A vehicle that creates cross-country ski trails on Grand Mesa is a 20,000 lbs, $250,000 PistenBully 400 funded by Grand Mesa Nordic Council. This vehicle is often called a groomer or a snowcat.
A widely groomed trail with a corduroy pattern is for skate skiing and parallel tracks on one or both sides of the trail are for classic skiing. Many of the trails exist only in the winter since they are created on top of several feet of snow, and if you look for them in the summer you'll find impenetrable terrain in their place.
Report from Wednesday evening, 27 January
It was windy Wednesday and the open trails got drifted. So we will snowcat groom early Thursday. More wind on Thursday and especially Friday will likely drift in the trails again. Then the next grooming will be early Saturday morning
Snow is expected Friday night-Saturday morning. Accumulations of 3-6 inches are expected by Saturday afternoon. Another storm is forecasted to start Wednesday, 3 February.