Bretton Woods

Today we went to bretton woods resort. We were able to meet the general manager, director of guest services, human resource manager, head snowmaker, operations manager, and other important people that work at the resort. It seemed like all the managers had advice about teamwork and the customers. No matter what department you are working in, all of the employees are working bretton woods resort. All of the departments need to work together in order to have a successful business. James, guest serive manager, was saying that you can never yell at a customer, but they are not always right. Don't take any of it personally because they are not mad at you, they are disappointed at the resort. You escort them to what they are looking for, and calling the manager of that department to let him/her know the situation. The customer gets more frustrated the more they have to tell their story. Then we went over to the massive hotel for a tour. It'd be a nice place to stay...if I was rich. After seeing all 4 of the practicum mountains, I know that its gonna be a good winter.

Jay Peak

Today we traveled to Jay Peak and it was probably the best hard hat tour so far. Jay is currently doing a huge expansion with a new ice area, water park, and hotel. The lighting in the buildings are on dimmers so they will dim and save energy when the sunlight is providing enough light to the facilities. It was awesome to get a behind the scene look before everything is done. If I end up going there next semester, which hopefully I do, I'll already of had a good preview of where I am going to be working. Walter showed us Jays master plan and it was great to see what is going to be happening in the future. They are adding a whole new section of terrian called the west bowl. They'll also be building more condos, but they are going to have to change in the location for the condos because they cannot disturb the bear habitats. I really like how Jay staying envirormental safe and sticking with there motto "If you can't hack it, don't hack it." They're adding more glades, but they are barely going to touch the woods...the way glades are supposed to be! The new tram house lode was neat and I liked the theme they had in the bar. They used pieces of the old haul rope and had them up in the beams. It was cool how they could still use parts of the lift. I really hope I go there in the for one of my practicums...it is the place to be.

Burke Mountain

This week we traveled to Burke Mountain. Burke has been very busy with their new wind mill and high speed lift. Dick Andross, vice president of mountain operations, showed us Burke's master plan, which was very impressive. It showed two new areas to add trails. It also showed new lifts and moving chair lifts the willoughby quad near the Cutter Inn. If Tim McGuire, General Manager,  is going to do all of this while he is the GM this would probably take a good ten years, but it shows that there is always some project or expansion happening at Burke every year. I'm sure that Burke will be needing help with this in the future....job oppurtunities? We then went up to the summit to check out the new wind mill. The massive wind mill provides 15-20% of energy annually. Burke will get there money back in 2 years. I am looking forward to riding the new lift and seeing what happens to Burke in the future.

Cannon Mountain 9/29

On Thursday we went to Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, NH. We went inside the New England Ski Museum, which was by the base of their tram. The museum had all of Bodi Millers olympic medals. There was a new section to the museum that had the history of the ski industry. It showed pictures of very old surface lifts and groomers. People used to hold on to shovel handles as it hauled them up the hill. Then we went into a room with a projection screen. Jeff Leich, head of the museum, showed pictures of how all the ski areas in the white mountains were developed in the 30's through 50's. He also talked about what ski areas were the first to have snowmaking, ariel lifts, and so on. After that we were able to ride the tram up to the summit. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and rainy so we did not have a good view. When we came back down we quickly stopped at the old man of the mountain museum. We saw what it looked like, how big it was, and why it fell down.