It's amazing how close the end of the school year is. Friday night is graduation and a week from now I'll be back in South Dakota.
For the past three weeks or so a lot of second-year Ski Area Operations students have just had two classes- Ski Area Operations Seminar and Ski Area Planning.
In Ski Area Operations Seminar we have heard about Paul Rauschke's journey to the ski industry. We have also heard from Steve Hill who is Director of Rental and Retail at Aspen Ski Corporation; C.A. Lane who is Winter Park's General Manager / Director of Mountain Operations; and Allison Kohn, a Level IV groomer at Beaver Creek Resort. According to the course schedule, this week we will be hearing from Dave Byrd who is the Director of Education and Risk for the National Ski Areas Association and Geoff George who is the Lift Maintenance Lead Mechanic for Keystone Resort.
I think the best description I could give of Ski Area Planning is the one in the course syllabus. "Design and clearing of ski trails and locating support facilities approved in long range ski area development plans are the topics of this course. Emphasis will be given to computing skiing capacities and balancing of facilities, lift and trail capacities with various environmental constraints.".
So far in the class we have covered "The language of Ski Area Planning", computing ski area capacities, balancing capacities, Feasibility Studies and Master Planning, Colorado's Joint Review Process, Environmental Impact Statements and Issues, Construction Planning Processes, Lift and Trail Construction, Snowmaking and Utilities Planning and Construction, and Water Supply and Sewage Treatment Facilities. We also had a guest speaker come in to explain the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to us.
We have learned to shoot grade which determines what type of trail we have and the appropriate skier density. We have learned that a beginner skier expects to ski 2,000 vertical feet but an advanced skier expects to ski 20,000 vertical feet. We have learned that the average car arriving at a ski area has 2.7 passengers and requires a 300 square foot parking spot. Base area lodges should be able to accomodate 20-35% of your skiing guests at one time and you should have 1 toilet for every 50-60 persons. In determining ski area facilities and expansion you must take these factors into account. Your lift and trail capacities need to be equal to your parking lot capacity which needs to be equal to your facilities capacities. You should also aim to have a 20% beginner, 60% intermediate, and 20% advanced trail mix.
For our final project we creating possible designs for the "Lake County Winter Recreation Area". We were told that we were to include some sort of lift, a tubing hill, a terrain park, that we needed to relocate one building, and that we should build a small lodge. Most of our designs also include lighting and expanding snowmaking. Based on my own computations, the area could handle 205 guests at one time Sunday-Thursday and on Friday and Saturday when I am working with longer hours, the area could do 342 guests at one time. Being that I do not spend much time in the terrain park, I am also learning a lot about the spacing of features.
Food for thought: A skier density of 50-100 skiers/acre is appropriate on a beginner trail, but on an advanced trail, that number is closer to 10 or 15. Why do you think this is? I'd enjoy hearing your opinions.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Murphy's Law Makes An Appearance in Winter Park
Last weekend was the 2010 Nature Valley NASTAR Nationals in Winter Park, CO.
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember the trip that my mom and I took to Whistler last March which didn't quite go as planned. This trip was no different. Evidentally my mom and I should not go on trips without other family members.
The weekend started on Thursday when my mom arrived in Denver- 3 hours late. After having boarded the plane in Omaha, it was apparently decided that they should fix the plane's wing before taking off. At first they were told that it would be a 20-minute fix, but it took a lot longer. I was almost in Denver when I was informed that her plane had yet to leave the ground. So, I went on a search for a Wendy's. Certainly a town the size of Denver has several Wendy's locations at which I could get my Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger fix. I never did find a Wendy's. Or a McDonald's. I did take an exit saying "Exit now for Wendy's"... but I never did find the Wendy's. Since my mom's plane still had not left, I killed some time at the mall, discovered the amazingness of Strawberry Julius's, and located both a Target and a Best Buy (these locations come in later in the story). However, simply driving on the interstate to said mall just could not be a boring activity. An impatient car in the lane next to mine decided that he would cut in front of me, and while I managed to avoid hitting him, he wasn't so lucky in avoiding the cars in front of him.
After my little adventure to the mall, I drove uneventfully to the airport and picked my mom up who was waiting at the curb. Then came the Best Buy stop where I was informed that the hard-drive in my 1 1/2 year old laptop was dying, so I was laptop-less for the weekend as the hard-drive from my old laptop was being transferred onto a new laptop. Aside from that, we got out of Denver uneventfully. We got off at a town that I don't remember the name of, so my mom could get dinner. All I got was a soda and half of her fries because I was planning on eating dinner when we got to Winter Park because competitors got a free meal that night. I then proceeded to get on the interstate going east instead of west, but we got off at the next exit, saw some buffalo, and got back on the interstate going west, so it wasn't a huge deal. Life was starting to look up.
Our luck quickly ended at the short little tunnel east of Idaho Springs when traffic came to a standstill for 2 hours due to an accident. There was a sign saying traffic was being directed onto Frontage Road and 511 said the same thing, but neither my mom nor I could understand how it was taking so incredibly long for traffic to exit the interstate and get on Frontage Road. I remembered hearing about a pizza place in Idaho Springs called Beau Jo's which is supposed to be really good. We never did find said pizza place. Finally we got to Winter Park at 8pm. My free dinner had ended at 7, so I was in the mood to find food, but first I had to check-in for the next day's race. Due to my "excellent" directional skills, my mom and I went up the Village Cabriolet, which was essentially an open-air gondola car, walked around the Winter Park base area, and then my mom finally insisted on asking for directions. Turns out that the hotel that was at the bottom of the hill, where we had first loaded the cabriolet was where we needed to check in. My mom was less than pleased about the little adventure. We took the cabriolet down the hill and checked-in for the race and then checked-in to our hotel that was "across the street" from Winter Park Resort. Well, it was across the street- street being major highway. There was a bus though that ran continuously, so all was good. By now it was like 9pm and we were both tired, but I still felt that I needed food, so we drove into the town of Winter Park and right about the time I thought I'd somehow missed the town, we found it and just stopped at the first place we found. It was sometime around 10:30 when we made it back to our hotel room and could finally go to bed.
Friday morning we went to the hotel restaurant with its' over-priced breakfast buffet, got ready to go skiing, and got on the chairlift at 9:15 when my race started at 9:30. So much for slipping the course that morning I guess. I took my first run through the course, went back up the chairlift, and sat at the top of the course waiting for my turn. Since there were 40 snowboarders continuously cycling through in order to complete their two runs, one would think that it wouldn't take that long. Had someone not crashed into the timing device at the bottom which apparently caused the whole system to go haywire and stop recording times, it wouldn't have taken long. So, without knowing what was taking so long, we all sat there, and sat there some more, then it started snowing, and we sat there and sat there and sat there. Then a couple guys went, an ex-Olympian ski racer ran the course (because comparing apples to bananas really equals the playing field), and things finally started moving again. After eating at Snoasis, which turned out to be the most reasonably-priced place on the mountain, my mom and I took a couple of runs, on our quest to ride every chairlift on the mountain since it would have been impossible to ski every trail.
After having made a good start at our goal, we went back to the hotel for a couple hours before heading back to the base area for some prize give-aways. Since the bus that had taken us to the mountain that morning stopped running at 5:30, we drove over and proceeded to get lost while trying to find a place to park. Once we finally found a place to park, I demonstrated exactly how not to descend an icy, snow-covered slope and my mom and I concluded that we should wear snowpants the next day in order to descend such slope. After the prize give-aways, we climbed up such hill on our hands and knees because that was the only way to get up the hill. Then, because my wrist hurt, we went and ate dinner at the hotel instead of in town as we had originally planned to. Around 11pm that night, an annoying beeping noise traveled down the hallway. It sounded vaguely like a fire alarm so I woke my mom up.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Mom, is that the fire alarm going off?"
Mom: "Mhm." *Rolls over and goes back to sleep
Me: *Wake Mom up* "Does that mean we should go outside?"
Mom: "Yes." *Rolls over*
Me: "Mom. Wake up!"
Mom: "Why?"
Me: "Because the fire alarm is going off and you just said we should go outside."
Mom: "Oh."
So, some hotel guests, like my mom and I, went outside in various stages of appropriate outdoor-wear. Some guests were smarter and stood in the glassed-in stairwell. When they let us go back inside we were informed that someone set the alarm system off while trying to iron their clothes. I sort of felt like I was in the dorms at that point, because someone not knowing how to iron without setting off the alarm made me think of the people that try to cook and end up setting off the alarm.
Saturday my mom and I met a woman at breakfast who had injured both her shoulder and her knee ski racing the day before. I then managed to end up at my race course even later than the day before and again we stood around some more, waiting for snow to accumulate on the course. However, Saturday's wait was much less time consuming than Friday's was. Afterwards, we went down to the clinic to get my wrist looked at for my parking lot fall the day before. One of the questions on the "Slip and Fall" sheet was "Were you wearing a helmet at the time of your fall?" which I found to be amusing, as you cannot really expect your guests to be wearing a helmet in order to walk through your parking lot at 5:30PM. Then I hung out in the hotel room while my mom went and skied some more. That evening was the awards ceremony- I got 3rd for Female 17-20 snowboarding- and then they had an awards banquet thing for competitors and autograph signings.
Sunday my mom and I ventured to Mary Jane which is known for its' bumps (mogul) skiing and managed to find trails to ski on that didn't have any moguls, which is good because my mom does not go on trails unless they are paved (groomed). Later that afternoon I went back to the hotel to get ready to drive to Ski Cooper for the ski school end-of-season dinner while my mom continued skiing. On the way back to Winter Park from Ski Cooper I was followed by a cop for 26 miles who then pulled me over in my hotel parking lot to inform me that I had been driving "about 5 miles over the speed limit" when I first turned off the interstate (26 miles ago) and that I "endangered the life of a wild animal". Said wild animal was a moose that was standing in the middle of the road, that I very carefully drove around. If you ask me, it posed a greater threat to me than I did to it. If there is a pathetic excuse to pull me over, I think it has happened. I apparently get this cop-magnet trait from my dad and my mom just does not understand it.
Monday morning we managed to get all of our stuff packed up and visited the gift shop for souvenirs and left in a timely fashion. In Denver we stopped at Best Buy to retrieve the laptops and the mall so that my mom could go into Target for her M&M fix for the plane ride home. Aside from not being so lucky in finding the Wendy's that I was still determined to find, we did find a gas station selling hot dogs and that sufficed for lunch. I then dropped my mom off at the airport and as far as I know her trip home went uneventfully. On my way home from Denver I stopped at Mother Cabrini's Shrine and Buffalo Bill's Grave, but I'll save that for another blog, along with writing about Ski Cooper's last weekend of the season.
If you've been reading my blog for awhile, you might remember the trip that my mom and I took to Whistler last March which didn't quite go as planned. This trip was no different. Evidentally my mom and I should not go on trips without other family members.
The weekend started on Thursday when my mom arrived in Denver- 3 hours late. After having boarded the plane in Omaha, it was apparently decided that they should fix the plane's wing before taking off. At first they were told that it would be a 20-minute fix, but it took a lot longer. I was almost in Denver when I was informed that her plane had yet to leave the ground. So, I went on a search for a Wendy's. Certainly a town the size of Denver has several Wendy's locations at which I could get my Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger fix. I never did find a Wendy's. Or a McDonald's. I did take an exit saying "Exit now for Wendy's"... but I never did find the Wendy's. Since my mom's plane still had not left, I killed some time at the mall, discovered the amazingness of Strawberry Julius's, and located both a Target and a Best Buy (these locations come in later in the story). However, simply driving on the interstate to said mall just could not be a boring activity. An impatient car in the lane next to mine decided that he would cut in front of me, and while I managed to avoid hitting him, he wasn't so lucky in avoiding the cars in front of him.
After my little adventure to the mall, I drove uneventfully to the airport and picked my mom up who was waiting at the curb. Then came the Best Buy stop where I was informed that the hard-drive in my 1 1/2 year old laptop was dying, so I was laptop-less for the weekend as the hard-drive from my old laptop was being transferred onto a new laptop. Aside from that, we got out of Denver uneventfully. We got off at a town that I don't remember the name of, so my mom could get dinner. All I got was a soda and half of her fries because I was planning on eating dinner when we got to Winter Park because competitors got a free meal that night. I then proceeded to get on the interstate going east instead of west, but we got off at the next exit, saw some buffalo, and got back on the interstate going west, so it wasn't a huge deal. Life was starting to look up.
Our luck quickly ended at the short little tunnel east of Idaho Springs when traffic came to a standstill for 2 hours due to an accident. There was a sign saying traffic was being directed onto Frontage Road and 511 said the same thing, but neither my mom nor I could understand how it was taking so incredibly long for traffic to exit the interstate and get on Frontage Road. I remembered hearing about a pizza place in Idaho Springs called Beau Jo's which is supposed to be really good. We never did find said pizza place. Finally we got to Winter Park at 8pm. My free dinner had ended at 7, so I was in the mood to find food, but first I had to check-in for the next day's race. Due to my "excellent" directional skills, my mom and I went up the Village Cabriolet, which was essentially an open-air gondola car, walked around the Winter Park base area, and then my mom finally insisted on asking for directions. Turns out that the hotel that was at the bottom of the hill, where we had first loaded the cabriolet was where we needed to check in. My mom was less than pleased about the little adventure. We took the cabriolet down the hill and checked-in for the race and then checked-in to our hotel that was "across the street" from Winter Park Resort. Well, it was across the street- street being major highway. There was a bus though that ran continuously, so all was good. By now it was like 9pm and we were both tired, but I still felt that I needed food, so we drove into the town of Winter Park and right about the time I thought I'd somehow missed the town, we found it and just stopped at the first place we found. It was sometime around 10:30 when we made it back to our hotel room and could finally go to bed.
Friday morning we went to the hotel restaurant with its' over-priced breakfast buffet, got ready to go skiing, and got on the chairlift at 9:15 when my race started at 9:30. So much for slipping the course that morning I guess. I took my first run through the course, went back up the chairlift, and sat at the top of the course waiting for my turn. Since there were 40 snowboarders continuously cycling through in order to complete their two runs, one would think that it wouldn't take that long. Had someone not crashed into the timing device at the bottom which apparently caused the whole system to go haywire and stop recording times, it wouldn't have taken long. So, without knowing what was taking so long, we all sat there, and sat there some more, then it started snowing, and we sat there and sat there and sat there. Then a couple guys went, an ex-Olympian ski racer ran the course (because comparing apples to bananas really equals the playing field), and things finally started moving again. After eating at Snoasis, which turned out to be the most reasonably-priced place on the mountain, my mom and I took a couple of runs, on our quest to ride every chairlift on the mountain since it would have been impossible to ski every trail.
After having made a good start at our goal, we went back to the hotel for a couple hours before heading back to the base area for some prize give-aways. Since the bus that had taken us to the mountain that morning stopped running at 5:30, we drove over and proceeded to get lost while trying to find a place to park. Once we finally found a place to park, I demonstrated exactly how not to descend an icy, snow-covered slope and my mom and I concluded that we should wear snowpants the next day in order to descend such slope. After the prize give-aways, we climbed up such hill on our hands and knees because that was the only way to get up the hill. Then, because my wrist hurt, we went and ate dinner at the hotel instead of in town as we had originally planned to. Around 11pm that night, an annoying beeping noise traveled down the hallway. It sounded vaguely like a fire alarm so I woke my mom up.
The conversation went something like this:
Me: "Mom, is that the fire alarm going off?"
Mom: "Mhm." *Rolls over and goes back to sleep
Me: *Wake Mom up* "Does that mean we should go outside?"
Mom: "Yes." *Rolls over*
Me: "Mom. Wake up!"
Mom: "Why?"
Me: "Because the fire alarm is going off and you just said we should go outside."
Mom: "Oh."
So, some hotel guests, like my mom and I, went outside in various stages of appropriate outdoor-wear. Some guests were smarter and stood in the glassed-in stairwell. When they let us go back inside we were informed that someone set the alarm system off while trying to iron their clothes. I sort of felt like I was in the dorms at that point, because someone not knowing how to iron without setting off the alarm made me think of the people that try to cook and end up setting off the alarm.
Saturday my mom and I met a woman at breakfast who had injured both her shoulder and her knee ski racing the day before. I then managed to end up at my race course even later than the day before and again we stood around some more, waiting for snow to accumulate on the course. However, Saturday's wait was much less time consuming than Friday's was. Afterwards, we went down to the clinic to get my wrist looked at for my parking lot fall the day before. One of the questions on the "Slip and Fall" sheet was "Were you wearing a helmet at the time of your fall?" which I found to be amusing, as you cannot really expect your guests to be wearing a helmet in order to walk through your parking lot at 5:30PM. Then I hung out in the hotel room while my mom went and skied some more. That evening was the awards ceremony- I got 3rd for Female 17-20 snowboarding- and then they had an awards banquet thing for competitors and autograph signings.
Sunday my mom and I ventured to Mary Jane which is known for its' bumps (mogul) skiing and managed to find trails to ski on that didn't have any moguls, which is good because my mom does not go on trails unless they are paved (groomed). Later that afternoon I went back to the hotel to get ready to drive to Ski Cooper for the ski school end-of-season dinner while my mom continued skiing. On the way back to Winter Park from Ski Cooper I was followed by a cop for 26 miles who then pulled me over in my hotel parking lot to inform me that I had been driving "about 5 miles over the speed limit" when I first turned off the interstate (26 miles ago) and that I "endangered the life of a wild animal". Said wild animal was a moose that was standing in the middle of the road, that I very carefully drove around. If you ask me, it posed a greater threat to me than I did to it. If there is a pathetic excuse to pull me over, I think it has happened. I apparently get this cop-magnet trait from my dad and my mom just does not understand it.
Monday morning we managed to get all of our stuff packed up and visited the gift shop for souvenirs and left in a timely fashion. In Denver we stopped at Best Buy to retrieve the laptops and the mall so that my mom could go into Target for her M&M fix for the plane ride home. Aside from not being so lucky in finding the Wendy's that I was still determined to find, we did find a gas station selling hot dogs and that sufficed for lunch. I then dropped my mom off at the airport and as far as I know her trip home went uneventfully. On my way home from Denver I stopped at Mother Cabrini's Shrine and Buffalo Bill's Grave, but I'll save that for another blog, along with writing about Ski Cooper's last weekend of the season.
Sunday, March 14, 2010
A Day In The Life
A snowboard instructor's job consists solely of teaching snowboarding, right? Wrong. In this blog I will outline the exact happenings of the relatively normal day that I had at work today.
7:50AM
The alarm on my phone goes off. It's a slightly more tolerable sound when not experiencing the effects of Daylight Savings Time.
8:25AM
I get in my snow covered Explorer, blast the defrost, and dust the windows off so that I can pretend to see when I drive.
8:30AM
Gas station. It seems to be taking forever for my gas to pump!
8:40AM
On the road. It snowed overnight and is still snowing. The plows have not yet come through.
9:05AM
Ski Cooper parking lot. A parking lot attendant is telling me where to park, and honestly, I think I could find a closer parking spot, but I'm in a cooperative mood this morning.
9:15AM
Geared up. Time for breakfast.
9:25AM
I explain to a woman that she can buy a Panda ticket (children's all day ski lesson) at either the ticket window or in the rental shop.
9:30AM
I rescue an overly eager small child from his snowboard bindings. He put his board on and neither he nor his mother knew how to undo the bindings.
9:40AM
Another instructor sends me on a mission to get them breakfast.
9:47AM
I tell 6 never-ever snowboarders that their lesson will start in 10 or 15 minutes.
9:50AM-10:15AM
I am asked by a few people when the snowboard lesson is going to start. I am informed by a woman that her family tried especially hard to get there on time for the 10AM lesson. My supervisor decides who teaches what lesson, so I can't do much to change the situation, and it's still before 10, so I tell them their lesson will likely start in a couple of minutes. I ask a group of Pandas if they're excited to go skiing. They say yes, but most of them sound like they wish they were still in bed. I help some Pandas find their skis. I explain to a couple of people where to check in for their Panda lesson and point out my supervisor for a few people who are running late for their ski lesson.
10:20AM
I go out with a half-day snowboard lesson. During the course of the three-hour lesson, I get to snowboard all over the mountain because the student was an "advanced intermediate" snowboarder. This essentially means that he snowboards mainly easy and intermediate terrain, but is capable of advanced terrain- at least that is how I classify it. Having learned from past mistakes we start on the Poma lift and the go up the double chair and come down an intermediate run called Trail's End.
11:30AM
Break time. It is currently snowing and that snow coats your face. It is also a tad bit chilly.
11:35
Up the double chair, down an easy trail on the backside called Eagle, up the triple, down an advanced trail that the student requests which is named Motherlode. Back up the triple. While at the bottom of the triple, I explain to a mother that if her daughter is really miserably cold they can warm up in Ski Patrol hut at the top, rather than suffering for the entire way down the frontside to get to the lodge.
Notes for the wise: Keep a set or two of handwarmers in your pocket. On a cold day ensure that they are in your pocket, rather than figuring out that they are in your backpack at the bottom of the hill when you are on the backside with freezing cold hands
12:20 PM
Break time again. Rather than going down the front side and taking our break in the Children's Center like we did the first time, we take our break in the Ski Patrol hut at the top of the triple.
Random fact of the day: A certain sized oxygen tank has 660 liters of oxygen in it when full. I'm not sure what size tank this is. It's small enough to be portable though. Just as a guess, I'd say it's a C tank.
We make hot chocolate with "Dark Chocolate Sauce" and hot water. No one is really sure how much "Dark Chocolate Sauce" to use. A snowboarder comes in who did her binding wrong, so we unscrew the strap in order to shove it through, because it was not going to go back the way it went in. We finish our hot chocolate and are just about to leave as a man skis into the patrol shack. I'm not sure why or how he did this, but it would have involved stepping up onto the wooden deck, skiing across it, opening the door and then skiing onto the carpet. A patroller kindly informs him that he needs to take his skis off and then offers to put them in the rack outside for him.
12:35PM
One last run down the backside on a trail called Treasure Trove because my student wanted to go down it. It is an intermediate pathway through the trees. From there we manage to wander across about 5 different trails on our way to the bottom of the triple. Up the triple. Down the frontside on an advanced trail called Pando which my student wanted to go on because "his dad never let him go down it because it is a boring trail". After awhile he decides to cut over to an easy trail called Sitzmark. Once on Sitzmark I inform a mother with a small child (The size of child that commonly uses an "edgie-wedgie" and may or may not be capable of doing a "pizza" to stop themselves. Also the size known for wearing harnesses which their parents hold onto in order to control them.) that they probably do not want to go down Pando as it is ungroomed, bumpy in spots, and has lift towers to run into. She wisely stays on Sitzmark. Student and I make it to the bottom of the hill and tell his dad what he should work on.
1:30PM
I run over to the cafeteria for lunch, taking 2 ice chests with me which were used to bring over Panda lunches.
1:42PM
I take 2 students up the hill to start their lesson. In a group lesson we teach to the lowest ability of student, meaning that the "crawling snow monster" (reason for this name will be explained in a minute) is determining how fast we progress. I'm not sure how old the "crawling snow monster" was, but we recommend that students be at least 8 years old to take a snowboard lesson and it's also useful if they have previously skied as that gets them used to sliding on the snow. "Crawling snow monster" improves at the heelside slide. Rather than walking up the hill like a person normally would, he determines that crawling up the hill while still having one foot attached to his snowboard is easier and faster, hence why I am referring to him as the "crawling snow monster". Neither my roommate nor I understand this logic. I decide that maybe he would be better off with both feet strapped in, as some people just can't manage to have 1 foot loose when snowboarding. So, we strap both of his feet in and he improves dramatically. When I asked him whether he was going to unstrap one foot or both feet to walk up the hill, he told me he was going to walk up the hill with both of his feet strapped in. Snowboards aren't really designed to allow you to walk up the hill. You can hop up the hill with them, but that takes a slight amount of talent, which I didn't think the "crawling snow monster" had yet achieved. So, the "crawling snow monster" attempts to walk up the hill and does not succeed, but hey, at least he tried. When I asked him why he thought walking up the hill would work he replied "It works in my Shaun White video game!". Unfortunately, the "crawling snow monster" was not Shaun White nor was he in a video game.
2:15 PM
Another instructor takes over my snowboard lesson because I was dizzy. You would think that this would mean my day was done, but not quite. I help a young Panda get her gloves, helmet, "racing number" (all of the Pandas wear bibs so that they can be identified as being in the Panda Patrol. Reasons for this might include: it warns other skiers of a possible lack of skiing ability and it assists in the whole "lost" child thing.), and coat off because she decided that she was done skiing for the day.
2:30PM
As I'm headed out for the day, I convince the "crawling snow monster" that he should go back to his snowboard lesson.
3:30PM
Back in my dorm room. I really think it would be awesome if the roads were plowed at all. Driving home at 30mph only holds so much excitement. The road up to CMC is especially interesting, as the car in front of me got stuck and I drove up the middle of the road in someone else's tire tracks, hoping that no one was coming down the hill at that moment. Upon getting out of my car, I discover that the snow is like knee-deep. This may be nice for skiing and snowboarding, but it isn't nice for walking when you get back to the dorms.
4:30PM
Time to write a blog.
5:30PM
Time to stop writing the blog and do my Introduction to Business homework. Maybe I can manage to get ahead of my homework so that I'm not always doing it the night that it is due.
Who knows what the rest of the day holds. I think homework, dinner, and sleep should pretty much do it for me.
By the way, you can stop hoping for snow now, because I'd like my car to not be a total lump of snow tomorrow.
7:50AM
The alarm on my phone goes off. It's a slightly more tolerable sound when not experiencing the effects of Daylight Savings Time.
8:25AM
I get in my snow covered Explorer, blast the defrost, and dust the windows off so that I can pretend to see when I drive.
8:30AM
Gas station. It seems to be taking forever for my gas to pump!
8:40AM
On the road. It snowed overnight and is still snowing. The plows have not yet come through.
9:05AM
Ski Cooper parking lot. A parking lot attendant is telling me where to park, and honestly, I think I could find a closer parking spot, but I'm in a cooperative mood this morning.
9:15AM
Geared up. Time for breakfast.
9:25AM
I explain to a woman that she can buy a Panda ticket (children's all day ski lesson) at either the ticket window or in the rental shop.
9:30AM
I rescue an overly eager small child from his snowboard bindings. He put his board on and neither he nor his mother knew how to undo the bindings.
9:40AM
Another instructor sends me on a mission to get them breakfast.
9:47AM
I tell 6 never-ever snowboarders that their lesson will start in 10 or 15 minutes.
9:50AM-10:15AM
I am asked by a few people when the snowboard lesson is going to start. I am informed by a woman that her family tried especially hard to get there on time for the 10AM lesson. My supervisor decides who teaches what lesson, so I can't do much to change the situation, and it's still before 10, so I tell them their lesson will likely start in a couple of minutes. I ask a group of Pandas if they're excited to go skiing. They say yes, but most of them sound like they wish they were still in bed. I help some Pandas find their skis. I explain to a couple of people where to check in for their Panda lesson and point out my supervisor for a few people who are running late for their ski lesson.
10:20AM
I go out with a half-day snowboard lesson. During the course of the three-hour lesson, I get to snowboard all over the mountain because the student was an "advanced intermediate" snowboarder. This essentially means that he snowboards mainly easy and intermediate terrain, but is capable of advanced terrain- at least that is how I classify it. Having learned from past mistakes we start on the Poma lift and the go up the double chair and come down an intermediate run called Trail's End.
11:30AM
Break time. It is currently snowing and that snow coats your face. It is also a tad bit chilly.
11:35
Up the double chair, down an easy trail on the backside called Eagle, up the triple, down an advanced trail that the student requests which is named Motherlode. Back up the triple. While at the bottom of the triple, I explain to a mother that if her daughter is really miserably cold they can warm up in Ski Patrol hut at the top, rather than suffering for the entire way down the frontside to get to the lodge.
Notes for the wise: Keep a set or two of handwarmers in your pocket. On a cold day ensure that they are in your pocket, rather than figuring out that they are in your backpack at the bottom of the hill when you are on the backside with freezing cold hands
12:20 PM
Break time again. Rather than going down the front side and taking our break in the Children's Center like we did the first time, we take our break in the Ski Patrol hut at the top of the triple.
Random fact of the day: A certain sized oxygen tank has 660 liters of oxygen in it when full. I'm not sure what size tank this is. It's small enough to be portable though. Just as a guess, I'd say it's a C tank.
We make hot chocolate with "Dark Chocolate Sauce" and hot water. No one is really sure how much "Dark Chocolate Sauce" to use. A snowboarder comes in who did her binding wrong, so we unscrew the strap in order to shove it through, because it was not going to go back the way it went in. We finish our hot chocolate and are just about to leave as a man skis into the patrol shack. I'm not sure why or how he did this, but it would have involved stepping up onto the wooden deck, skiing across it, opening the door and then skiing onto the carpet. A patroller kindly informs him that he needs to take his skis off and then offers to put them in the rack outside for him.
12:35PM
One last run down the backside on a trail called Treasure Trove because my student wanted to go down it. It is an intermediate pathway through the trees. From there we manage to wander across about 5 different trails on our way to the bottom of the triple. Up the triple. Down the frontside on an advanced trail called Pando which my student wanted to go on because "his dad never let him go down it because it is a boring trail". After awhile he decides to cut over to an easy trail called Sitzmark. Once on Sitzmark I inform a mother with a small child (The size of child that commonly uses an "edgie-wedgie" and may or may not be capable of doing a "pizza" to stop themselves. Also the size known for wearing harnesses which their parents hold onto in order to control them.) that they probably do not want to go down Pando as it is ungroomed, bumpy in spots, and has lift towers to run into. She wisely stays on Sitzmark. Student and I make it to the bottom of the hill and tell his dad what he should work on.
1:30PM
I run over to the cafeteria for lunch, taking 2 ice chests with me which were used to bring over Panda lunches.
1:42PM
I take 2 students up the hill to start their lesson. In a group lesson we teach to the lowest ability of student, meaning that the "crawling snow monster" (reason for this name will be explained in a minute) is determining how fast we progress. I'm not sure how old the "crawling snow monster" was, but we recommend that students be at least 8 years old to take a snowboard lesson and it's also useful if they have previously skied as that gets them used to sliding on the snow. "Crawling snow monster" improves at the heelside slide. Rather than walking up the hill like a person normally would, he determines that crawling up the hill while still having one foot attached to his snowboard is easier and faster, hence why I am referring to him as the "crawling snow monster". Neither my roommate nor I understand this logic. I decide that maybe he would be better off with both feet strapped in, as some people just can't manage to have 1 foot loose when snowboarding. So, we strap both of his feet in and he improves dramatically. When I asked him whether he was going to unstrap one foot or both feet to walk up the hill, he told me he was going to walk up the hill with both of his feet strapped in. Snowboards aren't really designed to allow you to walk up the hill. You can hop up the hill with them, but that takes a slight amount of talent, which I didn't think the "crawling snow monster" had yet achieved. So, the "crawling snow monster" attempts to walk up the hill and does not succeed, but hey, at least he tried. When I asked him why he thought walking up the hill would work he replied "It works in my Shaun White video game!". Unfortunately, the "crawling snow monster" was not Shaun White nor was he in a video game.
2:15 PM
Another instructor takes over my snowboard lesson because I was dizzy. You would think that this would mean my day was done, but not quite. I help a young Panda get her gloves, helmet, "racing number" (all of the Pandas wear bibs so that they can be identified as being in the Panda Patrol. Reasons for this might include: it warns other skiers of a possible lack of skiing ability and it assists in the whole "lost" child thing.), and coat off because she decided that she was done skiing for the day.
2:30PM
As I'm headed out for the day, I convince the "crawling snow monster" that he should go back to his snowboard lesson.
3:30PM
Back in my dorm room. I really think it would be awesome if the roads were plowed at all. Driving home at 30mph only holds so much excitement. The road up to CMC is especially interesting, as the car in front of me got stuck and I drove up the middle of the road in someone else's tire tracks, hoping that no one was coming down the hill at that moment. Upon getting out of my car, I discover that the snow is like knee-deep. This may be nice for skiing and snowboarding, but it isn't nice for walking when you get back to the dorms.
4:30PM
Time to write a blog.
5:30PM
Time to stop writing the blog and do my Introduction to Business homework. Maybe I can manage to get ahead of my homework so that I'm not always doing it the night that it is due.
Who knows what the rest of the day holds. I think homework, dinner, and sleep should pretty much do it for me.
By the way, you can stop hoping for snow now, because I'd like my car to not be a total lump of snow tomorrow.
Saturday, March 13, 2010
2010 CMC Rail Jam and Slopestyle
I do not have pictures or results right now from the Rail Jam as I was really not feeling so great that day. I do however have a couple of pictures of the set-up that I got from the "CMC RAIL JAM AND SLOPESTYLE" Facebook event.
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Just Add Water
Yale's Comedy Improv Troupe, Just Add Water, performed at a Leadville church this past Sunday night. Thanks to Student Government, Colorado Mountain College students were able to attend for free. There were only three students that went, but then again, it was the start of Spring Break.
The show was about an hour long and a lot of fun to watch. The troupe doesn't make any of the show up ahead of time- it is based solely off of what audience member's say.
The first "skit" involved a date that took place at an igloo, when the other person assumed that they were going to someplace like Paris, after having been asked out by an elementary school choir.
Another "skit" involved two people in an outhouse, and they both had a "voice inside their head" that would randomly speak.
The final skit was about 15 minutes long and involved a girl from the desert going to the forest because she needed a new adventure. Her father was uncertain about this adventure because her mother had gotten lost in the woods years ago. The girl when anyway though and ended up being re-united with her mother.
If you ever have a chance to see Just Add Water, I highly recommend it.
If you click on the title of this blog, you will be directed to Just Add Water's website where you can read more about the group.
The show was about an hour long and a lot of fun to watch. The troupe doesn't make any of the show up ahead of time- it is based solely off of what audience member's say.
The first "skit" involved a date that took place at an igloo, when the other person assumed that they were going to someplace like Paris, after having been asked out by an elementary school choir.
Another "skit" involved two people in an outhouse, and they both had a "voice inside their head" that would randomly speak.
The final skit was about 15 minutes long and involved a girl from the desert going to the forest because she needed a new adventure. Her father was uncertain about this adventure because her mother had gotten lost in the woods years ago. The girl when anyway though and ended up being re-united with her mother.
If you ever have a chance to see Just Add Water, I highly recommend it.
If you click on the title of this blog, you will be directed to Just Add Water's website where you can read more about the group.
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