Carlton Trail Ski Club gets New Groomer!
The Carlton Trail Ski Club was ecstatic to receive new grooming equipment this ski season. The project had been under consideration for the past few years and was waiting for funding to go forward. As part of the trail improvement initiative, it was felt that new grooming equipment and newer approaches to grooming cross country ski trails at both our golf course trails and main Dixon trails were needed to satisfy the needs of our club members which have expressed wishes to have firmer packed trails as well as more consistent tracking of the grooves of our classic trails, and a wider trail width. Up to now, our main trails at Dixon have been tracked using technology from the 1970s and 1980s which, with a little initiative and volunteer labor, have resulted in the local production and use of grooming equipment.
Initially, when the Ski Club was formed, it was an amazing experience – like no other when the membership found that they could ski faster and easier if they skied in a track that had been run over first with a snowmobile! (There was no grooming equipment behind the snowmobile). The trails began to be formed and were officially dubbed “ski Trails”.
In the years immediately following, the club members started noticing that when we went to other trails in or outside the province, the trail makers actually towed a device behind their snowmobiles. This device made two grooves in the snow, and created and even faster trail that allowed the skier to maintain better control of their direction – especially going down hills! This was a good thing and so in 1972 – the year our club became incorporated, we were the proud owners of a new cross country ski groomer (see picture)!! Oh the skiing doesn’t get any better than this, the membership thought.
Well, amazingly enough, a bit more time passed, we expanded our trails and our membership, and decided again, it was time for trail upgrades. In the 1980s, cross country skiing had taken off big time in Canada. It led to more grooming developments, and it was found you could actually level snow and create wider trails with flaps and wings on the groomers (sort of like a road grader does). It didn’t take long for a local engineer named Arnold Brockman to come up with several prototypes of ski groomers for our club. Some were short, some long, but all included some of the upgrades which made for a wider trail (oh yeah even 36 inches wide), a smoother trail and better grooves for the skis (see picture). Arnold passed away this past year and we are forever in his debt. As a note, yes we still use some of his trail grooming equipment today.
Of course, all this new fancy equipment required more horsepower to pull it – especially in the hills – and so the club upgraded to a used Alpine ski doo snowmobile. What a workhorse, some are still in use today. It takes about 50 yards to turn them around 180 degrees with only one front ski but it will pull almost ANYTHING!
Fast forward to today. Skiers now are looking for firm packed Skate trails, (usually 10 to 12 feet wide) and wider classic trails with firmer packed bases which will keep a ski pole from punching through with the tiny baskets (quite a bit different than the 4 inch wide baskets from the 1970s! New approaches to grooming call for first packing, then packing, then more packing and (did we mention more packing?) then, the farming of snow with leveling equipment drags and rollers. This all takes A LOT of time and effort on the part of the groomer. Another reason you definitely want to stop and take the time to thank your local groomer when you see them on or off the trail, or think of them in some way during special occasions.
In the past 5 to 10 years new companies have come up with leaner and meaner groomers which do a lot of the jobs - leveling , packing and compacting and then finish grooming, either with fine combing for skate trails or the traditional grooves for the classic trails. We at Carlton Trail Ski Cubs have been eyeing this equipment for a few years now, but have had to bide our time before being able to purchase a new style groomer. Thanks to Cross Country Saskatchewan, and a lot of fundraising, we have been able to have the funding to purchase a new Tidd Tech Groomer for our club. We have had the opportunity to try it this winter, and to slowly learn its many uses. Of course all the snow we got this year has helped immensely. The first major chore for the Tidd Tech was to groom trails on the golf course for our Sask. Cup Race. At that point we and the rest of the province were starved for snow. The Tidd Tech came through marvelously, and we had some of the best trails in the province for our race! Woo Hoo! We have also had to home brew a couple of packer rollers – we ran out of money on this project as we had to upgrade our 2009 Arctic Cat Bearcat Snowmobile. Unfortunately, while it has a lot of power to pull the groomer, it can overheat in warmer weather and so we upgraded it so it now has its own radiator—making it a formidable grooming machine. We also customized wiring to the snowmobile to allow for dashboard control of the groomers electrical motors. This is much more convenient than the wired cable remote control and allows for elegant attaching and detaching of the groomer. Oh did we mention the car battery we installed on the snowmobile? Like I said, Formidable.
So there you have it. The Carlton Trail Ski Club has made the leap into modern day grooming again. We can hardly wait to see what the next grooming advances will bring. Thanks again CCS for allowing this project to happen for our club.
Initially, when the Ski Club was formed, it was an amazing experience – like no other when the membership found that they could ski faster and easier if they skied in a track that had been run over first with a snowmobile! (There was no grooming equipment behind the snowmobile). The trails began to be formed and were officially dubbed “ski Trails”.
In the years immediately following, the club members started noticing that when we went to other trails in or outside the province, the trail makers actually towed a device behind their snowmobiles. This device made two grooves in the snow, and created and even faster trail that allowed the skier to maintain better control of their direction – especially going down hills! This was a good thing and so in 1972 – the year our club became incorporated, we were the proud owners of a new cross country ski groomer (see picture)!! Oh the skiing doesn’t get any better than this, the membership thought.
Well, amazingly enough, a bit more time passed, we expanded our trails and our membership, and decided again, it was time for trail upgrades. In the 1980s, cross country skiing had taken off big time in Canada. It led to more grooming developments, and it was found you could actually level snow and create wider trails with flaps and wings on the groomers (sort of like a road grader does). It didn’t take long for a local engineer named Arnold Brockman to come up with several prototypes of ski groomers for our club. Some were short, some long, but all included some of the upgrades which made for a wider trail (oh yeah even 36 inches wide), a smoother trail and better grooves for the skis (see picture). Arnold passed away this past year and we are forever in his debt. As a note, yes we still use some of his trail grooming equipment today.
Of course, all this new fancy equipment required more horsepower to pull it – especially in the hills – and so the club upgraded to a used Alpine ski doo snowmobile. What a workhorse, some are still in use today. It takes about 50 yards to turn them around 180 degrees with only one front ski but it will pull almost ANYTHING!
Fast forward to today. Skiers now are looking for firm packed Skate trails, (usually 10 to 12 feet wide) and wider classic trails with firmer packed bases which will keep a ski pole from punching through with the tiny baskets (quite a bit different than the 4 inch wide baskets from the 1970s! New approaches to grooming call for first packing, then packing, then more packing and (did we mention more packing?) then, the farming of snow with leveling equipment drags and rollers. This all takes A LOT of time and effort on the part of the groomer. Another reason you definitely want to stop and take the time to thank your local groomer when you see them on or off the trail, or think of them in some way during special occasions.
In the past 5 to 10 years new companies have come up with leaner and meaner groomers which do a lot of the jobs - leveling , packing and compacting and then finish grooming, either with fine combing for skate trails or the traditional grooves for the classic trails. We at Carlton Trail Ski Cubs have been eyeing this equipment for a few years now, but have had to bide our time before being able to purchase a new style groomer. Thanks to Cross Country Saskatchewan, and a lot of fundraising, we have been able to have the funding to purchase a new Tidd Tech Groomer for our club. We have had the opportunity to try it this winter, and to slowly learn its many uses. Of course all the snow we got this year has helped immensely. The first major chore for the Tidd Tech was to groom trails on the golf course for our Sask. Cup Race. At that point we and the rest of the province were starved for snow. The Tidd Tech came through marvelously, and we had some of the best trails in the province for our race! Woo Hoo! We have also had to home brew a couple of packer rollers – we ran out of money on this project as we had to upgrade our 2009 Arctic Cat Bearcat Snowmobile. Unfortunately, while it has a lot of power to pull the groomer, it can overheat in warmer weather and so we upgraded it so it now has its own radiator—making it a formidable grooming machine. We also customized wiring to the snowmobile to allow for dashboard control of the groomers electrical motors. This is much more convenient than the wired cable remote control and allows for elegant attaching and detaching of the groomer. Oh did we mention the car battery we installed on the snowmobile? Like I said, Formidable.
So there you have it. The Carlton Trail Ski Club has made the leap into modern day grooming again. We can hardly wait to see what the next grooming advances will bring. Thanks again CCS for allowing this project to happen for our club.