The 2019-2020 grooming season has wound down (though winter hasn’t just yet) and it was another interesting one.
We started off with a bang in late October and had a week of very good skiing at Sunset Hills before the warm weather returned for most of November. A cold storm right after Thanksgiving dropped us 8 inches of very light snow, which packed down to about 2 inches, and this ended up being our trail base in town until February. Anytime it snowed, we would groom Sunset Hills (Highland Glen was too thin) to try and build up our base. December and January offered only small storms with half an inch to an inch of snow at a time, with lots of sunny, warmer weather in between. In order to keep some skiing in town, the BSF grooming crew spent a considerable amount of time shoveling at Sunset Hills in all of the sun exposed areas. At this point, we were grooming Sunset Hills, the lower loops of Bridger Creek, and Sourdough.
Once February hit, the snow turned on and we had outstanding skiing at all of our venues! We were not able to use our Pisten Bully in town until late January and could not use it in Sourdough until mid-January due to thin snow cover. Throughout this December and January dry spell, we saw consistent trail use and trail damage from runners and walkers and engaged in a lengthy outreach and signage campaign in an attempt to dissuade this trail usage.
While there wasn’t much snow to start with at Sourdough, we began grooming there December 2nd and were able to consistently groom all the way through to the end of March, when the COVID-19 situation required us to shut down. The trail saw heavy skier use all the way to Mystic Lake from early on (likely due to a lack of snow in town), and as a whole, there were few issues with the other allowed trail users (foot traffic) and only a couple of instances where bikers used the trail. BSF held a couple of trail ambassador days, largely for the purpose of educating trail users, both foot traffic and skiers, on responsible winter trail use. The Hyalite trails likewise had a good season and while grooming didn’t start until December 19th, the Forest Service crew was up there every week and BSF lent a hand three times to help widen everything out and set a nice platform.
This year, our machinery and operators were pretty well behaved; there were no injuries or accidents involving the grooming crew or machinery, though we did have a couple breakdowns. BSF snowmobiles covered around 3,000 miles of trail while grooming this season, and we put 130 hours of grooming time on the Pisten Bully.
One snowmobile had starter issues which took two trips to the mechanic to resolve and another had an oil line break, which was fixed on the trail. The Pisten Bully had some hydraulic valve issues that made lifting the tiller increasingly difficult, and it needed some expensive parts to repair. We also had the ramp of one of our trailers break (while rescuing the snowmobile that wouldn’t start), which one of our staff was able to weld back together and reinforce.
BSF keeps a fleet of five snowmobiles, one Pisten Bully 100, two pickup trucks, and three trailers, valued at over $300,000 and all maintained to be in tip-top shape. This doesn’t count the implements to go along with all grooming equipment, which add nearly $40,000 to that.
Once the stay-at-home order lifts, we still have all of our spring cleanup and service work on all of our machines to go still.
Thank you for supporting your Community Nordic Trails and BSF! Spread the word about trail passes and what a great deal they are. We need this support year after year to keep your favorite trails looking sharp!
Thanks to our trail partners: City of Bozeman Parks & Recreation, Gallatin Valley Land Trust, Bozeman Health, Bridger Creek Golf Course, Sacajawea Middle School, Montana State University, the Custer-Gallatin National Forest, and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.
Thanks to our trail sponsors: Barnard Construction, Dee-O-Gee, Excel Physical Therapy, First Security Bank, George L. Ohrstrom Jr. Foundation, The Postal Annex, Ressler Toyota, and Yellowstone Bank.
Here are some summary numbers for each venue. The costs listed reflect only the grooming time and do not include the extra set up work, signage, porta potties, fundraising and public outreach time.
Sunset Hills: Groomed 56 times between October 26th and March 16th. 123 hours of labor were put in by the BSF grooming crew costing about $5300.
Highland Glen: Groomed 33 times between November 30th and March 4th for a total of 48 hours of labor and about $3100.
Bridger Creek: Groomed 29 times between November 30th and March 6th for a total of 71 hours of labor and $2600.
Sourdough: Groomed 51 times between December 2nd and March 26th for a total of 235 hours of labor. Just the cost of grooming for this season was $9,935. BSF did additional branch and brush clearance work along with a volunteer work day, which bumps the total value of Sourdough work by BSF (and volunteers) up to $13,844.
TOTAL COSTS: When you factor in all our costs, the BSF Trails Grooming Program costs $60,000 to $70,000 per year. A reminder: this is funded entirely through your voluntary trail passes, donations, generous community sponsors, and a grant (which is not guaranteed long term). Please remind your friends that it takes a village to make these trails work; pitch in with trail passes, donations and volunteering!
Kyle Marvinney is Trails Manager for the Bridger Ski Foundation.
p.s. Forgot to get your trail pass this year? Or just skied a whole bunch and want to contribute to the cause. Donate now.
