LOC/LAC

Tuesday had a visitor Dick Harris from Lenko, he went over a whole presentation on snow making throughout the years. 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 air which effects the snow. Meet at LAC on Thursday, talked about our presentation and about next semester. Went over the different mountains we will be working at and what Sean expects from us during that time

Stowe Work

Stowe nicely invited us to thier mountain to do some work for them this Thursday. We had to clear out the leaves on the toll road becuase they clog up the drainage on the dirt portion of the road. This is important because in the spring when the snow starts to melt it will make the dirt road muddy and it will get washed out. It was grunt work with alot of raking and leaf blowing but its just another thing in the industry that has to get done. This took a few hours, but we then headed up to the top of the mountain and we got to check out the top terminal which has been finished. Seeing it when it was nothing to now is amazing and the size of the emergency diesel engine was insane. We also checked out the nicest ski patrol house on the east coast, looked pretty cozy to me and that TV should come in handy. We then mulched around the terminal so they can start growing grass there which will help for erosion purposes. It was a day full of hard work

Burke Seats

Went to Burke last week to put on the seat pads on the Willoughby Lift. We put all the seat pads on all 164 chairs in an hour and forty five minutes, which is a great time. We all worked well together and got the job done. The seat pads were connected by  bungee cords and we used three cords per each side.The maintenance guys were happy with out work. It was also neat to run and stop the lift so each chair could get padded up.

B-Woods

Got a tour of the lodge, which is really nice. They just installed an indoor climbing wall, they are very advanced with their summer operations. They have a zip line and canopy tour, which looks really sweet. We meet a lot of people that talked about their experiences at Bretton Woods...I wish I remembered their names. They are known for having top rated Guest services so I'm looking foward to working with them. They also we making snow at the mountain right before we left which was neat. We also got a tour of the Mount Washington Hotel and Resort which was mind blowing. Its so high class and proper. Learning the history and how old it is was cool, their were many famous people who stayed their such as Babe Ruth. It was a really neat trip.

Peak of Jay

Visited Jay Peak to check out their long process of upgrading and money spending. The hotel jay is coming together fast, the last time I was there it was just a steel structure. The inside is gorgeous as you would expect the rooms are sick and surprisingly the prices aren't that horrible. The highlight out the trip was obviously the new  indoor water park, its sick!! They have crazy water slides, a lazy river and the wave rider. They created this to attract more customers and give customers more to do during the winter months. These overall plans cost the peak over 50 million dollars.

Burkeey

Went to Burke to check out what they've been up to over the summer! Checked out the blue prints for the 5 year master plan and the for the lift installation, Dick Androus showed us what we were looking at. They are installing a new Lietner Poma high speed quad, while we were there they were building the footing for the base terminal. We also got to check out the new towers and shive assemblies, which was neat because you dont get to see those up close very often. We got to see the new wind turbine which is awesome and the pay back is only 2 years on it due to grants from the state and government

Cannon

Headed out to Cannon Mountain on the 29th. Went to the New England Ski Museum. Saw some really neat stuff such as the old Skis, learned a lot about the White Mountains and how skiing was developed there. The first snow making ever was installed at Mohawk Mountain which I never knew, but its awesome because its thirty minutes from where I grew up. Riding the tram up to the top of Cannon was cool, I wish we had better weather/ it wasn't cloudy. There were still nice views and it was neat to see how the inside of the tram terminals. Looking forward to this coming week.

Stoweee Trip

Went to Stowe on the 22 of September. Checked out their new high speed quad, which was awesome. I've always wanted to go into the bottom terminal and see what goes on up there, I was surprised to see how many belts their were up there. I also liked how they were taking the chairs off the line every night, I interested in finding out how that works for them, and if turns out to be worth it or not. Driving the toll road up was sweet and touring the new ski patrol house was cool, they put a lot of time and planning into it. The best part was when we got to take apart the lift towers at the base, which are headed to Mohawk Mtn in CT. It was awesome to get a close up view to the shives and see how everything works, and its always fun to get your hands dirty. Overall Stowe was a fun trip, learned a ton.

Sunday River Trade Show 9-15

On Thursday Sept 15 Practicum Class went to the Sunday River Trade show. Met some very cool people, who are known throughout the industry. My favorite person that I spent some time talking to was Josh, from Piston Bully. I asked the question, " How is your company incorporating going green into your groomers?" His response, " We have been making the engines more efficient, and adding components to clean up the exhaust, but  all these changes cost about $40,000 per machine." Patti Dykeman at Leitner Poma was discussing their recent projects, the biggest is the 6 person high speed bubble quad, the first on the east coast, at Mount Snow. The next project which her company is working on is the high speed quad at Burke Mountain which has a ramifications for us. I thought this chair was bought from Ascutney and wasn't new, but she filled us in that its a brand new chair lift that they bought from them, which I thought was awesome!!

A day at LOC

First day at LOC, got a lot of planning done for the future, My Maintenance group is trying to get a clean up day at the hill. This will include cutting down trees on the lift line and multiple trails. Also moving brush into the woods and cleaning up around the two maintenance sheds. Looking forward to next class.

This dude SENDS itttt