Killington Donates Grooming Tractor to Vermont Tech

At the end of last season, Killington Resort donated one of its well-used grooming tractors, or "snowcats", to Vermont Technical College in Randolph, Vt. The gift was the idea of Vehicle Maintenance Manager Halley Riley-Elliot, who graduated from the VTC program herself in 2021.

As the equipment had fulfilled its usefulness for the resort, which regularly replaces grooming tractors to keep the fleet up-to-date and operating well, donating it for student use was a great option instead of selling it for a nominal amount.

Halley explained that giving local students access to learn how to service and maintain a grooming tractor was beneficial not just to the students, but the resort.

“Having a cat to work on helps you learn specific things to piece of equipment and it's incredibly hard to find anyone who has experience on cats that didn't come from another resort,” she said. “To have that base knowledge is super important for the industry.”

Having a grooming tractor to work on is a first for the program, but VTC Ground Transportation Director Steve Simpson was already familiar with grooming tractors, as he also works for a non-profit ski area in addition to the school. He said receiving such a donation was a huge boon for the program.

“As a teaching program, we would never be able to purchase a piece of equipment as this snowcat,” he said.

The students were eager to get to work getting the 'cat up and running. Steve explains some of the things they’re learning.

“It gives the diesel students direct exposure to 24-volt operating systems, direct working knowledge of electric over hydraulic functions, a drive by wire drive and substantial areas for hydraulic testing. It’s a great asset to our Hydraulic teaching program,” he said.

VTC Diesel Professor Ron Wold agrees.

“The snowcat from Killington has many mechanical aspects that are relevant to our diesel students: it is diesel powered, it has a substantially complicated hydraulic system, and of course, it has the cool factor of being a snowcat! I wouldn't be surprised if a few of our students are inspired to work in the ski industry.”