If you’ve ever prepared for a day out on the slopes with your friends, it’s likely the morning started with some coffee, breakfast and ski YouTube clips up on the TV.  Everyday skiers often watch these clips, hoping to find glimpses of inspiration in the skiing of professionals.  Having a love for the outdoors and skiing, Park City’s Lucas Catania knew he wouldn’t be able to replicate videos of skiers competing at the X Games or throwing massive tricks in the challenging backcountry, but he saw a market for content tailored toward the everyday skier.  Catania posted the first of what is now 970 YouTube videos in 2017. In the average Lucas Catania ski video, he showcases what a day on the slopes looks like from entering the parking lot to the final run of the day. He also posts videos for some of his more advanced viewers, skiing the more difficult in-bounds runs at resorts like Deer Valley, Park City Mountain and others.  Catania’s channel has over 78,000 subscribers. He makes enough money from the channel to sustain himself, though he is also a financial advisor and race car driver.  Catania started filming outdoorsy videos when at the University of Colorado Boulder because he loved spending time in the Rocky Mountains. He grew up skiing at Park City Mountain because his dad had a condo by the Mountain Village Base.  “The original plan was kind of a pre-medicine route,” Catania said about getting into ski YouTube creating. “My dad is an anesthesiologist, so I was kind of just following his stuff, and then I just didn’t necessarily have the passion for it as I got older. But, I was so deep in the curriculum that I couldn’t really get out of my studies and still graduate. So, I finished that and then just ended up going to graduate school.” Catania believes he timed creating his channel with the growth of YouTube and the internet perfectly. He credits growing up filming himself and his friends skiing for some of his success as well. Catania makes sure to upload his videos quickly, provide multiple high-quality camera angles and interact with his viewers to make his channel stand out. “I just wanted to get away from this head cam and chest cam-only footage of someone skiing because none of us are that good of skiers to make it entertaining,” he added. “It’s all those little elements that I think helped propel the channel to where it is now and kind of differentiated it from some other ski channels. At the time, I don’t really think there were that many other key creators doing what I was doing.” Catania’s biggest challenge now is keeping his videos fresh for his viewers. He gets opportunities to heliski, cat ski and do other daring experiences on the slopes, but he doesn’t want to often stray too far from what the average skier can access. Catania’s last few videos have been about cat skiing at Island Lake Lodge, skiing at Fernie Alpine Resort for the first time and skiing the experts-only Dutch Wallet run at Kicking Horse Mountain Resort, all in British Columbia, Canada.  Catania said he plans on continuing to film ski YouTube videos until it’s no longer financially viable. He loves living in Park City all year round, however, and doesn’t plan on leaving, even if this career wraps up. Catania said Park City’s snow is the best and most consistent on Earth, and he loves getting outside and biking when the summers roll around.  “I love Park City. I’m likely and hopefully going to end up dying in this town,” Catania said. “Something different with me, maybe from other people, is that I’m not holding on to ski season throughout the summer. I’m not trying to go skin up somewhere to get a few turns. I’m very good at just compartmentalizing it. I want to ski when it’s ski season, and then when it’s racing, paintball and biking season, I’m going to do all that.”To learn more about Catania, see his website or his YouTube page. The post Ski YouTuber Lucas Catania makes videos for the everyday skier appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less