Mean, Green 'EcoGroomer' Machine

Are you a resort skier concerned about the immense amounts of fuel and energy used for snowmaking, grooming, heating lodges, and running lifts to make your sport happen? A new company, EcoGroomer of Denver, Colo., addresses the snow-grooming side of the equation with a to-be-released machine that can result in a “200% increase in the surface area covered by one cat with a single operator.”

Though it looks like an electric-powered tractor, the EcoGroomer will still run on diesel fuel. But the company touts “tremendous productivity improvement” in the field of snow grooming by attaching two additional snow processing units to a traditional Snowcat tractor.

EcoGroomer cites fuel efficiency for nightly snow grooming to be improved by more than 30 percent, and that its product could save “over 20 million gallons of diesel fuel at US ski resorts” if widely deployed.

It’s an interesting idea if nothing else. The EcoGroomer for now is still on the drawing board, and the company is seeking a manufacturer. It hopes to supply major resorts throughout North America by the 2012/2013 ski season.

—Stephen Regenold