COVER FEATURE
tors are able to call for emergency help if anything did actu-ally
happen.”
There’s also the matter of operator comfort.
“It’s quite something to be able to out grooming when it’s
-25C (-13F) and you’re in a t-shirt,” Hughes said, adding that
it’s a big reason why he and his fellow groomers prefer using
a Kei truck over a snowmobile when working the West Bragg
Creek trails.
Hughes contends that grooming with a Kei truck can
also make for better skiing. Because the vehicle has a wider
footprint than a snowmobile, its tracks act to help compact
snow on the periphery of cross-country trails, not just in
the middle.
The result, according to Hughes, is a groomed trail similar
to that produced by a machine like a PistenBully.
“It makes for a way better skiing experience, as far as I’m
concerned,” he said.
The GBCTA uses three seven-foot YTS Ginzugroomers.
Hughes notes the compaction drags typically have one pan
on them, but his team has been experimenting with adding
a second pan.
“The Kei truck allows us to be able to put two pans on them
so that we can actually, in one pass, have two classic tracks,”
he said.
The association also has three YTS roller compactors,
which are used to take the air out of the freshly fallen snow
when accumulations exceed four to six inches.
“It’s a first-order compaction prior to going over the trails
with the Ginzugroomers,” said Hughes.
Cross-country award
Hughes, who lived in Winnipeg, Man. prior to moving to Al-berta
18 years ago, is married and has three daughters aged
12 to 16. He was a dentist by trade for nearly 30 years but sold
his practice five years ago.
Hughes established his own arborist business and spends
the spring, summer and fall tending to trees in Bragg Creek
and back in Manitoba, but his winters are dedicated to cross-country
skiing and grooming trails.
“I love grooming. I get a real kick out of it,” said Hughes,
who estimates he spends 40 hours a week grooming ski trails
in the winter months.
“I’m a bit of a perfectionist and I love seeing perfectly laid
classic track and I love skiing on beautiful corduroy, so I think
I have an eye for good grooming. I like to aspire to make it the
best as it can possibly be,” he said.
To ensure the optimal experience for skiers, Hughes and his
team of 10 or so groomers renovate the most popular cross-country
trails in the West Bragg Creek system on a daily basis.
“Between October and March we put in about 850 volun-teer
hours to maintain the trails,” said Hughes. “There would
be a little bit of maintenance to the machines and a little bit
of trail work involved in that, but it’s mostly cross-country ski
grooming operations.”
The work of Hughes and the dedicated groomers at West
Bragg Creek hasn’t gone unnoticed. Hughes and the GBCTA
team recently won an award from Cross Country Alberta for
“Outstanding Ski Area Operations 2016-17.”
“We’ve all been working really hard to make this place better
and this kind of recognition is pretty cool and really appreciated,”
said Hughes. “We’re not doing this for awards though. We’re do-ing
it because we love skiing and we really want to promote the
area because it’s turning into like a world-class ski resort in our
minds, and we want to see our little town, Bragg Creek, thrive.”
“We were just blown away by
the performance. The Kei
truck climbs with abandon. It
has fantastic traction and an
unbelievable turning radius
relative to a snowmobile.”
– Jeff Hughes, GBCTA
10 September 2017 | snowopsmag.com