're good to go.

Whistler runs a fleet of 39 piston bullies. They are the ultimate multi

Operators like Steve can use them to shovel snow, crush ice, and manicure

pieces, transforming danger zones into the perfect downhill run, a process

as grooming.

This is my office.

It's got a beautiful view.

Every office is a corner office.

Being out here in this is what I love the most, really.

It's spectacular.

Top of the world, playing with 500 horsepower, having fun.

It's a good job.

Steve sets off to the first destination on his shift.

He's got a tough week ahead.

It's the opening of a new season.

Five days from now, around 20 ,000 visitors will descend on the mountain.

A recent storm has dumped 75 centimeters of snow on the site.

It's up to Steve and the team to shift this snow and make every piece safe in

time for the skier's arrival.

There's going to be lots of people out, and they're going to want to do some

skiing. We're not just rooming it for a couple of people. We're rooming it for

thousands of people.

Before Steve and his team can get to work on the mountaintop, they must check

the avalanche forecast.

Avalanches kill more than 40 people a year across North America.

It's up to Anton Horvath and his team of ski patrollers to make sure that the

snowpack at Whistler is completely stable.

Ready to listen up, guys? Let's rock and roll.

The height of snow is now 179 centimeters.

Freezing levels today, 2 ,700 meters.

Ski patrol must inspect the mountain before anyone accesses it.

It's pretty stable.

Yeah, 10 -4. Sounds good.

Steve gets the all clear for his first location.

I have a lot of faith in our ski patrol brethren that they've done their job

really well.

He's approaching the saddle, one of the highest, most exposed runs on the

mountain.

Overnight, wind has blown the heavy snowfall, creating drifts of deep

Steve's task is to carve and compact the snow on this slope.

to make it safe to ski.

Once we get a lot of snow, it becomes unsafe.

Our job as snowcat operators is to go out and flatten them down.

Steve reaches the crest of the saddle, high in the alpine zone at over 2 ,000

meters. This steep trail is a tough test for both man and machine.

Attention all Whistler Mountain radios, winch cat on saddle last chance.

There's the odd occasion where the machine wants to slide off sideways and

to take evasive action.

Steve must drive head first down this 40 degree slope to groom the snow.

If he loses grip, he could plummet straight to the bottom.

We drive into a steep section of a run and you're going to slide toboggan out

control.

There's our winch tower.

I've just got to hook us up.

Steve hooks his machine to a three meter tall tower.

anchored deep into the bedrock.

All right, let's rip it up.

To lower him down the mountain without skidding out of control, he depends on

ingenious winch that's built into this ice crawler.

The winch acts as a safety system to stop Steve from sliding down the icy

Its design was inspired by ancient Greek sailors.

Over 2 ,000 years ago, merchant ships in the Mediterranean

Sea grew so large that the crew could no longer lift their enormous stone

anchors.

So sailors built rotating winch drums on deck and wrapped the anchor ropes

around them.

Now, just two men could raise huge weights from even the greatest depth.

The ice crawler uses this idea to anchor itself on the slopes.

Hydraulic motors in its winch give it the pulling power of over 50 sailors.

The anchor wire is over a kilometer long and could hold 10 family cars.

Steve uses this winch to haul him up and down the steepest slopes without fear

of falling.

As the slope gets steeper, the tension on the winch cable increases.

Right now the cable's paying out behind us.

It's holding us back.

When we're grooming steep runs like this paddle here, the rope keeps the cat

from sliding out of control on the way down.

Steve compacts the powdery snow as he descends to the bottom of the slope.

Now he needs the full power of the winch to haul him back up again.

The cable failure here would be his worst nightmare.

This here is the steepest part of the run.

Anything can happen.

The ice crawler has a super smart invention hidden under its hood that

spot any problem before it's too late.

The machine has a sensor that scans the cable for tiny weaknesses.

Two plastic plates press on the wire as it runs.

Even a single broken strand makes the plates flex together, triggering a

switch which sets off an alarm so that Steve can shut down this machine

and replace the cable before disaster strikes.

This cat is a winch cat, and it's nothing without its rope.

To make sure the cables and sensors are working perfectly, A team of 24

mechanics inspects each ice crawler every day here at Whistler's maintenance

shop.

There's another one coming in for a bit of repair.

In the few hours we have with the machinery, we'll do all the maintenance

repairs needed.

Even with clever technology and perfect maintenance, the ice crawler's cable is

never 100 % fail safe.

Hey, Benny. How was your night last night?

This winch wire on another crawler...

failed while it was in service last night.

I heard we had a broken winch cable.

It's kind of ugly.

See how it tore it apart there?

Oh, yeah.

The machine's cable sensors only detect breaks that the rope passes through

them.

Exposed on the mountain, there's a risk the wire can catch and snap on a sharp

rock. It obviously ripped it apart, and then it tore it through the whole winch.

Yeah, man, I hate to see that. I don't like to see these cables breaking. You

never know what could happen, right? What slope he's on.

Luckily, this time, the driver wasn't hurt.

Keeping these cables in top condition, it's critical to give Steve a fighting

chance on these steep ascents.

He's making good progress.

But 200 meters from the top of the slope, he's about to encounter big

The cables, it's your lifeline.

High in the mountains of Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, British Columbia,

elite team of snow haulers is up against it, preparing the slopes for the

opening weekend of the season.

Big day. It's going to be a big weekend. Busy.

Ice crawler driver Steve is halfway up one of the highest trails on the

mountain. The saddle.

And he's in trouble.

I see so many... Yeah,

we've just had a problem, Houston.

Thankfully, the winch cable is intact.

But Steve still needs to find the cause of the breakdown.

Maybe call for a mechanic in a minute.

His engine appears to have lost almost all power, leaving him stranded on the

mountain.

Any fleet maintenance radio from Steve?

Yeah, I won't want to drive his sled up there, Link.

10 -4, I'll get the boom out back and see if I can't get something up.

Steve's location is so inaccessible that the maintenance crew can't reach him.

We're on such a steep pitch here, we can't get here to us, do we?

We've got no choice but to limp our feet to the top.

With reduced engine power, it's down to his winch cable to pull him back up to

the top of the hill.

Let's see how we go.

We're going to be a little challenged here to get out.

The cable is now under extreme strain.

It's the steepest part of the run that we're on right now.

And the machine is laboring hard to get us up there.

Only yesterday...

A cable like this on another machine failed while out on the mountain.

We're barely making it out of here.

It's a slow crawl up to the summit where the mechanics are waiting.

This is the final clutch moment.

We're right at the top now.

A little worried about making the last pull here.

I can see the mechanics in the blue.

Oh, we've made it. I think we're at the top.

I'm so relieved to reach the top here.

I was sweating a little bit there.

I don't sweat very often.

Mechanics are top -notch. They're going to have this thing buttoned up in no

time. It's a quick diagnosis.

The engine's turbocharger has failed.

It supplies the airflow to the engine. Without that, no power.

There's your blown clamp.

Easy fix.

I like those ones.

We're back online in how long was that?

Five minutes?

Steve Snowcat is back in business.

But he still had 60 acres of the site left to groom.

And things are about to get a whole lot harder.

See, the night is closing in. What are we at?

20 to 5 and the sun is almost fully down.

Things change a bit when the sun goes down.

Your world gets a lot smaller.

Your world all of a sudden goes from unlimited visibility to only as far as

lights will light the way.

Working on the edge of a sheer cliff with just a few meters of visibility,

One false move, and Steve and his machine could plummet off an icy 300

precipice.

He relies on an ingenious invention built into his ice crawler that allows

to work into the night without fear of tumbling off a cliff.

Super bright headlights.

Tucked into the roof of the cab are four transformers.

Each generates 25 ,000 volts.

Feeding the machine's headlights.

Where a powerful force of nature explodes.

It's like lightning.

Thunderclouds send out bright tentacles of highly charged air molecules.

Where they touch the ground.

Lightning strikes.

The ice crawler's headlights use the same principle.

Like the air in a thundercloud, its light bulbs contain clouds of highly

xenon gas at 25 times the pressure of a car tire.

Two tungsten electrodes hold a brilliant arc of miniature lightning, half as hot

as the surface of the sun.

Four of these bulbs give the ice crawler blazing headlights that turn night.

And today... We've got so many lights on these snow cats. It's phenomenal.

It's phenomenal, the technology that goes into them.

The xenons being the really bright ones, they can give you a headache. They're

so bright.

Thanks to her powerful xenon headlights, Steve's ice crawler can scale the

dangerous mountain terrain right into the night.

Day two, 6 a .m.

Whistler's ski patrol crew head out to conduct their routine avalanche control

on Little Whistler Peak, a 2 ,100 -meter ridge sitting right above a skiing area

known as Glacier Bowl.

On average, 10 people a year are killed by avalanches in the mountains of

British Columbia.

Anton Horvath needs to make sure that snow on this mountaintop won't endanger

the lives of skiers below.

The biggest hazard that we have right now is cornice fall.

So we have an overhanging cornice here that we want to make sure it's stable.

Cornices are massive ledges of snow that collect on the top of ridges during a

snowstorm.

Weighing up to three metric tons, if they give way, they could trigger an

avalanche. Okay, so the cornice is below us here somewhere. So if you head over

there, you can spot me from a good vantage point.

To stop the cornices from collapsing unexpectedly, Anton's team must remove

built -up snow before the skiers arrive, using dynamite.

It has a detonation rate of around 20 ,000 feet per second.

I'll ignite the shot, and at that point it'll detonate two and a half minutes

after ignition.

Okay, good, right there.

Stop. And then I tie it onto a ski pole or something and I retreat to a safe

location.

The blast sends three metric tons of loose snow cascading down into the

bowl.

That was an effective shot.

It took out some fairly large cornish chunk, the size of small cars.

And now it doesn't pose a danger anymore to any skiers.

Whistler Alpine Office from Anton.

Go ahead, Anton.

You have AC clearance all zone?

For AC clearance all zone, thanks.

It's now up to snow groomer Steve to shift the detonated chunks of snow and

from the blast to make a smooth surface for the skiers.

He sets off for Anton's avalanche zone.

Up above us here are many avalanche paths.

To make it to the debris -sided glacier bowl, Steve must drive along a line of

treacherous mountain paths, including a precarious stretch known as Pekus

Traverse.

Attention all radios, snowcat up Pekus Traverse.

The drop we've got here is substantial.

The edge of the run pretty much cliffs out below us.

With a sheer cliff on one side...

This narrow ledge tests the nerves of even seasoned drivers like Steve.

The road narrows up tremendously here. It's just wider than a snowcat.

A few years back, a midnight shift operator was driving up here, and the

above gave way and swept the snowcat off the road. Actually, the cat hit some

rocks and whatnot and came to a stop, but the avalanche came through the back

window. All in all, it was quite spooky.

Fortunately, that driver escaped with just minor injuries.

Steve's ice crawler has a special design that protects him from avalanche

impacts.

Hidden under the housing of the cab are a puncture -proof windshield and a roll

cage made from high -strength steel tubes.

Together, they can withstand the impact of 15 metric tons of snow, keeping Steve

safe inside the cab.

Even if the crawler takes an icy tumble.

It's crucial to getting this job done safely.

The potential for outlandish here is pretty good.

Steve creeps along the narrow alpine path and makes it to the mountain of

blocks.

Yeah, Cornish, they bombed, let down a good patch of snow, and we've got to get

it out of the way and have the run groomed out for public to ski on.

Steve's on track to clear this zone today, but only if these good weather

conditions hold.

These are the mountains, and the weather can change fast.

We can go to whiteout in moments, and you feel quite safe in here until

something like that happens.

An elite team of ski patrollers and snow haulers race to prepare the slopes in

time for the season's big opening at Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort, British

Columbia.

Snowcat driver Steve Dewar works fast to clear detonated blocks of snow and ice

from the glacier bowl.

There's just four days to go until Whistler's busiest weekend of the year.

As you can see, there's a good pile of debris in front of us. The snow is

different than fresh snow. It's been sitting in a cornice for a couple of

It's getting hard. It's sometimes like concrete.

Fortunately for Steve, the ice crawler has an ingenious propulsion system that

thrusts her through every type of snow imaginable.

Super lightweight tracks stretch right under her calf.

They let the ice crawler float on snow using a trick borrowed from nature.

To escape predators, the snowshoe hare has evolved extreme feet,

almost as big as a human hand, and covered in thick fur.

They give the bunny supreme traction.

for a quick getaway on even the fluffiest snow.

The ice crawler takes this idea to the extreme.

The edges of its super lightweight aluminum tracks are made from hardened

for ultimate grip.

They spread the weight of the 11 metric ton machine across 13 square meters of

snow, cutting the pressure on the snow to less than a human foot.

making the ice crawler the ultimate all -terrain vehicle.

Very effective in loose snow and wet snow, all conditions.

They'll throw this cat anywhere.

It's down to the mechanics in Whistler's workshop to make sure that the tracks

on every ice crawler are fit for a night on the mountain.

It's just arrived now. It's got a couple of issues.

Our bar is broken for the track, so we need to get that sorted before it can go

over. If not, we could have a breakdown tonight on the hill.

These tracks have taken a little bit of a beating. They've been running over

rocks and that, so the bar is busted up.

We'll probably change at least 100 of these a year.

We've got about an hour now to get all this done, so we're going to get going.

She's good to go, just in time.

Gonna go out and groom the slopes tonight.

It's regular track repairs like this that help Steve make headway in the icy

snow.

Right now, the weather is on his side, too.

But Steve knows that at Whistler, a winter storm can appear within minutes.

Can go from...

Beautiful scenery like this to being like driving around in a ping pong ball

where you can't see your hand in front of your face.

As day turns to night on this exposed slope, he must always be prepared for

worst. We deal with winds in excess of 100 kilometers an hour regularly.

I personally have been in storms over 160.

The storms can last days if not for a week.

To stop the fuel in Steve's machine from freezing and plunging nighttime

temperatures, the ice crawler has special technology hidden beneath her

Her power source is a monstrous six -cylinder, 455 -horsepower

diesel engine.

Frozen fuel crystals would choke this beating heart.

So sitting above the fuel filter,

are disks of high -resistance metal, heated to over 50 degrees.

They stop the diesel from freezing and keep the engine running,

even at extremely cold temperatures.

Right now, Steve is dealing with extreme weather of a different kind.

This year, Whistler has been experiencing unseasonably high

So despite the recent snowstorm, snow levels across the resort are still lower

than normal.

These unusual conditions are creating a new danger.

Exposed rocks.

The lower the snow, the harder it is to cover the rock.

Right now, they're our biggest hazard.

I'm taking a bit of a risk, driving quickly here.

If we hit a rock, we'd stop pretty fast, possibly break something, but we're in

a bit of a hurry.

On this remote mountaintop in the dead of night, an encounter with a rock at

speed could end in disaster.

A momentary lapse of concentration out here, and you'll pay for it.

At North America's biggest ski resort, Whistler Blackcomb, snow groomer Steve

Durer and his team race to prepare the site for the opening weekend.

In three days, 20 ,000 skiers are expected to arrive.

The slopes must be ready.

Steve's now hauling snow and ice from a trail called Harmony Ridge.

unusually high temperatures are exposing large areas of rock here.

The pressure's on snow grooming manager Stan Kelly to decide if this slope is

safe for skiers.

The depth of snow, it's pretty thin, just over a foot, eight inches of snow.

definitely it can be a problem for skiers because if the rock starts to get

exposed, they can hook an edge on a rock.

And then tumble down this pitch, and as you can see, it's a pretty long, steep

pitch. We're going to have to winch some snow back up here.

Stan calls in Steve to get to work on this slope.

More and more rocks seem to keep showing up.

It's a big hazard to skiers, snowboarders, and staff alike.

To scoop enough snow to cover the rocks, he uses a crucial device bolted onto

the snout of his extraordinary machine.

The ice crawler can move mountains thanks to a giant shovel that's longer

Ford Mustang.

Behind it sits an invention inspired by a surprising member of the animal

kingdom.

High on the slopes of Everest, the Himalayan jumping spider, an acrobatic

arachnid that has evolved a unique way to catch its prey.

The spider forces blood into its lower legs to create hydraulic pressure.

It unleashes this power to catapult itself up to 30 times its body length

towards its unsuspecting dinner.

The ice crawler takes this idea to the max.

Nine powerful pistons attach the shovel to its body and are

driven by hydraulic fluid at 100 times the pressure of a truck tire.

The pistons make the shovel both powerful and agile, so it can scoop up

shift it up the mountain.

All control for our blade on the front is done with this blade handle right

beside me. It's comically referred to as a potato, because it kind of feels like

a potato in your hand.

It's got endless button combinations.

Here we go with a little bit of snow here.

We're going to grab a big mittful here and cast it over.

As the snow continues to melt, Steve's task gets tougher.

It gets harder and harder to cover the rocks. The snow seems to hide more. It

gets pushed away and more and more difficult to recover.

Steve scours every inch of the slope into the night.

to find snow to cover the rocks.

We're going to fix it up.

To reach the hidden snow, he must make a tricky 180 right on the edge of this

steep slope.

If we start to lose traction, we couldn't accomplish what we need to do.

wouldn't be safe.

If Steve loses traction here, the cat could slide out of control and skid off

the edge of the cliff.

So this ice crawler is fitted with a clever invention that helps it maneuver

of any tight spot.

As Steve reaches the edge of the piste, the winch arm comes into its own.

Two five -horsepower hydraulic motors swing it round, sliding on top of

of roller bearings.

the 5 -meter steel arm rotates with a pulling force of 700 kilograms,

giving Steve the extra leverage he needs to pivot out of tight corners.

This way, he can reach every inch of the slope without sliding out of control.

It's a game -changer. It's really enhanced the performance of these

As I lose traction on one side of the machine, the boom will actively move

to the track that's losing traction and allows it to gain traction by putting

weight on it.

With it, we can find snow down where it's been pushed into the hollows and

toes of the slope, and we can bring it right back up to the top.

Steve reaches the end of his night shift.

How did the night go?

Tough one?

Yeah. Yeah.

A lot of work left to do. Yeah, it's been a tough week for sure.

Yeah.

There's now just two days to go until the big opening weekend.

Stan's anxious to get all the slopes ready in time.

Skiers' lives are in the groomers' hands.

They have to be up all night pretty much and have everything ready by morning.

Pressure's on.

All right, thanks, you guys.

We have to ensure the public safety is number one. We want them to have a good

skiing experience.

But number one above that is that we want to make sure that nobody gets hurt

because of something that we did.

Today, Steve must groom Whistler's famous Olympic run.

With the skiers on this steep slope traveling at super high speeds, the

are high.

One small anomaly that I didn't take care of, trying to get into the forest

80 kilometers an hour.

The snow haulers at Canada's Whistler Blackcomb Ski Resort are on a mission to

shift, carve, and pack down thousands of tons of snow in time for the season's

big opening weekend.

Going down.

There are just two days left to prepare these

slopes for skiers.

Today, Steve faces the most important task on the mountain.

Groom the Olympic racetrack.

This is a training area for the Canadian national team. This run was used during

the Olympics.

We can't leave the run in anything but perfect shape. These kids and racers are

training at speeds of close to 100 kilometers an hour, and the surface we

is paramount to their safety.

One small anomaly that I didn't take care of could, you know, tend to get

the forest at 80 kilometers an hour.

He'll need to work through the night to groom the full length of this three

-kilometer run.

Pressure's on here. We gotta get this run done.

To keep the resort's most difficult tracks safe for the elite skiers,

ice crawler is equipped to carve the perfect high -speed trail.

It carries a tiller.

a four -meter -long roller equipped with steel blades.

Its design grew out of America's agricultural revolution.

In the 19th century, pioneers faced a vast expanse of unpilled land.

Single -bladed plows pulled by horses were slow and tiring.

That's until an American inventor...

harness the steam engine to drive up to 14 blades at once, allowing the farmer

to take it easy up top.

The ice crawler takes this idea to the extreme.

Hydraulic motors drive its tiller with the power of 55 horses.

They rotate 300 steel blades 1 ,600 times a minute.

crushing even the hardest ice, smoothing it into the perfect skiing surface.

That teller's capable of breaking ice.

Turn it back into snow.

Look out when you're done the run. It's gone from a destroyed surface to a

beautiful surface.

The finish that the cat leaves behind us, we call it corduroy, basically

it looks exactly like corduroy.

Some guys like to say you could put a marble at the top and roll it to the

bottom, and if you've done well, it'll stay in the same groove.

I've never tried it.

Saturday's deadline is just 24 hours away.

And the snow is still melting.

This makes it extra tough for the crew to prepare all the pieces in time.

I've been in town for almost 20 years and I've never seen it like this. So

basically stealing every little inch of snow that we can find to put on the run

so that we can make them safe and we can make them groomable.

The melting snow also worries Anton and his ski patrollers.

This wonderful, sunny, warm weather does create some concerns for us. We could

see some large, destructive avalanche activity in some isolated areas.

145 centimeters.

Crew member Kevin examines the layers in the snowpack for telltale signs of an

impending avalanche.

Number one biggest concern is creating a safe environment for our staff, guests

to ski in and ride in in avalanche terrain.

There's things you can look for and sort of tell about what's going on with the

snow.

So I'm going to do my observations on this wall over here.

And I'll do a couple of tests and we'll look at some different layers.

So I've got a layer there.

Go there. I've got another layer here.

I've got this.

Denser slab sitting on top of this weaker snow down near the bottom. There

the need for some further avalanche control work.

This upper layer of thick snow could slide if the melt continues, triggering

avalanche.

Kevin's crew must remove it before skiers arrive.

We're going to throw explosives from the helicopter to try and trigger

avalanches.

The only way they can cover enough ground.

is from a helicopter.

He'll need more than just sticks of dynamite this time.

We're going to use the big bombs with the ANFO, and they're lit as well with

double fuse.

We're going to light those and put those in the hole we've created with the

smaller shot.

This is risky business.

Okay, safety precautions.

Bombardier, under no circumstances, must drop a shot behind the seat should

there be machine trouble. The pilot will say whether or not to jettison the box

of explosives.

With 50 kilograms of explosives on board, a slip here could end in

There's one day to go before opening at North America's biggest ski resort,

Whistler Blackcomb.

An elite team races around the clock, preparing its slopes for the biggest

weekend of the year.

We're going to get out there and get her done.

Across North America, more than 40 people a year are killed in mountain

avalanches.

The pressure is on Whistler Ski Patrol to prevent these hazards.

Any avalanche activity that does occur would be very large, destructive

avalanche activity.

Kevin's crew plan to blast a loose layer of snow away using dynamite.

Stage one, use a single stick of dynamite to carve out a small hole in

Stage two, drop a 12 -kilo bag of ANFO, an explosive normally used in the mining

industry, into the hole.

Once they ignite the fuse, the crew has just two and a half minutes to drop the

bomb and escape.

or they could be blown out of the sky.

Mission accomplished.

Three metric tons of snow slides down into the valley, making this slope safe

from avalanches.

20 ,000 skiers will pour through the gate in less than 24 hours from now.

Okay, bud, here we go. Search!

The avalanche rescue team hones their emergency drills, while mechanics make

sure every ice crawler is ready to hit the piece.

The pressure's really on. It'll be done by 3 o 'clock in the afternoon. As soon

as our guests leave the mountain, the groomers are out.

Dawn, the first of the weekend skiers arrive.

Where are you guys from?

San Antonio and Austin. All right, Team USA, bon voyage. Come ahead, folks.

Come ahead, man.

And how many?

Three. Right on board, you guys.

This is getting exciting, folks.

It's a triumph for Team Whistler -Blackcomb.

20 ,000 visitors and every slope is open, right on time.

It's been a tough week for Steve.

It's been a big challenge for me this week.

We're dealing with very low snow conditions, no new snow.

Look around, sun's coming up, busy weekend.

What more could anybody ask for? We've done it. We've delivered it. We're

finished.

I think I'm going to go for a few runs once the lift opens up, maybe meet up

with my wife and kids, and enjoy the weekend.

But there's no such thing as a weekend for his trusty ice crawler.

This machine doesn't get to rest. It's going to go out again. In eight hours,

this is going to be out there.

Scaling 1 ,800 acres of treacherous mountain piste.

Shifting six million metric tons of snow a year, whatever the weather.

The piston bully ice crawler is the toughest climber on the mountain.

It's all thanks to a multi -blade tiller that crushes lethal ice into the

perfect corduroy run.

A winch that allows impossible maneuvers on the steepest slopes.

Headlights that harness the power of lightning.

Aluminum tracks that give it formidable grip.

and a shovel engineered to build mountains.

It's these technological secrets that have helped this ice -crawling monster

evolve to rise above all other machines.