1967 was the first year that Holiday Valley had snowmaking.  They dug underground pipes on Mardi Gras, a long, gentle hill, and set to making snow.  The time before snowmobiles and proper groomers was one of ingenuity and innovation.  Long before snowmaking, in the days of Greer Hill and single slopes rented out for the winter from the Dineen family farm, instructors had developed a crude grooming practice of walking the hill in a sideways formation, tramping out bumps as they went.  Ten or twelve instructors in 200 cm hickory skis spaced themselves evenly across the hill and gradually stamped and slid over ruts and moguls until the hill regained a semi-smooth face. 

When expanding terrain demanded more sophisticated grooming techniques, instructors and T Bar operators filched the wheels from trucks and cars and threaded them through a long metal pole.  Two ski patrollers took hold of either end of the bar and skied down the hill, the tires working the snow as they passed.  The results of a successful tire-groom were so-so, but disasters, which were frequent, could mow down a young skier as easily as a blade of grass.