Ski tows have to be turned off, some ski resorts circumvent measures
Inspired by Czechs.
Ski resorts in Slovakia are still closed due to Covid measures.
Sledders and skiers may use the slopes, though. Operators of the resorts cannot turn on ski tows, so those who want to ski must make their way uphill on their own.
The Jahodná resort near Košice circumvents the measures. Instead of a ski-tow, a Snowcat pulls skiers up the hill on a specially adjusted rope, regional daily Korzár reported.
This is how it also works in the Czech Republic, as well as in Slovakia, as a new method to get skiers and snowboarders up a hill during Covid and non-functioning cable cars.
Print article An Anchorage man died Friday when the snowcat he was driving broke through lake ice in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, the Alaska State Troopers said. Scott Gagne, 57, was driving the snowcat around 4:30 p.m. on Hewitt Lake near Skwentna when the large tracked vehicle fell through the ice, troopers wrote in an online report. Austin McDaniel, a spokesman for the troopers, described the snowcat as a “a larger tracked vehicle with a front plow that was transporting a snowmachine.” Snowcats are often used to groom ski trails, but McDaniel said it was not clear if Gagne was grooming a trail when the machine broke through the ice.
People out skiing and snowmobiling in Darby Canyon on Saturday were greeted with an unusual sight: a team of draft horses pulling a Ford F150 off of the groomed trail.
Matt Sullivan, the manager at WreckerBoyz Towing in Driggs, got the call around 1 a.m. on Saturday morning. Some college kids from Rexburg had bypassed the large warning sign at the end of 3000S that prohibits wheeled vehicles up Darby in the winter, squeezed through the access gate, and made it around a mile up the groomed trail before getting high-sided and mired in deep snow.
âWhen people do stuff like that, we donât want to drive up there to tow them out,â Sullivan said. âThe snowcat groomers are all up there busting their butts to make a good trail, and the Forest Service closes the road for a reason. Fortunately WreckerBoyz is going through a rebirth and we now have a partnership with AJ Woolstenhulme.â