If the mood strikes, why, cat as cat can

APRIL 8, 2006
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS

Source: David O. Williams, Special to the News

In April, the biggest machine most people want to climb aboard for recreational purposes is a golf cart.

But if you're willing to keep the clubs mothballed for just a few more weeks and clamber aboard a stinky, heavily treaded beast known as a snowcat, you might find yourself mired knee-deep in some of the sickest snow of the season - at significantly less than peak-season prices. You also might find yourself in the company of greatness.

Such was the case in mid-March when a couple of buddies and I filled out the last three seats on the 12-man cat at Monarch Mountain ski area in south-central Colorado.

Extreme-skiing icon Scot Schmidt, a friend of one of Monarch's owners, occupied one of the other seats on the closed-cabin Monarch Powder Cats machine that day - a day that perfectly illustrated the vagaries of backcountry skiing in springtime.

Monarch's snowcat terrain, situated high on the Continental Divide, consists of 770 acres of short-but-sweet chutes, tree shots and rock bands that get hit with great snow but also some serious wind gusts.

Immediately after a fat spring dump, it's all good, but a few days after the last big plastering, your turns can go from super-soft tree stashes to wind-crusted crud in a hurry.

If you grew up watching Schmidt and his far-more flamboyant partner in celluloid crime, Glen Plake, pioneer the big-mountain movement in late-'80s Greg Stump films, then just seeing Schmidt effortlessly navigate such conditions would be worth the price of admission.

Of course, you can't always count on a bona fide ski legend being on your cat, but you can look forward to some seriously interesting snow conditions on wickedly tricky terrain in April.

The deepest snowpack of the year, coupled with warm weather and a season's worth of skier compaction, allows safe access to the steepest, most slide-prone runs on most cat operators' mountains.

Nothing at Monarch is too hairball, but Schmidt managed to find a nice 10-foot hit in the trees to casually demonstrate his famous sense of airborne composure. He later paid Monarch, a small family area with a growing number of hike-to and cat-accessed steeps, the ultimate compliment, calling it "a great introduction to snowcat skiing."

Since March 20, Monarch has been charging $150 a person for 10 to 12 cat runs a day, down from the $200 peak-season rate, but it shuts the cats (and the lifts) for the season Sunday.

Don't despair, though, if you're among the die-hards who like to keep feasting on freshies late into April then continue to cruise corn snow into May. There are alternatives to remaining in-bounds or having to hike for the goods.

ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS