Week 2 at Burke Mountain

Practicum had to be canceled this Friday due to some rough weather.  no big deal for me, i was on grooming anyway and didn't have to be to there until later.  Saturday i was scheduled to do lifts with Brian but when i showed up to maintenance there was nobody there so i got started with the park staff and ended up working with them for the day.  It was a solid day in the park, the lips stayed strong all day with little signs of rutting halfway through.  we did a few side sweep runs just to keep the take-off's in tip top shape and at the end of the day we went through and raked out all of the lips and the side's of each feature. it was a little harder than i expected since i still haven't developed a good technique for using those rakes.  it was a good experience though and i would like to do it again!  this is a field that has I have a massive interest in.

First Practicum

My practicum for the first rotation is going to be good ol' burke mountain. friday we met up with jack and filled out some calendars, and then we helped hannah manley and connor o'sullivan from the marketing department by helping to prepare some pamphlets for a trade show in the near future.  we got 2nd chair on a nice carpet of fresh snow on top of some groomers since had already showed up so early too. i also learned some park maintenance techniques and helped to shut the features down at the end of the day.  Steve Mahon impressed me with his standards for care, and the thought that he puts into his park.
Saturday  I showed up at 8am sharp and it seemed that just about everybody was confused about what was going on, Jack didn't show up until about 45 minutes after.  I was in maintenance with Jack for the whole day and I was much more excited for it than I should have been.  I feel as though we wasted just about the entire day, doing little of anything productive. I organized his bookshelf and office and we changed a set of drum brakes on a chevy.  one lock out call from the parking lot and that was it.  I definately don't want to do another day in maintenance, its hard to stay motivated or focused when you feel like your time is being wasted.
The departments i followed had little focus on sustainability. although i do like the way that they have the mountain's fleet of oil's, gases, and other liquids set up in seperated, stacked containment bins. Maintenance is important to a ski resort to make sure that everything runs smoothly and efficiently and works properly for the guests. it will reduce the image of your mountain greatly to have your product suffer due to malfunctions and unmaintained machinery.

Dick, the Snowmaking Guru

Tuesday we met for a presentation at the outing club.  it was about the history of snowmaking through the eyes of Dick Harris(?? no clue if that is right, Sean?).  He worked with seemingly every type of snowmaking gun that has ever existed, and will exist for the nearby future.  He put together a presentation that portrayed all of the basic concepts and requirements that the Snowmaking industry has been working to improve for the past 100 years.  It seems that the recipe of cold+water+air doesn't always equal snow, and can be combined and processed in numerous different ways all with their own strengths for specific purposes, temperatures, and locations across the world.  Snowmaking technology today has far surpassed that of the past, and continues to find new ways to become more efficient, and produce better quality more consistent snow.  Technological advances like automation allow guns to change settings automatically to adjust to the best current atmospheric conditions.
p.s. Im going to colorado in 26 days, i hope your all working and miserable while im out there

Stowe Leaf Blow

Stowe mountain resort is located on the hichest peak in Vermont, Mount Mansfield, and as a way to help both the development of the ski resort and tourist attractions in Vermont, they built an access road to the top that you can drive up to (almost) the peak of Mount Mansfield.  An access road to the top of the mountain is cool, but surprisingly to me requires a lot of maintenance each year by the employee's of Stowe Mountain Resort.  

At Stowe Mountain today we helped to rake out and clean the culverts that drain water safely around the access road to the mountain.  This work basically sucked except for the fact that i got to run the hefty ol' leaf blower (which was only mediocre..).  We were required to rake and blow out all of the leaves to allow for all of the water to run effectively down the mountain without huge results of overflow and erosion.  It makes you think that a mountain needs a lot of maintenance that you wouldn't always think about and its important not to overlook.  This seemingly pointless activity can cost the mountain tens of thousands of dollars worth of repairs later.  Truth of the matter is that a successful ski resort doesn't overlook the little tasks like this.  You need to remember to watch and maintain things like wiggly sheaves, towers out of line (guage), too much sag in a haul rope, falling trees/power lines, fire codes, licensing for certain sales/services, lift inspections up to date, trail maintenance and mowing, legal codes, etc because they can all result in major expenses to a ski area. You often have to focus on some very little details to keep expenses of an area down. 

Skate Jam'

     November 5th was the day of the Chilli Cookoff and SkateJam was very exciting.  We had a bunch of people there, more than i had expected but not many of them wanted to register for the skate jam.  we had 6 participants and about 45 people watching.  there were a bunch of awesome tricks thrown, and everyone had a lot of fun.  we got to give away some great prizes thanks to VSS, JSLV, SK8 Mafia, Steez, and some others. I didn't know that they were supposed to mow today, but the hill looks great, its getting me really excited for the season to come.  After the Cookoff we had a pretty spontaneous idea to set up a drive in movie theater at the outing club and premier 2 movies.  one of them was the sk8 mafia movie, which played first and was pretty killer, and the other was Level 1's After Dark. I thought this event was a huge success and we had about 50 people show up.  Sue Teske, one of the ladies who runs the club came by to see how we were doing and seemed very pleased with the event and everyone there.

Burke Work

Putting on Chairlift pads doesnt really seem like a big task.  its the thing that you forget about and don't really think of until the last minute and you don't really realize how long it can take when there are 161 chairs.  but in a situation like Burke Mountain, they have cleverly recruited the MRM experience-craving students to be able to learn basic skills and gain experience by taking over the job. The class did great working together, and we devised an effective system quickly.  i did the task last year in the class so i knew a few of the tricks, and my other classmates loved making it into a fun activity. the fact that it was a friendly competition kept it interesting and got it done really quickly. good team work boys! (and lindsey and shawna)

Loc Cleanup Day Oct 30th

The outing club is starting to get ready for its opening days as the days get shorter and the nights grow colder. so in order to get the trails ready for skiing they had to be cleaned up of all the brush and rubbish, but unfortunately my foot is still injured so i got the luxury of staying indoors, and chiseling the oil shmuck build up of 3 years off of the deep fryer.  it wasn't exactly the job for a princess, but now it's cleaner than some people thought that it may ever be again, and its ready for whippin' up some fries and mozzarella sticks for hungry skiers. we also did some constructive destruction by knocking out a part of the wall that goes into the kitchen, and cleaned up other things around the lodge.  The day was good and we had enough participants show to get the job done, we appreciate everyone who showed up to lend a hand!