I know many of our skiers and riders have seen our snow grooming equipment in action either at night or during the day. You see the gleaming machines headed in from a night out on the slopes as an early morning skier or you may see the lights of the mammoth machines making their trips up and down the mountain. Have you ever wondered where these machines hide during the day while everyone is skiing and riding?
The headquarters for grooming and mountain operations is located at the bottom of the Village Run trail. If you come down Village Run or if you come down The Plunge, you will see the Okemo Maintenance shop. This 9,000 square foot maintenance shop is headquarters for the Grooming fleet.
Every day each grooming cat is brought in behind the closed doors and given the once over. The machines are washed down with a power washer and the tracks looked at, the power tiller looked at, the lights, horn and alarms are all checked. Once the outside is looked over, the cab is flipped up and a look under the hood begins. Hoses are checked, belts checked, filters looked at. The entire process takes about 2-3 hours per machine. At any one time there will be 3-4 machines being serviced and checked out. On certain days, the machines will be put on the vehicle lift and fluids changed, track bolts tightened and the rig is given an even more thorough once over.
All is this is accomplished by the top-notch Vehicle Maintenance crew. Led by Bill Johnson and Bill Palmer, the staff of mechanics are certified by the Grooming Company "Prinoth" to work on their machines. They have years of experience at Okemo as well as work as a mechanic. The newer machines have more computer processing which the guys have had to learn. Oh yea, and these same mechanics also work on the 30-40 vehicles and 15 shuttle buses that Okemo has. To say those guys are busy is an understatement. They are on a flat out run!
So the next time you are out skiing and think, hey these groomers did a great job today, also keep in mind that if it wasn’t for the Vehicle Maintenance departments and the dedicated souls "in the shop", Okemo wouldn’t be known for the grooming like we are.
March will soon be here, lets hope for some great spring skiing.
Bruce Schmidt
Vice-President & General Manager
