Final week at Burke

For my last time at Burke I went for another groomer ride along, figured I'd do this twice since it is the area of winter opps that I am most interested in. This time I rode with Jeff who does more of the park grooming which I was interested to see. Jeff explained what he was doing well to the point of how he was reshaping some of the landings in the park to make them safer for people as well as more sustainable angles where snow wont be pushed away. He also went in to some of knowing your trails so you can have a plan to groom the most fuel efficiently you can. Hope to be able to get some more grooming time in the future.

Burke week 4

On Friday I was with ski patrol. While there in the morning we went out to post a sign and run some rope to close off a section of trail. Both of these actions were done for the purpose of guest safety, first to give people a heads up that there is a trail crossing ahead and second to keep them off the trails that might be dangerous to ski on. Not necessarily in this case but some times trails are close as part of sustainability since to may not want a trail to get skied off and preserve the snow that is on the trail. I also got to go an a injury call at the end of the day and got to see the process in witch a responses takes place to make sure that the guest is kept safe as well as the necessary steps that are taken to protect the resort from any repercussions. On Saturday I worked at the nordic center grooming and clearing blow downs on a few trails that had yet to be opened this year. This ties to guest satisfaction since now all of the nordic trails had been cleared and groomed for the season.

Burke week 3

This week on Friday I was in maintenance with Jack all day as he said it was a slow day with no groomers to work on and nothing on the hill broke down through out the day. So he did find some tasks for me to do many of them were not very glamorous. First I went through all the old filters that they had bought over the years for their old snowmaking equipment, which they were selling back to the company at half cost but at least they are getting something back for them. Next I went through the old storage trailer and cleared a shelf for spare parts for the new lift. The rest of the day I did what I could to help clean up the shop, and helped one of the other guys with an oil change on a bulldozer by using special pads to soak up any spilled oil or hydraulic fluid. On Saturday I helped out with the dashney mile style here I many trips up and down the hill bringing supplies up to the park for the set up, during the event I was an extra pair of hands helping out where needed. Once it was over I helped with the break down of the event.