First Trip to Stowe September 22nd 2011

On Thursday September 22nd, our class took a trip to Stowe Mountain Resort look at the installation of their new lift being put in.  I thought it was a cool idea to take a hardhat tour through a construction product and see the process of putting in a chair lift.  I wasn't particularly excited about getting up early for the trip, but luckily my Kuerig helps me make it through the mornings.
When we got there we were all given hardhats and started out tour of the lift construction.  We started by looking at the bottom terminal, as well as the building next to it that will hold the chairs at night to protect them from the elements as well as allowing for an easier start up of the lift in the mornings.  This was the first time I saw a system like this, and I thought it was pretty cool.
Another first for me was taking a climb into the bottom lift terminal:

This was my first opportunity to take a look at the inner workings of a lift terminal.  I thought it was a very good experience because I could very possibly be working with them in my future career in the industry.

After the bottom terminal we took the mountain access road to the top to look at the top terminal as well as the construction of the new Ski Patrol building.  I took the opportunity to take some pictures with my phone:

View from the Top Terminal

 Another View from the Top Terminal (w/ Sean Doll!)

 Third View Showing Lift Towers and our Class

 A View to the Right of the Ski Patrol Building

After we descended back down the mountain, we took a trip back to the parking lot at the bottom of the resort.  Once there, we went to work taking apart the old lift towers of the lift that was being replaced.  This was my first opportunity to take a look at a lift tower up close as well as to take one apart and see how it was made.  I think that gaining the engineering knowledge of a lift's construction could be very useful for someone looking to manage a mountain resort.  It was also fun to watch Dom go to town on the towers because he is a work horse and has an unbelievable amount of energy.  Once we had taken apart a couple towers, we were done and went home.  It was a fun and informative trip.