By the time most of us arrive at the mountain, our Slope Maintenance crew has already been hard at work all night. These guys show up around 11pm, fire up our fleet of snowcats and hit the slopes. There are the regular grooming missions that include the majority of our easiest trails, about half to two-thirds of our intermediate trails and a handful of our advanced trails. There are also the routine pedestrian areas to groom in the base area, lots to plow, and terrain parks to manicure. Just about every night there are additional project such as buffing out lift mazes, mucking out pits to maintain clearance above the departure zone of ski lifts or grading out snow levels around lodge entrances. Every now and then there may be a bigger project to farm snow from one portion of the mountain and transport it to an adjacent trail or zone that needs additional coverage. This is a hardy crew that works tirelessly (literally) for all of us while we are fast asleep. Enjoy the fresh groom out there…and rest up buttercup.