Working The Pump House

Jay Peak is going above and beyond what other mountain resorts are doing to become a destination, four-season resort.  One of the essential part of their plan to make their mountain desirable throughout the year is the new Pump House water-park. By having an indoor water-park, Jay Peak is able to not only provide skiers and riders a fun outlet when the slopes close at 4 PM, but when they close for the season as well.  Having something like the Pump House also means that you are adding a new customer base to the resort.  There are people going to the resort now purely for the water-park with no desire to ski or ride.  While this can be disappointing to some of the die-hard skiers and employees who've known Jay to be a riders mountain, the resort ultimately benefits from the additional customers and that money can be put towards new investments in the future like the planned West Bowl expansion.  My experience working in the Pump House was experiential in the fact that I had to actually work in a floor position all day because another employee had called in and they were short staffed.  I don't mind doing this, because I think that work experience is never really a bad thing.  Anyways, I rotated around a few different positions on the floor.  I started working at the bottom of "La Chute," the massive red "looping" water-slide that is one of the main features of the water-park.  The thing is huge!  Riders actually have to stand inside a release chamber before the floor drops out underneath them, sending them down the tube, around the loop, and finally to the bottom.  It is very important to note that between every "launch" there needs to be communication between the employee working the controls at the top, and the employee at the bottom to ensure that the rider made it around the loop and has reached the bottom and safely exited.  The reason for this is because there is a chance that the rider does not make it fully around the loop.  If another rider was to be launched while someone was still in the tube, the results would be disastrous.  There is an opening on the top of the tube on the lowest point of the loop, so that if someone does not make it, they can simply step out and be let out of a gate.  This gate prevents the slide from a new launch unless the system has been reset and we are sure that nobody is in the tubes.  This is why the radio communication between the employees is crucial for this ride.  It keeps the customers safe, as well as keeping the mountain free from potential injuries and the lawsuits that would surely follow them.  In addition to working "La Chute," I also was able to work the FlowRider Double Barrel.  This is an artificial wave that customers can learn to surf and boogie-board on.  It is a lot of fun!  I was able to teach a lot of customers how to boogie-board and that was a lot of fun.  I worked back and forth between these two positions all day and it was actually really nice getting wet in the nice warm water-park instead of being outside getting wet in the rain.  Ultimately, with the addition of the water-park, Jay Peak is leaps and bounds ahead of its competition for making their resort an attractive destination during any season of the year.  And, thanks to good training and attention paid by the employees, it can be fun and safe for the customers.  Next week I believe I will be working in the hotel and food services, so we will see how that goes.  The snow is pretty much gone everywhere except Jay Peak, so we'll see how long they can last. Until then, shred the gnar!

Running Chair Lifts at Jay

This week at Jay Peak I worked with a team of guys running The Flyer, a detachable quad chairlift on the far right side of the mountain when looking at the mountain from the base.  While we had some experience at Stowe working the RFID system and checking out the terminals for the chairlifts there, I never really had the opportunity to actually run the controls of the chairlifts there.  However, at Jay, I was actually able to stand, watch, and operate the chairlift throughout the day on Friday.  I thought this was pretty cool but at the same time I was slightly anxious with it being the first time running a lift and I wasn't sure what was going to happen.  Despite my anxiety, the day actually ended up running really smoothly!  There were almost no issues throughout the entire day and besides a couple of falls by customers trying to get on the chair at the bottom there were almost no stops of the chair during the day.  I learned how to stop, slow, reset, and restart the chairlift while working The Flyer throughout the day.  I was supposed to go and run the tram during the second half of the day, however, one of the other lift attendants had called in on Friday, so I was needed at The Flyer all day.  This ended up being important because I became the number three employee at the lift.  Without my being there, the other two lift attendants would have had a much harder day since one of them would need to be operating the controls from the outside the booth while the other ran the controls for the RFID system.  This would leave them no time for breaks during the day, which can lead to a good amount of other issues like fatigue and loss of concentration.  Therefore, my presence alone was beneficial to the employees working at that lift because it made each of our jobs that much easier and allowed us each to take breaks when needed.  In addition to this, having someone constantly looking over the RFID system meant that should there be an issue with a customer's ticket, it could be addressed quickly and that can mean a lot in terms of customer service.  RFID systems can also be a great benefit for the mountain itself as well.  Having an employee to verify tickets and seasons pass holders is crucial to cutting down theft of services at the mountain.  If an employee working the RFID systems notices that a male is using a female's season's pass by the verification picture, that employee can take the customer aside while they wait for proper authorities to come and reprimand the customer committing the crime.  Because of situations like this, many mountains have been upgrading to RFID systems because of the benefits and ability to cut down theft of services.  Another benefit of this system is that only one employee needs to be working at the lift lines letting people through the gates while on a busy day there might be a need for multiple employees scanning lift tickets and organizing lines up to the chair.  This allows employers to cut back on the expenses of lift operations.  Overall, I had a great day working on The Flyer at Jay Peak on Friday.  I was able to work with some pretty funny guys and we had a smooth day with no major problems.  I gained some valuable experiences and learned a lot that day.  Unfortunately, I wasn't feeling very well on Saturday and so I chose not to go to Jay.  Because of this, I missed out on working with the Ski Patrol and the Ski School that day.  I have seven years of experience in Ski School, so I don't think that I will have missed out on much there.  I am slightly disappointed that I missed out on Ski Patrol though because I've always been interested in the daily operations of Ski Patrol and what they do.  I guess it's something I'll need to do another time.  That's all for now and although the snow is melting, keep shredding the gnar!