battery keeps helping even with one pink bar?

Based on my running out of gas experiences in this thread, I thought that having two pink bars was bad news, since I hadn't seen the SOC get that low before.

But I hit a new low this weekend. I was up at Mammoth Mountain this weekend, and the Prius ICE really seems to labor at high altitude. What's interesting, though, is that driving the four miles from the town (approximate elevation 7500 feet) to the main lodge (9000 feet), the SOC dropped to one pink bar, yet the arrows seemed to indicate the battery was still supplying juice to the MGs. I guess at some point (no bars?) the battery gives up trying to help and lets the ICE do all the work.

Interestingly enough, driving back down, probably half the time in D and half the time in B, this 1500 feet over 4 miles was enough to bring the SOC from one pink bar to all green bars! Both the one-pink and the all-green states happened twice, so I guess that's normal. I wouldn't have guessed the battery could be replenished so quickly.

I was playing a gig up there, so my Prius was loaded down with several hundred pounds of music equipment. I experienced my worst tank ever driving up (39.5 MPG on the screen, 37.9 calculated by hand). Gravity works both ways, though, and since topping off in Mammoth I'm on my way to my best tank ever (54.5 on the screen).

Anyway, those are my random high-altitude observations.

 

Oh, no, I didn't mean to sound like I'm complaining. Far from it. I was only recounting my weekend adventures and I apologize if I sounded critical.

I've never asked as much of the Prius as I did this weekend, so I'm not surprised the MPG took a hit. And as you point out, the Prius on a bad day beats most other cars on their best day.

 

KTPhil,

My parents used to have a place up at Mammoth, so I've been going there ever since I was a little kid. I remember when "seven and eight" opened. But, there was about a 10 year gap when I didn't go at all, and before this most recent trip I hadn't been up there in 3 or 4 years.

When I was up there in about 2001 they had started building a monorail to the main lodge. That has since been scrapped, and now they have a gondola running from the "village" area (by Whiskey Creek & the Alpenhof) up to the mountain.

It's strange, what they've tried to do with the "Village" part of Mammoth. I mean, did Mammoth really need a foo-foo art shop and a lingerie store? They're trying to turn it into Vail, and I doubt they're going to succeed. At least, I kind of hope they don't. I think there is a middle path where the town can prosper without being ostentatious and expensive. ukeright:

On the other hand, Sir Paul McCartney and his wife Heather Mills were up there. I unfortunately did not bump into them but I spoke with several folks who did. Everyone said they were really nice and down-to-earth. I guess that was my brush with someone else's brush with greatness.

The condo prices up there are totally out of control, but just wait for the next earthquake or volcanic activity and those prices will come back down to earth.