grooming in the rain?
Posted: 28 Feb 2009, 01:16just got back from a shift grooming in the rain and 45 deg temps. how many other mountains groom in the rain? was defintely challenging b/c of inability to climb...
I've been there with the temps we had last week. It makes for a miserable night of grooming. Not during the rain, but the next day when the temps go below freezing. I have a special route that I run when its warm or raining. I make all my passes on the steeps downhill and use the easier trails for uphill. You can slow down rotor speed and decrease down pressure a good bit. That will help when climbing steeps. You can also save the steeps for later in the night when there is a good chance the temp will drop. Avoid making sharp turns as it will leave a deep rut on the inside that's hard to fill. Sharp turns really seem to put a strain on the machine when its wet and sloppy, especially the track belts and sprockets. The real fun is grooming when everything freezes the next day. I find the best way to combat a freeze over is lots of rotor speed. An occasional reverse rotor on those puddles that freeze on the slopes. Stay away from dirt and thin spots. Nobody likes skid marks.
Cheers.
i was wondering if anyone has any tricks to deal with the trench that our BR350s leave in the middle of the pass. it comes from snow sticking to the 6" or so between the two spinning tiller bars on our posiflex tillers, and this snow clump drags along creating a nasty trench that sucks to ski on. i know we could groom half as much and make a second pass on everyting, not very efficient though. i've had some luck with "jimmying" the tiller a little bit by floating it then taking it out of float, when it snaps back to centered, the clump breaks off... for a minute or two. the other ops and i were thinking that some resorts (NW, etc) must deal with this often and have some solutions? i almost brought a can of silicone spray one night, but figured it wouldn't last very long per application.