Through my career as a journalist, I've been privileged to ride in a C-130 plane and several helicopters.  But today was first -- a snow cat ride.  I drove up to Mt. Rose this morning to report on annual training for members of the Ski Patrol at Sky Tavern.

First off, although I've lived in Reno a while now, I'm not a skier.  In fact, I'm just not a fan of cold weather in general.  I guess I didn't expect the several feet of snow that's up there, because I showed up in dress shoes and a suit jacket!

After some laughs with the folks at the tavern about my poor attire, a gentleman was kind enough to lend me some boots so I could cover the story.

A worker at the tavern held some of my camera gear (as I shoot my own video for my stories) and I managed to climb aboard the tavern's newly purchased snow cat.  It's basically a big cab propelled by two tank-like treads with blades for digging in the snow.  He drove us up the slope so I could get the best shots when members of the Ski Patrol practiced repelling down from a ski lift. 

The snow cat ride was a little bumpy thanks to rocks and only a couple feet of snow.  But was we bumped along, it was a great way to see the beautiful snow-blanketed Sierra.  There were rabbit and other animal tracks, and tree branches sagged slightly under the weight of snow.  The terrain reminded me of a picture from a calendar or postcard.  I noticed some tracks from skiers too, maybe traveling the back-country.  And even though I'm not a fan of cold weather, in that moment I could see the appeal.

This was my first time viewing our mountain landscape from inside a snow cat.  I'm told that this newly purchased vehicle is even able to essentially tow (I hope that's the right phrase) snow to bare spots of the mountain -- a capability that wasn't before possible.  Sky Tavern is now looking forward to an early January opening.  While covering today's training exercise, at times snow was up almost to my knees, and with more powder possible in the coming days, it looks like others will be checking out Nevada and California's picturesque mountains.