I have been super lucky!! A few weeks ago I was chosen to be the passenger in a Snow Cat. Schweitzer has a ski magazine that they put out annually and I was the writer for their employee spotlight article. (Soon I will be published!!) I interviewed Dave Rowe the head of Snow Services and Special Projects on the mountain. He is the head groomer and he picked me up at the resort's hotel at 1:30 in the morning.
It was awesome being a night rider. I don't know how the guys in grooming get used to the graveyard schedule, but it was awesome this one time around. I had the luxury of riding in the winch cat, which is a special groomer designed for steep and narrow runs...so you can assume what kind of terrain we were grooming.
I set out to ask Dave my list of questions as we made our way up "Kaniksu" and "Bud's Chutes" (which are runs I won't even ski because they are so steep!) It was awesome to talk to Dave. He is a real "salt of the Earth" kind of guy. You know the type that keeps our days running because he is a genuine person and "jack of all trades and master of EVERYTHING." When it comes to snow and winter, there isn't anything this guy hasn't done. Don't you love when you meet people like that? People who just refresh your vigor to live, because of the way they approach the world and you wish to emulate it! It motivates you to improve your own life!
At one point, it was really funny, we stopped to take a break and he offered me a trail mix bar. We sat there like two old friends with our feet up on the dashboard just talking about life. Honestly though after that interview, I do feel like he is the type that would have your back after only a brief meeting.
Anyway I groomed with him until 7 in the morning, which was pretty grueling. I don't know how they don't fall asleep to the rhythmic patterns of the cats going up and down. What I left with though, was some great advice. My last question to him was; "what lessons are you trying to impart on your 2 daughters?" His answer was nothing short of perfect and inspirational. We should all take note.
He said the most important things to learn are:Be true to yourself. Live your life with integrity and honesty.
If you say you're going to do something, follow through.
If you make a mistake, own up to it.
Such simple advice, but so true. We all have intuition and instinct and the ability to decipher right from wrong. When we are doing something that doesn't sit quite right, it is probably because we are stretching the situation in the wrong direction. As long as we follow the above expressions then we can't really go off of our path. Life doesn't have to be complicated! Dave is a great example of that. He is doing what he loves every day and he doesn't try to make it into something it isn't. He embraces it for everything it is meant to be.
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