Shred the Gnar Brah: Final Day at Stowe

Our final day at Stowe was a great one. When we arrived, we knew we'd be spending the day with Scott Reeves, and were interested to see what he does during daily operations at Stowe. We met up with him and Mike Manley, our supervisor and manager at the mountain, at the base of the Gondola. Scott introduced us to a representative from HKD, a supplier of snow-making equipment, who was riding at the mountain and discussing future business with Scott. We needed to recharge our Stowe Evolution cards to ride that day, so we did so and were told to meet back up with the three of them at the quad. From there, the morning consisted of riding around with Scott, Mike, and the representative from HKD, looking for strategic places to put snow-making towers on the trails. I thought that it was very interesting the amount of knowledge that Scott had of both the mountain and the weather conditions on each trail. For example, he knew that a 30 foot tower in one location was more ideal than a 20 foot tower based on the direction that wind hit the trail and where that would carry the snow. It was pretty cool to see Scott so casual when discussing business over a purchase that will likely cost more than you or I will make anytime soon. It really said something about the financial backing behind Stowe (AIG) and how deep their pockets are when it comes to re-investing the various areas and departments at the mountain. During the runs we took, we also were keeping an eye out for safety hazards and concerns that we would want to bring up to Ski Patrol, such as an unmarked hazard on the slope, or a "slow" sign needing to be put back up near an intersection. The other very important part of our "morning runs" was to get a strong understanding of the snow conditions and to decide which trails would need to be groomed for the next day. If there was an area of concern, such as the conditions on the trail Lower National, a double-black diamond, we would take a run on it to see if it needed grooming for the next day. From a managerial perspective, these runs were important for Scott and Mike so that when the time came for the morning meeting with the heads of each department, they could tell everyone what to expect for the following day as well as any improvements those department heads could provide for the future. This is exactly what we ended up doing. For example, Gary, the head of the lift operations at the mountain, was told by Scott that a lift attendant needed to always be standing attentively both in front and in back of the RFID system at the quad. The reason that Scott brought this up is because when entering the line, he noticed that the lift attendant was not paying attention, that is, until Scott showed up in the line. While this may seem like a minor issue to bring up to the head of lift operations, Scott takes them very seriously. Stowe is all about representation. Their goal is for every employee to represent and maintain the appearance of a world-class resort. Because they focus on this from top to bottom, Stowe's overall appearance is extremely professional. The customers also enjoy an added benefit from the information Scott gathers on these morning runs. Each trail that has been groomed was done so for a reason. The location and quality of the snow from their snow-making department is the product of good discussion with representatives from the companies themselves. These small considerations on the part of Scott Reeves, and the commitment to a very high standard, ultimately improve the every day experience of the customer at Stowe. Once the meeting was over, Scott told us that he was booked with meetings for the rest of the day and that we were free to go and ski for the rest of the day. As you can imagine, we were stoked to here that and took full advantage of the situation. The conditions were beautiful that day and we had a great time riding until we were ready to go. We even saw a baby moose on the trail near the end of the day! When we were done, we said our farewells to everyone we had met and worked with for the last five weeks and thanked them for everything they taught us. I really enjoyed our experiences working at Stowe. It was very informative and a lot of fun. We had the opportunity to work with some great people and had a good number of great days skiing. However, I'm very excited to see what Jay Peak's program will be like in the second half of the class and I'm particularly interested in checking out their new water park. It should be a lot of fun.
Because this is the final post on Stowe, I thought that I would add a bunch of the photos I took last week as well as the ones from this past Friday. Cheers and keep shredding that snow....wherever the hell it is.