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

[Warp Daddy]

GREAT stuff BMM as a lover of the cord, I I APPRECIATE what u guys DO for us!!! The toys u get to play with are awesome

I'm really interested in not only the photos which are great but also the commentery and learning just how u guys do it .I'd luv to ride one of those big beasts gotta be fun !!

 

[thetrailboss]

I'm really interested in not only the photos which are great but also the commentery and learning just how u guys do it .I'd luv to ride one of those big beasts gotta be fun !!

+ 1.

 

[Johnskiismore]

Good stuff, I've always wanted to drive one of those!

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Nice pics Patrick! Did you fly into Denver during the big snowstorm? Any word on when Breck is closing?

 

[Glenn]

Awesome pics and writeup Patrick. It's amazing to see what's involved; it's certainly a lot more than dropping the tiller and just making laps up and down the hill all night.

 

[AHM]

And the best is.............

skinning the hill at night and getting those fresh groomer lines before anyone gets to them. But ya gotta be careful over driving your headlamp. Consequently, I switched from a basic black diamond to my Night Rider mtb head lamp which throws way more light for the ski down. Great pics BMM.

 

[tarponhead]

That was so cool! Thanks for sharing.

What kinda training you guys do and for how long before they let you solo?

 

[ripzillia]

Couple of questions BMM. Why do you Pre-trip after starting your equipment? Also since the Winch is down can't you winch off a cat on top. We call it top lead winching in the woods. Anyways,thanks for the report operator.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Couple of questions BMM. Why do you Pre-trip after starting your equipment? Also since the Winch is down can't you winch off a cat on top. We call it top lead winching in the woods. Anyways,thanks for the report operator.

Engine oil and ATF level are inaccurate until the machine is warm. Remember, we're talking about very very cold temperatures.

You can't winch without a winch! It was the actual winch mechanism that failed, not the snowcat. We took the winch off the cat, and continued to groom with the cat.

 

[ripzillia]

I see. In AK we plugged our equipment in so it was just below op temps. Don't know how you can get an accurate engine Oil reading when it's running. Hydrolics yes. Top lead winching is actually using another piece of equipment to lower you up/down from the top of the grade not a true winch line. +25% grades is seatbelt steep.

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I see. In AK we plugged our equipment in so it was just below op temps. Don't know how you can get an accurate engine Oil reading when it's running. Hydrolics yes. Top lead winching is actually using another piece of equipment to lower you up/down from the top of the grade not a true winch line. +25% grades is seatbelt steep.

We plug them in as well, but 110v block heater still can't keep the block at operating temperature. I generally let the cat warm up before checking oil. Drive to a level spot, shut down, check oil.

Right, you're describing an LMC braden-mount winch, if I'm not mistaken. The industry only uses capstan (turret) winches now. They are only assist winches. We only use one cat to yoyo around now!

 

[BushMogulMaster]

+25% grades is seatbelt steep.

It took a little explaining to one of the mechanics (who does NOT groom!) why the broken harness seatbelt was a priority repair! Sometimes you just have to take them for a little ride :lol:

 

[ripzillia]

Gottcha. Prolly use Winterized off-road fuel or heated fuel tanks,yes. Keeping any equipment running in Artic weather conditions is hard to do. We use to run Amber and White load lights up in the AK on equipment/trucks much better vis on those winter storm nights. Only ran off the road a few times.:dunce:

 

[BushMogulMaster]

Gottcha. Prolly use Winterized off-road fuel or heated fuel tanks,yes. Keeping any equipment running in Artic weather conditions is hard to do. We use to run Amber and White load lights up in the AK on equipment/trucks much better vis on those winter storm nights. Only ran off the road a few times.:dunce:

Yeah, we use a winter blend off-road. We supplement with an additive during extended below-zero periods.

Our light setup, as you can see from the pix, is pretty intense. The bank of lights on the top of the cab are standard bright headlights. The larger set below are Xenon. Powerful little buggers. Lights it up like daytime!

 

[ripzillia]

Yeah, we use a winter blend off-road. We supplement with an additive during extended below-zero periods.

Back in the day we mixed gasoline w/ diesel for a non-jell. I still remember those motors popping as each cylinder fired. Oh the power of super-cooled air into a twin-turboed CAT motor.

Yeah 25% grades make a beliver out of any nah sayers. 10-4.........

 

[drjeff]

I figure that BMM(and probably a bunch of others here at AZ) would like this pic I took today at Mount Snow

One SWEET machine, the Pisten Bully 400 Edge winchcat!

Mount Snow is hosting the Ski Area Management Magazine Cutter's Camp (first time they've had one in the Northeast) the next couple of days, and a few new demo "toys" were parked in the cat parking lot this weekend. They also had a brand new Prinoth Bison, but IMHO, RED cats look a heck of alot better than BLACK cats!

 

[BushMogulMaster]

I figure that BMM(and probably a bunch of others here at AZ) would like this pic I took today at Mount Snow

One SWEET machine, the Pisten Bully 400 Edge winchcat!

Mount Snow is host the Ski Area Management Magazine Cutter's Camp (first time they've had one in the Northeast) the next couple of days, and a few new demo "toys" were parked in the cat parking lot this weekend. They also had a brand new Prinoth Bison, but IMHO, RED cats look a heck of alot better than BLACK cats!

So THAT's the new PB tiller. You don't happen to have any more photos, do you? They hadn't released that tiller when we demoed the 400.

That's one sexy machine! FIRE IN RED!

 

[drjeff]

So THAT's the new PB tiller. You don't happen to have any more photos, do you? They hadn't released that tiller when we demoed the 400.

That's one sexy machine! FIRE IN RED!

Ask and you shall receive! Had I only known, I would have taken some SERIOUS tiller close-ups as while I was shooting my kids skiing, I was maybe 15 feet from the tiller, and I had a serious piece of glass in the camera that could have probably zoomed in close enough to read the serial numbers off it! :lol:

What struck me about the tiller, is how "minimal" it appeared to the PB tiller that Mount Snow has on their this model year 400 and last year's 600. I remember thinking to myself if it was some type of special "park only" flexible tiller as basically the entire back housing on the other PB tillers in Mount Snow's PB aresenal isn't there, it's just a bunch of tubular frames!

A wee bit of "Bison Love" on the left

The Demo 400w with Mount Snow's 600 in the background - Lots of nice RED!

I've got a couple of the Bison pushing/leveling out a former skier/border cross course on a now closed for the season trail, but those are "boring" IMHO Now if the 400w was taking apart that course, totally different level of excitement! :lol:

 

[drjeff]

Here's also a couple of long range(probably shot from about 1/4mile away) of the Prinoth Bison X - with "big brother" pushing some snow. I couldn't get any really good close up shots of the X, but what struck me when I saw it from the front at a distance of maybe 50 yards, is how narrow the cab is. Looked to be easily 2 to 3 feet narrower than "big brother Bison" or the BR350. And that silver paint, it's almost a metallic silver, not bad, but not RED either

 

[BushMogulMaster]

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.