Snowbird, UT – Ski area grooming machine operators Nate Yingling of Utah’s Canyons Resort, and Dan Cherkis, of Vermont’s Mount Snow, won top honors and took home a $1,000 cash prize in the National Ski Areas Association’s (NSAA) 2013 PhatCat Challenge held in January at Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort in Utah, and later in February at Mount Snow.

The PhatCat Challenge is held annually in conjunction with NSAA’s Western and Eastern Winter Conferences and Tradeshows. The PhatCat, first launched in 2005, is the ski industry’s preeminent event designed for ski area grooming machine operators and pits the country’s top drivers in an on-snow competition.

“The dedicated hard work of ski area groomers sometimes goes rather unnoticed so the PhatCat Challenge is an opportunity to recognize those efforts while also providing a platform in which drivers can learn new techniques and effective grooming skills,” says NSAA President Michael Berry.

In the competition, operators navigate a course designed to test their overall proficiency including a slalom course flagged with several tight corners; a blade-to-grade feature that requires grooming a chairlift unloading ramp; and a straight pass, that tests drivers’ ability to create a smooth snow surface. Drivers are able to enter in one of two categories: Pro Driver, reserved for ski area grooming and snow surface professionals; and PhatCat, reserved for top ski area executives including CEOs, presidents, COOs, GMs, and Mountain Operations Directors among others.

Winners in this year’s PhatCat Division were Arthur Berry, president of Camelback Mountain Resort, Penn., and Tim Smith, operations manager at Crotched Mountain Ski and Ride, N.H. Each was awarded a commemorative plaque.

The event is sponsored by grooming machine manufacturing companies PistenBully and Prinoth, both of which displayed their latest machinery and provided the cash award funding.