From October 29 to December 2, Richard Lyng, alias Ricky, literally changed his way of life and worked non-stop to deliver, on time, the run that would be used for the giant slalom events of the Tremblant World Cup. The goal was huge: allow the resort to open on time, hold the World Cup, and hold the 24h. Mission accomplished for Tremblant Ski Resort’s head of snowmaking and grooming, with 33 years of experience in his field.

Asked about the level of difficulty that the challenge represented, Ricky responds that it was immense.

“It’s BIG! It touches the whole world. It was the damnedest challenge and we were proud to meet it. For the first time in my whole career, I was nervous at the end of August. I had to deliver the World Cup, the 24h and the resort opening almost all at the same time. It was quite the challenge,” Ricky told us on Friday, December 1, at the base of the slopes.

Leading edge technology

To accomplish the feat, Ricky and his team could, notably, depend on a completely new snowmaking system with more than 70 HKD snow guns attached to two new water lines. It’s worth noting, as well, that these snow guns are made in Québec. As a result, Ricky could rely on the HKD Snowmakers team at all times in order to master the new technology

“It’s a team effort,” Ricky emphasizes. “I’m really proud of what we accomplished, proud that Tremblant invested in the grooming machines and the best snowmaking system and proud to work with HKD, which is a Québec technology. If the winds permit, it is now possible to blow onto the two sides at once. And that’s what we did 80 per cent of the time. Historically, the winds are really tricky in this sector, so we were spoiled.”

Advancing into the unknown

Doubt was, however, Ricky’s constant companion throughout the journey. Pinned to the weather news since the end of October, he did not see a single window of cold weather in November. While the new system allows its users to produce snow in marginal weather conditions, the possibility of failure was always there.

“Sure, I had my doubts,” he concedes. “Several times, in fact, and I don’t hide it. But we had amazing support from Prinoth for the groomers and from HKD for the snow guns. It helped us a lot,” he states.

Putting his life on hold

“I changed my life for the World Cup,” Ricky continues. “I started working nights again, from 11 p.m. well into the wee hours. It has easily been 20 years since I had to work nights, with the owls and the stars. We travelled the run on foot two or three times a night to make sure it was the best possible quality of snow with the temperatures we had. We had about -3 to -5 °C at the top of the run and from 0 to -2 °C at the base. The best time to blow snow was from 4:30 a.m. till 8:30 a.m.” he explains.

Water the run? What a strange idea!

In order to provide the fairest possible surface for the skiers, the snow and grooming team had to water the run to congeal it in ice when it was finished. Ricky had skied the run an enormous number of times up until the day when he had to commit the ultimate sacrilege for a groomer.

“It’s the first time in 33 years that I have participated in watering a run. My field of expertise normally consists of providing skiers with the softest snow possible. I had to do the opposite: water it to ice it. But, as I told the Tremblant Ski Resort last year, I am always ready for new challenges,” Ricky concludes, laughing.

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