Over time, I have become mildly obsessed with the beautiful machines G works with - the large red snow groomers, often referred to as snowcats or cats.
They're so cool! (yes, I'm a geek). These big, sleek things on tracks crawling all over the mountain in the middle of the night when no one else is about.
'Winch cats' are particularly fancy - hauling almost half their weight up and down a 1000m long cable (followed ineviatibly, for Scots, with giggles about the fact that my boyfriend goes out winching and grooming at night).
I'm almost at the point of identifying each cat by sight and knowing their 'personalities'. For example, 301 is the old faithful granddad, 303 is the devilcat and 403 is the new kid on the block with a bit of an attitude problem.
There really is nothing like sitting in the passenger seat of one of these beasts behind the massive floor to roof windscreen and watching the sun rise.
