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.