Stowe slaves

Yesterday we got to be enslaved by Stowe for free! It wasn't too bad...We raked out the culverts and spread some mulch on the top of the mountain. I found a bunch of little salamanders and a big spider! Stowe should have at least provided us with water though! They have so much money, they can afford to spare some water for some broke college students! The highlight of the trip was definitely going into the new lift terminal and checking out what a brand new lift looks like inside! It was different from any terminal that I've seen before and it was really neat! There's a place to walk down and go under the bullwheel if necessary for repairs and such. I had never seen that before but it looked like a great idea! We got to also go in the new ski patrol house to see the progress on that, and its looking pretty good! It was super warm in there and they hadn't even turned on their awesome heating system yet! We also got to visit the maintenance building which is pretty impressive! The new bus cat is really nice and we got to sit in it! They should add a service where they charge people to go for groomer rides in the bus cat. I would love to ride around in that thing! I can't wait to have next Thursday off! :-)

Burke and Skate Jam

This week was exciting! On Thursday, we met up at Burke to put the seat pads on the Willoughby chair to get it ready for SNOW! Our class wanted to get it done as quickly as possible so we could go home...and they did! An hour and 35 minutes to get seat pads on all of the chairs...Schweeet! Our class worked so well together as a team! I was super impressed! I got to separate all the bungee cords...that was fun haha it made the time pass by quickly though. Yesterday, we had the chili cook off and skate jam event which seemed to be really successful. I was outside with Linds, Brent, Layla, and a few others working at the table with the candy corn toss and guess the pumpkin weight. There was a good amount of people who participated. What made me really happy though is that I got to take care of Corey's love child Layla! Half pug, half Boston Terrier...cutest mix everrrr! I want one someday! I believe we will be digging water bars on Thursday at Stowe...should be interesting. I hope the weather isn't crappy like it alwaysss is on Thursdays!

Bretton Woods

Last Thursday, our class went to Bretton Woods. While I do appreciate the expansions and new constructions at all the other mountains we visited, it was nice to see a resort that is NOT under construction! We got to talk to a variety of the employees at Bretton Woods and they all had some cool things to talk about. We visited with the snowmaking guy and he showed us those crazy $100 bags of stuff they use to make good quality snow. They must have had thousands of dollars worth of this stuff! I never knew it existed until I saw it that day. The best part of the day was when we went to visit the Mt. Washington Hotel....talk about top-quality lodging! This place is hugeeee and very carefully crafted to be eye appealing and fancy! I heard that Ghost Hunters visited that hotel once which made the place more interesting. The Cave was a historical place during the prohibition where people would go to drink. There would be a person watching out for law enforcement to warn the drinkers if they were in danger of getting caught. The hotel had many awesome chandeliers that must be worth a lotttt of money and must have taken a long time to build. All in all, it was a sweet trip and I plan on going to Bretton Woods for practicum next semester!

jay peak

We went to Jay Peak today! I learned a lot while I was there! We got to look at the master plan for Jay Peak which includes expansions into the west bowl which looks like it's going to be realllll nice! More tree riding woohoo! They had plans for developing a certain area but then found out that they weren't allowed to do that because of environmental regulations. I'm glad that even though they are destroying the environment, they have ways to be environmentally-friendly and preserve bear habitats! I liked what I heard when he said that any work done in high-altitude must be considerable of the thrush bird that is up there. They're considerate by doing work with their hands and not using heavy machinery in a way to disrupt the wildlife. That makes me happy :-)
We got a hard hat tour of the construction of the new hotel and waterpark. Everything looks like it's going to be really nice. The water park looks like so much fun! The slide that starts inside, goes outside, and comes back inside is probably the most unique thing there..They should put little windows in it so the rider can see outside while their in the tube! The lazy river also looks really awesome. I asked Jake how it was possible to be able to afford allllll of these expansions within a short time period. He said that they have a lot of investors to help them out. He also explained that for the Ice Haus, half of the revenues from it will be going back to investors for the first five years of it being open and after that happens, the building will become officially owned by Jay Peak. All of these projects cost a hugeeee amount of money....an amount of money I will never even see a fraction of in my lifetime! Millions and millions of dollars goes into all of this stuff! I feel like they are progressing extremely quick with no room to breath. I feel like they should have split up the construction over a longer period of time. Build the ice haus...wait a little bit. Then build the hotel and waterpark building....wait a little bit. Then, expand real estate with townhouses and such. They have grown so much in the last few years it is crazy! I hope I get to go to Jay for Practicum next spring! Definitely my number one choice!

Burke Mountain

We went to Burke yesterday. It was pretty neat to see the master plan of the mountain. This was the first time I had learned about master plans and it makes a lot of sense to have one. Even if you don't have the money at the time, there may be opportunities for expansion in the future. I really like the master plan that Burke has too. It uses as much terrain as they have and everything fits together, like a puzzle, as Lindsey said! We got to see the new lift under construction. It helped me understand how intense it is and how much work goes in to putting up a new lift. It also shows that not everything goes as planned and there are many laws and regulations that are unknown until you find out you need to follow them. For instance, they have to put a fire alarm in the mid-Burke lodge that communicates with the chair lift because the chairs will be going over a portion of the lodge. Looking at the wind turbine up close was pretty sick! Those blades can mooveee!

Peace!

New England Ski Museum

The Ski museum at Cannon Mountain was pretty sweet! I saw a lot of pictures from back in the day and it was cool to see how much skiing has grown since then. The thing that sparked my interest was pictures from Belknap Recreation Area, which is now Gunstock, my home mountain. They had pictures of old groomers from Belknap Recreation Area. Before yesterday, I did not know that before it was Gunstock, it was Belknap Recreation Area. We got a presentation from a guy who works there talking about the history of skiing and it was very interesting. He showed us a lot of pictures and explained them to us. Then we went to the top of Cannon and rode the tram way. I wish the day was more clear because we had the opportunity to see some sick views but all we could see was clouds :-( A few of us did the rim trail to go to to the observation tower and it was crazy windy and sideways raining on us! I was surprised to see some old folks out there during that inclement weather.

All in all, it was a pretty good day, just wish the weather liked us for one Thursday...

Stowe

For Thursday's class we went to Stowe to check out the new lift that is going in! I learned that there is a LOT involved in installing a new lift and coming up with new processes. They are building a huge barn to store each chair of the lift in so that they don't freeze over night. I think this is a great idea to prevent freezing but it seems like it is just more work for the employees to do. Before this barn, if the chairs are frozen, they would have to go and get all the ice out of each chair and it is a long process. However, its a similar process to take each chair off the cable. I feel like either process is going to be time-consuming, but you wouldn't have to always chip the ice off the chairs if there's no ice to chip (when doing things the old way). I have faith that the employees who have to deal with taking the chairs off will eventually get used to it and there will be a good system in place for it. When they first start, there will be a lot of problem solving and kinks to work out. I think that eventually though, it will get easier for everyone involved. 

We also checked out the new ski patrol building and it is pretty impressive! I like the system they have up there for taking the excess hot air from the chairlift and heating the building with that excess air. It is environmentally friendly and will save energy costs! I have never seen or heard about a system like that and I got really excited when I heard about it. It sounds like Stowe has a pretty sweet Ski Patrol that includes doctors on staff as volunteers. Its great that a doctor will take time out of his/her busy schedules to help out Stowe's ski patrol as well as donate things to the building that will make the patrol staff happier. 

I'm really glad we got the opportunity to take this trip to Stowe! 

I can't wait to see what the rest of our field trips are like!

Sunday River Snow Summit

The Show at Sunday River was awesome! I talked to a lot of people, expanded my knowledge, and got a bunch of free stuff!

My favorite person to talk to was the National Ski Patrol guy from Pat's Peak. His name was Chris Rousseau and he works with the youth ski patrol on his mountain. I asked him if people who got knocked unconscious ever get confused when they wake up and hit him. He said that it has happened to him before. He was very easy-going and easy to talk to.

Another person I talked to was Patti Dykeman who is the Office Manager from Leitner-Poma. She told us about chairlifts and about the bubble chairlift that is being put on Mt. Snow for the upcoming season. I asked her what it was like to be a woman in the industry. She told me that it's no different than being a man. She is not treated any differently and that she gets along well with all of the men. I also asked her if she had gone to college. She said that she did not go to college and that she started out working in the office at the age of 17 and has stayed there ever since.

I talked to Matt Vanderbrook who is the Senior Project and Sales Manager for Sustainable Energy Developments. He talked about windmills and the benefits of wind power. I asked him if it was possible for there to ever be a resort that was off the grid completely. He told me it wasn't likely because there is always a need for back-up power. Also, it's good to be connected because excess energy created from the wind turbine can be sold to the community and benefit them as well. I asked him what the fastest wind gust recorded from a wind mill was and he told me that it was 100 mph in Berkshire.

John Jacobs is the President of Reliable Racing Supply. He told us about an alternative to Neveplast which is much cheaper and just as effective. He had some samples of fencing on his table so I asked him if there was a machine that could roll up fences easier than getting on your hands and knees and rolling them up manually. He told me that people have made makeshift fence rollers but there is no product on the market for it.

CB Vaughan who does Business Development for EFX USA told us about RFID technology. He told us about how the EFX bracelets work to help achieve better balance and less stress. He tested our balance to prove that they work and then let us pick out our own! I asked him if people ever wore more than one bracelet to achieve even better balance. He said that athletes sometimes wear necklaces and bracelets to increase their effectiveness.

I heard from a lot of other different people from chairlifts and groomers to marketing and hiring. I was able to use everything I had learned in Intro to Ski Resort Management to talk to all of the vendors.
We also got to sit in the groomers and see what the inside of those were like. They were really neat and looked really easy to operate. It made me want to try grooming at some point so I now have a goal to do some grooming this winter.

This show has gotten me really excited about all the different facets of being in the ski industry. Hopefully, in the near future, I will be able to attend this show as a representative from the mountain I work for!

I'm looking forward to learning about cable splicing next week!
(I'm also glad I'm not at Reach the Beach today! :-D)

Adios amigos!

Neat website

Working on my market analysis and doing some research on closed ski areas.
Check it out if you're into history! There's some interesting stories in there...

our new classroom

First time in our new "classroom" today...I'm glad that the Lyndon Outing Club has become our new home base. I remember last semester during a Risk Management presentation I asked the question "Does LSC have any partnerships to help LOC?" Well my question was answered! I think it's a great opportunity for us as students to put our knowledge to use and its also an opportunity for LOC to grow by having a new group of people taking care of certain aspects. This will definitely be a mutually beneficial relationship!

I can't wait to get out to places and start learning the ins and outs as well as the people in the field! This is gonna be a fun class!