More Photos Below!Gallery
Here’s my local trail ski grooming system: Snowshoe pulling a plastic torpedo sled w weight in it and skis screwed to the bottom. I haven’t skied this yet — it’s what the grooming looks like, with the skis leaving some nice tracks. It should set up in a cpl hrs. It was easy walking! The sled pulls easy and the shoes float great. A wider ice-fishing sled might be even better.
I use 14×48″ wood shoes. Moderns float for crap.
We had lost all our snow down to dry ground then got this 10″ dump. The problem was if you tried to ski it you’d just angle-slice to the dry dirt. It had to be packed to work. (We haven’t had such snowfalls yet this season so I haven’t had to manually pack yet.)
Probably just one pass with shoes woulda been enough to keep skis off the ground. A ski lap then would set up a few hours later. But I went deluxe this time.
I note that this ski-sled makes an awesome pulk. (I had such a nice pulk set-up at one point w a sled like this, with crossed poles with suspension bungies built in to absorb the lunges from stride-skiing.)
This sled is also the world’s best snowsled: fast, easy-to-make, light, stable, safe, comfy. Like, world’s best in all those regards. It’s awesome for a parent to use. Just sit then put a kid in your lap. It is very shock absorbing. The pad is key. …If you want more float for untracked deep snow then use downhill skis instead of XC (tho they make the resulting sled quite a bit heavier).
World’s Best Snow Sled — light, easy, fast, stable, comfy, safe, smooth
