Stowe Mountain trip

On Thursday September 22 our class went to Stowe Mountain resort to check out their new projects. Their first new project we took a look at was there new storage barn, located at the bottom of the new lift they were putting in. The purpose of the barn is to store the chairs over night so ice cannot form on them. It was very big and awesome. The next thing we got to look at was the inside the bottom lift terminal. I had to climb a latter that was a little scary but it was definately worth it. The man inside working showed us the counter weight system which creates tension for the lift. It looked really high tech and confusing but it was really cool! The next thing we went to look at was the top terminal which was 4363 feet above us. It was a long ride up, but it was really beautiful being able to see all of the trees. When we got up there we checked out the new terminal, the new ski patroller building and the stone house that people stay in for vacations and such. The new ski patroll builing was HUGE and very well built. It was coming together very nicely. After that, we broke for lunch then started the manual labor part of our day. lol :) We all got to work taking apart Stowes old lift that they were going to sell to Mohawk mountain in connecticut. Brent, Alex, Shawna, Chandler and I started with taking the ladders off of the lift towers. This sounds easy but man were those bolts really rusted and painted on there. It really took alot of arm power. Overall though it was a very productive day! I had alot of fun and i cannot wait to go check out their new lift in a couple months!!! :)

Sunday River Trade Show

On Thursday September 15th, our sophomore ski practicum class attended a trade show at Sunday River in Maine. We all met at 6 a.m and dressed apporpriately and ready to go. Then we took 3 vans on a 2 hour ride up to Sunday River. When we finally arrived to the show we recieved name tags and then proceeded of to a nice breakfast. After breakfast is when we got to walk around and start asking questions. My first person i talked to was Matt Vanderbrook the sales manager for a wind turbine company. My question was how, how much is a brand new turbine. His anser was that " it depends on alot of factors like things such as land and the location you want it". Matt was very nice and very helpfull to talk to. The next person i talked to was Christine powell from the red cross. I asked her the question, how many pints of blood get donated a day in total? Her answer was simple, " 800 pints". She was also very easy to talk to. The next person i went tos name was Bill and he was representing Lenco snow making machines. My question for him was that, yeah electric macines are alot more efficient than manually doing them, but doesnt it make them hard to fix? Bills answer was yes. He said it does take a little longer to fix them if they are electric rather than manual. because there is more to them. The next person that i visited was a reprsentative for Leitner- Poma. Her name was Patti Dykeman and she was their sales manager. The question i asked her was, how many lifts do they sell on average in a year. Her response was "About 10".
For my last question I talked to Chris Rousseau of the National Ski Patrol. He was first talking about salary and how patrollers do not make that much money. I asked him though if his job was worth it, even though he doesnt make alot alot. His reply was, " deffinately! My job is very rewarding and we really make a difference in peoples lives everyday". Throughout the day I  kept asking questions as they came up. Overall today was so awesome! I got to sit in many different groomers and have conversations with many important people in the indusrty. I learned alot today, and i would really like to go again next year!

first day at LOC 9/8/11

Today was our first class at the Lyndon Outing Club. We all arrived at LOC at aproximately 8 oclock a.m and began working on different activities. For our first activity, we were put into groups and were all given different scenerios. My groups scenerio was a bachleor party from philidelphia  and they were going to Jay Peak for 4 days. Using every department in the ski resort indusrty we had to create a story showing how many departments people actually make contact at when they are at a resort. For our group this was a very fun and easy activity. Then after that scenerio Sean threw us a curveball. Ours was the same scenerio except 2 of the guys in the bachleor party were very intoxicated and we did not want to call the cops but we did not want anyone to get hurt though. So our solution was to offer them other activities to do until the sobered up. This activity was a little harder but still fun. The last thing activity we did was all the groups had to choose if they wanted to be the marketing group, sustainibility group, trail maintenece, or event coordinators to possibly help the outing club come up with some new ideas. Our group picked marketing and got right down to brainstorming new ideas on how to re-market the outing club. We got together with the event coordinators and came up with maybe a fall festival at LOC. Then our marketing group continued to brain storm and came up with new ideas to market the place. Things such as advertising on lsc campus, at businesses in Lyndon, on facebook, on the radio, the critic, and maybe even a rebranding of LOC. Then we assigned everyone in the group a specific role for our advertising. Overall it was a very productive day. Everyone had great ideas and worked well together. Can't wait to go back on Tuesday to continue the great conversation!! :)