I love talking about our growth here in the near future at Meadows. I’ve been a guest here my whole life and now that I’m a full-time employee it’s an honor to be a part of these amazing changes that will take place both with the addition of another lodge both in the main lot and down at the nordic center.
I feel like I’m learning new skills everyday and enjoy working with my boss, Chris Kastner, who is a wealth of information but also forward thinking and always game for new ideas.
There has been a constant struggle this year with our ability to use our radios throughout our permit area which is of big concern when it comes to the safety of our guests and for ourselves. When it comes to being able to provide quick response to provide aid to our guest and ourselves this is no tolerable. If there is a rescue going on in the Clark drainage or the PR area half the time you aren't able to communicate on the radio. This is a massive liability when it comes to being able to provide a quick and timely rescue for our guest as well as ourselves while doing avalanche control routes. It is widespread knowledge among the patrol of how awful our ability to communicate on the radio is. The other large dead spot for radio communication is in the Vista area. I find it extremely concerning that Meadows knows about this problem and has been dragging their feet to address the problem while still dumping money into other projects all around the ski area. To me it really shows the priorities of the ski area/upper management.
As part of our job it is expected to be in uniform all the time but this is hard when we don't have enough properly sized jackets and pants. Over the years this has been a constant problem among patrol. Every year pants blow out and jacket zippers break, but when we go to get another article of clothing we are told we don't have anymore or we need to size up which makes us look unprofessional. Multiple patrollers this season have been talked to by upper management about how our uniforms look and the appearance we're portraying to our guests. If you want us to look professional and be the face of the resort to our guest please take into consideration acquiring the right quantity of pants and jackets to be able to exchange our uniforms as we break them.
I think my team is great! We all seem to work well together every day! As a leader in my department I am so proud of that I can put people in work places and know that we are going to rock it with out having to stand over people. My team rocks!!
We are working on making rows tighter and trying new things to see how many cars we can fit in each lot. We will see how it goes. Great job guys proud to be here!!
Radios this year are sub par. Hard to hear and often garbled. Seems to be an on going issue.
There needs to be a way to block the usage of the ski/ board racks when pushed against the building below snow blasters. People still use them and I've seen boards slip away into the creek.
Fix the smell in the lower hallways near the laundry room. It smells of doo doo late at night. I suspect that the sewage pipes overhead have a small air leak that is causing the horrid smell.
Nobody wants to smell errant feces at the end of their shift. It is a crappy way to end your day, literally.
I know this is likely old news I’ve been working the snow blasters program. Sunday’s have been a mess, last Sunday many of my kids rentals were not ready. I had to get skis and boots for my kids and to compound the problem the buses were late. Needless to say we didn’t get on the snow unt well after 10. I am not sure what we can do or where exactly the problem lays. I just know that last year February Sunday’s we had similar numbers of kids and while it was hectic I was able to get the kids out on time after the first weekend of the session. I know Andy is doing all he can and David is helping all he can as well in fact we’re all helping each other as best as we can to facilitate the program.
Thanks for the feedback, we will keep trying to improve.
-Jeremy Riss