How ski grooming patterns can affect visibility in the snow.

Snow Groomed. Photo by John Price. Unsplash. How can we envision ski resorts opening with social distancing for the 2020-21 ski season?

How ski grooming patterns can affect visibility in the snow.

Ski Grooming Patterns

It is true when skiing down on a blue bird day on a groomed slope is really enjoyable. Now add clouds and fog, and if you don’t have trees at either side of the slope – you don’t see much! Still with trees by the side, visibility is not at its best.

This is what made QBI researcher Dr Will Harrison fall on a ski slope in Canada, and later he transformed this fall into a research project.

Dr Harrison says that visibility on groomed runs is severely reduced on shady spots of a run or on overcast days. He suggests that by grooming differently, visibility could be greatly improved.

The art of snow grooming - PistenBully picture. Red Road Show in Italy. How ski grooming patterns can affect visibility in the snow.
The art of snow grooming – PistenBully picture. Red Road Show in Italy. How ski grooming patterns can affect visibility in the snow.

Grooming is shown to have reduced ski accidents

Dr Harrison said, “for the safety of skiers and snowboarders, snow at ski resorts is compacted and smoothed in a process called “grooming”, which has been shown to reduce accidents,”

“Grooming results in a pattern of parallel lines in the snow, and we know a lot about how the brain processes these patterns. Grooming has been shown to reduce accidents, but I was interested to test if the particular groom pattern used at my ski resort made it more difficult to see the snow when it is not in full sunlight.

Chez Croux, soft pastels painting by Martina Diez-Routh. A stop for lunch with beautiful Monte Bianco in the background. On sale in my shop here.
Chez Croux, soft pastels painting by Martina Diez-Routh. A stop for lunch with beautiful Monte Bianco in the background. On sale in my shop here.

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50 Years of PistenBully

Pistenbully 300 Kandahar. 50 Years of Pistenbully.

50 Years of PistenBully

50 years of PistenBully. 50 used vehicles. 50 percent discount.

On the occasion of their anniversary, PistenBully is offering the impressive number of 50 used PistenBully vehicles at very special prices – including new tracks and a spare parts package.

Used vehicles on sale by PistenBully on ocassion of their 50th anniversary. 50 Years of Pistenbully.
Used vehicles on sale by PistenBully on ocassion of their 50th anniversary. 50 Years of PistenBully.

Attractive packages
Among these 50 vehicles, there is one for every need. With each of these used vehicles, the customer will receive a new set of combi tracks – both together with a discount of 25% off list price. This comes with a tailored spare parts package. The customer can individually compile this package up to a total list price value of €10,000 from the spare parts summer promotion parts scope and will receive a 25% discount off the regular list price. As part of PistenBully’s promotion, in addition to all this, if you trade in a PistenBully from the 300 model series built after 2001, you will be rewarded with a special bonus of up to €5,000 extra on top of the price featured in Schwacke (Germany’s “blue book” of automotive prices) – depending on condition.

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World First 0% Emissions Snow Groomer Was Launched by PistenBully.

PistenBully Electric Snow Groomer. World First 0% Emissions Snow Groomer Was Launched by PistenBully. Photo: PistenBully.

World First 0% Emissions Snow Groomer Was Launched by PistenBully.

Is it possible that slopes will soon be groomed 100% emission-free? At INTERALPIN 2019 in Innsbruck, the international leading trade fair for Alpine technologies, PistenBully is celebrating its 50th birthday – and in doing so, gives the industry an answer. With the study of the first electrically driven snow groomer, the PistenBully 100 E, this answer is a clear “Yes!”.

Environmental technology – Made in Germany
The first step was already taken in 2012 with the market launch of the PistenBully 600 E+ with diesel-electric drive. After all, the focus at Kässbohrer has been on sustainability for a long time now. So it should come as no surprise that, with the PistenBully 100 E study, Kässbohrer engineers have now made the impossible possible. Already well-known for their inquisitiveness and passion, paired with their claim as being drivers of innovation and possessing environmental awareness, it was only a matter of time until a study such as this was conducted. What this means is that we now have the prospect of completely clean slope grooming.

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