Trails not hosted and maintained by local ski clubs are often track set by ‘guerrilla groomers,’ as Yellowknife likes to call them. This unofficial team deserves a huge thank you for making skiing so accessible all across the city all winter long.
“Local skiers have an ever-expanding range of trails thanks to the ‘guerrilla groomers’ who maintain the city’s tracks,” writes Cabin Radio, writing that one of these groomers, Adrian D’Hont, built a track-setting machine from a street sign and a few pieces of wood.
D’Hont and his son, Thomas, have used it to set ski tracks for more than 10 km beginning where Merlin Road meets Deh Cho Boulevard.
The D’Hont team is one of the newer guerrilla groomer teams in Yellowknife. Over the 2020-21 season, veteran groomers include Kevin Hodgins, who handles Back Bay; Niels Konge, who grooms Frame Lake; David Gilday, who has helped set trails on Walsh Lake. (Thanks to NNSL Media for this list!) Over at Range Lake, Matt Mossman, Stu Impett and Rudolph Swanepoel have set not only a classic skiing track, but have also set up a skating track and multiple skating rinks, wrote the CBC.
Other groomers have recently started grooming Kam Lake, Tibbitt Lake, and Madeline Lake. The list goes on – but for the most up-to-date trail grooming, check the popular Yellowknife Ski Updates Facebook page.
