by EcoGroomer on 22 Aug 2011, 07:52
So here is the bottom line guys. I am a very passionate skier, entrepreneur and inventor and I love the sport. I have identfied a gap in the market and a problem that need to be solved. Just as the concept has evolved over the past 9 months, it will continue to be refined through CAD modelling and testing until it is brought to market. I have put up some bold timelines that will likely stretch out a bit, but I do not believe that has to be a 3-5 year project with the technology that we now have available to model complex systems digitally. There is a level of urgency attached to the project by design and there is obviously market demand based upon the media coverage and positive feedback that we have received from the resort operators in such a short time period.
Are there doubters? Yes, about 20% of the ops managers and cat operators believe it is not feasible. The other 80% can see the potential and that the concept has merit for a large segment of their grooming needs once fully engineered, prototyped and tested.
My aim is to deliver an innovation that saves major resorts significant operating expenses. I have been quite clear that this is not designed to groom 100% of the slopes. It is for the wide blue and green runs that are plentiful at most major resorts. It is all about specialization.... you have winch cats for the most extreme pistes, park cats to build features, standard cats to push and rebuild the slopes and you have the EcoGroomer that can provide high efficiency grooming much of the time. Every night that an EG is sent out, the resort will save over $1000 in operator, fuel and other costs. Multily this out by 600-700 nights of service over the life of the equipment and we are talking significant savings in fuel and capital. How CB can see this as some evil plot or scam is hard to comprehend. Perhaps he is concerned that some cat operators will be sidelined in the process. Some of them no doubt will be over time. The good ones will not. In fact the best operators will be able to make a higher wage operating high efficiency equipment such as this. This is how technology evolves. It has already been proven effective in the ConAg business and it can and will be applied to a broad segment of snow grooming, which is still a fairly young art.
There is nothing that I can say to convince someone like CB. I should not even try. I agree with the Admin that the persoanl attacks (which started from his very first post by the way) are counterproductive and unfair. I am not going to just sit there an let someone slam me personally without responding, but at some point it is not worth the time and effort to respond.
The EcoGroomer is coming, that is a certainty. How quickly depends upon a lot of factors, but it will happen. This will be my final post on this discussion.