by admin on 28 Jan 2011, 21:50
You're welcome, snowwizard. And an excellent idea for a topic. I'll be interested to see what other operators have to say.
As for myself, I did receive excellent training, beginning at Colorado Mountain College with Professor Curt Bender (cbender on this forum), and then OJT with our most veteran operator, Larry (he's been at it since the days of Tuckers with rollers). I still consider myself somewhat of a rookie, though I take great pride in my work (healthy pride, mind you, not egotistical pride); I tend to be a bit of a perfectionist, perhaps a little too much at times. But I think my greatest advantage is that I ski several times a week, and really get to analyze the quality of my work from the perspective of the guests. I also work behind the guest services desk one day each week, and make sure to get input from guests about what I groomed the night before. I take all this input, and experiment until I find what makes the most aesthetically pleasing, and nicest skiing product I can come up with.
As a skier, perhaps the most important lesson I've learned is this: just because my pass looks good behind me doesn't mean it's going to ski well the next day. I'm always aiming for skiability first, aesthetics second, and everything else is tertiary. Which means I'm trying to make a soft, easy-turning, seamless product on the beginner and intermediate runs, and a hard, fast, seamless product on the racing/race training trails. I also like the end result to look nice, so I'm very careful about my patterns and how they affect skiers, such as where I do turn-arounds, the direction of the corduroy as it relates to the direction of skier traffic, carefully articulating to avoid leaving any track marks (and keeping a nice, clean pattern when possible), etc.
Grooming is definitely an art, and you have to have a passion for it to achieve good results. Admittedly, I'm not always happy with my work. But then I figure out what didn't go well, and I adjust to correct.
Alright, I'm done babbling. Just thought I'd throw out some more ideas to consider. I do hope this forum continues to grow and becomes a bit more active. I think it has the potential to be a great resource, sounding board, and a place to ask questions and share ideas.