First day of grooming for this season...

[admin]

We got off to a slow start here in VT, but with 3 feet in the past week, we're ramping up.

I spent all day pulling a roller and packing in the natural. Good stuff. Too many areas rely solely on the power tiller. The implements of yesteryear are not obsolete! Couldn't have done anything with a tiller out there today (rocks, waterbars, small trees, and such), but I was able to preserve a ton of snowpack with the roller. Not to mention I was burning about 3.5 gal/hour in a PB 300!

Only real pain in the ass was a couple of waterbars that were still running........... had to spend ten minutes beating the crap out of the roller every pass or two!

[admin]

Pix:

[Tom400CFI]

Damn dude....nice looking product there. Good point about the "old implements". We still use and love (when conditions warrant) powdermakers.

I'd forgotten about the roller, but that pic looks good. Was the snow "bottomless" enough that you were still feeling the ground w/the cat?

[admin]

Was the snow "bottomless" enough that you were still feeling the ground w/the cat?

In some spots, I could definitely feel ground. But up at the top of our "Sunny D" pod, it was like floating on a cloud!

But wow... some of those waterbars were sketchy. You know... the kind you can get lost in! But I found the best approach was to maintain speed (within reason!) and let the roller drag as much snow as possible to start filling them in. There wasn't enough snow to do any blading, and the worst waterbars were low elevation, so even less snow there. But the roller was reasonably effective. Next big storm (looks like Wednesday/Thursday!) and we should be able to fill them in nicely.