Skip to content

Rocky Mountain Logging

Mountain loggers, Jamie and Mel Jordan understand how to assess and mitigate risk. They talk about moving to a new province, starting a new business, and what goes into the decision to purchase a new-to-market processing head.

— Paul Iarocci

Jamie Jordan
Jamie says Sunrock is a team environment with first focus on safety. He emphasizes that productivity improvements come from each operator thinking about the next machine in the process.
Jamie and Mel Jordan moved from the Kootenays in southern British Columbia to the eastern edge of the Rockies in 2010. The Pope & Talbot mill in Castlegar had closed in 2008 and the local industry was, to use Mel’s term, unstable. As an experienced equipment operator, Jamie quickly found a job with a crew in Alberta. After two years, his family followed, and they established a new life in the community of Rocky Mountain House.

In 2015, representatives from the West Fraser mill in Sundre approached Jamie. “They wanted to get into steep ground,” Jamie recalls. “With our background coming from BC, the yarding background and the steep slope experience, it seemed to be the right fit.” Sunrock Contracting was born. For the first five years, the company worked 200 to 300km from home. “We were going around to all the old compartments cleaning up all the steep ground that the conventional loggers had left behind years and years ago,” Jamie explains.

More recently, Sunrock is being assigned to compartments that haven’t been previously harvested. Jamie explains that the mill tries to put the steep slope contractors on blended blocks. “So for what conventional area is there, they always try to put enough steep slope in it that you can do both; because of course with a steep slope the production isn’t the greatest. If you can conventional log at the same time, you can make up your volume.”

Jamie estimates that in recent years about 60% of the ground that he logs can be done conventionally and the remaining 40% is considered steep ground where some form of cable assistance is required. These worksites tend to be around half the distance from town, taking several hours per week off the commuting time.

Although Sunrock’s expertise is relatively common across the border in BC, Jamie’s skillset is the exception in Alberta. He says there are seven West Fraser contractors in the FMA but only Sunrock and one other are steep slope specialists.

One of the main differences between logging in southern Alberta versus the higher volume regions in the north is seasonality. Jamie says that the Sundre mill is one of West Fraser’s top producers. “We’ve just got the ground to work through. On average, I would say we work eleven months of the year. In Northern Alberta, they’re in a lot of low-lying areas where they can’t get started until October or November, and then they’re done by March. We work right through to May and then we’re maybe down for May and a little bit of June. It depends on how wet it is, but as soon as it’s dry enough, we go again.”
Mel Jordan
Mel operated the yarder for two years before moving into an office administrative role for the company.
Jamie tries to keep the crew on a single-shift, five-day work week during summer. “Winter of course is our go time, so we ramp up the processing to 24 hours a day. Sometimes the loading and the hoe chucking will be a shift-and-a-half. We try to single shift the skidding and we’ve never had to double shift the buncher. He’s always ahead far enough, especially once we get into the steep stuff – that slows us down quite a bit.”

Sunrock operates a Teleforest yarder, a simple single cable grapple yarder with a drop carriage. Ground based equipment includes a Tigercat LX830D feller buncher and an LS855D shovel logger. Both can be mated to a Timbermax winch assist fitted to a Hitachi 350. Although Jamie purchased his first Tigercat – a 632E skidder – in 2017, he has been an admirer of the brand for many years. In 2000, back in his BC days, he ran one of the first 630B skidders in Canada. Sunrock currently runs two large four-wheel skidders, including the 632E, now with 11,000 hours on the meter. The yarder and skidders feed two processors, one of which is a new Tigercat 850 fitted with the first 573 harvesting head ever sold. Jamie runs a single loader. However, he can also load trucks with the shovel clam grapple equipped LS855D.
850 with 573
The 850 processor equipped with the 573 head making logs on the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains.
Sunrock also owns an excavator and a dozer for roadbuilding functions. “When we get moved into a compartment, I’ll generally walk every block in front of our logging, just so we know where we’re going to put our roads in. The mills will give suggestions of where a block road should go, but sometimes that’s good for the truckers and not for the logging. Or when I’m doing winch assist, I need a road in a certain spot because I’ve got to be able to pack the wood up somewhere for the skidder to get at it.”

Jamie explains that the broken terrain in the mountains means that the slopes can break several different ways. The plan might look good on a map or the GPS, but Jamie puts boots on the ground before making the final decisions. The year after the block is harvested, the planters will come in to restock. Once the planting is complete, another contractor will come in and reclaim all the block roads. Finally, the reclaimed block roads are replanted, and the cycle starts over again.

On the most extreme slopes, the Tigercat feller buncher, along with the winch assist are the first machines on site. As the felling on the steepest sections is completed, the shovel logger moves onto the site, taking over the winch assist, and hoe chucking the logs to a location accessible by the skidders or the yarder. Jamie says they commonly see extraction distances up to 1,000 ft (300 m). “I just pack everything to where a skidder can get to it. I try not to go out over 300 feet [90 m] before I either have a trail or a pickup point,” says Jamie. “At some point it’s just too hard on the undercarriage and I feel that hoe chucking is not productive after that.”

Jamie says that the Tigercat equipment is especially well suited to his mountain logging conditions. “I’m a Tigercat guy,” says Jamie. “I’ve run most equipment, and they’re just superior to anything else out there, especially for the specialized steep slope stuff that we do. They’ve got way more longevity and good resale. They’re engineered better and the engineers actually listen to what we are asking for.”

While it is readily apparent that Jamie likes the Tigercat product, it doesn’t entirely explain why he decided to purchase the world’s first 573 harvesting head. Some might say it was a risky decision. “Yes, absolutely,” admits Jamie. “The processor is something I just can’t have go down. Every day matters with a processor.”
Tigercat 573 harvesting head in operation
Sunrock purchased the very first 573 head, equipped on a Tigercat 850 processor.
Jamie liked the 850 platform and appreciated the fuel efficiency of the carrier. “I thought if I was going with Tigercat, I might as well go Tigercat all the way around.” Wajax brought the 850 equipped with the 573 to the jobsite for a demo. After running it Jamie came to a conclusion. “There was a whole bunch of stuff we wanted changed.” He explains that the grab arms didn’t collect well when reaching into the pile – the head tended to twist. Jamie and his operators found that the feed wheels seemed to have too much torque and not enough speed. The feedback list went back to the engineers. They redesigned the grab arms, changed out the feed wheel motors and made other improvements. “It wasn’t huge changes, but enough that when it came back, the operator that I had on it didn’t want to go back bunching. He wanted to be on a processor again.”

The revision work and software refinements were the difference between Jamie purchasing or declining the head. One operator had previously been on a Waratah 622B for the last 12,000 hours. “When it was first here, he probably would have quit if he had to run it. With the changes, he said it was the best machine he’s ever run. So, like I said, being able to give feedback and actually seeing results, that’s a pretty big deal for me.”

I’M A TIGERCAT GUY. I’VE RUN MOST EQUIPMENT, AND THEY’RE JUST SUPERIOR TO ANYTHING ELSE OUT THERE, ESPECIALLY FOR THE SPECIALIZED STEEP SLOPE STUFF THAT WE DO. THEY’VE GOT WAY MORE LONGEVITY AND GOOD RESALE. THEY’RE ENGINEERED BETTER AND THE ENGINEERS ACTUALLY LISTEN TO WHAT WE ARE ASKING FOR.


— Jamie Jordan

Gordon Kyler, Tigercat factory representative and harvesting head specialist based in nearby Sundre, Alberta, spent a lot of time on the log deck at Sunrock’s operations working out bugs, interfacing with the engineering team, and refining the prototype into a saleable, high production processing head. “There are growing pains for sure with a new head, but Gord is on that. And Wajax is here. They’ve got a good mechanic and a good service truck. They’ve both done a really good job, and I can’t say enough good about either of them.”

Jamie comments favourably on the large capacity and heavy duty build quality compared to his previous head. “Time will tell, but this is just built so much sturdier. It’s like the machines – they’re in a league of their own when it comes to longevity and toughness.”

Family business

When Mel first arrived in Alberta she worked five years for a helicopter services company involved in pipeline surveillance and cut block surveys for West Fraser. This was before Sunrock started up. “So coincidentally, we ended up working for the mill quite a bit,” says Mel. “We would scan the brush piles to make sure there were no hotspots. At one point we were flying through this untouched valley and one of the guys told me this was where they were going to get Jamie working – in all the steep ground. It’s kind of funny how our lives intertwined there for a time.”

Mel recalls that when Sunrock first acquired the yarder, a factory representative came out to do operator training. Although she was still employed by the helicopter company, Mel participated in the training so that she could in turn train new operators. “I decided I liked it, and so we were talking about hiring and training someone and I said, ‘Well, I think we just did train the person, because it’s going to be me,’ and then I was the yarder operator.” Mel ran the yarder for two years before transitioning into an office management role at Sunrock.
A family business. Jamie, Mel and Jayda.
A family business. Jamie, Mel and Jayda.
A third family member has been working for Sunrock for the past five years as a skidder operator. Daughter Jayda started as soon as she graduated high school. “Since I’ve been little Dad has taken me out to work. I was really interested in it, so I learned how to skid and fell in love with it.” Expecting her first child, Jayda is going through a transition of her own – from machine operating to a health and safety administrator role. I ask if she will ever go back to operating equipment. “I would love to,” she answers. “But with the hours, I don’t know. It’s tough hours with raising babies.” She laughs. “Maybe the babies can come out here.”

Jayda says that working in the logging industry is amazing; a great career opportunity and a great lifestyle choice once she was used to the very early mornings. When she first started operating the skidder she was nervous. However, she says that eventually it becomes second nature. “Like the machine is just an extension of you.”
Although she is quite humble about her abilities, her parents reinforce that Jayda is a top-level operator, and that mountain skidding is a very serious job. “Definitely more thought goes into every move you make,” says Mel.

Jamie agrees. “I would put her against most guys. And yeah, you’ve got to have your head on your shoulders at all times. Running back and forth on a road or flat ground with a skidder is a whole different ballgame than what we do. Like Jayda said, you’ve got to get to the point where it’s just an extension of yourself. Knowing where your drag needs to be, knowing where your blade needs to be.”
LS855D shovel logger loading a log truck
Jamie operates the LS855D shovel logger. Equipped with a shovel clam grapple, it can do double duty loading trucks as required.
Each machine is part of a chain of events, and the previous machine in the chain makes or breaks the productivity of the next one. The buncher operator lays the bunches in a way that is optimized for Jamie, who takes a lot of time with the LS855D shovel logger to bring the wood to positions where it is easy for the skidders to extract. “There is a ton of thought put into how we lay the wood and where we take the wood so we can reduce risk for the skidder operators and anybody that is following us,” he says. “At the end of the day, everybody needs to go home to their families. There is no reason not to make it safe.”

The skidder operators in turn are focused on the requirements of the processor operators. “If you’ve been doing hot logging and steep slope stuff, you know the most efficient way of doing it and how to work together without causing mayhem. We deck our wood from right to left so when the processor starts at the left-hand side, the wood just rolls off. It’s not tangled up. It’s a team atmosphere out here and anybody that doesn’t buy into the team atmosphere just won’t be here.”

Running with seven to ten employees, Sunrock enjoys a low worker turnover. Many of the operators originally came from BC. “I would like to believe we are pretty fair and treat everybody with respect,” says Jamie. “Nobody wants to go anywhere. They move their families over here. It’s like an extension of our family.”

Related Content

loader-icon

Rachel's Drive


Talented processor operator Rachel Brink impresses with her drive, work ethic, and positive attitude.


850 Processor Walk-around


Tigercat product manager, Aaron Wilkes takes us on a walk-around of the 850 processor. Learn about the key features that set the Tigercat 850 roadside processor apart from excavator conversions.


Related Products