5 Tips To Groom Your Snow More Efficiently

If you are like me and love the snow and winter activities you want to spend as much time as you can out on the snow.  When participating in winter activities typically it out on a trail and as we all know snow gets beat up. 

When you have hikers they “post hole” in the snow leaving big holes all over your trail. Skiing and snowboarding you get ruts and moguls in the snow. If you drive machines like snowmobiles or tracked vehicles you get ruts and bumps known as “snow whoops”.

 

 

So the big question is how do you effectively keep your winter snow trails in good shape? 

 

Grooming your winter trails no matter what winter activities you participate in make for a much safer and better experience on the snow. When grooming snow I love to look back and see flat perfect corduroy on my beat-up trails it is something I find very satisfying and fun.

 

Below are 5 tips on how to effectively groom your trails in the winter:

 

1. Groom your snow as often as possible.

The professionals like a ski hill will groom their snow every night and it’s not just because they want to give their customers perfect corduroy for the next day. The reason you want to groom your snow as often as possible is you want to make sure it doesn’t turn to ice. Agitating your snow makes it MUCH easier to work with later. Remember you are grooming SNOW, not ICE.  When the snow is softer and not frozen it allows you to fill in ruts and knock bumps flat.

2. Groom whenever you get new snowfall.

This also is a key part of maintaining great trails in the winter. Whenever it snows it’s like you get a blank canvas and you want to make sure you go compact the snow before the snow gets torn up. This helps keep a quality packed snow trail.

3. Time of day and temperature matter.

When out grooming snow the temperature is a really big part of being able to effectively groom snow. You want it to be cold enough that the snow doesn’t stick to everything. That way you can effectively cut/trim your trails and also compact them. If your snow freezes up it makes grooming your trails much more difficult. Sometimes once it’s frozen you have to wait until it’s warmer and you can go knock down your bumps and fill in your ruts. Lots of snow grooming happens at night when it’s cold enough to keep the snow from balling up or sticking.

4. Snow Groomer Weight.

Making sure that you have the right amount of weight in your snow groomer also is important. WHY? When grooming light fluffy snow you want to de-weight your snow groomer to help get the snow groomer on top of the light snow instead of just ripping all the new snow off your trails. Large heavy snow groomers or snow drags have a harder time with packing down light snow as they are too heavy to get on top of the snow. In heavy snow conditions, you want to add as much weight as you can to really compact the snow. Being aware of what type of snow conditions allows you to compact, and groom your trails more efficiently.

5. Get the right snow groomer

Choosing a practical snow groomer is crucial when it comes to snow grooming. It needs to be easily modified for any snow. It must be lightweight for when the snow is light and fluffy so you can go fast. A good snow groomer must have the option to add weight for when u need it. It needs to cut and trim properly so it can leave a nice corduroy surface.  Having a groomer that can fit between the trees can give your more groomed trails.  Small groomers just fit in places llarge snow groomers cannot.

Like we mentioned grooming snow is really fun and satisfying and having a snow groomer that can cut/trim, level, compact, and leave corduroy is paramount.

 

WHICH SNOW GROOMER SHOULD I GET? 

Here at Snow Groomers we build ultra-compact and lightweight snow groomers. Light enough that they can be moved by one or two persons. But here is a little secret you can also add as much weight as you want to the chassis for packing the snow down.

Our patented SNO-RAZOR design for cutting and trimming your trail really is a game-changer when you need to refresh your trails but do now have now snow to work with. When the snow is light and fluffy, make sure you take out all the weight in your chassis before grooming snow. 

 

Heavy snow groomers and snow drags typically will just plow or scrape all the snow off your trails when it’s light snow.

 

Make sure your snow groomer can adjust to the varying temperatures and snow conditions. Having the ability to adjust the weight, pan angle, and trail trimming really allows your snow groomer to perform in all snow conditions.

Remember when you are first getting into snow grooming pay attention to the above tips and tricks when it comes to grooming your snow. This will leave your trails with packed, level, and corduroy trails.  Which makes for a much better experience and it’s safer!

 

Happy snow grooming Snow Groomer Nation![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]