This  section of our web page is designed to help our riders better understand the complex operation of grooming on our Trails .

In case you are unfamiliar with our groomers and grooming practices, we use 2 converted farm tractors built by Ebert Welding in New Liskard Ont. specifically designed for grooming snowmobile trails. The oldest tractor is a 2001 Ford New Holland TM 125  with 110 horse power, our 2005 /2006 addition to the fleet is a Ford New Holland TS115A . We have 2 drags the we use for trail leveling, our 1996 Marcell drag is used for leveling plowing in the fall and will be used behind the TM125 during the grooming season, in November of 2004 we received our new multi Blade drag built by Ebert Welding this drag is pulled by the TS115A. The complete groomer/drag unit with no snow load weights 9 metric tonne and is 9 feet 6 inches wide, all our trails ( except bushes ) are groomed double wide. One complete unit when new is worth approximately $140,000.00  so you can see it is no toy. Our Club owns these tractors and drags  it is not leased or rented from any one, your support in our Club has allowed to to prosper and have some of the best equipment available today to keep out trails up to the smooth conditions you have come to expect from us.

With the addition of the second groomer in the 2005/2006 season we will be stationing a groomer in the Lucan/ Ilderton area, this groomer will be maintained and operated buy a group of dedicated volunteers from that area. We will now be able to groom our trails in a very respectable period of time and also have a 2nd unit to cover in case of break downs.

It may look like grooming is an easy job ....but let me assure you it is not . Snow is a very tricky material to work with  and does not always do what you would like . The groomer operator is constantly making adjustments to the drag to compensate for the varying conditions of the snow.  The moisture content and temperature have a lot to do with how a trail turns out after it is groomed . Almost every Club tries to groom primarily at night...why ? the colder temperatures and lack of sunlight help to set the base. Also the lack of traffic help to give the base longer to set up and harden ( something like concrete ) ...but of course depending on the snow conditions a hard base is not always obtainable. There is many people that go out on a saturday afternoon and expect to see this groomer running......well that is basically just a waste of time money and diesel fuel. Due to the reasons stated above the trail does not remain groomed very long and it not a good practice to do.
In the past few years we have tried to groom all the trails at least twice a week and more if conditions  require.


Below is a excerpt I took from the OFSC web site , it does a very good job of answering questions about grooming.


Grooming Trails - What's the Story?
Has the trail been groomed or has it not been groomed? That is the question.

Groom (a) to make neat and trim
(b) to train for a particular purpose

Once the snowmobiling season starts, the state of the OFSC snowmobile trails is on everyone's mind. When we go snowmobiling we all want perfectly groomed trails that has a good base, with no drifts, no bumps, no holes and every sign in place. That is this writer's expectation. When one's expectations are not meet we tend to be upset.

It is a certainty that each one of us has traveled a snowmobile trail that was not groomed or had big moguls or had a sign or two missing and in the worse case scenario all of the above. Any snowmobiler with reasonable expectations knows that they will encounter trails like this in the province and must be prepared for them and understand why they are the way they are. When this type of trail is encountered one must be prepared to stop to ask themselves why might this trail be the way that it is. It must also be remembered that the ones setting up, maintaining, and taking down this trail are volunteers.

Some of the questions to ask yourself are:

Has it being storming?
Is it ground drifting?
How many people have traveled this trail today before me?
What type of snow is it?
Is it early morning or late at night?
What irresponsible person took the sign?
I wonder if the groomer is 30 to 60 minutes behind me ?
Is the groomer broke down?
Has the club run out of money to pay for all the grooming expenses such as fuel and oil?
Is the groomer operator having a well desired rest?
Grooming is done by OFSC member clubs or grooming associations. The clubs/associations retain so much out of each Ontario Snowmobile Trail Permit sold, to carry out the club's day to day operations. They also have access to an OFSC Trail Development Fund with is also built up from the trail permit money that clubs send in to the OFSC. The Trail Development Fund monies are available to all trail building clubs who apply and qualify for it. These funds may be applied to the building of bridges, signage, purchase of grooming equipment.

The OFSC member clubs/association who do not have sufficient funds to carry on the grooming operations may also apply for money from an OFSC Contingency Fund which is also formed from the permit dollars sent into the OFSC by the clubs.

Many clubs have fund raising events to pay for trail grooming expenses. Only half of the costs of the trail system is paid for by trail permit dollars.

Ontario is a vast province with a wide variety of terrain and in order to groom the trail through this wide variety of terrain, the proper type of grooming equipment is needed. There are many types of grooming equipment used in the province of Ontario. This grooming equipment is very expensive as it ranges in price from $70,000 to $180,000 per piece of machinery. This is only for the tractor part as there is also the drag that actually levels the snow. These drags can cost upwards to $10,000. OFSC Clubs borrow money from the banks to pay for the equipment and usually before the loan is paid off the equipment is worn out and must be replaced. It is figured that there should be at least one piece of grooming equipment for every 110km of trail. At 49,000kms of trail in the province that means we should have about 440 pieces of grooming equipment on the OFSC trail system. There is not even close to that number of pieces of grooming equipment in the province.

Actual grooming does not always start with the first snowfall. A lot of the trails are on private property and these landowners require that there is sufficient snow cover before the clubs are allowed to start grooming. Another reason is that some trails cross water and a minimum of 15" of ice is needed to carry a groomer. Some clubs, because of the variance of ice conditions do not allow their groomers to cross ice for safety reasons. In other places, the ground has rocks and stumps which must have sufficient snow cover before grooming can start.

The first thing that must happen to form a good trail is a base. Some clubs do not wish to open their trails until the base is established. When the base is tore up by snowmobilers who use the trail before it is ready, it just delays having good trails that much longer.

One finds it hard to believe but there are different kinds of snow. Each type of snow results in different types of trail conditions. The sugary type of snow once disturbed, whether by a groomer or a snowmobile does not pack well and after even 5 machines travel over a freshly groomed trail, it may appear that the groomer has not been through for several days. Spring snow has no body and once it arrives then the groomers are taken off as they will do more damage to the trails than good.

Bumps in the trail can be caused by several things such as part of a rock, a small stump, a log, uneven ground and those little piles of snow left by a snowmobiler who starts up fast. Once there is a small pile of snow each snowmobile that travels over the little bump digs in on the other side and gradually the big black hole develops. These are sometimes called moguls. Aren't they hard on the back?

In farmland area, some trails cross ploughed fields. Some clubs go out as soon as the field is ploughed an pull a drag across the field where the trail will be going. This is of course with the permission of the landowner and on volunteer time.

Club groomer operators are usually volunteers who do this in their spare time when they aren't working at their regular jobs. Groomer operators in the province can spend up to 14 hours and sometimes longer on a round trip and in Northern Ontario in some cases they stop for the night in a motel have a sleep then turn around and go back. In some cases clubs who were having difficulty finding volunteers willing to spend so many hours grooming are hiring operators to run the equipment.

One of the hardest things that clubs have to deal with is getting trails ready after a storm. Clubs have found that some snowmobilers seem to expect that the trails should be open and ready as soon as the snowstorm stops. These snowmobilers become quite upset that the trail isn't and either call the OFSC Barrie office about the poor condition of the trails or send an email to the OFSC Web site. They seem to forget that like snowplows, groomers are pulled off the trails when visibility is poor. They are also pulled off because grooming during a snow storm is a waste of your permit dollar as a trail will fill in and drifts appear almost immediately and one wouldn't even realize that the groomer had been through.

Many times while grooming is taking place, there is what is called ground drifting of the snow. This can put small drifts across the trail, which can cause havoc to a trail. Especially when the snow is a hard packed snow.

When traveling the OFSC Trail system, set up and maintained by its member clubs, be prepared to stop when meeting a groomer. Always remember they are bigger than a snowmobile and one could say that they have the right of way.

Grooming, years ago, was a snowmobile dragging a set of old bedsprings around.

We've come a long way baby! Happy sledding'.

© 2001 Ontario Federation Of Snowmobile Clubs
 


General Guidelines for Snowmobile Trail Grooming Copied from the NYS Office of Parks, Recreation, & Historic Preservation Training Manual and Workbook

Mogul Formation The primary reason that snowmobile trail grooming is necessary is the continuous formation of moguls by passing snowmobile traffic. Moguls are patterns or mounds and dips formed in the trails snow covering perpendicular to the direction of travel. Moguls are formed just as washboards are in gravel roads. Just as gravel roads have to be graded, snowmobile trails have to be groomed. Moguls are as onerous to snowmobilers as washboards are to motorists. Moguls tend to form wherever snowmobiles accelerate quickly or slow down abruptly. Before and after curves, approaching and leaving stop signs, before and after bridges, in short everywhere! Moguls tend to form in long coherent stretches or runs. Passing snowmobile traffic causes the mounds to get higher and the dips to get deeper, the same distance apart from one another in a constant unchanging rhythm which pounds machine and rider.

Trail Grooming Theory The primary purpose of grooming is to remove moguls. This is not simply a matter of knocking the top of one mound and pushing the snow into the next dip. Drags which accomplish this may appear to leave a flat trail. However the resulting uneven density will produce a poor ride even though the trail looks smooth and the trail will quickly revert back to moguls as the soft snow gets pounded out of the low spots. Regardless of the design of the grooming drag, it must perform 4 basic operations in order to produce a well groomed trail.

Step 1. Removing moguls and side berms To remove moguls and berms they must be completely cut away from the snow which forms the trail base! Generally it is more efficient to start from the outside edge and work towards the center.

Step 2. Processing the Snow Snow processing is accomplished by the establishment of the rolling or churning action in front of the blades of the drag as they move forward at a correct and constant speed. In some drag designs, the blades are angled so that the snow moves from side to side further mixing and homogenizing it. The churning and tumbling action breaks up the compacted snow from which the moguls were formed, into small granules of various sizes. It also "ages" new snow by breaking away the points from the individual snow flakes so they can be compacted much more tightly. The mechanical action of the churning and tumbling has another important purpose in that it introduces moisture into the snow mix due to friction. Moisture is very important to the success of the last step, and this feature of processing is especially valuable when the snow is very dry, such as lake effect snow. Finally, all the processed snow is mixed and homogenized into an even blend of moist, loose particles ready for compacting.

Step 3. Compacting the Snow The moist, loose snow created by the processing step must be compacted into and even covering of uniform density with a smooth surface. This step is accomplished by a flat packing pan at the rear of the drag. The front of the pan is angled up so the loose snow is captured and pulled under the flat pan where it is compressed by the weight of the moving drag.

Step 4. Set Up The last step in the grooming process is to allow the moisture created during the processing to re-freeze. This binds the individual granules of tightly packed snow firmly together creating a hard surface which will withstand passing traffic much better. The length of time needed for a trail to set up correctly can vary from 1 to 6 or more hours, depending on the temperature and the moisture content of the snow. It is vital that the trail remain undisturbed during this period! Consequently, many clubs groom at night when traffic levels are low and the temperatures generally are cooler. It is recommended that grooming should occur at night after traffic subsides. This provides safe operation and more effective grooming, as there is more time for the trail to set up before traffic resumes.

The following was taken from another web site.

Grooming Trails - What's the Story? Has the trail been groomed or has it not been groomed? That is the question. Groom (a) to make neat and trim (b) to train for a particular purpose Once the snowmobiling season starts, the state of the NYS snowmobile trails is on everyone's mind. When we go snowmobiling we all want perfectly groomed trails that has a good base, with no drifts, no bumps, no holes and every sign in place. That is this writer's expectation. When one's expectations are not meet we tend to be upset. It is a certainty that each one of us has traveled a snowmobile trail that was not groomed or had big moguls or had a sign or two missing and in the worse case scenario all of the above. Any snowmobiler with reasonable expectations knows that they will encounter trails like this in the state and must be prepared for them and understand why they are the way they are. When this type of trail is encountered one must be prepared to stop to ask themselves why might this trail be the way that it is. It must also be remembered that the ones setting up, maintaining, and taking down this trail are volunteers. Some of the questions to ask yourself are: Has it being storming? Is it ground drifting? How many people have traveled this trail today before me? What type of snow is it? Is it early morning or late at night? What irresponsible person took the sign? I wonder if the groomer is 30 to 60 minutes behind me ? Is the groomer broke down? Has the club run out of money to pay for all the grooming expenses such as fuel and oil? Is the groomer operator having a well desired rest? Grooming is done by NYS member clubs or grooming associations. The Trail Development Fund monies are available to all trail building clubs who apply and qualify for it. These funds may be applied to the building of bridges, signage. Many clubs have fund raising events to pay for trail grooming expenses. About half of the costs of the trail system is paid for by trail permit dollars. NYS is a vast area with a wide variety of terrain and in order to groom the trail through this wide variety of terrain, the proper type of grooming equipment is needed. There are many types of grooming equipment used in this state. This grooming equipment is very expensive as it ranges in price from $70,000 to $180,000 per piece of machinery. This is only for the tractor part as there is also the drag that actually levels the snow. These drags can cost upwards to $10,000. Clubs borrow money from the banks to pay for the equipment and usually before the loan is paid off the equipment is worn out and must be replaced. It is figured that there should be at least one piece of grooming equipment for every 65miles of trail. At 8160miles of trail in the state that means we should have about 126 pieces of grooming equipment on the NYS trail system. There is not even close to that number full size pieces of grooming equipment in the state. Actual grooming does not always start with the first snowfall. A lot of the trails are on private property and these landowners require that there is sufficient snow cover before the clubs are allowed to start grooming. Another reason is that some trails cross water and a minimum of 8” of ice is needed to carry a Sled Groomer. Some clubs, because of the variance of ice conditions do not allow their groomers to cross ice for safety reasons. In other places, the ground has rocks and stumps which must have sufficient snow cover before grooming can start. The first thing that must happen to form a good trail is a base. Some clubs do not wish to open their trails until the base is established. When the base is tore up by snowmobilers who use the trail before it is ready, it just delays having good trails that much longer. One finds it hard to believe but there are different kinds of snow. Each type of snow results in different types of trail conditions. The sugary type of snow once disturbed, whether by a groomer or a snowmobile does not pack well and after even 5 machines travel over a freshly groomed trail, it may appear that the groomer has not been through for several days. Spring snow has no body and once it arrives then the groomers are taken off as they will do more damage to the trails than good. Bumps in the trail can be caused by several things such as part of a rock, a small stump, a log, uneven ground and those little piles of snow left by a snowmobiler who starts up fast. Once there is a small pile of snow each snowmobile that travels over the little bump digs in on the other side and gradually the big black hole develops. These are sometimes called moguls. Aren't they hard on the back? In farmland area, some trails cross plowed fields. Some clubs go out as soon as the field is plowed and pull a drag across the field where the trail will be going. This is of course with the permission of the landowner and on volunteer time. Club groomer operators are usually volunteers who do this in their spare time when they aren't working at their regular jobs. Groomer operators in this state can spend up to 14 hours and sometimes longer. In some cases clubs who were having difficulty finding volunteers willing to spend so many hours grooming are hiring operators to run the equipment. One of the hardest things that clubs have to deal with is getting trails ready after a storm. Clubs have found that some snowmobilers seem to expect that the trails should be open and ready as soon as the snowstorm stops. These snowmobilers become quite upset that the trail isn't and either call the area Club representative about the poor condition of the trails or send an email to the www site available or NYSSA. They seem to forget that like snowplows, groomers are pulled off the trails when visibility is poor. They are also pulled off because grooming during a snow storm is a waste of your snowmobiling dollars as a trail will fill in and drifts appear almost immediately and one wouldn't even realize that the groomer had been through. Many times while grooming is taking place, there is what is called ground drifting of the snow. This can put small drifts across the trail, which can cause havoc to a trail. Especially when the snow is a hard packed snow. When traveling the NYS Club Trail system, set up and maintained by its member clubs, be prepared to stop when meeting a groomer. Always remember they are bigger than a snowmobile and one could say, they have the right of way. Grooming, years ago, was a snowmobile dragging a set of old bedsprings around. We've come a long way baby! Happy sledding'.

SNOWMOBILERS, DID YOU KNOW??? Without snowmobile clubs there would be NO snowmobile trails for YOU to ride! Snowmobile clubs get permission, clear, mark, maintain, build bridges and secure insurance for the trails you ride, everywhere! If you own a snowmobile you should belong to a snowmobile club, any snowmobile club. Snowmobile clubs need your help. If you can't give physical help, just buying your permit from your favorite Club gives financial help. . PLEASE, JOIN A SNOWMOBILE CLUB!


This is from Jerry Moore of the Chippewa Snow Chasers.


Grooming A Trail
Every thing you wanted to know but were afraid to ask!

By Jerry Moore Jr.

As Webmaster for the Chippewa Snow Chasers, I receive a lot of e-mails concerning groomers and trail grooming. As someone who drives the groomer day in and day out, I find it hard believe how many snowmobile's are unaware of how a groomer works and what is involved in grooming a trail. In this article I will attempt to explain in terms everyone can understand how the trails are prepared for your riding pleasure.

The following scenario would be typical for a snowmobilers day especially on the weekend. It is 9:30 A.M., the sun is out and you have just finished breakfast. Ready for a great day of riding, you get the sled all warmed up and hit the trails. You say to yourself, " Wow! These trails are smooth." The miles fade into the distance behind you and we know you are having fun. After a wonderful ride to your destination, it is time to head back to the motel or cabin. As you return to your camp or motel room, that trail that was smooth eight hours ago, now looks like the U.S Army had used it for target practice or it looks like a mountain road in Afghanistan. How did it get this way, you ask? Believe it or not, this question has been posed to me in e-mails hundreds of times. The answers are not simple because good trails depend on a number of factors, temperature, amount and kind of snow, and the traffic during the day. Snow can be fluffy like cotton, wet and sloppy, granular like sugar and any one of a hundred variations in between. As snowmobiles travel over the smooth trails, the packed snow is loosened a bit as each sled passes. Each machine tends to sink in where the snow is soft and the harder portions of the trail become the tops of the growing moguls. Spinning tracks, doing doughnuts and speeding around corners loosens the snow even faster. After hundreds of sleds have passed over a trail, it becomes mogul alley. In addition, temperatures above freezing are deadly to any trail no matter where it is located and how much snow is on it.

The Chippewa Snow Chasers groom our trails every night, weather permitting but there is no way that we can keep those trails smooth 24 hours a day. There are a few things in life that fall under the heading of impossible and freshly groomed trails 24/7 is an impossible dream. Two groomers cannot keep 81 miles of trails smooth when hundreds of sleds rip up and down them, spinning tracks, sliding around corners and tearing up the fresh groom. We can go out at night and try to repair the damage and make the trails smooth for the next day, but the next day the hundreds of sleds are back, tearing up the freshly groomed snow.

After hundreds of riders have torn up the trails, it is the responsibility of the groomer driver to fix the damage and make it smooth for the next day. Grooming requires that we first fill the tractor with diesel and fill up the thermos with a lot of coffee because we are in for an all night trip. We leave our home base at about 5pm. We start late because we need to groom the trails when there are fewer sleds on them. Lower traffic volume means the trail has a better chance to set up and is much safer for everyone involved. We are now rolling down the trail at a speedy 5 to 8 miles per hour. We look out ahead of our front blade and all we can see is moguls! It’s going to be a long night! We drop our drag as low is it can go. The drag is that big long thing we pull behind the grooming tractor. We have to get the blades of the drag down to the bottom of the moguls. If we only skim the top of the mogul, then we are wasting our time. If we cut off the top of the mogul, snow held in the drag will be deposited in the low spots between the moguls. The trail will look smooth behind the drag but it is not. The first snowmobile that travels down such a trail will start a wavy motion, because he is hitting hard snow (the top of the mogul) and soft snow (the snow between the moguls) and in no time the moguls will be built up again by the sled traffic. By running our blades on the front of the drag as low as we can go, we take the whole mogul out. Now that the front blade of the drag has taken out the mogul, the snow is funneled through a series of other blades before it reaches the pan. (The pan is located at the very back of the drag.) As the snow goes under the pan, it gets flattened out and packed down.

Groomers call the snow that comes out from under the pan "The Ribbon". Every groomer operator loves a good ribbon. Now comes the most important part of grooming. The ribbon needs time and cold temperatures to set up. If the temperature is at or above freezing, the ribbon will not set up. On a warm night if I get out of the groomer to stretch and take a break and walk on the ribbon, my footprints will be three or four inches deep. If these conditions last, the trail will not hold up the following day to all of the sled traffic. When it is cold out and we have some new snow, the ribbon will set up and will harden up almost like concrete. When the weather is cold, the groomer operator is happy because the trails can then take a bigger beating and will last longer. We do use the front blade on the groomer as well. The large front blade is used when the moguls are really deep and when we have to bring snow back into a corner where the speed demons have thrown it out.

I hope you are still with me and are paying attention because you have learned something about making your trails smooth. I have explained how a mogul starts, what we do to get rid of them and how the ribbon looks and feels. I will now explain how one should treat the ribbon when you meet a groomer. When you are on a narrow trail, you must ride on the ribbon after you meet a groomer. When this happens, don't spin your track right away. Speed won't hurt the ribbon but stopping and then ripping it will. When you meet a groomer on a wide trail you probably say, "Wow fresh trails, but don't jump on the ribbon right away because the snow hasn't had a chance to set up yet. If it is reasonably smooth on the old section, stay on the old section and let the new ribbon set up. If the trail is rough, by all means get on the smooth part since we don't want you to ride on rough trails. Just be careful how you treat the ribbon at first. There have been many times when I was grooming the trail at two o'clock in the morning. A couple sleds would follow me riding up and down spinning their tracks and doing doughnuts on the freshly groomed ribbon. These two idiots on those sleds ruined the riding on that section of the trail for the following day.

One Saturday this past season, I began grooming out of Hulbert at 6:00 p.m. I met what seemed like hundreds of sleds but by 11 p.m. the sled traffic was almost gone. I groomed down to Trout Lake and when I returned to Hulbert at 7:30 a.m. the next morning, the trail looked as if it hadn't been groomed in over a week. Why was the trail destroyed in less than twelve hours? The answer that night was temperatures above freezing. Temperatures held in the mid-thirties until almost 5:00 a.m. Finally, when the temperature dropped, the ribbon began to set up, and since there were no sleds out ripping it up at 5:00 A.M., the trail that Sunday morning remained smooth until the weather warmed up again. Once the temperature climbed above the freezing mark, the trails quickly fell apart.

Weather is the major deciding factor in determining the condition of the trails and how long a freshly groomed trail lasts. Cold is good, colder is better and low sled traffic and a cold night insure a good ride the next day. There are times when I pray for wet snow. When we receive wet snow and then cold weather follows, our ribbon becomes like cement. There were times last winter when I groomed during a warm day and I felt like I was literally wasting my time. As soon as five sleds passed me, it did not even look like I had groomed. That is why we groom at night. The temperatures usually drop in the evening and the lower amount of sled traffic gives the ribbon time to set up. If you are sledding at night, remember don't tear up the ribbon because you are ruining it for everyone the next day.

I will end this groomer lesson on a final note. When you meet a groomer, there are three things you must do. First, get out of his way. The tractor and drag cannot get off the trail easily. A snowmobile can get off the trail much easier and remember a stuck sled is easier to get out than a stuck grooming tractor! Second, use the proper hand signals to let the groomer know how many sleds are behind you. It is nice to know if someone else is coming, especially if we are approaching a corner. Third, give the drivers a big thumbs up and let them know that you appreciate them volunteering hours of their time to help groom the trails. If you come up behind a groomer, wait until he sees you in his rear view mirrors. As soon as he can find a place to get off to the side, he will pull over, stop, and let you pass. A little patience on your part could avoid a nasty accident. Remember he is much bigger than you are!

Oh! I almost forgot. Another great way to keep the snowmobile trails smooth is to join a club. Without snowmobile clubs providing volunteer labor and raising money to help buy grooming equipment, your trail permit fees would need to be at least 10 or 15 times higher than they are today. Join a club, and participate in some of the events they sponsor throughout the year. Become a part of the 10 percent of snowmobilers who help with the trails. As more people participate, the job of keeping our trails in great condition becomes easier for everyone concerned.

All of the people in the Chippewa Snow Chasers are strictly volunteers. We do not receive pay for our time. We do it for the love of the sport and to provide our area with nice and smooth trails. Thanks for taking the time to read this long article. Your thumbs up and support of the clubs is the tonic that keeps volunteers going during those long lonely hours on the trail. By the way, have a great ride!

Other info from Ebert Welding

The main thing to realize, the “perfect ribbon” syndrome is basically an operators pride thing… we all want to leave an immaculate trail. But realistically, the appearance of the trail surface is nowhere near as important as what's going on “below” it. If you cut out the entire mogul (at its base), left as much blade surface area in the snow so that the snow was “processed” (broken up) as much as possible, kept enough snow within the drag body to fully spread out in front of the pan/packer, and didn't drive too fast so that the snow was able to consistently settle/pack, then you did all you could. The “perfect ribbon” trail surface is a bonus, mother nature permitting.

Besides, the only sledders that benefit from a “perfect ribbon” are the first 5 or 10 behind you… everybody after that just wants to be sure that you got everything else done right!

The most important part of grooming is to break down the snow into smaller particles to increase the amount of “bonding instances” (where each snow particle touches another). The most effective way of doing this is by “churning” or “rolling” the snow, and at higher speeds this doesn't occur as effectively. As dictated by the laws of physics, “typical” snow density favorably churns/rolls between 5 and 7 MPH. (of course there are exceptions such as warmer melting snow).

There are also other potential negative effects resulting from grooming at higher speeds… the drag might possibly “jitter” or bounce, which can have an effect on the packing action… snow could be thrown out of the drag… snow might get “dragged” within the drag instead of rolling/churning because not enough friction with trail surface to cause the desired churning action.

Having said all this, I've been out grooming with clubs who do groom at 15MPH and damned if their trail ain’t the flattest you've ever seen! (are you out there Luc the “Groomer Guy” from Dubreuilville??) …BUT these are exceptions, where the trails were running on flat logging roads/railway beds, and they were just “skimming” with the drag, not cutting moguls. And they went out twice as often, to keep them that flat so they could travel that fast. And it was always way up in northern Ontario where it was usually very cold.

Bottom line, if there are any moguls to speak of, grooming at a slower speed WILL provide better results (providing you cut out the mogul down to its base).

Snopinion: Jumping the Gun
By Craig Nicholson. (©2005 by Craig Nicholson. All rights reserved.)
Over eager snowmobilers everywhere strain at the leash to get their first ride in. Some jumped the gun early and laid rubber to snow, most likely in far less than ideal
conditions. So the arrival of pre-Christmas snow across much of Ontario begs the question: when will the trails be open?
The easy answer is when club grooming operations are regularly underway. The commencement of this action varies from region to region and club to club, but what it all boils down to is having enough snow to make a hard packed base of snow. The objective of early grooming is to fill all the holes and compress the snow so it can freeze into a solid foundation that will last the season as subsequent layers of snow are compressed on to it. Creating this base requires that the frost be well into the ground first, so that the earth is as cold as or colder than the snow that falls on to it. Until it is, the base wont set up properly. This operation is far from simple. Early snow is more of a tease than anything useful for grooming. Usually there's not enough of it. Most times, its too light or fluffy to have much substance. More often than not it melts within hours. It normally falls before the ground freezes and then acts as insulation to slow that process. Frequently, just enough accumulates to cover and hide, but not cushion, obstacles that can damage a groomer or sled. On farmland, sleds riding prematurely on too little snow may damage crops, which
can result in the club having to permanently close that trail. Worst of all, early snow tempts snowmobilers to give it a try, sometimes with tragic consequences.
As soon as snow falls, clubs are under tremendous pressure to start grooming and open their trails. As avid riders, club volunteers are torn between wanting to get trails open fast and waiting to make a trail base that will last. Each winter, over eager clubs relearn the hard lesson that grooming too soon can result in very expensive equipment repairs — paid for with dollars that should have been used to pay for grooming later in the season. Another factor determining the start-up of grooming is ice conditions. Many sections of snowmobile trail are impassable after spring thaw, because of standing water, creeks, run off or bogs. Until all water on the trail is frozen solidly enough to bear the considerable weight of a multi-ton groomer, these sections of trail remain unreachable and ungroomable.
Again, clubs have paid the price of being too keen. Sunken groomers have to be laboriously (and expensively) recovered with heavy equipment, then reconditioned to ensure that all moisture is eliminated before being put back into service. So pre-season snow is a very dicey proposition. On the one hand, it heralds good times ahead. On the other, it causes considerable frustration, unnecessary expense and even tragedies.
Clubs are also reluctant to list their trails as “Open” until they can safely say this about their whole system. Meanwhile, some clubs list some trails or parts of trails as “Limited”, meaning they are marginally passable for snowmobiling, but require cautious riding. “Limited” trails mean that connections and linkages are probably not open either. So what's an eager rider to do when pre-season snow falls? The best bet is to keep the sleds parked until trails are open. The risks of riding anywhere before then are enormous. Sled damage (expensive), bodily injury (perhaps season ending), death (definitely season ending) and/or trail closures (decreased riding options) often result. Conditions are never predictable pre-season, and certainly not as good as they will be later. So whether you choose to ride off trail or buy a permit and ride on trail, assessing and understanding snow and ice conditions properly can make the difference between life and death — and
how much you are able to enjoy the rest of the season!