Week 5: The Tram

On Tuesday we went to the outing club where everyone got into their different groups. We we told to create an action plans. This is a plan that lays out everything we have to do, who has to do it and by when. 

On Thursday we met over at maintenance. From there we went to Cannon Mountain. The first thing we did was visited their ski museum where we got to poke around for a bit. Then we went into the projection room where Jeff Leich gave a presentation about ski lifts and grooming. We all learned about about the evolution of these two necessities of this industry. After that we headed up to the main lodge to grab a quick bite to eat. Then Bruce the tram mechanic took us on a tour to see the inner working of the tram. We then got the privilege to ride up and view the summit of Cannon. We all hiked a bit to the observation deck where we got to see an amazing view. After coming back the the base we got to talk to John DeVivo for a bit where he told us a bit about his background and some about Cannon Mountain. 

Week 4: Pump House

Tuesday 18

On Tuesday we met up at the outing club and separated into our department groups. We were told to make a timeline of when everything is to happen for preparation for the two events: Skate Jam and Trail Clean-up. I am in the marketing group and we got straight to work. While going about making the timeline everyone in my group (and it seemed in other groups) began to realize how much communication would be needed amongst the class. Everyone gave good input and we quickly completed the task. At the end of class we were informed that on Thursday we would be touring the water park at Jay Peak everyone seemed excited.

Thursday 20

Thursday morning we met at maintenance to get ready to leave. We left early and began our drive. Once we got there we were given a tour of the pump house maintenance room. We learned a bit about their equipment. They make their own chlorine, which is better, quality and far less expensive. We also learned about their filtration system, which gives them such pristine water around the park. After the tour a few people went to go mop and clean the floors while myself and various others headed to the top of the water slides. There we learned how to clean and wax the slides. After finished the slides we took a break for lunch. After lunch we all worked to clean the floors more then the fun began. Before they officially opened the turned on the FlowRider. Everyone turn there turn there and had a good time. Over all everyone worked together and we all gained a lot of knowledge about how a successful water park runs. 

Week 3: NSAA

Sam Ornstein

September 13, 2012

On Tuesday September 11 we met at the outing club. We broke into the four different groups of a mountain. I was put in marketing with 4 others. We brainstormed about how we can market the chili cook off/skate jam and the trail clean up. Once we came up with ideas we divided the obligations and each person was given a task. 

Thursday September 13 we met out side the maintenance building around 6am. We all drove to the 2012 New England Summit. The first event I went to was the SMI presentation about the 2014 winter olympics in russia. These upcoming olympics will be the first time that the host city will have not had a previous resort to hold the events. Russia started from scratch will a whole new resort. SMI was lucky enough to be chosen to run all of the snowmaking machines. Thus far making this resort has set them back over 1.4 billion dollars. The second presentation was about snowmaking piping.  

After the two presentations I went to visit various booths. David Frick works with card dog, they take all of the different credit card and gift card transactions and record all the data and put it into one easy location. He works in many industries not just the snow sport industry. Scott Gunnell from MyNeige told me about various snowmaking projects he has across the nation. Perhaps the most helpful and influential person i talked to at this event was Scott Peirport who works with Doppelmayr. He pulled Adele, Nate and myself aside to talk about his experiences in the industry. He told us about how he started as a lift attendant and through his “can do attitude” he steadily moved up though all the ranks of a resort. He told us about what our future employers will look for. I personally found him to be very helpful.     

Week 2: Low Ropes

Our tuesday class was supposed to be a trip to the low ropes course, unfortunately it was postponed to thursday due to weather.

Thursday we did do a few exercises at the low ropes course. Jamie Stuck lead us in communication and teamwork exercises. First we were blindfolded and sent into the woods looking for one person. Then we had to replicate a structure while being blindfolded. We had to work well together and really articulate. The second activity also involved a lot of trust, there were mouse traps which could be considered dangerous, so we had to trust our partner to keep us safe.

Overall I think everything went we'll people seemed to work together and take away some important information.