FEATURE
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Family Affair
Mountain States Snowcats founder
Jeremy Straley is co-owner of the
company along with his wife, Mindy
Straley. The couple has two sons,
aged five and 11.
Straley says his best snow grooming
memories are the times he has taken his
boys along in the snowcat – something
he’s done since they were babies.
“The whole family likes it, and the kids
can push the buttons for the horn and
the windshield wipers,” he said. “It’s
something that they really like, getting
out at night and seeing what we do.
“Of course, a lot of what we do gets
done at night and behind the scenes,”
Straley said. “People don’t see us
working very often in the winter, but
they see our product, and it’s always
nice to see reviews and hear people
commenting on how great their day
of skiing was or things like that. We
can say, ‘Hey, we did that!’”
Running snowcats in the Rocky Mountain region since 2001.
Mountain States Snowcats is your #1 snowcat service provider!
In addition to our superior trail grooming and snowcat
training, we provide year-round service with
excavation and summer trail building.
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“Otherwise, people can’t get up there
until July.”
Vernon says the decision by the town
not to have its own snow grooming
equipment and crew made sense for a
number of reasons.
“It’s very expensive and it actually requires
some expertise,” he said. “I believe
the town used to own an old worn-out
snow cat groomer, but it was very difficult
to maintain. For our limited area,
it’s much better at this point to contract
it out and let someone else worry about
running the equipment and providing
the skilled drivers to do it.
“It’s definitely more cost-effective,
and you also probably get a better
product with experienced groomer
operators.”
Mountain States Snowcats also provides
grooming services for the Headwaters
Trails Alliance, which oversees
a cross-country trail system in Grand
Country, Colo., not far from Winter Park.
Meara McQuain, executive director
of the Headwaters Trails Alliance, says
in addition to grooming a 20-mile trail
loop for the organization, Mountain
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