SToWe MoUnTaIn ReSoRt

Last Thursday the 22nd our practicum class headed out early to Stowe to check out their new lift project. I personally was really excited to get to stowe no matter what type of work they had waiting for us as i have never actually been to the resort before. I always hear good things about stowe and it was cool to finally get there and check out what they have to offer. Right away we got the chance to check out Stowe's new lift. They are replacing an existing fixed grip chair with a brand new dopplmeyer detachable quad. We walked over to the construction area where we were able to check out the terminal and even go up in it. There we saw all the wheels and clutches that guide the tow rope. The Constuction workers were even putting the roof on the terminal while we were up there. In conjunction with the new lift, Stowe is also building a chair rail and a huge barn to house the chairs. I found it interesting that they plan to take every chair off the line every evening and put them back on everynight. i havent heard of many mountains taking their chairs off daily. The reason that they are doing this is to prevent icing on the chairs that could potentially cause problems when chairs go into the terminal. icing on chairs often break parts and cause breakdowns of chairlifts. After checking out the bottom terminal, we hopped in the vans and went up to view the top terminal. As this is a top drive lift, we saw the motors and a pretty similar looking terminal as the bottom. Stowe is actually putting in the primary electric motor and two diesel backup motors. reason being if power is lost they can still run the lift and load passengers. at the top of the mountain, Stowe is also building a new patrol building where they will use heat from the lift motors to heat the building, i thought this was a really cool idea. Another goal for the top of the mountain was to use the space as efficiently as possible as they have a lack of space up there. A lot of space has been freed up durring the project making the lift unloading process a lot smoother and more efficient. Stowe's new lift will be a great inprovement for them an i hope to be riding it this coming season.
           After the tour of the new lift, the remainder of our day at Stowe was spent Dis-assembling Sheave assembly's. It was pretty interesting seeing the sheaves and towers up so close as we usually only see that stuff up in the air on the towers. overall the task was pretty simple esspecially because we had a whole class to do it, but still a good learning experiance. It was definatly cool to talk to Steve the lift mechanic about all he has seen over the years and how he got into this industry.

New Englad Winter Sports Summit NEWSS

Last thursday our sophmore Ski Resort Practicum class took a ride to Sunday River to check out the New England Winter Sports Summit. We were given the oppertunity to meet al kinds of people from inside of our industry. This was something none of us have ever been able to do before so we took advantage and began to work the room and talk to all the people that we could. The beginning of our day was spent in the ballroom where the tradeshow was going on. Various Ski and Snowsport industry companies set up booths to showcase their product and inform about waht they do. after the morning hours of the tradeshow, the rest of the day was broken into different workshops for us to listen in on. The first Seminar that i sat in on was the NSAA season update. Here i learned that in most regions last season the industry gained skiervisits over previous years. We are over the 10 year average of skier visits and this past season we were up 1.3% than the season before. The Speaker also gave a lot of tips on what works as far as discount deals and what doesnt work so well. He informed us how much resorts are losing on their senior discounts as they are actually a bigger part of the market than we would ever think. The group was given a lot of information on our target market and how we will market to them. A lot of graphs were shown for skier visits and how many each state makes. I was surprised on the portion that vermont made up as it was more than i thought. The next seminar i attended was Motivating Marketing to Millenials. Here i learned taht millenials are the Ski industry's largest target market and are the largest generation. i felt that this whole presentaion was poorly put together. It seemed that she took the information right of the internet and alot of the graphs didnt make sense. It didnt even seem that the speaker was familiar with her own slide show. Some slides did not seem accurate at all. overall all information given was things i already knew and most did. The last Seminar that i attended was put on by Sustainable Energy Developements. SED is a company that builds and constructs wind turbines. They have been successful in selling their turbines to resorts and are looking to build more at ski resorts. Resorts that have already built turbines have been happy with them and would probably say that it is a good investment. Jiminy Peak was a big project for SED and the whole deal has been very successful as they make enough energy to run their whole resort and then some. massachusett state law also allows them to sell their remaining energy back to the state with brings in more revenue for the resort. Resorts were also warned about all permitting and building setbacks they may run into. the realistic timeline to have a turbine put up is 1-2 years. Durring the tradeshow portion of the summit i first spoke to Matt from SED and he told us everything we need to now about wind turbines. We discussed the turbine at Burke Mountain and were informed that they did infact build it. Matt also told us about the permitting process and a timeline to build a turbine at your resort. I asked him how long it typically takes to construct a turbine and he informed me that the actual build process doesnt take very long but its the permitting and regulations that take all of the time.
Also durring the tradeshow i spoke with Maynard Russel  from ChairKid conveyors. The product that ChairKid Showcased was their lift conveyor. These cna be found all over the country an the world. The conveyors are put in place to prevent accidents while loading the lift. it basically does all the work for you while you load the chair. I have been on these conveyors and the do make the process a whole lot easier. The best application for a ChairKid conveyor is a lift that services all types of terrain, both beginner and expert trails. Reason being it can load everyone at the same speed and there is no tripping or shuffling while trying to get onto the chair. Maynard also informed us that there are a lot more of these conveyors build in europe. When we asked why that was, he told us that europes government subsidises improvements for ski resorts as they see that sking is a huge part of their econmy. i found this fact very interesting. Overall the New England Winter Sports Summit was a great time and i Learned A lot. NEWSS got me very excited for the rest of work we will do in this years practicum.

1st class at LOC

As a class we gave been given the oppertunity to work with the Lyndon Outing Club and are evan able to make changes and improvements that will hopefully bring L.O.C. to a whole new level. The class was split into 4 groups that will each control an aspect of bring the outing club back to life. the four groups are trail maintenance, Sustainability, Events, and Marketing. The trail crew are in charge of cutting and trimming trails, clearing brush, and getting the hill ready for the season. Sustainabiltiy will be making changes in order to make the operations more efficient. some of the ideas that they are trying to put fourth are changing the lighting to something more efficient that will ultimatley use less energy and cost less to run. Also they plan to try to heat the lodge with wood primarily using less heating oil. The events Group will be putting together an event that will attract and pull people into the outing club. this is important because it will show people that the outing club is still there and a great place to being the family. The event we plan to put on is The L.O.C. Fall Festival and Skate Jam. The fall fest will consist of custumes, skating, pumpkin carving contests, vendors and affordable fun for the whole family. The marketing crew will be in charge of marketing not only this event, but creating a new style and overall look at the L.O.C.

East Coast loon freshy edit

dylan dragotta at loon
http://vimeo.com/24096591