Cat Skiing

Cat Skiing! Is expensive! But I did it for free!! Last year I won the Telus Ski + Snowboard Slush Cup event by doing a backflip and landing it, and won the grand prize --> Cat Skiing! For the non-skiing/snowboarding type, ill explain what cat skiing is.. First off, a cat is one of those large machines that grooms runs on ski hills. The act of cat skiing is when you ride inside one of these machines instead of riding on a chairlift. The advantage of cat skiing is that it takes you away from the overpopulated ski hills, out into the middle of nowhere. So on a powder day (lots of freshly fallen snow), you get fresh powder all day, all to yourself (powder is good.)

This would have been an awesome day if in fact a lot of powder had fallen the night before.. which it did not. The group I skied with were quite mediocre, I was surprised to see that there were average skiers ready to fork out $500 for a day of skiing. There were however some people that could ski decently well, a few were possibly even better than me, but in general, the group's skiing ability was lacking. Because of this, and the fact that the cat skiing company was responsible for the well-being of these deep pocketed weaklings, we were forced to ski very easy terrain. The entire time I was thinking how much the young kids I coach would have complained if they were stuck skiing such boring terrain all day. There was however one nice steep gully that I enjoyed skiing, too bad it wasnt very long. I should mention though, that the light was really flat so we could only ski below the tree line because of the increased visibility there. So on a powder day when the visibility is good, and they take you all the way to the top, I would consider possibly dishing out my $500 to go cat skiing... or winning another slush cup so I could go for free :)

ALSO! I spoke to the fellow who drives the Cat, and he makes his own skis! Who makes their own skis?? Impressive is all i got to say about that. His skis are called Gary Wayne Skis, and they are shaped the complete opposite way normal skis are. They were awesomely fun to ski on. To turn these skis, you must ignore everything you would naturally do while turning.. its weird... but fun. Especially if there was more powder. Check out his website here: http://garywayneskis.com