You Know You Want One

It's called the Sherpa.  It's a big ol' 4-stroke with seating for at least 4, propelled by two widetrack snowmobile tracks.  No longer do you need to risk life and limb for the jury ride to the top, clutching your skis and the waist of some guy from maintenance.  Now you can ride in style and comfort, sipping your latte all the way up.

Also, braking is handled by a big steel rod that gets shoved down into the snow and drags along, soapbox style.

Injection for Everyone

Speaking of backyards, and awesome tractor stuff: There's no question that injected snow is a beloved and special treat for us, especially in North America.  Only a handful of places on this side of the Prime Meridian are willing to invest in the process, and only a few people really know how to do it well.  And you can ask anyone who raced the Nor-Ams in Colorado last November how important it is to really do it well.


Now, there's another option.  Hinterreit, Austria - one of the classic venues for training on injected snow - has switched to a different method that would appear to be a little more costly up front, but vastly more cost effective and efficient in the long run:  the Straninger Compactor.  No longer do you need to pump 60,000 gallons of water out onto the hill (as was done at Loveland last year), working at night, soaking wet in the freezing cold.

Now, according to Hinterreit's pistenchef Stefan Schild, you can make about 1 meter of snow and then run this compactor over it behind the cat.  Since doing that a few times, they now use a Mammoth-style snowblower on the front of the cat to remove excess snow.  Reports are that the cover is getting a tiny bit thin in places, but that even in 8-degree Celsius sunshine, the snow is beautifully firm and the skiing is perfect.  No injection required.

We examined the rig closely and, frankly, have no idea how it works.  Stefan told us that it vibrates and thusly packs the snow down.  There seemed to be a hydraulic pump running to either half of it, and there were some plastic tanks under the roped-over grey cover.  Beyond that, we couldn't find anyone for more information.

Here's the original website, auf Deutsch for the 'Krauts among us.

Ski in Your Own Back Yard

Back in the day, people used to just hike up pretty much any old cleared off hill, just to ski down.  Gradually, especially here in the US, we moved to only hills that had lifts, then they had to have a lodge, and parking, and then condos, hotels, and then, instead of just having a ski area near enough to your village, we had to invent faux alpen towns around the bottom of the hills.  Man, things have really spiraled out of control.


You can take skiing, and ski racing, back to its roots.  Go find a hill in your backyard and ski down it.  Preferably at night, because it's even more satisfying.  While you're at it, consider picking up one of these grooming rigs from somewhere in Austria to hook on to the back of grandpa's tractor.  Not sure who makes it, but it looks like a pretty simple PTO setup with a few hydraulic hookups.  Spotted at the top of a rodelbahn outside Maria Alm, Austria, the operator used 8 Croatians in the bucket instead of weights, and pulled 30+ Croatians on their rodels back to the top. It puts down some nice corduroy, perfect for ripping some Hinterreit-style SL somewhere on your back 40:

Who will be the first?  Hmm, wait, Mickey Cochran already beat you to it, and it seems to have worked out pretty well.

Let's get to it, America.