First Weekend of Bretton Woods Practicum 3/2, 3/3

The first weekend at Bretton Woods I was sent to work in the rental shop. I met a few interesting people and had the opportunity to learn how they ran their rentals. It was pretty similar to Stowe's system just smaller in scale. There were a few people at each station, sizing boots for renters, tuning ski's/boards, and later in the day dealing with returns. Having a few people doing specific jobs like an assembly line helps move people in and out onto the slopes quicker which makes our lives easier and the customers experience better. I spent my time distributing boots like I did in Stowe and just gaining more of an overall understanding about how all the equipment works. It's important for the people working with the equipment to be knowledgeable and know how to fit someone for ski's so their safety isn't compromised. Although I didn't tune ski's or boards for customers, I observed it being done for several hours at both Stowe and Bretton, and on top of my previous experience I feel much more comfortable being responsible for tuning equipment, and just interacting socially with the people renting who are generally beginners. In addition sustainability of equipment is essential to running a smooth rentals operations. Small things like getting boots to the dryers as soon as they're returned, or not always going for a pair of boots that's closest to you on the shelf, so that each pair is used equally as much, can all make a difference in the long run so that the equipment stays in better shape for longer periods of time. I didn't make the trip Saturday because I was sick, but I still took away a few new things and gained some knowledge from spending time in Bretton Woods' rental shop.

Last Day at Stowe 2/17

We spent our final day at Stowe Mountain Resort this past Friday alongside Scott Reeves. What turned out to be an enjoyable day started out by recharging our cards and gearing up to meet Scott at the quad. We took some runs around the mountain with Mike Manley, Scott, and a representative from HKD snowmaking equipment. They were observing the current equipment and discussing what was likely going to be replaced or discarded at the end of the season. Deciding between 10, 20, and 30 feet towers was the main objective of running through the trails with the rep, as well as giving an effort to observe as much that was going on the mountain as possible. Dangerous conditions, safety hazards, and interacting with guests were all a part of combing through each run. We came in at 11 for the daily meeting between all the mountain operation managers like usual, and got to hear about the preparation taking place for the upcoming holiday weekend. Every employee on the mountain is impacted during President's Day weekend and ensuring that they were all ready was the main focus of that particular meeting. Afterwards Scott informed us he was booked with meetings and let us have the rest of the day to ride by ourselves, which was great. The snow was soft and we took full advantage of our passes taking runs until we were all agreeably tired. I'll never forget the time I got to spend at Stowe, and definitely look forward to riding there sometime in the near future. Every employee we ran into and got to interact with was pleasurable, and we were able to take away helpful information from each department we spent time in. In addition, Mike Manley was a great help and consistently had answers to all of our questions, as well as the rest of the mountain ops staff.

Stowe 2/10,2/11

This past weekend at Stowe I had the opportunity to work with lift attendants on Friday, and the customer service department on Saturday. Friday consisted of working at the Midway Gondola, and the new FourRunner quad as well as spending a small amount of time at the Sunny Spruce quad towards the end of our day. Dom and I spent the first half of the day with Kelly at the Gondola, it wasn't terribly busy this particular morning so we pretty much got an overview of how their system works and how they keep the line moving. She showed us the top area of the lift where all the moving parts are and where the motor's reside and gave a a brief explanation of how it all worked, along with an overview of the controls they have in the operating booth and which buttons do what for certain situations. At eleven we attended the mountain operations meeting in the administrative office where they went over the typical daily tasks and discussed upcoming events, trails that needed to be groomed and a few other specific bits of information.

After the meeting we spent time at the new quad and got an explanation of the new RFID rechargeable ticket system that Stowe's implemented at all their lifts. Whoever's maintaining the checkpoint can see a skier's information once they pass through the gates at any given time. All their basic information is displayed as well as the number of runs they've taken and at which lifts they've stopped at. We essentially got the same treatment at each lift we visited, learning the controls, what their policy is for certain situations and so on.

On Saturday Wes, Dom and I worked with the customer service department. We met Heidi in the morning at the Mansfield lodge, where I worked with Gretchen for a majority of the day, while Wes and Dom worked over at the Spruce Peak customer service desk until our lunch a little after noon. Customer service can definitely be a demanding job and I got to experience it first hand with Gretchen. She has to have an answer for every question that comes her way, or at least be able to point people in the right direction to solve their questions. I was able to answer basic questions, give people directions to resort services, inform people about trail conditions and pricing and things along those lines. The most I took away from watching Gretchen was her ability to think on her feet and come up with solutions to people's often involved or confusing questions in an effort to get them back to what they came there to do, go skiing or spend time with their family. Everyone I had the opportunity to work with this past weekend treated us really well and were open to sharing everything they knew with us, and I appreciated each employee's positive attitude towards us both days.

Stowe 2/3-2/4

Over the weekend me and Wes worked in the rental shop at Stowe and learned the ropes of how Stowe handles their rentals. They were incredibly efficient in their process and moved people in and out of the small shop really fast. Once we were taken step by step through the process we figured out where they could use us most during our time working for them. We spent most of our time sizing people for boots and renting helmets before they would get their ski's or boards. Stowe has a reputation for providing a high quality experience, and with that comes a high priced lift ticket. In order to make sure people get the full experience for the price of their ticket its important that they get their equipment as quick as possible so they can get out on the hill. They do this through an organized system of codes and colors so that the process of getting boots and tuning the ski's can move efficiently as possible. I learned a lot about quick service and how hectic things can get in a rental shop, but it was a great experience overall. The employees were pleasant and outgoing with us and I enjoyed working for them. Tom was a great guy and I appreciated his attitude towards us through everything. As an added bonus I had an unexpected encounter in the rental shop with Mike Gordon the bassist from Phish, my all-time favorite band who I've seen about 15 times thus far in my life. It was essentially the icing on the cake of a pretty enjoyable weekend working at Stowe, and I'm looking forward to working on the lifts next week.

First Weekend of Stowe Practicum 1/20, 1/21

Our first two days at Stowe we spent time working with individuals in departments ranging from the racing/events, and terrain parks. The first day we set up several different things for events that were in the coming days, all of which relate directly to sustainability, service and safety. Our first task was digging a small trench at the finish line of the race trail so that they could run a line underneath it to record finish times for a NASTAR event. Immediately after we fenced off a large area at the bottom of the gondola for the rail jam that was happening that night. Later in the day we familiarized ourselves with the mountain more by riding around and exploring different trails. To conclude Friday we set up the speakers, generator, and tent at the rail setup. Setting up the boundaries directly related to keeping people safe so they don't interfere with the rail setup, and enabling them to run the sensor under the finish line helps run the racing event smoother. Having both of these events run in correspondence to each other allows a variety of different people to enjoy the mountain in ways they prefer.

On Saturday we spent the whole day with the park crew which was a lot of fun. Their main responsibility is grooming and maintaining the park features. The bulk of the days work is done first thing in the morning where the guys will clear off any new snow that's on the rails and rake out the take-off and landing for each feature. The grooming for the open areas of the trail is done overnight so throughout the day the guy's will observe the trails and make any necessary adjustments as the day goes on. As a precaution every time they perform maintenance to one of their parks they call it in to dispatch so that they can keep record of it to prevent lawsuits and keep the parks safer. All the initiatives that are involved in working on the park staff contribute to service, safety, sustainability, and overall serving everyone who rides at the mountain.

Stowe Clean Up Day

This past week our class was ready to watch the lift towers get flown up via helicopter on Tuesday, however the chopper remained in Maine for the better part of the day and we didn't get to see it that particular day. I made my way to Burke the next morning and saw it fly a few towers up the mountain in person, and it was really cool to see up close. The amount of technology and skill involved in the process is unbelievable, and exciting to watch happen so quick as it only took about 5 minutes for the helicopter to make a round up and down the hill with the parts.
On Thursday we drove back to Stowe to see the progress they made on their new quad. They had the whole thing up and running, and were conducting weight tests when we arrived. They simulated the weight and movement of humans on a chair with barrels full of water. Pending an inspection from the state their new chair looks like its ready for Stowe's opening day. After checking that out we took the the rake's and leaf blowers and   cleared out the drainage ditch that ran alongside Stowe's access road on the bottom of the mountain. It was a time consuming process even with the whole class at it, but we eventually knocked it off. The last thing we did was drive up to the summit to seed and spread hay around the unloading area that surrounded the lift and check out the top of the lift. We went up into the unloading station to see all the new components and got another good look at the complexity that is a chair lift. As well as get an additional follow up tour of the new ski patrol building which was coming along really nicely. The gentleman who showed us around the top was a good guy and seemed like he really enjoyed his job at Stowe. It was definitely a long day, but nonetheless I took out a lot of it.

Burke/Chili Cook Off

In early November we took a trip over to Burke Mountain to tackle the task of putting the seat cushions on all 160+ chairs of the Willoughby quad. We knew the job would take a decent amount of time, being that there were so many chairs, but we split up the work really efficiently and got it done in just under two hours. We had people take turns operating the lift stopping and starting it, while a group of about 4 to 5 people would attach the seat pads with bungee cords to each chair. It became a mini competition to get each pad on quicker than the other group, and it made time pass a lot quicker, and ultimately helped us finish the job sooner. The more and more tasks we do around different mountains all puts into perspective the amount of work that seemingly never ends to keep a ski area functioning at its best potential. 

The following Saturday our class had the Chili cook-off event that we had planned for so much in advance. Last year in my Theory and Practice Class with Thom Anderson we volunteered for it so I had a good idea of what to expect from it. This year was unique because of the combination of the skate jam with the cook off. While we can agree that it would have been nicer to have more skaters sign up to make more money the event itself was a success in my opinion. We made plenty of money for the LOC and people enjoyed themselves watching the skaters and sampling the food. The games we ran could have done a lot better in terms of participation and revenue, and it's something that we'll have to look at more for next year. Overall I was glad that so many people showed up, and I had fun being at it as well.