Guess what the skier is doing

[Nick]

Via Vail Resort's facebook page, comes this picture:

Not sure if this is possibly a thread idea but here goes anyway

 

[ScottySkis]

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Avalanche control.

 

[Madroch]

The hokey pokey.

 

[wa-loaf]

Grooming. Before there were groomers groups of skiers (and employees), usually to get a free ticket, would sidestep the trails to pack the snow down.

 

[Smellytele]

Grooming. Before there were groomers groups of skiers (and employees), usually to get a free ticket, would sidestep the trails to pack the snow down.

+1

 

[mlctvt]

A couple of years ago I met an elderly gentleman skiing with his grand kids and GREAT grand kids on the North face at Mount Snow. I rode the lift with him. He said that this was how they "groomed" the trails over at Carinthia when he first skied there. He said all of the guys would meet early and side step the entire trail so the kids could ski it. Amazing .

 

[BenedictGomez]

Interesting picture.

I didn't know that before they had machines to destroy snow conditions they had to do it manually.

 

[KevinF]

In an attempt to reduce the avalanche risk, during the early season they still do this to Highlands Bowl in Aspen.

http://highlandspatrol.com/bootpack/

 

[planb420]

WOW, I thought they were making some man-made moguls lol

 

[jimmywilson69]

I know they still do this at A-Basin along with side cut skiing accross the fall line to "Condition" the snow and reduce the avalanche lift. Their next step is usually some controlled skiing (i.e. limited amount of time) to "work the snow".

Not a dead technology, especially for steep wide open bowls where groomer work would be expensive

 

[makimono]

My dad ski raced in the late 30's early 40's and they used to sidestep the course to groom it....it was kind of one of those "back in my days" stories...but I also remember "grooming" the sled hill behind the house like that when I was 6-7-8 years...the two of us would be out there shussing down and stomping back up until it was packed out enough to build a nice jump.

 

[SIKSKIER]

I would say it was more "packing the trail" before the barrel stave rollers came around.After it was skied up the chain link fence was dragged to knock down them damn bumps.

 

[Huck_It_Baby]

Thought I read that patrol packs the Whiteface slides...

 

[thetrailboss]

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Avalanche control.

Yeah, or packing down the snow in early season. They boot pack trails at Sugarbush early season.