THE EVOLUTION OF CORDUROY: HOW AND WHY?
Grooming has really changed the game for recreational skiing over the years. It might not mean bottomless powder, but shredding fresh corduroy is sometimes a great alternative to making it down the mountain, especially when off-piste snow conditions are highly suspect.
It all began with horses compacting roads as they pulled agricultural rollers behind them, and by 1939 the concept was being adopted (and adapted) for ski hills. At the time, the ski hill variety looked more like a 1200-pound network of chains with spikes dragged by a tractor.
Meanwhile, expeditions to the South Pole in the early 1900’s used the first tracked vehicles. The vehicles failed, the crew replaced them with ponies, and everyone on the mission died in Antarctica. It was only after WWII and with much development that there were machines sufficiently reliable to put on snow, the first of which was introduced by the Tucker Sno-Cat Corporation.
By the 60’s, grooming contraptions and Snowcats collided to create the original ‘groomer’. With the development of the power tiller and by adding a blade to the front to flatten the snow surface, they looked much like the snow cats of today. The rest is history! With tracking, sensors that calculate snow-depth, and soon-to-be fully electric models, the SnowCat isn’t done evolving just yet...
Curious to learn more about the history of SnowCats? Check out this article to get some more bites.
