just wondering if there is anyone on here that runs a snow cat? I was just wondering what they are like to Operate and what your work season is usually like.
I ran a snowcat last year here in WA. Season is 5-6 months, depending on snow. Graveyard shifts for the new guys almost certain, but that depends on the resort. We started at 11PM and worked until 9AM, everyone worked grave as we didn't have a swing shift. I had worked in the ski industry before I started running snowcats, taught skiing for 6 years and was well aware of how little pay I would recieve working for a ski resort. Where I was working apparently paid above average on snowcat operator pay scale, I started at $11.00/hr.. It's a job you don't do for the money but because it's fun and there's nothing else to do in the winter. Running the cats themselves is a riot, can be a whole lot of fun. Some nights are boring if there's no new snow or it's bulletproof ice. Nights when it snows or has snowed during the day can be interesting, sliding is a common occurance where I groomed. Been out in all kinds of weather; fog, 50+ MPH wind, snowing so hard you plain can't see where you're going or my favorite 2" per hour of snow accumulation with high winds. Had a few nights I didn't know up from down, it's a real struggle to no go off the edge of a run when the visibility was less than 10 feet Missing trees and lift towers was the name of the game, had some close calls but I never nailed anything. I've run a little of everything in the dirt world and I still feel that snowcats are fairly complex and very overwhelming when you first start running them. There's a whole lot going on just with the tiller itself and leaving a clean pass behind you, let alone trying to run a 12 way blade, shaping the run, keeping yourself from sliding off the pitch, etc.. Once you get everything figured it, it's just like running anything else, you don't even think about what you're doing.