Every boy’s dream job

Probably every boy dreams of one day being like Hermann Pichler. In summer, as the owner of a construction firm, he drives the really big diggers. And in winter his workplace is no less impressive. “I am a machine person,” says the Eggen Valley native, as he climbs over the chain into the cab of his Pistenbully and starts up the 520 hp diesel engine with almost 12 litres of displacement.

Every afternoon at bang on 5 pm, the enormous roller doors of the garage at the valley station of the Obereggen ski resort open up before Hermann Pichler and his six colleagues head out on their daily mission to take care of the thing that makes every skier happy – perfectly groomed slopes.
 

“Actually we only have to take the snow, which is pushed downhill as people ski, back up the mountain again,” explains Hermann. This, admittedly, is much more difficult than it sounds and, despite the impressive work tools, demands a real feel for the job. “My area is the Oberholz piste,” he explains, as he lets the pushing blade drop down onto the snow and sets off over the almost 2.8 kilometre-long slope, which is among the steepest in the entire ski resort.

Moving the snow back uphill again is a daily task in which enormous quantities are moved. The technology helps enormously. Hermann Pichler’s Pistenbully cockpit looks like an oversized Playstation console. “The computer assistance today helps to make a lot of things easier,” he says, “but nevertheless, you also need a lot of experience and feel for preparing the slopes so that the following morning they leave nothing to be desired.” 

In any case, this is the task that Hermann Pichler and his colleagues, of whom many are Eggen Valley natives, set themselves. They identify with the valley and ski resort as a matter of course. The snow quality here enjoys an excellent reputation and has won many awards. On the one hand, this fills the Obereggen ski-slope workers with pride and it also motivates them – especially when the conditions are sometimes not as good as they are today: Minus ten degrees, perfect powder snow and a mid-winter's evening atmosphere. “It would be nice if it was always like this,” says Hermann Pichler.

The sun is going down and bathing the Latemar massif in its unique Rosadira sunset as Hermann travels up the mountain to the Oberholz mountain chalet for the first time. In front, the over five-metre-wide blade pushes the snow, whilst behind, the tiller gives the slopes their characteristic pattern. 4392 people skied downhill in the previous hours, information that Hermann Pichler is able to call up on his smartphone. That means a whole heap of work, despite the good conditions. But on the monitor in the cockpit he can see exactly what he has to do. He knows precisely how much snow is underneath him at every point. “In the past we had to do it all by instinct, but the new technology is an enormous help to us,” he says.

However, it isn’t just the drivers who need this support, but also the Pistenbullys themselves – at least on the steep slopes. Hermann climbs to just below the Oberholz chalet after which he lets down the powerful steel cable from the winch above his cab. He climbs a couple of steps up to the concrete plinth into which he clips the cable, with which the around eleven tonnes of dead weight of the Pistenbully are held steady downhill and pulled uphill – with automatically metered power of up to 4500 kg.

“If it isn’t too warm and slushy, theoretically the Pistenbully can manage without support from the cable,” explains Hermann. But the cable helps him to work in a much more measured and even way. He calmly runs up and downhill as two back-country skiers pass along the track next to the slope. The track from Obereggen to the Oberholz mountain chalet is an especially popular route at night. “Those who know what they are doing usually know exactly how they have to behave,” says Hermann. But he often sees less experienced skiers with less of a clue – sometimes finding themselves still on the piste long after the resort has closed for the day. For him and his colleagues, at best this is irritating, because the grooves carved by the Pistenbully in the snow need time to freeze solid during the night. At worst, however, the skiers and Pistenbullys can get in one another's way. “Above all the cables are hard to spot in the darkness and are a danger to life,” warns Hermann Pichler.

The Kastelruther Spatzen are playing on the radio when Hermann Pichler, after almost four hours, can see the end of the night’s work. He unhooks the cable from the Oberholz mountain chalet, winds it back in and says: “Now for the precision work!” His Pistenbully seems somewhat oversized for the exit from the chairlift, but he moves it with playful ease through the narrowest gaps.

Just before the Oberholz slope is finished, he radios to his colleagues. Even though everyone has their own area, they coordinate with and help one another. “We go up the mountain together at 5pm and when the work is done we come back down together too,” says Hermann. Two days a week, the journey back down can take rather a long time. Due to the floodlit skiing on Tuesdays and Fridays on the slope to the valley station, the Obereggen Pistenbully drivers make a virtue of necessity and meet at the Epircher Laner Alm for dinner. After all, one of them has to smooth away the traces of the night-time skiers after 11 pm before peace descends once more on the Obereggen slopes. “It’s my turn again next week,” says Hermann, who can look forward to a fairly long night’s sleep. Since there is enough snow on the ground, and therefore no need to generate artificial snow, and because no rainfall is forecast, the Pistenbully drivers have finished their work for today. With fresh snow, however, they would have to even everything out again in the early morning before the lifts open at half past eight. One way or another though, the skiers will find perfectly groomed slopes for a carefree day’s skiing. “We work towards a perfection that every day becomes imperfect again,” says Hermann Pichler with a wink. But, after all, that is his job. A job that gives him a lot of enjoyment every evening, and the kind of job that probably every boy dreams of.