A night in the life of a Mt. Ellen groomer...

[drjeff]

Thanks for the pix!

When you're talking "big brother," are you referring to a standard BR350, or did they have a monster BR500 there?

The Bison X cab is a center seat model, so that probably makes a difference. From what I've seen, the amount of space used for controls in the cab is extremely minimal compared to other models. No console.

DEFINATELY the standard BR350. If it was the 500, I would have taken a ton of pics of that monster!

 

[billski]

Under what conditions do you groom in the daytime?

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Under what conditions do you groom in the daytime?

At the Bush, the only daytime grooming occurs when icy conditions require that additional grooming happen before opening. Also, if there is a particularly demanding grooming plan, we might have to delay opening on a trail to complete it in the morning.

Some areas groom 24/7. Vail Resorts, for example. They groom all day, all night at Vail, Beaver Creek, and I believe even Breck now has a day shift. Scary from a risk management perspective, but their theory is that their customers demand it.

 

[boze]

Breck does groom during normal business hours

Was out at Breck this President's Week and can confirm they were actively grooming during the day - including some fairly congested spots eg 4 o'clock btwn Mach 1 and Sawmill.

Thanks for all the terrific info in your posts BMM. I've been in the cab of machine Alta uses for its cat excursions, and couple trips in the Lincoln Limo main cabin at SB during windholds. Cool stuff. Can only imagine doing so at night, in a squall. You da man.

 

[deadheadskier]

nice moustache..

agreed, indeed a mighty fine dirt squirrel ala Tom Selleck

 

[bvibert]

Some areas groom 24/7. Vail Resorts, for example. They groom all day, all night at Vail, Beaver Creek, and I believe even Breck now has a day shift. Scary from a risk management perspective, but their theory is that their customers demand it.

Oddly enough; the last two times I was at Magic the groomer lapped the groomed runs all day.

 

[Glenn]

Great pics Jeff! That's some nice machines they had there.

 

[drjeff]

Great pics Jeff! That's some nice machines they had there.

Check out the superpipe cam on Mount Snow's website from time to time today and you'll see some of the action that's going on at the Cutter's Camp

 

[RootDKJ]

Under what conditions do you groom in the daytime?

Blue Mt does a 4pm grooming to refresh the trails for night skiing.

Piston Bully question - what's the mechanical arm that goes over the top of the cab for? Is that part of the winch?

 

[thetrailboss]

Here's another question: you said that you need a winch to do Inverness correctly. Well, what about the headwall on Elbow? Do you need a winch to do that? Seems to be pretty steep. And have you groomed at Lincoln Peak before? Is that terrain more difficult to groom than Ellen?

 

[bvibert]

Piston Bully question - what's the mechanical arm that goes over the top of the cab for? Is that part of the winch?

Yes, that's for the winch.

 

[billski]

Oddly enough; the last two times I was at Magic the groomer lapped the groomed runs all day.

I saw a rather humorous comment on a non-skiing board about Magic (might have been Boston.com). The writer really expressed his/her ignorance by stating "Magic doesn't care about it's customers" and went on to say that's why they don't groom or make snow, etc. etc. I didn't even care to reply to that one.

 

[Glenn]

Check out the superpipe cam on Mount Snow's website from time to time today and you'll see some of the action that's going on at the Cutter's Camp

Nice! Just took a look! Saw one doing a wheelie! Well, not really...but they area moving around! :lol:

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Here's another question: you said that you need a winch to do Inverness correctly. Well, what about the headwall on Elbow? Do you need a winch to do that? Seems to be pretty steep. And have you groomed at Lincoln Peak before? Is that terrain more difficult to groom than Ellen?

Elbow is not as steep as the I headwall, but given a BIG snowfall, it also comes out better with the winch. But due to the turns, you can't just hook up at the top and groom the whole trail. We usually patch it together downhill if it's too soft to climb. Might take a couple of cleanup passes, but it comes out pretty good. The I headwall is impossible to make "clean" on downhill passes if there is a big dump.

Haven't groomed at LP, but I'm very familiar with the terrain. Both mountains have challenging areas to groom. I wouldn't say one is necessarily more "difficult" than the other. It is more dependent on what trails show up on the grooming plan. For example, if we have Cliffs, Walt's (much harder to groom than you'd think!), Semi-Tough, plus the usual stuff, our night will be more difficult than a normal night at LP. Likewise, if they have Moonshine, Domino, and Ripcord on their plan, their night is more difficult. But in terms of terrain, there is plenty of challenge on both sides. We just tend to leave the bumps alone more at Mt. Ellen for operating philosophy reasons.

 

[thetrailboss]

Elbow is not as steep as the I headwall, but given a BIG snowfall, it also comes out better with the winch. But due to the turns, you can't just hook up at the top and groom the whole trail. We usually patch it together downhill if it's too soft to climb. Might take a couple of cleanup passes, but it comes out pretty good. The I headwall is impossible to make "clean" on downhill passes if there is a big dump.

Haven't groomed at LP, but I'm very familiar with the terrain. Both mountains have challenging areas to groom. I wouldn't say one is necessarily more "difficult" than the other. It is more dependent on what trails show up on the grooming plan. For example, if we have Cliffs, Walt's (much harder to groom than you'd think!), Semi-Tough, plus the usual stuff, our night will be more difficult than a normal night at LP. Likewise, if they have Moonshine, Domino, and Ripcord on their plan, their night is more difficult. But in terms of terrain, there is plenty of challenge on both sides. We just tend to leave the bumps alone more at Mt. Ellen for operating philosophy reasons.

Interesting. Why is Walt's difficult to groom? It's narrowness?

And I think that Mount Ellen's terrain mix was right on this season. Which Way is better as a bump run/half-half than groomed. It has some weird pitches.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Interesting. Why is Walt's difficult to groom? It's narrowness?

And I think that Mount Ellen's terrain mix was right on this season. Which Way is better as a bump run/half-half than groomed. It has some weird pitches.

No, narrowness isn't a problem. It's just weird. There are some very sharp curves that are quite a challenge, and if the snow is soft, you track right down to dirt. In soft snow, you have to work a lot in up-pressure and use your tiller to steer, otherwise you dig in around all of the big turns, and even just climbing some of the steeper pitches. It's also just a pain in general. Half of it is 4 passes, and the other half is 6 passes. But those halves are split up all around the trail. So you end up putting in extra passes all over the place. It takes quite a long time to groom.

 

[thetrailboss]

I would have never known that if you hadn't said it. As a skier, Walt's is a fun trail and I always thought, "huh, this must not be too difficult to groom" because it isn't steep. Interesting. That explains why it isn't groomed as often.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I would have never known that if you hadn't said it. As a skier, Walt's is a fun trail and I always thought, "huh, this must not be too difficult to groom" because it isn't steep. Interesting. That explains why it isn't groomed as often.

Usually the problem is lack of cover. We don't mind doing it... it's a welcome change of pace. But there really has to be enough cover, or we'll definitely dig up some dirt on the turns!

 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

bump..wait this a grooming thread..doh!!!!!

 

[RootDKJ]

bump..wait this a grooming thread..doh!!!!!

witty