Jay Peak Week Two

Friday's practicum was cancelled, wish it wasn't because I wanted to do Lift Ops and the Tram. Oh Well. Saturday at Jay Peak I worked with Ski Patrol and Ski School. Got to Patrol and it was a very hectic morning for Peg as the Tram haul rope was frozen so they had to close trails and lifts in order to knock the ice off by running the tram. I went with Pierre to open Canyon Land, about mid run he got a call about an accident in a glade off taxi. Pierre and I were the first responders and the 30 year old snowboarder had hit a tree and broke his femur. It was very cool to see all of the 8 patrollers work together to keep him calm and get him out of the glades. It was very eye opening and i can appreciate all the work patrollers do now, I also went to another crash scene when a little girl crashed into a tree in Exbo Glade. For the rest of the day we went around put in trail merging signs and icy conditions signs. Ski Patrol is huge with safety and service, as they decide whether to open or close a trail due to safety concerns, which could limit the customers experience. They are huge on safety as they put signs out, rescue injured skiers and make routine safety checks. Patrol effects the customer in positive and negative ways as they can open/close trails whenever they deem them unsafe. Patrol is a very hectic environment in the morning with opening the lifts/trails and the owner really depends on them to make proper decisions.
Ski school was a little boring I just followed a Level 3 Ski Instructor around for an hour lesson, they don't have much to do in the afternoon. They provide a service to anybody wishing to learn to ski/ride. They are a big part of services for the resort as they try to install the love for the sport into them. So if a new skier/rider gets a cranky instructor they might not come back again which means the resort isn't making money.  Ski school employees the most people at the mountain so it offers a lot of jobs to people. It allows the employees to interact with guests and show their passion for the sport.

Jay Peak : Week 1

Spent my first week at Jay Peak working at the Indoor water park called the Pump House. I was excited to finally see the water park fully operational. I spent my day shadowing the Assistant Water Park Manager Jason Bays, he recently graduated SNHU, he has had previous experience working at Camel Beach Water Park in the Poconos. The Water Park isnt truely the most sustainable department because they have to heat 300,000 gallons of water all day, and that takes a good amount of energy. Jason's department is all about service and he deals directly with the public. He hired the whole life guarding staff and Jason is usually out on the floor walking around the park dealing with customer service issues and making sure everything is running smoothly. I sat through two meetings at the beginning of the day and they were focused around being friendly, etc. They had 12 points for there mission statement for each employee to follow which would create a good atmosphere for the customer. Jason is huge on safety, they have life guards in all stations and rotate them every 45 minutes to keep them fresh. When ever any injury occurs it is document in case any questions arouse at a later date. Safety is very important in a water park which is why they have monthly audits from there insurance company, if they don't pass they are at risk of getting the park closed. I also shadowed Scott who is the Lifeguard supervisor.
The water park obviously supports the customer in a huge way. It gives the customer a place to come and wind down after a hard day of skiing, it also adds another element to their experience. The Pump house is an exicting place, you can tell this by the people walking in and the astonishment on their faces are priceless. The pump house supports the employees because it opened over 80 jobs in the area, which was needed so instead of them being unemployeed they now have jobs. Jason really supports his employees, hes very friendly and always starts conversations with them, he first step when he got the job was moving his desk into the employee lounge so he can be around them more. Jason helps the owners and shareholders by bringing in more money and the running the Pump House properly and efficiently will bring back customers which will make more money, Bill Stenger was happy with how the day was running, all and all it was a great way to spend the day!

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.