Now that’s cold!
Winter at Mystic Dam not your typical day at the office

The temperature is -9 degrees Fahrenheit, the wind is howling and there’s fresh snow on the ground. You have to fix a valve that’s frozen shut on a dam about three miles away and accessible only by snowshoe.

It’s all a normal winter workday for the people who operate PPL Montana’s Mystic Lake hydroelectric plant in southern Montana.

“You do need to like the outdoors,” said Ryan Olson, journeyman operator-maintenance at the plant.

That may be something of an understatement. The nearest town — Fishtail, population about 570 — is 21 miles away. The road to the plant — described by the U.S. Forest Service as “rough and graveled” — can be impassable in storms.

Wintertime access to the dam about 1,100 feet above the powerhouse is a steep, rocky trail that increases about 1,200 feet in elevation and requires hiking and snowshoeing skills. During the summer, there’s a tram that Olson and fellow operator Bob Rolando can use, but that option doesn’t exist when snow covers the tracks.

“In early January when we went up to put heat on the frozen valve and enclose it, the hike to the dam took about two hours,” Olson said. “The last two miles of the trek, we walk on top of the 53-inch-diameter flow line since it’s easy to slip between the rocks on the trail when it’s covered in snow.”

The alternate route is the U.S. Forest Service’s 3-mile-long Mystic Trail, which ends above Mystic Lake and the dam, but it has lots of switchbacks. By mid-January, both trails were nearly impassable, Olson said. “I believe our next trip to the lake will be up the bottom of the canyon, a three- to four-hour trip one way, depending on the conditions.”

Because of the dam’s remote location, PPL Montana has houses near the powerhouse for the operators’ use. Olson shares one with his two Labrador retrievers, Cinch and Sage. His family has remained in Colstrip, where three of his children, Chennille, 15, Cheyenne, 13, and Christian, 11, are in school. His oldest daughter, Channing, 19, is a student at Miles City College near Colstrip. Olson worked as an electrician at Western Energy’s mine in Colstrip before taking the job at Mystic in May 2005.

“It’s so remote up here that my wife would have to home-school the kids,” said Olson, who heads back to Colstrip on his days off. “They come up during the summer. My son really enjoys the trout fishing, and they like to hike.

“UPS and FedEx won’t even come up here,” he added. “They drop the packages off at the general store in Fishtail, and we have to pick them up.”

Usually someone makes the trip to Fishtail once a week, dropping off trash and getting mail, groceries and gas at the general store.

“I grew up on a farm in North Dakota, so the remoteness doesn’t bother me,” Olson said. “I like being outdoors. And it’s really neat to see bighorn sheep walking by the house.”

Occasionally there are interesting visitors.

“We’ve had people here from Florida and other states as well as from Spain,” he said.

The trail to Mystic Lake is the access point for hikers heading to Granite Peak, the highest spot in Montana at 12,745 feet above sea level. The peak is a popular destination because it’s a type of geologic formation found only four other places in the world.

“We even had a world-class mountain climber stop and ask to use the phone. He was doing a training climb on Granite Peak,” Olson added.

But what about when the temperatures are below zero and the snow is falling? How do you occupy the hours when your work is done and no one’s around for company?

“I enjoy reading and woodworking,” Olson said. “And there’s always TV (from a satellite dish) and listening to music.