2004 ABR Grooming Clinic Report
February 25, 2004
by Randal L. Lorenzen
I was given the opportunity to attend this years grooming
clinic at ABR Trails in Ironwood, Michigan. This turned out
to be a great opportunity to network with other operators
of grooming equipment and representatives from equipment manufacturers.
There were about 60 operators in attendance at the clinic.
The operators came from a widespread range of experience,
location, and the type of trails they maintain. I met operators
that were from the snow belt of Upper Michigan to Iowa. There
were operators with limited experience to ones that have 30+
years of grooming experience. The trail systems were quite
varied. I met individuals that groomed trails on their own
private property to the ones that do the grooming for the
Birkie. I was surprised that I was asked as many questions
relating to my 22 years of grooming experience, as I was able
to ask of others.
The great variety of budgets and trail fees was very interesting.
Trail maintenance budgets ranged from over $300,000 to next
to nothing. Season trail user fees were as high as $130.00
for an individual ski pass.
What I saw as the main objective of the clinic was the equipment
manufacturers displaying their new products. As participants,
we were able to try out any of the equipment they had on display.
Manufacturer representatives were willing to mix and match
different drags with different power units. This was a good
opportunity to see how different pieces of equipment worked.
While the clinic was going on, about 10 inches of new snow
fell so all the trail drags did a fantastic job. Unfortunately,
our opportunity to operate the equipment was limited, for
the most part, we ran the equipment in the parking lot.
There were some excellent lectures at the clinic. The ones
that I found to be the most beneficial were the ones on how
to make modifications to equipment. Ideas were presented on
how to wire equipment, how to improve steering, equipment
maintenance, trail maintenance, and trail construction.
The grooming scenarios were disappointing to me. The answers/suggestions
for most of the scenarios presented was the use of different
pieces of equipment from your "fleet" of equipment.
When the equipment is not available, the use of blades to
move snow and tillers, doesn't offer many solutions.
This clinic did provide a great opportunity to check out
a lot of different equipment. It proved to me that the trail
drag that we have been using in the past was very limiting
(we have acquired a new trail drag since then). The ability
to talk to other "groomers" was invaluable. At the
time of the clinic most of the country had little or no snow
on the ground. The consensus I heard was that if there is
not much snow - there is not a lot you can do.
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Randy Lorenzen grooms at William O'Brien State Park.
The Ride and Glide Ski Club has been working with
Washington Co. Parks and the DNR (State Parks) to improve
grooming and facilities in their respective parks. We
met with the groomers to see what we could do to help.
We encouraged them to go to the ABR Grooming Clinic
and offered to sponsor them. They liked the idea and
ended up sending several of their people to ABR. The
club helped out by donating money to buy grooming equipment
and to cover grooming expenses. We demonstrated the
usefulness of SkinnySki.com to them in getting the word
out on grooming schedules and conditions. They really
enjoyed the feedback they could get from reading the
trail reports. The bottom line has been that getting
involved with the parks has shown that feedback and
involvement by the public can have a positive effect.
The improvements this year were very noticeable as evidence
by the glowing trail reports this year.
This is just the beginning. We have upcoming meetings
with the DNR staff to discuss specifics at William O'Brien
and general practices at all DNR parks. We welcome others
to provide input in this area and suggest that you might
want to try something similar in your own area. If you're
interested in getting involved please contact Steve
Thatcher and the Ride and Glide Ski Club at [email protected]
- Steve Thatcher
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