Winter 2018 | 17 snowmobile grooming. During the 1980s, their focus would be on engineering and manufacturing a groomer for the snowmobile industry. By 1991, the model PB 270 NG, a cut down unit producing 270 horsepower, would be the first official PistenBully snowmobile trail groomer. The higher horsepower of this PistenBully let snowmobile clubs pull larger, heavier drags. The end result was better trails for the rider. In the 1980s, PistenBully would head west and set up shop in Reno, Nevada. This later became the corporate headquarters for their USA operations. PistenBully and Tucker have worked hard developing, engineering and testing the modern day groomer and the shared thoughts of both is that operator comfort is key. The countless hours an operator spends grooming can be exhausting, so comfort in the cab is a primary focus. The ergonomic design and build of the modern-day groomer is a primary goal for both companies. As we move into the future, the groomer will always be a welcome sight when on the trails. What started as a good idea by Emmit and others, has become a needed task in making snowmobile trails more accessible to the masses. We would like to give a special thanks to the folks at Tucker and PistenBully for their time, information and images for this article. We also need to thank all the groomers statewide for the countless hours spent on the trails and for the pleasure they give to all that snowmobile. So please, the next time you’re on the trails and happen to come across the groomer, take a minute and thank them. Without them and the amazing equipment they operate, things as we know them on the trails would not be the same. The first thing you might notice when speaking with Mark Ellingwood, a 19 year volunteer of the Brighton Snowmobile Club (BSC), is that grooming in Island Pond is taken very seriously. With ten full-time groomers and operators, the BSC team grooms an average of five to six days a week. Each operator has an assigned section on a given night. To keep things interesting, Mark operates the oldest groomer on Saturday and newest one on Thursday. BSC runs three groomers: PB 200, PB 300 Edge and PB 400 Trail. All are built by PistenBully. BSC was formed in the late 1960s and has grown to have one of the largest membership bases in Vermont. BSC has 130 miles of trails winding through the towns of Brighton, Lewis, Avery Gore and East Charleston. The club is part of the Essex County Snowmobile Organization which is comprised of five other clubs as well. The trails have a mixture of every type of terrain found in Vermont and its part of the Northeast Kingdom. If you have not ridden Tucker Sno-Cat with snow roller An early 1940s 300 Series Tucker (Photos courtesy Tucker Sno-Cat) Brighton Snowmobile Club Mark Ellingwood By William Thomas Sr. Who’s In The Groomer? Mark Ellingwood (William Thomas Sr. photo)