Jay peak week 4....its the final countdown

This weekend at Jay i was both in the Water park and in the ice haus. First i was in the Pump house water park, this was awesome. For the first half of the day i sat in and observed as well as participated with a lifeguard safety/training course. This day in the course the group went over every ride/slide in the park as well as go over how each of them worked. the second half of the morning the group was practicing first aid procedures through the park, this was intense. I wast aware of how many different types of rescues there actually were. The second half of the day I was able to walk the park with the MOD or Manager on duty. this job may be the most important in the park. The manager is in charge of making sure everyone is at the right location, crowd control, ride resets, and injury reports. This was a very crazy part of the day. I watched a man injure his neck on the flow rider and within seconds he was already in the care of the very talented lifeguards being sent to first aid where i was able to follow and watch the entire first aid process. This process was very calm and controlled, the guards numerous hours of training paid off and set a great example for the pump house in general. On Saturday i was in the ice house for the day. this was a fun day. I handed out rentals, ran the register, rode the Zamboni, and put nets and pucks on the ice. my favorite event out of this day was riding and help operate the Zamboni. this 250,000 dollar machine is all electric and has a pretty fancy garage where it has its maintenance done to it. On the terms of sustainability, all the snow that is scrapped off the ice gets dumped into a melting pit where it is put back into the tank on the Zamboni. this process was pretty amazing. 

Jay peak week 3

This week at Jay i was with the lifts department at the green mountain flyer chair. This was a very informative day. Firs off in the morning i helped take the chairs from the storage building and put them on the like. this process takes about 6 people to complete and about 1 hour of time. Also i was in charge of the RFID system while working at the flyer. it was my job to watch the hand held pad and make sure 1. that everyone was who they said they were, and 2. that the line flowed smoothly. The RFID system at Jay is by far the smoothest iv seen in the northeast, there are rarely any holdups or lockups. For the 2nd half of the day i worked at the tram. I am very lucky to have gotten this opportunity because i was informed that i was the only practicum student this rotation to be able to work the tram.  As soon as i showed up they immediately asked me if i wanted to drive it, of course i said yes. The tram is run using a small dial to control the speed. Also the operator has a small scale of the tram in a dashboard that shows elevation, space between trams and speed. This system looks complicated but it was actually very easy to understand. i was also given a tour of both the top and bottom tram terminal. this was a great experience.

Jay peak week 2

This week at jay i was in the rentals, hotel, guest services and food and beverage departments. I started the weekend in rentals, this was my favorite department so far. in rentals i was the boot boy, i went and got boots of various sizes for guests who wanted to rent. i also was able to see the whole rental process from forms, to walking out the door. Also i was able to see the full LTR (learn to ride) system and how that works. The jay rental system is more organized than most mountains that ive seen. it makes going skiing very easy for their guests, the high level of organization keeps people participating coming back for more. theres nothing worse for a beginner than to get overwhelmed by a sloppy rental shop, thats just not good for the sport in general. later that day i went to the tram house lodge and hung out with amber the head supervisor. i was able to observe the full check in check out process of the hotel and also i was able to observe day to day situations that the people in the hotel go through on a daily basis such as disgruntled customers, dining issues, and housekeeping issues. The tram house crew handles these situations with much professionalism and hospitality. I quickly saw a pattern while sitting behind the desk, even if a customer came to the desk in a fit of rage the always left with a smile on their face. Amber knew how to truly make the guests have the best possible time while at jay peak. For the second day i was in the guest services department. This was the most comical department i have been in so far. comical due to the fact that some of the people who visited the desk had the most peculiar questions and issues ranging rom ticketing info to waterpark complaints. Also i soon realized that people will do almost anything to try and get a free lift ticket, its quite funny. but all in all the girls behind the desk are staying strong keeping Jay on the positive end of the financial spectrum. i quickly learned that you have to have a respectful yet stern attitude while working in guest services. the final department i was in was food and beverage. I worked with the head chef Mike behind the scenes in the cafeteria. this was a memorable experience, mike was a wealth of knowledge on the history of mountain. mikes been working the kitchen at jay for 20 years. I asked the question that i try to ask every jay employee that has been working there for more than 10 years, how do you like the movement of jay peak and where its going in the future? Mikes answer was simple, " i just dont like the fact that i went from Mike to employee 124". The mountains loosing its personal touch mike says. i completly agree with mike on all levels jay went from the locals playground to yuppie central in just under 3 years, its sad to see it go out this way the chef stated, not to happy with the state of things mike is still busting his ass keeping the kitchen running in ship shape. i was able to help Mike prep a stir fry he was planning for monday. i chopped veggies packaged condiments and wash a few dishes. all in all it was a great weekend...............even though i didnt ski......at all

Jay peak week 1

this week at jay was pretty sweet. The first day was a day to get comfortable with the mountain, in other words it means go shred for free. On saturday i was supposed to be with ski patrol, after arriving there they said they had nothing for me to do so they told me to meet up with the terrain park crew. after meeting up with the crew we went over some specs of the park and some future plans they had in the park. we soon began raking and marking the jumps and hits. The second half of the day i was supposed to be with ski school, soon after arriving at the desk they said they didnt need me because they were having a banquet. as much as it killed me not to work for free, i slowly turned away and went back to  skiing the 4 ft of new snow. all in all so far i can see that jay really caters to their customer, even in park crew the customers come first, as for sustainability aspect, the paint used for marking the lips is just a non toxic biodigrateable dye that is added to water.

burke week 5

This was the last day of rotation at burke, i was in the ski patrol department. Let me just say these guys are a funny group of people. After doing morning sweep we sat in the hut on the top of burke exchanging funny stories of burke this past season. The patrollers were very knowledgeable  on all of the safety procedures and actions. Sam and i were called to an accident near the base lodge, we followed the patrollers to the scene and observed what they did. they were very professional towards the customer and resolved the problem swiftly.

burke week 4

This week at burke mountain i was in the grooming department. I rode along with head of grooming Randy Sanchez. Randy has been grooming at burke for more than 20 years, he knows all the ins and outs of the grooming department. Sustainability wise Randy takes all measures before and after grooming to ensure a long lifespan for all of the machines. Also randy is pro at conserving fuel used buy the groomers, he takes everything he does at precise speed and angle to ensure the machine doesent work more than it has to. When it comes to safety Randy knows the limits of the operator as well as the machines. If a trail is too steep, icy, or thin Randy will not risk the groomer or himself, in the end he makes the final call, oh and myself along with the operator always wore a seatbelt while grooming.In relation to the guests, if grooming does not take place than the trail conditions will he horrible especially with the horrible winter we are having the guests would not want to ski burke mountain. So the main point is grooming is everything!!!!!! In relation to management the big wig office admins rely on grooming because frankly, if theres no grooming, theres no customer, in turn theres no paycheck. simple as that. all in all i learned alot about grooming this weekend, the pre checks, the post checks and everything in-between........except driving one....bummer

Burke week 2-3

The second weekend at burke was a total blowout due to the fact that class was canceled due to some bogus rain, all in all the second day went over good. I learned some new and interesting facts about the new lift and even did some scanning and loading, it is very helpful to go from resort to resort and see how lift ops handles buisness. The 3rd weekend(this past one) was the most exciting yet. on friday we worked with the park crew to help install a new feature for sundays slope style event. Also we explored the marketing side of the event with connor osullivan as he was incharge of prizes and advertisement. i would like to give Connor props for doing such a good job with marketing the event in such a short period of time, he proved himself to the whole burke community. on saturday we helped the events team aka hannah and connor set up the slope style event. this entailed us fencing off the competition area, sign ups, signage in the park, hauling equipment up and down the hill, this was a busy day. the event went over great everyone did a great job. i am looking forward to next weekend where i will be doing grooming with the burke team!