Thing: The ski-dozer

>> Meet the machine that turns city parks into a winter wonderland of smooth, orderly parallel tracks

By PHILIP PREVILLE

City motorists may be irate about all the snow, but outdoor enthusiasts who live near the city's bigger parks are loving it: they no longer have to leave the city to go cross-country skiing. And it's been a banner year. "We haven't had this much snow since 1994," says Guy Parent of the city's parks department. He should know: for the last six years he's been driving the "ski-dozer," the pint-sized grooming machine that lays down the cross-country trails.

1. The city uses the Bombardier BR-160 groomer (an "urban" model, smaller than the BR-400s in use at ski hills like Tremblant), which sells for about $200,000. The price may seem steep, but the machine lasts: the city owns three of them, one built in 1977 and two from 1989. (They cost about $125,000 back then.)

2. The caterpillars are made of rubber, but the treads are made of steel. Because no one makes a "lightweight" groomer, the ski-dozer is useless unless there's at least 15 cm of snow on the ground. Even then, if the weather's too warm, the ski-dozer can't be used: it fluffs up and aerates the snow as it grooms, and in warm temperatures it actually speeds up the melting process.

3. This small, comb-like attachment is designed to break up crusty snow. Ski-dozer operator Parent says it's useless. "I never bother with it. It breaks, it kicks up too much snow. The ski-dozer's treads do that job anyway."

4. This is the piece de resistance: the 500-pound steel "packer" at the rear. The packer has four grooves built into it, leaving behind two sets of trails on perfectly smooth, packed snow.

Final factoid: One ski-dozer works full-time in Mount Royal Park, while the other two are loaded onto trailer-transport trucks and make the rounds of the other parks. The city even grooms a trail around the St-Michel Environmental Complex, which is a nice way of saying that you can go for a ski with a gorgeous view of the city dump. :