So as I mentioned, the flag pole that resides at Tampico was originally planned to replace the shorter pole at White Pass. In the 5 years that the White Pass pole had been up, the most snow we had seen on it was 15 ft and that was a really good snow year, so that's where the idea for a 16ft pole came about. Knowing that a pole that tall would need to be in the ground quite a ways, a 20ft timber was going to be needed to keep it from falling over. The reason it didn't wind up at Section 3... a change in riding habits, we simply didn't ride Section 3 nearly as much as we once did and wanted a nice one at Tampico.
Between busy schedules and an early winter, there was actually already a good amount of snow on the ground by the time I was able to get up to the mountains to drop off the pole. I wound up having to ditch the pole off of my truck about a mile away as there was too much snow to drive any closer without sliding off the road. The next weekend we went up on the sleds with a shovel and digging bar, retrieved the pole out of the trees and towed it with my sled the last mile or so into the right spot. A buddy at the time helped me dig the hole 3-1/2 ft into the ground, attach the 6ft aluminum pole and flag, and stand it up to plant it.
Using a router to cut in the numbers and a skillsaw to make the lines took some time, but it still looks good as new. The rough average we have seen on the pole has been around 7-8 ft through the last 7 years, I believe the low year (2015) was an average of 4-1/2ft most of the season and the highest reading has been around 12ft or so.