Bretton Woods Nordic Marathon.

For our second week at Bretton Woods were to be working at the the nordic center, located down the road from the ski resort at the hotel. This weekend was the annual nordic maration so there was a lot of work to be done. On friday, we showed up at the mountain at bright and early and were directed to head over the the nordic center. Once at the nordic center we propmptly met up with Pete, the nordic director. Pete asked us if we brought our snow shovels. We laughed. He was serious. We were in for a day of serious snow shoveling. The problem was the lack of snow on the nordic trails. the warm weather and rain just before the event was really causing problems. There were many parts of the trails with very thin or almost no cover and we needed to move snow around in order to properly cover the trails. A lot of snow was built up on the other side of the fencing from the wind blowing it around so we were to get that snow back on the course. we shoveled and shoveled and shoveled and then after that, we did some more shoveling. After the few section we worked on looked absolutely beautiful, we took a break for lunch. Matt owes me two dollars. After our much needed break from shoveling, we headed back over to the nordic center to hangout ant watch tv. Just kidding, we went back to shovel. We headed out to a long straightaway just after the start of the course that was in much need of some snow. it was about a half mile long. i looked at it and died a little inside. We got to work and had this section done in under an hour. After shoveling we headed back to the nordic building and help retail set up for a gear sale.

Saturday was a bit of an easier day with a lot less shoveling. today was the day of the nordic marathon. In the morning, we set up fencing at the starting line, got everything up for the timing and scoring crew, and got the PA system set up. I can still hear the announcer lady in my sleep. she was persistant. When the race was ready to start we headed over to the starting line to check it out. once the race had started, we set up a food station at the finish and provided refreshment for racers at the finish line. i was shocked at hoe the the full marathon actually took. skiing for 4 hours straight seems pretty crazy to me. Nordic people are crazy. Saturday turned out to be a pretty fun day and it was cool to see a great nordic program at work.

Bretton Woods Guest Services

This past weekend i was working at Bretton Woods resort in their guest services department. I was a little skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a really cool learning experience. On friday we arrived at the mountain at 8am and met up with James where he old us our assignments for the day. From there i met up with Tim Fluery. Tim is in charge of group sales and does a lot with the events crew coordinating and organizing events. This weekend turned out to be pretty busy for tim as he had a Large group 150 people coming in with The Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Early Friday morning we headed over to the Mount Washington Hotel to meet with Lisa, the president of CFF. Before we headed over to the meeting, we printed out their lift tickets and figured out their bill from the ski resort end. Next we hopped on the shuttle and headed accross the street. At the meeting with CFF we discussed any accommodations that the group might need such as a clean air environment, we needed to make sure to put up no smoking signs and block off areas for them as CF is a lung disease. Also they were to have a silent auction on saturday so we needed to set up and make space for that in the base lodge. Tim made sure to do his hair and look nice for the meeting because Lisa was a "cutie". After the meeting Tim showed me around the hotel a bit and introduced me to some staff that he regularly deals with while doing his job. Upon leaving the hotel, we scored the keys to one of the Volvo's to cruise around in and run errands in for the day. a station wagon, but still pretty sweet. We headed back over to the resort and next on the agenda was the morning Mountain ops meeting. Tim put together a spread sheet of what group sales has going on for the week in preparation for the meeting. At the meeting each department went around and explained what they have going on and voiced their concerns or events they have going. Tim Spoke of out large group for CFF and explained the events that they have such as their silent auction and BBQ. Promptly after the meeting we hopped in the volvo and headed back over to the hotel in search for linens to cover the tables for CFF's silent auction. This turned into quite the adventure, but eventually we acquired our linens. Somewhere in there i was introduced to the wonderful $2.00 lunch and free sketchy blue soda. After hours of running around, i was set free to check out some of Bretton Woods gnarly extreme terrain, so steep that i got a nose bleed. we met back at the van at 3:00 and rolled back to LSC in style with our beautiful toyota sienna. Saturday was spent setting up for the CFF crew for the silent auction, in the morning we set up some fencing outside to block off an area for their BBQ and also put up some no smoking signs. The weather did not cooperate and forced us to improvise. BBQ on the top deck and they served there food inside. which later cause more problems with smoke getting into the lodge. briefly there was a little scare that the smoke alarms might go off so we had to open some doors in order to create a draft in an effort to clear the air. in between the chaos that was CFF, we met buses from school groups that were also buying group tickets this weekend. overall this was a cool learning experience and i saw a whole to part of the industry.