Ski slopes groomers make it right for all
The fourth time was a charm, and the secondhand machine coughed to life. Plumes of smoke billowed out of the Prinoth BR350, up into the sailor’s delight sunset above the Canadian Rockies and Cabinet Mountains. A Red Bull and extra coat in tow, Jacob Jeresek spent the next five hours dragging corduroy patterns into the snow on Turner Mountain.
Four weeks into his second year grooming his childhood mountain, Jeresek has already logged 70 hours of operation. He is sure to surpass the 100 hours he put in last season. A fireman with the Forest Service, Jeresek has not had a free summer since 1997. Considering his only compensation is a free season lift pass, it is safe to say grooming is one of his few hobbies.
Jeresek left work at 3:30 p.m. and drove straight to Turner. The 35-year-old has so much to give back to the mountain. In September 2011 he was married to his wife, Jeni, at the peak and held the reception in the lodge below. He learned to ski on Turner. In 1988, after awe-inspiring trips to British Columbia where he first saw snowboarders, he became one of Turner’s three original snowboarders after old-time mountain manager Frankie Pival gave permission for a group of young men to fly down the mountain on the funky new contraptions.
Above a darkening ocean of fluffy clouds interrupted by mountain peak islands, Jeresek completes his first of many ascents. Snow has been scarce this season. Powder can only spread so thin. But it snowed recently and it is cold enough to groom comfortably. Grooming is unsafe below 32 degrees. Sliding becomes a greater risk and snow snowballs on the way down. Amicable conditions are a rare sight during the mild winter. It’s a good night.
Jeresek is working in tandem with Don Crawford. It is peaceful — spiritual — riding the mountain alone, but safety is important. The duo communicates over radio. Where’s the slick spots? How’s the bowl look tonight? Jeresek had never operated heavy machinery before Crawford’s 15 minute tutorial in the parking lot. The bright buttons and numerous levers look like the cockpit of a spaceship, but grooming is not too complex. In his left hand he manipulates a pair of levers. The left lever controls the left tract and vice versa. The orange and red buttons to his right manipulate the tiller behind him. With thin snow, slight adjustments make a major difference. On the way down he aims his right tract along the edge of his last run.
A perfectionist, Jeresek said it is the self-gratification he feels when patrons comment on the quality of the runs that keeps him going. It can get lonely on the mountain at night, but CDs of his favorite band Korn, a nu metal band whose popularity peaked in the late ‘90s and early 2000s, keep him awake at night. Sometimes he listens to Rock 94.5 out of Spokane or the area ski reports on 92.3 from Kalispell.
Jeresek keeps a mental map of where he has been and where he has to go. There is no rushing the job, but he is making good progress. It is a rush, he says, realizing how alone he is.
“I’m an adrenaline junky, I guess,” Jeresek said.
A selfless adrenaline junky.