We’re currently in Wengen and can see the lights of the piste bashers hard at work both on the bottom of the Lauterhorn WC run and over the valley in Winteregg. They’re doing sterling work, as the pistes are mostly sh@gaged by lunchtime and by mid afternoon a kayak would be a better tool to get back home than skis - but every morning they’re (mostly) perfect again.
It feels like one of those jobs that takes a certain mindset and character, and I suspect there’s some very funny/dubious/downright outrageous tales to be told from those long dark nights, alone on the mountain bashing one out…
So - anybody earned a living that way? Or have any tall tales or experiences they’re prepared to share in public?
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Highest suicide rate for any job I believe. Very lonely up there bashing one out. Brings to mind the film cold pursuit, good fun Liam neeson at his usual antics bashing by night, killing by day!
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
@CoticJon, tried to convince my youngest brother to give it a go.
He's 21 and a bit short of ideas what job he wants, but also wants to travel. Think his greenkeeping qualification would have some decent crossover from mowers to groomers.
Seems like the sort of job where everyone is asking for someone with experience, so no idea how you get in initially.
@Gainz, possibly true since there aren't very many of them. But (at least in the US) its Doctors, Dentists and Police by a wide margin. (Including my Dad's dentist, a notorious perfectionist...the next dentist looked at the dental work in his mouth and said "you were a Harry Rice patient"!)
Regardless, agree with the OP and I'd pay serious money for a chance at some time messing with one of those machines. I've ridden in them, as any gearhead would, given the chance. Way cool.
One basher in particular had a tragic night in Val d'Isere early in the season, as sadly reported on one of the excellent VDI threads here. I'll try: the machine the basher was operating in a proper manner killed an unauthorized skier at night who apparently skied into the winch cable and your imagination is sufficient from there. So when we talk of suicide amongst bashers, I hope that one in particular is ok.
I wonder if the guys who mow golf courses in the summer mow ski areas in winter? Not the longest stretch...
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Gainz, My son was a paid extra in that film. Sadly he remains on the cutting room floor, but it was a fun experience and his first paid job. Got paid for skiing and got good meals
@Scooter in Seattle, Chamonix, I think, lets you pay to drive one.
It's apparently really quite tricky.
In France I assume you pay to take the course, and then you can apply for a job.
And skiing on many slopes illegal after lifts close for exactly that reason.
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
A few years back there was a BBC TV show with Kirsten O'Brien and Will Mellor https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00rmqw9
One of the episodes featured learning to drive a piste basher around Chatel (actually its Chalet Neuf)
One of our sons did a work placement with the pisteurs in Morzine.
He got to do a ton of cool things, but his top 3 were:
3: Playing with the avalanche rescue dogs to keep them stimulated when they weren't doing anything
2: Being towed up the Pleney behind a skidoo
1: Driving a Piste Basher along one of the tracks.
I think some resorts like La Plagne offer rides in the PB, and others offer the chance to drive one.
After all it is free
After all it is free
I noticed in Sainte Foy that you could have a piste basher experience in the evening, but cant remember how much it was - €30? maybe. They also offered a chance to be a pisteur for the day, I assume just to tag along!
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
Info available from the PistenBully website (https://www.pistenbully.com/en/home/services.html) regarding training courses, and also here https://www.proacademy.info/en.html
..Nick
Ski the Net with snowHeads
Ski the Net with snowHeads
I’ve spent a few (long) nights in bashers. One notable thing is the time which the starting sequence takes. Key in…whirr, clunk, whirr….buzzz…find the start button on one of the many instrument clusters….press and wait….then the diesel engine starts up with a roar…more whirring and clunking as the hydraulics activate…then a 10 min wait for the electronics to calibrate and boot up. With GPS and ground radar for snow depth, there’s a lot of technical assistance for the pisteur-drivers. Much more aids than there were 20 years ago.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
I bought an evening piste basher ride for my sister and family in Les Menuires about 3 years ago. It was an amazing evening and far exceeded my expectations. We were in a nice cosy modern cabin in a small basher that grooms the footpaths. We had a lovely driver up front-I still remember his name I think-Alberto-an Italian who lived locally and was a mountain guide in the summer. He was a total enthusiast for the nature you see at night. We were so lucky-the sky was clear with a full moon coming up over the side of the mountain as we made our way along the valley. We started just as the light was going at about 6pm (it was half term in Feb) rode all the way up the piste from Reberty to the footpath from the Roc 2 chair, then along that footpath along the side of the valley, down to Notre Dame de La Vie, (the church on the main road above St Martin). We all took it in turns to get into the cab with Alberto. On the return leg, we stopped for charcuterie and wine at a mid mountain restaurant, then again on the path just above Les Menuires. We saw deer, a fox, hare, rabbit. I think in all we were out for at least 4 hours and it really was a great experience. I'd recommend it!
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
@Perty, wow, that sounded like an incredible trip.
Re career routes to piste-bashing, a nephew of mine did a number of seasons in snow-making teams in NZ, Oz and Switzerland, preceded by being a lifty in Canada, building up loads of experience. He's in Canada now, and once the snow-making was all done by Xmas he was then shifted onto piste-bashing, with training on the job rather than a formal course. One of his Kiwi pals does piste-bashing somewhere in Austria each winter.
Guess there was a bit of right place / right time for him and his pal as well as good attitude, but yep it seems possible.
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
The most difficult part of being a groomer driver in the US is smoking enough crack so that you an leave the 6 inch step up/downs between passes or the baby head litter.
(Sorry - partially a commentary on the traditional attention to detail paid at places like Palisades and Kirkweed, but really down to the difficulties of grooming in a wet warm snowpack)
You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Les Saisies offered basher-driving experiences, but I never did one. It sounded pretty tame. I'd have been up for a ride like Perty describes, which sounds wonderful. I did do a morning "opening up" session with a pisteur, which was offered to a few people on one morning a week, without charge. That was good - going round on pristine corduroy, in the sun (as it happens...) checking everything was OK, sticking back the odd piste marker which had been knocked down by a basher, reporting any dangerous "steps", then having coffee and cake with them in their mountain top hut. It was excellent. I speak enough French to have had lots of conversation with the guy, who was local, and a demolition engineer in summer, when we were on the lifts, but I was almost totally lost once they were all jabbering away at the coffee and cake stage.
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
@Dave of the Marmottes, "baby head litter", thanks for a new one.
I'll serve up what I assume is a related term, "death cookies", though these are not the fault of the pisteur. Those are clear ice chunks that thawed out of the trees and slid onto the piste and froze in place. I might have closed the run.
Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Perty wrote:
We all took it in turns to get into the cab with Alberto.
Sorry, the rest of you were on a rope tow behind??
This http://youtube.com/v/hPmFtBEMfvI is the deepest I've ever seen a Cat in the snow, I could get 100m at most before I ran out of power/speed and the front would drop (if you look closely I've got it to sort of wheely/ raise the front) in the soft snow and I would have to back up and take another run.
Quite a few adventures turning round in tight spaces. Trying to make a road on a steep slope and almost back flipping the whole thing!
Drove it a bit at night but had much bigger adventures on skis or even snowmobile after dark (It can be a VERY long walk out of you get stuck).
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I got to drive one at Obergurgl at Easter a few years ago - just asked you to sign a waiver and they let me loose with one of their drivers. We squeezed the kids in the passenger seat and did a loop around a closed off piste - great fun and like a lot of things gives you a great appreciation of how difficult it actually is.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Perty, thanks, thought they just had jump seats. Brilliant. Wonder if and where I could get in one. Sounds fantastic.
@gryphea, was a paid extra once too. Unfortunately I ended on the cutting room floor also. But I did meet Peter O'Toole and Brad Pitt. Saw Brian Cox too but didn't dare talk to him he looked ready to break someone's neck lol.
Been cat boarding a couple of time they are very impressive machines. The work dies appeal to me especially the solitude but would probably go insane eventually...