When the ski resort closes, the groomers’ work is just beginning. Throughout the night, they prepare the slopes so that skiers wake up to perfectly “ironed” trails.
For years, skiers have praised the preparedness of the slopes, and the credit for that goes to the groomer drivers who spend every night maintaining them. Although it may seem simple, this job requires a lot of experience, and besides knowledge, certain conditions must also be met for everything to go as planned.
For a groomer to start preparing the slopes, there must be at least 30 centimeters of snow on them. The time available for grooming the ski resort depends on weather conditions. The best condition is when the air temperature is as low as possible, and precipitation determines how many groomers will be on the slopes. When conditions are ideal, and all groomers are out, it takes about 6 hours to groom the entire ski resort.
Drivers say it’s not easy, but they do their best to make the slopes look perfect.
“We move one after the other, ensuring that when we finish one slope, we smooth out the tracks and don’t go back over the same area. This way, we reduce the number of turns and can move seamlessly from slope to slope,” says a groomer driver.
The duty officer gathers information from the ski resort, and based on that, the grooming process begins. Groomers start from the center of the ski resort and work their way towards the periphery. If there isn’t enough snow, artificial snow is added where necessary, which is primarily done on black slopes.
With the introduction of groomers equipped with winches, preparing black slopes has become significantly easier, as they use cables to lower themselves down the steepest sections.
izvor:skijalistasrbije.rs
