Twenty years ago it would have been blasphemy to prefer fresh groomers over fresh powder. But for many skiers and riders, particularly at areas where powder days are few and far between, the chance to carve tracks on fresh corduroy is bliss. For that reason, several resorts have taken to around-the-clock grooming, and they insist it’s worth the effort.

Ski Bromont, located 50 miles southeast of Montreal in Quebec, grooms 21 hours a day on weekends. That commitment to snow conditions has become the area’s calling card. “People used to talk about icy conditions and now they talk about how nice it is,” says president and general manager Charles Desourdy. “It’s pretty expensive, but I feel it’s worth it. When we pull the rope down [of a trail that was just groomed], it’s the same feeling you get early in the morning on a powder day. The thrill of coming down once or twice on a freshly-groomed trail is worth the trip to a lot of customers.”

Because Bromont offers night skiing until 10 p.m. on weeknights and 11 p.m. on weekends, mid-day grooming is a necessity. But Desourdy says Bromont would groom mid-day even without night skiing. After averaging 175,000 skiers in the 1990s, Bromont now gets 300,000 night skiers and 300,000 day skiers per year, and Desourdy is convinced that the improved snow conditions made possible by grooming are the reason. “Last year was the worst winter ever in the northeast and we had a five percent increase,” he points out.

Bromont uses a daytime crew of four groomers, plus three four-wheelers to help manage trail closures. The nighttime grooming crew consists of four groomers (six cats and a winch on weekends) who finish their shift at 8 a.m. On Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays a new crew hits the trails at 11:15 a.m. to begin mid-day grooming. On weekdays, the groomers hit the slopes at 1 p.m. and continue into the night. “Every 30 minutes we open a freshly groomed trail,” Desourdy says.


What Price Glory?
Alas, perfection is fleeting. “When you groom at night, a trail may last two hours in the morning,” Desourdy notes. “When you groom all day, it lasts maybe 45 minutes, but,to me, it’s worth it. People talk about your conditions.”

Nor is perfection cheap. Desourdy figures the resort spends 5,000 hours grooming at night over the season and 3,000 hours more during the day, at a cost of about $300,000 a year. “Wear and tear on the tracks and the engines comes faster,” Desourdy admits. “But there’s no additional cost per hour, it’s linear. Instead of maybe a few years to change the tracks, it may be a year and a half.”

The main challenge that comes with mid-day grooming is skier safety, Desourdy says. The three four-wheelers (which have tracks on them instead of wheels) are used to police the trails during daytime grooming. Bromont closes down trails and uses signage at the top of trails to let people know they are closed. Only beginner trails are left open, so novice skiers can get down.

“So far, the laws allow us to [groom during the day], but it would take only one slight accident for the government to stop us,” Desourdy says. “I think it’s the future of grooming, but you really need that security; making sure the trails are closed down and having all the ropes and signage and patrolmen involved and having those four-wheelers there. Having three four-wheelers has sped up the security process for each trail.”

Safety aside, more grooming brings additional challenges. When snow is groomed, air is taken from it, so it ices faster, Desourdy says. To keep its snow surface as soft as possible, Bromont makes four to six inches of fresh snow each week on every trail. “We call it re-conditioning the trails,” he says. “You can easily do it by running the guns for maybe 10 hours. You can’t just groom and groom without making fresh snow. We make three to six feet of snow on each trail over the course of a season.”

So snowmaking efforts have increased along with the grooming. In 1998, Bromont used 400 gallons of water per minute to make snow. Today, that number has risen to 4,500 gallons. What used to be 15 snowguns is now 600. Desourdy’s goal is to boost capacity to power 400 guns simultaneously over the next five to eight years.


Colorado Corduroy
Keystone Resort in Summit County, Colorado, is blessed with more annual snow than Bromont. But like Bromont, Keystone offers night skiing, and has been grooming in the afternoon for several years. Starting from the base area on a closed trail, as many as 11 snowcats hit the hill at 3 p.m., four of them heading for the terrain park.

Three years ago, Keystone moved the grooming time up from 4 p.m. to 3 p.m. to get the cats to the back of the mountain as it begins to close. “It’s partly a transit effort so they can start their night’s work, but also to provide a fresh surface at the end of the day and for the night skiers,” says Chuck Tolton, Keystone’s director of mountain operations.

The snowcats start at the base area on a closed trail before entering an open trail with sirens and sometimes music blaring. “We create a bit of a spectacle,” Tolton says. “So little kids are looking and waving to the operators. People have come to enjoy and expect it. Last season we started offering rides. It’s generally one person per cat.”

On days when night skiing is offered, the cats groom the front side from 3 to 5 p.m., then drop off the back side and head to the furthest peak. They finish at midnight by making a pass down the front side. The next shift grooms from 12:30 a.m. until 10 a.m., concentrating on the front side where the night skiing took place. Some trails may be closed when the mountain opens, but by 10 or 11 a.m. they are open and freshly groomed. The next shift begins at 10 a.m.

All of that work is independent of the terrain park. Keystone has 25 groomers in all—one for the tubing hill, five for the terrain park, 16 for general grooming, and two for people-moving.

“Grooming is a huge part of our operation, and it’s something Keystone has been known for historically,” Tolton says. “Each area has a unique layout and character. With ours, it’s the same quality in the center that you find on the edge of the trail and at rollovers. Our snowcat operators are very talented. One guy is entering his 30th year.”

Keystone uses that experience to advantage. Veteran drivers school those with less experience. If a pass is not done right, it’s done again.

“We have not grown the staff in the four years I’ve been here, but there is more efficiency in the new generation of cats,” Tolton says. “And rather than saying ‘X amount of acres is the goal for the night,’ I will say, ‘rather than bite off too much, just focus on quality.’”

Tolton stresses that good snow means the entire grooming team has to be dedicated to the effort. Because the snowcats can be in use up to 20 hours per day, the vehicle maintenance team at Keystone is an important part of the equation. “We are purchasing four new groomers this year, and we purchased four the year before,” he says. “We buy the best product available and maintain them throughout the year.”

Like Desourdy, Tolton is quick to point out that good snow conditions are not possible without stellar snowmaking. “It doesn’t happen by accident,” he says. “It starts with this commitment to quality, which really goes back to snowmaking. It’s a hand and glove partnership between grooming and snowmaking and how they work together to get the best surface possible.”