Stowe-W4: Lift Ops and Grooming

For the last weekend at Stowe Mountain Resort I was scheduled for lift ops Friday and grooming Saturday. This week was really low key and easy. For both day we didn't have to do much at all. Friday i was instructed to go hang out at the fixed grip triple chair lift. When i got there in the morning they were doing the scheduled E-stops and braking that must be checked before everyday. Then a ski patroller will have to sign a sheet and be the first to ride the lift to check for any problems or safety issues. After we had the lift up and running i noticed there was a huge grass spot preventing skiers and riders from riding right up to the lift. So i took action and started to shovel a threw way so customers didn't have to take there skis or snowboard off and walk to the lift. With the sun fully out and the temperature quiet high we thought the path wouldn't last past lunch but surprisingly its stayed all day. For the most part of the day i sat in a chair and just watched the chairlift go round and round. I did get to free ride a little bit as well which broke the day up very nicely. Lift ops was pretty boring and i didn't learn anything new besides to start to wear sunscreen for spring riding. 

    For Saturday we planned to drive up on our own to ride with Stowe's grooming fleet. There was a lot of patch work to be done and even a winching job. One cool thing I learned was that if you don't have an anchor in the ground for the wench you can use another groomer as an anchor. Stowe's groomer fleet is 100% Piston Bully. They have a few 400s a 600 and a park bully. They have very nice groomers. They also like to try to purchase two new and retire two every year. This keeps there machines new and efficient. Us four practicum students all paired up with a driver and sent it to the hill. The groomer i was in was focused on the lower mountain and a few steep trails. I found out that the corn snow in the spring can be some of the hardest snow to climb in. Its very slippery. The mountain was covered in bare spots so the groomers had to farm snow from different areas of the trail to even it out and make a smooth way down. The mountain is so bare id be surprised if they make it another full week. I am very interested in grooming. One of my dreams is to be a park builder and drive the newest Piston Bully Park Bully. 

 

     If I could take one important thing away from this year of practicum it would be how the ski resort business is very dependent on the weather. The weather is your biggest factor and issue as it is unpredictable. 

Stowe-W3: Guest Services

     For the third week back at Stowe was the weekend of Saint Patricks Day. Friday i was in Guest services from 8am to 3pm. I learned a few helpful customer relation skills. Form a previous students mistake i learned that the number one thing that will impress a customer is your appearance and presence. The previous student showed up to guest services in his ripped snowboard pants and a old shirt. Not the correct outfit.  By learning from others, I was sure to come to work dressed in khakis and a nice collard shirt. Heidi was pleases with out dressing but still gave us a nice Stowe vest to wear. After getting fully dressed and our coffee for the day Heidi sat us down to review the guest services handbook. The book could answer any question about the resort. Anything from special deals to were the ATM's were located. Even know the manual covered everything there was so much material some things were labeled weird and difficult to locate. After looking at the handbook she had us go over to spruce peak for a little tour. We went over to the guest services girls at the spruce peak lodge and one of them gave us a quick tour of the whole resort/hotel. One thing we didn't get to see was the inside of the rooms. After the tour she gave us a Guest Services quiz that Stowe gives to every employee before hire.  The quiz was full of random questions that get asked a lot. The questions consisted of locations of each retail shop and there layout style, rental equipment, and event mountain facts.  After completing the quiz one of the girls sat down with me and went over it. I only got a few wrong that were simple mistakes. So i guess i did pretty good. One of the most important guest services rule i learned was that no matter what the facts are you must always act like the customer is always right. So when we finished the quiz it was right around noon, so we went and ate lunch.
     When lunch was over Heidi asked me if there was anything we didn't get to see or do in the tour. I instantly brought up how we didn't see the inside of the rooms. She made a phone call or two then said not a problem go talk to the front desk they know your coming and will set you up with a tour. I thanked her much and sent it over to the hotels front desk. They had a bell boy show us in the the basic lower level rooms. They were nice but very basic, so i asked if we could see some of the villas or suits. He asked for us then they said we had to go to another lobby. This confused me. apparently they have a private section with its own private lobby. This area was called the front four. Designed specially for higher paying and famous customers that don't want to deal with the public. These rooms were amazing. Two stories, 4 bedrooms, and sleep 20 comfortably. They had a wonderful view and ran around $5,000 on Christmas break. I asked if she could tell us some of the people that stay there and she said no we cant give out that information. Later i herd rumors of Justin Beiber staying for a week in one of the suits. As we were walking down from the top floor the lobby attendant in the front four told us that there spa is top notch and very nice. So if we haven't seen the spa to make sure to take a look because its really something els. So i went over to the spa counter and asked if we could get showed around. At first she said no they were to busy, then changed her mind and grabbed our coats and said follow me. The spa was the nicest spa i have ever been in. It was 3 floors and had anything a spa could have. The coolest thing we saw in the spa was called a sound chair. This chair was worth over 40,000 dollars and would vibrate and message you to the music you had in your headphones. It looked so cool.  Another cool aspect the spa threw in for there customers was not only high quality of hand soap and lotion but also mouth wash. That was the first time for me ever seeing curtsy mouth was in a bathroom. By the end of all the tours it was about time to head back to the van.  Even know guest services isn't really my cup of tea i had a great day and got to see and learn a lot. As for Saturday goes I was in bed sick all day.

Stowe-W2: Ski Patrol, Shadowing Scott, and Mercedes Benz

Friday: This week was a lot of fun. I was learned a lot and also got to ride a bunch. On Friday I joined ski patrol for the morning then back to help out Mercedes Benz for the evening. So we arrived at Stowe at 8:30, suited up and sent to the top of the Fourrunner quad to 269 (the new ski patrol shack). We were introduced to the staff on board and then were offered some coffee and coffee cake. The conditions were pretty icy so i was expecting a busy day for patrol. After coffee we went for a run with one of the patrollers. He talked to us a little about there job as patrollers. He said 75% of his job is to cover the resorts butt from any lawsuits. The other 25% is responding to calls. Most of the work a ski patroller dose is putting up warning signs bamboo and closing of trials. During the run we had to replace some broken bamboo in the terrain park to help separate the park and another trail. As we were replacing the bamboo the only call of the day came in for a broken tib/fib. As we road the chair back up we could see the accident and the other patrollers working on the victim. For the rest of the day we sat in the patrol shack hoping for a call. Unfortunately it was a slow day for ski patrol and we did nothing until 12 noon. After lunch we headed over to the maintenance building to help was the 4 Mercedes Benz Stowe was using for the test drive. We gave them a nice wash, vacuum, and armor-all then transported them back to the toll house lot. I got to say washing the brand new Benz was not as bad as it sounds especially since we got to ride in them all.
Saturday: This was the best day of Stowe practicum by far. For the first half of the day It was a day in the life of Scott Reeves. I learned a lot about a mountain op's manager and how they need to play the role of not only an manager but as a good friend. On Saturday Scott has a routine that he like to follow each weekend. He starts his day off by helping load the gondola chairs onto the cable. The Gondola barn  hold all 76 chairs except for 16 that are stored at the top terminal. It was really cool how we had to push the gondolas around the track and onto the loader. The loader is controlled by a computer that spaces the carts out perfectly. After the gondola was up and running we took some hot laps with Scott visiting other stations and patrol shacks. I was pumped that we took a run through the park and i got to show off my skills a little for Scott.
     For the Second half of the day we were back at the Mercedes Benz test drive table escorting test drivers to the cars. Another day of honing my guest relation skills. One cool thing that came out of working at the test drive event was that while it was slow i got to sign up and test drive a Benz myself. IT WAS AWESOME! Those cars are soooooo sick. When you reverse not only dose a camera show what is behind you but it also displays you tire track according to your degree of steering wheel. Not only did I get to drive a 50,000 dollar car but i got two free passes to Stowe just for doing it! Week 2 at Stowe was great i learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I cant wait for week 3!

Stowe: W1- Terrian Parks/Mercades Test drive

Friday: When we arrived Friday I was planning on free riding all day getting to know the Mountain and resort, but I was wrong. Unfortunately two staff members of there terrain park did not show up. So we had to help Kurt the terrain park manager build there large park (Northwave). These employees were volunteer workers so they did not get paid just a free pass for the year. I see how volunteers can be and issue without the motivation of pay. As the day got going I realized that even know we weren’t free riding I was doing something I love. Building features in the park. We did a lot of work that consisted of shoveling, lugging rails, and raking. One cool feature that we had to cut transition into was an Amp energy drink school buss. Yes a full size school bus inside the park. It was really cool. Kurt has been working at Stowe for a while now and understands how to groom parks very well. We worked on that park all day and Kurt let us test ride it before anyone ells, one of the great perks from being a terrain park staff. All in all after being bummed out in the morning the day went really good.
Saturday: The next day went much smoother. Our day consisted of a normal park staffer day and helping out with a Mercedes test drive event. In the morning we fallowed around Burns he was Kurt’s best staffer. We went through each park digging out the new snow from the prior night and raking the take offs. After lunch time we were instructed to go over to the Spruce lodge to help out with a Mercedes test drive. We were the gentlemen who escorted the drivers from the Mercedes booth to the car. It was fun to interact with the customers and make small talk. Everything went very smooth. From 2-3:30 we had to go meet back up with the park staffers for an end of the day rake run. The day was really fun and I got to do a lot of great park riding. While our group was getting ready to leave Kurt was in the ops build and asked me if I would like to work full time for him. I was a little shocked and only thinking about out west so I told him I would definitely think about it. Sean after told me that was the wrong thing to say in that situation. What I should have said was just thank you very much and kept it short and simple. The first week at jay went really good for me and I am looking forward this weekend.

Last day at Jay: Ski Patrol and Ski School

For my last rotation at Jay I shadow a Ski patroller in the morning and a snowboard instructor in the evening. When I arrived at ski patrol they didn’t have much work for me so they sent me out to shadow a patroller open his assigned trails. It took us 3 runs to check his 8 trials. In order to ok the trials we had to make sure there were proper signage and no dangerous skiing and riding terrain. After that was done I was set off for some free riding before I had to meet at the top patrol shack for 10:45. It was a slow day for ski patrol so I just hung out with Ziggy until lunch time. For the second half of the day I was with ski school. I do have previous year of instructing experience under my belt so I did understand most of what goes on in ski school. They had me shadow Joe Jones who is a level 3 instructor and is assui certified to certify other instructors. Joe is a very high rank instructor and I learned some good tips to teaching surface tricks. Friday was a pretty laid back day for me. I didn’t learn much but the tips I got where very helpful. Overall my experience at Jay was awesome and I will definitely keep them at the top of possible employment.

Jay Peak Pump House

I have worked the nordic center, ice haus, customer service, food and beverage, and hotel. But i have learned the most after spending the day in the pump house water park. I have worked at a ski area for 4 years now and have learned about my previous areas of managerment. The water park was a new addition to my recreation management experience. I got to spend the day with Jason, one of the water parks supervisors. It was very interesting learning about the indoor water park energy consumption and efficiency. One thing they do is recycle the ice rink snow into the water park. Jay is also saving money by creating there own chlorine. The Indoor water park keeps a consistent 85 degrees and has an assortment of rides and attreactions. They have two tube slides,  two body slides, a flow rider, a aqua loop, hot tubes, activity pool, kiddy pool, and the longest indoor lazy river. My favorite ride is the flow rider. Its fun to surf in vermont, plus it rips everyones clothes off. The day i worked the pump house the first thing i did int he morning was test the aqua loop. The water park was designed by chris who also designed hurricane hobor at six flags. The water park looks perfect but has run into some problems that needed to be fix. For example the Thursday before my day in the pump house i was told that the water park reached over 110 degrees due to the sun baking on the roof. The way the staff handled the heat was with the retractable roof. They opened the roof and cooled the park down. I also got to spend some time in the arcade. The arcade seems like a really simple job but really cool to play arcade games all day. The new Pump House water park at Jay Peak was a great addition and i can see Jay making a great profit from it.

Woke up to this beautiful site! Thursday morning, commence winter!