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SkiBum.Crazy Euros shaping parks with yoke cats.
JibberinoWhat's a yoke cat?
JibberinoWhat's a yoke cat?
SkiBum.Crazy Euros shaping parks with yoke cats.
theabortionatorWhat company builds the parks there? or does the mountain do it's own thing?
I have a similar job setup for Austria but the government is giving me the run around on my visa a bit.
Are they down to hire people from outside of Europe?
SkiBum.I also have no idea what cats they run. Just a good assumption they are running PBs with wheels, its the majority over there.
theabortionatorYeah PB is huge. Interesting that they run the yokes though. Wouldn't have thought that. I almost went up to Norway for september october and they were running a cat with a wheel. I figured it was just an older cat though.
Wondering why the preference though. The place I was in NZ they used to run wheels but my boss was doing summers at squaw and running sticks. He got them to change one of the cats over, and then after trying it out it the big boss eventually decided to go all stick.
I'm hoping the Austrian gov throws me a bone in time to still get over there. I've never worked a northern hem winter abroad.
Probably will be still holding out with my existing job when they fill the zermatt job.
-DanRegarding what company runs the park I'm not sure if there is one or if it's all the mtn but I do know that BMACK and LeeB from the bunch are the head park guys down there. Last year bmack could do whatever he wanted pretty much.
theabortionatorThat's pretty sick actually
SkiBum.North America seems to be the only place that runs sticks almost all the time over wheel cats. Personally I hate wheel cats. Cars have wheels, cats should have sticks.
Last time I was over in Euro Land most fleets where all wheel cats. I remember they had one new 400 at the time with sticks and it just sat there. No one wanted to run it. They also did park with wheel cats which is crazy in my eyes.
JibberinoI've done both, and I have no real preference. I never understood the hate on park building with wheels, if you're a good operator you should be able to do both. I'll be running sticks exclusively this year, so maybe I'll agree with you when the season is over, haha.
I think it all comes down to the way we do things in Europe, there's a lot of handshaping and not much cat work on features. So basically many places don't even have a dedicated park cat, someone will come in and groom the park fairly quick and then go and groom trails. For building it's often the same thing, the cat will come in and push some rough shapes, and then there's a butt load of hand work. I'm trying to get resorts here in Norway to realise the advantages of using the cat more, both in building and in maintaining. It's an uphill battle, but I'm slowly getting there.
SkiBum.Ahh, the SPT way of doing things.
I've always seen and done opposite. Good operator with sticks and you don't even need a hand crew.
SkiBum.Ahh, the SPT way of doing things.
I've always seen and done opposite. Good operator with sticks and you don't even need a hand crew.
BrawnTrendsHow does one become a snowpark shaper/builder? How did you guys get into that? Where you all regular groomers before? How does that work? Sounds like a pretty interesting job.
JibberinoI can only really speak for Europe/Scandinavia.
I spent a couple of years on hand crew and as a manager of snowparks. So I worked my way up, watched and learned, showed a genuine interest (there is a surprising lack of this from a lot of shapers) and rode along in the cat a lot. Eventually I got to operate a cat, and then worked my way up in that department. Generally I would say that real motivation for buiding and riding features, good work ethic and passion and desire to learn is the most important parts of becoming a shaper/park operator/snowpark manager.
Not really sure how it works in America, I've got a feeling that the road can be a lot bumpier?
BrawnTrendsInteresting. I'm also in Europe, so your experience is even more so valuable.
JibberinoWhere are you from?
BrawnTrendsI'm in France, Northern Alps. I usually ski in the Portes du Soleil area.
