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

Visitor comes to class: Lenko Snowmaking.

Tuesday our class had a visitor Dick Harris from Lenko, he went over a whole presentation on snow making. The presentation took us through the past, present, and future of snowmaking. It was pretty cool to see pictures of older fan guns and what the first generation of snow makers looked like. He talked a lot about the air flow and how it gets mixed with water to create the snow. Dick was a nice guy and knew a lot about the ski resort industry. Dick also told us a little about his history in the industry and how he got to be where he is now. He told us that he did not plan on making a career out of ski but he found a passion and worked his way up the totem pole. LAC on Thursday, talked about our presentation and next semester. Went over the different mountains we will be working at and what Sean expects from us during that time. I will be attending Jay Peak and Stowe for my practicum and i can not wait to see what each resort has in store for me. Bring on the winter!!

Burke and Stowe: Round 2

So we got anther chance to venture back to Stowe and Burke, but this time our experience was a little different. First ill tell you about Burke. We went to burke not to talk to any important people or look at new projects but to do some manual labor. The guys at burke had us putting on all 165 seat pads on the willoughby chair lift. There was one person running the lift and two teams of 4-5 bungie cording the pads onto each chair. I gotta say, after the 60th chair we were getting pretty quick at it. It took us roughly about an hour and a half to complete all 165 chairs. I kept reminding everyone, "The faster we go, the faster we go!" So our second round at burke wasn't the funnest, but we made the best of it and learned some valuable lessons.

We also took another trip back to Stowe. Like Burkes round 2, we found out that we were going to be doing some manual labor. We show up at Stowe and they inform us that we will be clearing the trenches along the access road. As we started to go up the hill I was trying to fathom why we had to do this pity work, but nothing really made sense. So I asked our supervisor the reason for racking the leaves out of the trench if its just going to snow soon. His reply was, " If we don't clear these trenches now when spring comes and the trenches are clogged with leave the water will destroy the access road. Which could cost Stowe over 40 thousand dollars to repair. So bye then end of the day i realized that something so easy and simple could save you a really difficult and costly repair. So its important to take care of the little things.

-Drew

A small session with some Burke homies. First time strapping in for me!! Cant wait to ride a lift!

The Woods

We went to the Woods the other day. Thats Bretton Woods, for those who don't know. The woods of The wight mountains that is.  When we arrived we were introduced to James the guest services manager. Bretton Woods is most know for there exceptional guest service. They are also know for there association with Omni Hotels and the Mount Washington Hotel. James gave us a quick tour of the lodge, which was much larger then i thought. The lodge had a nice log cabin/timber frame feel that was over 3 stories. The basement of the lodge held rental, repair shop, lookers, and a gift shop. The ground floor is where the food court was located. The top floor was the most surprising. The top floor consisted of a massive bar and a brand new rock wall. The rock wall was very cool and was a real rock formation. After the tour we got to check out there snowmaking. There pump house was small but very efficient. When we were finished talking to the snowmaking manager we went back over to the lodge to talk to some other people. We ran into the terrain park manager and the manager of lifts and had a little Q. and A. session. When we made it back inside we talked to the GM and James again.  I really liked how every one we talked to gave off a good vibe and seemed very nice. It seems to me that Bretton Woods would be an very good work environment.  I can see why there guest services is ranks so highly.  To top it all off, as we were leaving they fired up some snow guns for the first time this season. Bretton Woods is a nice place and i am looking forward to spending time there this winter.

The Mount Washington Hotel 


After finishing everything at Bretton Woods we hoped a shuttle and went over to the ski resorts affiliate, The Washington Hotel. As we pull into the lobby turn around area we pass the resorts Volvo fleet. (Ballin). We walk into the lobby to see this huge open hall way with a very nice chandelier. The Mount Washington has some very interesting and famous rooms. There was the amplifier ceiling (my favorite), the gold room, and the Cave (a crazy cool night club). Those where  just some that stud out the most. There were other rooms for dinning, conferences, or just relaxation. The Mount Washington Hotel Was very fancy and elegant. I could definitely see my self taking my future wife there. Omni resorts has some good things going for them in New Hampshire and it is a great place for a family vacation.


-Drew

Jay Peak

Recently our class made a visit to Jay Peak. We got to take a hard hat tour of all of their recent development. When we took our tour Jay Peak was currently finishing the construction of there new water park, hotel, and bar. I thought the water park was very impressive,.The park had a flow rider, which is a stationary wave that can be surfed or boogie boarded. There was also a water slide that almost does a complete flip. I also learned that they have the longest indoor lazy river in the United States. The water park construction connected to Jay Peaks new hotel. The new hotel rooms were fancy and well designed. Another cool thing was they were building a bar looking over the water park. Jay Peak is going to be a happening place this year! Their ice house was also very nice. We had some extra time and the ice was open so i asked if we could go skate for 15-20 min. I was shut down. All these new projects did not come cheep. Jay Peak has spent over 50 million dollars to build the water park and hotel. Obviously Jay Peak is doing something right. I can not wait to do my spring practicum there!


-Drew

Burke

The other day we took a trip to my back yard, Burke Mountain. Burke has some new projects in motion including their new wind mill and high speed lift. Vice president of Burke Mountian's Operations, Dick Andross showed us around the Mountian. First we went inside to take a look at the new lifts master plan. It showed two new areas to add trails. The master plan also showed us some future plans like moving the Willoughby chair over near the Cutter Inn. That master plan can tell you everything there is to know about the lift. At the Burke returning employee social, I was informed of a new condo development that will be located below the new Mid Burke Express lift. GM, Tim McGuire plans to expand slowly without taking away Burkes Vermont feel. We then took a drive up to the summit to check out the new wind mill. The massive wind mill provides 20% of energy annually, as the new lift adds 20% more energy. Therefore the new wind mill will practically power the new lift. Burke will get there money back from the wind mill in about 2 years. I am looking forward to riding the new 7 minute lift to the summit and seeing where Burke rises to in the future.

Time is now!

Ok, I know I've been slacking with my post but I'm about to make it all up right meow!