Grooming Friday January 28

Is anyone thinking of grooming on Friday? I would like to take the day off.

Ideas for a better operation

Over lunch the last couple of sessions a few things came up that are worth repeating for everybody's benefit.

• The thresholds on the container doors need to be cleared of ice and snow most every session so that the doors will close completely and easily. Otherwise the latch mechanisms are getting sprung and the doors warped.
• The padlocks have weather covers over the key slot. The covers have to be snapped closed to do any good.
• The Ginzu groomer has the flexible wings on the rear combs. When the Ginzu is run along the banks of the packed trail, the wings begin to form a "chamfer" that hardens. If snow has drifted in against the bank the flexible wing will cause the whole Ginzu to float up and harden the drift without cutting it. In either case, over time the side where we set tracks begins to slope away from the bank and we don't have an implement that will cut it back level; the set tracks end up with the same slope. Bottom line: use compacters, rollers, or the TiddTech on the track side, followed outboard by the Ginzu with the wing overlapping the edge left by the implement ahead.

Thursday Groom

What do you guys think? Are we on for another Thursday groom? Paul - is the carburetor preheat valve located engine compartment driver's left? We all hovered around a valve in this area when the beast quit. It looked like a clip was preventing the valve from being turned.

thurs night grooming

Had 4 groomers show - Myself, Todd Hoar, Dan Blythe, and John Amtmann. Used 2 rollers the ginsu & the tid - tech. Groomed all of Crooked John, & Sugarloaf. Did not get Sleepy hollow. Temp was about 35 degrees start and finish, & maybe 4-5 inches of new snow. The beast quit us near the end but Todd got it started with a little gas down the pipes. Got stuck several times but things groomed up nicely.

Not much for the friday crew to do but buff things up & finish Sleepy Hollow & Lil' Cal.

Good Luck & happy skiing !

Weekend schedule

The forecast looks like a repeat of last week. The temp is supposed to rise to 36 overnight, so we may be skunked for tomorrow. Dave has a crew going up tonight; hopefully they can get something done before the warm-up.

All of the machines are fueled and ready to go. I don't know if anybody has been watching the injection oil on the Skandic. I believe we started the season with the last of the Bombardier non-synthetic. It would probably be best to let the reservoir go nearly empty before switching to the synthetic. There is a gallon of the Wally brand in the warming hut.

The Bitterroot Alpine II is still acting up when it gets warm. We took the cowl off to help, but it still seems to vapor lock.

The brake is fixed on #3 Alpine II.

Mark Switek won't be available until after Sunday.

Jan 6 - thursday night grooming report

1-2 inches new snow - 38 degrees. Tried the ginsu & compactor - compactor just loaded up, so we switched to the red roller. It got buildup with snow also, so we bagged it. We got out across Wulf's cutoff from the sugarloaf side & back & that was it . It was about 33 degrees when we left at about 9:30. Good Luck on friday morning. The Ginsu was the only thing that didn't load up as long as the teeth were up out of the snow.

Grooming schedule for weekend of Jan 7-9

The regular Friday grooming schedule will resume on Friday, January 7th at 9:00.  Hopefully Bob Rase will join us for his first grooming session.