Stowe Over View

Since I did not do any of the blogs for Stowe I am going to do a brief over view because a lot of stuff that I did was the same. I was with ski patrol many times while I was at Stowe and it was a great time, I met some awesome people that told me some crazy stories. With ski patrol we mostly just fixed hkd pads on some of the snowmaking guns and really just skied around so that people saw that we were on the hill. There was never a major injury call while I was with them but we also would mark off some rocks or bare spots to make sure people could most defiantly see it. I was with parks a couple times and with them we just shaped up the ramps for rails a couple times a day. I was with lifts for a day and just quaded up chairs and just did lifty things. My favorite part of practicum at Stowe was the night that I did grooming. It was amazing. Just the way those things move and are able to climb up and down the mountain almost effortlessly. Now I assume that it is not like that all of the time but grooming is something that I really want to learn and do well because I think that that is something that I could be really good at.

Stowe Week 1

I did not know what to expect going into this first week of practicum, but I was excited. When we walked in they had already had all of our jackets laying out with our name tags, I thought that it was really cool. So got suited up and took the over easy to the spruce side to get our lift passes. It took a while. We then went back over to the Mansfield side. Took the quad up and took a run with Josh and then went up to the ski patrol shack. We then got tools and went over to the octagon deck and shoved off the deck until lunch time. We took a run. Had lunch and went right back up and for the rest of the day kept on shoveling until the deck was clear of snow. Everyone thanked us for it and we headed home. The second day was fun. The morning not so much, but we got up there at about 10:30, got ready and stuck around for the manager meeting at 11:00. After that we split up all to different ski patrol shacks. I went by myself to the shack at the top of the gondola. There I sat and talked to the patrollers for about 45 minuets and then we went out and fixed all the pads on snowmaking guns on the whole gondola lift line trail. Some guns were easier to fix than others but we got the whole tail done and we took the lift back up. When we got back up Josh was hanging out in the shack talking to some other patrollers. We all talked for a little and Josh and I took a run down back to the admin building, went over what we all wanted to do next week and left. I do not think that I did anything that involves sustainability but while we were shoveling the deck we really had to get it done right because all of the snow was blocking and emergency exit in the restaurant so we were helping fix a liability. The second day fixing the pads on the guns and making sure that all the ropes that were up were up to par and making sure that all the snowmaking gear and other things were marked and seen easily. We were making sure that if someone did somehow get injured on that trial everything was marked so there would be no liability for the mountain. I really enjoyed my time with the patrollers on Saturday so I picked to hang around with the ski patrollers again next week.        

Week 13-14

These 2 weeks were the best. Getting to ski for free for class is an experience that no one else gets to have and I think it is really cool how you have us do that. Thanks Sean

Week 12

The visit from the DART guy was interesting. Although I was looking forward to having the helicopter come so we could learn how to make a landing zone but that did not end up happening.

Week 11

Boston. Boston was alright. Worked my ass off, talked to some people, met some people. It pissed me off how the ski and ride kids and the kids from prior practicum classes were not doing anything and just walking around/ going skating in Boston during the day and still getting paid while I was busting my ass but thats life so whatever.

Week 8

Week 8 we went to burke. I have been skiing at burke for 3 years now and I worked there for a winter so I knew what was going on. I was really surprised on how the hotel was coming along but I do not like it. I laughed when that guy said you get the best view from the conference room, when there was an even better view when that thing wasn't there in the first place.

Week 7

Week 7 we went to Stowe to look around. We looked at all the construction that was going on over in the beginner area. We also did the tree top ropes course which was pretty cool. I can imagine how many people must have done it in just the short period that it has been open. They talked to us about all the things they are going to do in the new building that they are putting up and how much it is going to help them in the long run.