Snow grooming is the process of manipulating snow for recreational uses with atractor,snowmobile,piste caterpillar, truck orsnowcat towing specialized equipment. The process is used to maintainski hills,cross-country ski trails and snowmobile trails by grooming (moving, flattening,rototilling, or compacting) the snow on them.[1] A variation of the technique is used to construct snow runways in Antarctica.
A snow groomer is usually employed to pack snow and improve skiing andsnowboarding and snowmobile trail conditions. The resulting pattern on the snow is known ascorduroy,[2] and is widely regarded as a good surface on which to ski or ride. Snow groomers can also move accumulated snow made bysnow machines as part of a process, called "snow farming".
A snow groomer (informally called a "piste basher" in the United Kingdom)[3][4] is atracked vehicle equipped in front with ashovel (or dozer blade) and behind with a cutter (or roller).[5] It is usually driven by diesel engines. When the machine drives over a snowfield, it pushes snow ahead of it and, at the same time, smooths out any surface unevenness.
Snow groomers built for ski slopes employ front mounted, hydraulically operated blades, powered rotary tillers and specialized shaping equipment for not only maintainingski slopes, but also for buildinghalf pipes,terrain parks and snow tube parks.Cross-country skiing trails are also groomed in similar fashion, often with a wide "corduroy" area that allows skate-skiing plus classic ski tracks, imprinted with specialized ski guides.[6]Manufacturers includeKässbohrer Geländefahrzeug (Germany),Prinoth (Italy),[7]Tucker Sno-Cat (US), the Ohara Corporation (Japan),[8] Zaugg (Switzerland),[9] Favero Snow Tech (Italy)[10] and Aztec/CM Dupon (France).
Snow groomers can handle very steep gradients due to their lowcentre of gravity and large contact area, but they can also be assisted bywinches. Using cable lengths of up to 1,200 metres and a tractive force of up to 4.8 tonnes, winches can support the machines on steep slopes.[11]
Snow groomers warn skiers and snowboarders with visual or acoustic signals. Groomers are mostly sent out during the night time after the close of theski area so as not to interfere with daily andnight skiing.[12]
Due to their mobility and lowground pressure (typically 0.040 to 0.060 kg/cm2 (about 4 to 6 kN/m2) snow groomers are sometimes used elsewhere, e.g. for agricultural purposes, moving bulk goods, working onpeat bogs or atbiogas sites.[13]
Snow grooming equipment towed by a smaller vehicle like aSide-by-Side UTV orsnowmobile can be used for maintaining narrow paths, laying Nordic cross-country ski trails, orfatbike trails. These compact snow groomers make corduroy trails where a large snow groomer cannot access.[14]
Snow farming is the use of obstacles, equipment and knowledge about management of snow in order to strategically manipulate snow coverage. Often this is done for the purpose of skiing or even preventingsnow drift in certain areas like roads. The most popular obstacle is thesnow fence, which is used to create drifts and collect more snow in a given area than would otherwise naturally occur. The snow can be moved to other areas and groomed with the use of a snow groomer. Sometimes the snow fence is readily movable in order to maximize the collection of blown snow, despite wind direction changes.[15][16] In Mora, Minnesota, the annualVasaloppet USA cross-country ski race would be in jeopardy without the use of snow farming to compensate for the lack of natural snow in recent years.[17]
Snow grooming is used in construction and maintenance of airstrips to support research stations inAntarctica. U.S. ArmyCold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory (CRREL) researchers described the engineering parameters necessary to make improvements to natural snow for use in landing fields.[18] One level of improvement is used to support aircraft with skis.[19] In 2016, CRREL researchers perfected field preparation practices that allow for use of heavy military transport and other wheeled aircraft on snow runways in Antarctica. Proof-of-concept tests employed aC-17. Wheeled aircraft capability exists at the USMcMurdo Station and ski landings are routine at the AustralianDavis Station.[20]
snow grooming.
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