Groomed trails

Peter Crooks doesn’t like to be left alone at night in the woods, the wolves howling all around him.

He hopes Thunder Bay Nordic Trails’ new $215,000 Pisten Bully snow groomer will alleviate those concerns.

Crooks, who heads to Vancouver at the end of January to prepare the Olympic cross-country ski course, said the machine should have a major impact on the local skiing community.

"This will change things completely," Crooks said at a Friday morning news conference at Kamview Nordic Centre. "We’re going to move our present machine out to the (Sleeping Giant Provincial) Park and keep the new one here."

This means no more grooming trails with snowmobiles the night before the March Sleeping Giant Loppet, with the temperature hovering near -20 C and worrying about breaking down and being stranded.

The enclosed and heated Pisten Bully, one of only four new ones available in North America this year because of Olympic demands, will allow groomers like Crooks to make a single pass on most trails, a significant operational savings.

The likelihood of it breaking down is next to none, he added.

"Our maintenance costs on the new machine here at Kamview will be virtually nothing," Crooks said. "This machine is going to make a huge difference to the way this operation goes."

Al Comeau, superintendent at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, said its good news for anyone who skis the local trails.

"I think the benefactors of this new Pisten Bully is going to be all the skiers in Thunder Bay. And that includes Sleeping Giant and Kakabeka," he said.

The machine, which is being used as a display model by its manufacturer, won’t arrive in Thunder Bay until late in February, or about the time Crooks arrives home from Whistler and the Olympics.

"We have some fundraising to do anyway," Crooks said.

Thunder Bay Nordic Trails must come up with $65,000 of the total cost. The other $150,000 was covered through the Ontario government’s Trillium Foundation. MPP Bill Mauro (Lib.- Thunder Bay-Atikokan), said the money is the largest grant allowed under the Foundation’s rules.

"It helps them with their maintenance costs, it helps them with two machines, they don’t have to move one around from one to the other," Mauro said.

Thunder Bay Nordic Trails is responsible for about 100 kilometres of trails while Kamview Nordic centre has about 1,700 members.