Vibe-Winter-2425 - Flipbook - Page 71
Behind the Scenes of
By Josh Laskin
WINCH-CAT GROOMING
Decreasing High-Tension Concerns
E
ach year, skiers and riders around the
Mt. Washington Valley look forward to
December, when ski areas fire up their
snowmaking systems and spin their lifts for
the first time since spring. Even backcountry
skiers and riders begin their season skinning at local ski areas, the crunch of pristine
ridges of corduroy-like snow instilling a
sense of optimism about the season ahead,
as they wait for snow to coat their favorite
backcountry spot.
Many take the perfectly groomed slopes
for granted, failing to remember a time
before advanced grooming technology
existed, when ski area crews would compact
the snow by hand and foot, shoveling and
boot-packing
up and down
the pistes to
create the
perfect snow
surface for
skiers to
glide down.
Today,
fleets of highend groomers push
snow around
the pistes to
create these
surfaces,
with specialty groomers called winch cats set
aside for the steeper trails at the resorts. Unlike traditional groomers, which rely on their
own power and track assemblies to push
snow forward, winch cats utilize a winch—a
spool of steel cable that can be hooked up
to pre-determined anchors at the top of a
slope—to safely pull itself up or lower itself
down, giving it the ability to groom uphill
on slopes that traditional groomers can only
make downhill passes on.
“The regular cats can go everywhere
the winch cat goes for the most part, but
they won’t leave as good of a finish,” says
Brad Cabot, Attitash Mountain Resort’s lead
winch-cat operator. “A regular cat can’t really
move the snow back uphill on steeper terrain
as well as a winch cat.”
Morgan Rudd, the grooming manager at
Attitash, echoed this sentiment, explaining
that the ability to groom uphill and control
the machine’s speed on downhill passes provides a significantly higher-quality surface
than what a standard groomer creates.
But snow conditions also play a role in
when and where a winch cat is used. During
snowmaking season, winch cats are heavily
relied on to push out piles of freshly made
snow on steeper terrain, like Bear Peak’s
Illusion. Once groomed, a standard cat can
maintain the lower-angle sections, but winch
cats are still used to maintain the steep
Unlike traditional groomers, which rely on their own power and track assemblies to push snow forward, winch-cats utilize a winch—a spool of steel cable
that can be hooked up to pre-determined anchors at the top of a slope—to
safely pull itself up or lower itself down, giving it the ability to groom uphill
on slopes that traditional groomers can only make downhill passes on.
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