Volcano Versus Snow Machine--Volcano Wins

During the eruption of Redoubt volcano in January, 1969, Ray Collins of McGrath was running his snow machine near Nikolai. He and a friend saw a brownish cloud moving down the valley. It precipitated out on the snow leaving a layer 1/4 to 1/2 inch deep. Mr. Collins noticed the volcanic ash sprayed into the air as his Arctic Cat machine ploughed along, but he hardly gave it a second thought. After running some miles, the Kohler engine began to lose power and overheat. Mr. Collins opened the cowling to find ash packed around the air intake and on the cooling fins. After cleaning, the engine was still without much power, but it was able to take the snow machine over the packed outward trail back to Nikolai. Disassembly of the engine showed it to be destroyed internally by the corrosive, talc-like ash particles.

Jet aircraft flying through ash clouds from volcanoes have had similar problems. Jets that inadvertently flew through the eruptive cloud from Augustine volcano in early 1976 required replacement of both windows and engines.