This year I volunteered to help out with the tracksetting for our local cross country ski club. Initially, it was to satisfy the dream of four-year-old boys everywhere: to drive a bulldozer. However, it turns out that, despite the complexities of the vehicle involved, learning to operate it was the least difficult part.
The machine in question is a Kässbohrer PB-140DR. Unfortunately, since it's apparently a rare beast, and I've yet to take any photos of it, I have no pictures to post. I can say, however, that it's basically a smaller version of the grooming machines you see running up and down ski hills everywhere. It's a twin-tracked tractor that has a blade on the front for moving snow, and an implement hitch on the rear that can be used to drag either a packer bar or a hydraulically-powered tiller. Both rear implements have a pair of pans that can be pressed into the snow to set tracks for classic-style cross-country skiing. The result is that the machine can drive over a trail covered in virgin snow, and turn it into a four-metre wide surface that's excellent for classic and skate style skiing, all in one pass.
As the machine passes over the snow, its weight and the cleats on the tracks pack the snow down. However, the tracks leave an unskiable surface. The packer bar is pressed into the snow by the machine; it packs the surface flat, then combs it and presses in one or two tracks for classic skiing.
When the surface is already packed, and the snow has hardened by poor weather, it can be rejuvinated with the tiller. This replaces the packer bar and does all the same things, but it also has a hydraulically-driven toothed shaft that spins at high speed. It rips into the snow and shreds it back into a powder, which is then packed and combed.
This machine is from the 1980's, and unlike more modern machines, is still steered by a pair of control levers in the cab, much like a bulldozer. Having never operated such a machine before, I assumed, probably like most other people, that one would simply grab a lever in each hand and give 'er. However, there are two reasons why this would be a bad decision. Firstly, you need a hand free to operate all the other levers and switches you need to operate while grooming a trail (the levers that move the blade, the knob that adjusts the pressure on the packer bar, the switches that raise and lower the pans and activate the tiller, etc.) because like I said, the machine's from the 1980's; all of the controls are manual. Secondly, the levers are rather sensitive, so it's actually easier to keep control of the machine if you grab both levers in one hand and steer with a twist of the wrist.
I was rather surprised to find that after a morning I'd pretty much gotten the hang of driving the machine down a trail. I was even more surprised to find out that this was just the easiest part, and that I was about to start down the path of learning the art of tracksetting. Things like knowing what effect increasing or reducing the amount of pressure exerted by the packer bar on the snow, or how slow I need to travel while operating the tiller to produce the right consistency of snow. Also keeping an eye on the forecast so that I know whether there's any point in trying to set track (it can't be done when the snow's wet, which can happen from warm weather or rain,) and working out what route to take so that I set the most amount of track the most efficiently (as in not running over trails more than once, since the machine can't be driven over set track without resetting it.)
So this is going to be learning experience for me, but not in the way I'd expected. I started because I wanted to learn to operate a cool piece of machinery, but in the end, I'm going to stick with it becuase it's going to allow me to learn something that can't be codified on paper, something I can only learn through experience.
Now let's just hope the snow sticks around long enough...
