I would like to see more signs posted that have the specific mask wearing rules. Bullet pointed information saying where you have to wear your mask and when it is okay to take it off. It would be nice for when a guest is being uncooperative and saying that the website says something else...
Thank you for the feedback, I am in the process of getting more signs.
- Cody Howe
Hire personnel that exhibit passion for the sport and a willingness to work in this unique environment. Comparing Meadows lift department with other resorts I have worked for there are some tremendous differences. Although Meadows has more training, my coworkers are less skilled and less observant. Classroom style checklists don’t facilitate meaningful hands on experience. To be blunt working lifts does mean standing in the cold and paying close attention. It is insulting that breaks are not more evenly distributed and the department is dramatically overstaffed with workers who are not up to fulfilling the job requirements. Many of us work here for the mountain not the wage. Often times there are 4 to 5 unnecessary people at the bottom of a lift, who are quicker to chat with each other then load guests safely or attend to pass problems. 1 ticket person, 1 bottom operator and 1 top operator is 99% of the time sufficient at even the busiest lifts. So accordingly breaks can be in the 1-1.5 hour increments. Leaving an employee as the top operator for 4 to 6 hours without a break to go to the bathroom, smoke etc. is ridiculous considering the staffing numbers. Please feel free to reach out if you need clarity in my response.
As far as running lifts with less people, while we can do it (Ive ran a lift with 2 people all day before) it is not optimal. I agree that working 4-6 hours with no break is unacceptable and I would ask you to follow up with me directly on this. I do not condone this and want to follow up.
- Cody Howe
I’m pretty concerned with the weekend crowds- we were told throughout the summer and pre-season that we weren’t going to have more than ~3500 people around at once- and our first big weekend we were parked out by 930 with 5200 scans one of those days. I’m confused and concerned about limiting guests- I know this is a business and the company needs profits but I feeling very uneasy about the crowds and lines. How much is the indoor team really limiting sales? Lift ops is working so hard to manage guests and masks- I feel like so much is riding on us. I feel supported by my team but I also want the workload this season to be sustainable. We don’t necessarily have a choice to be as safe as other teams, it’s impossible to maintain 6 feet from guests while working a lift. How can this be improved? I would like some reassurance and I would like to know how the company will proceed if lift ops leadership has to quarantine. I feel a deep responsibility to be extra safe because if we get sick the mountain will close- yet we are also the most at risk.
Also- bad weather days are so hard on us when we can’t warm up in the shacks together- we need better rain gear, rain boots, hand and toe warmers, etc. It would make the quality of our work better.
Thanks.
Thank you for the comments and for taking extra precautions not to get sick. Going into the season we set an initial target of having the ability to limit our visitation to a maximum of 3000 visitors per hour on peak days. We always anticipated having more than that over the course of the day as well as adjusting once we learned about what our operation could handle with the way we need to operate under Covid restrictions. The 5200 number you are referencing is likely total guests in a day vs. in an hour.
Unfortunately, we did have some challenges early season as the strategy was designed around peak days when Value Passes are not valid during the day and we had busy days before that restriction was in effect. We also had a challenge to start the year in that all of last season’s passes were good the first 3 weeks of the year. We did end up having some busy hour periods where we got up to around 3800 visits in an hour period which was more than we wanted.
If you have noticed since we have gotten to December 26th when we hit our peak days and Value Passes were no longer valid during the day on peak days our visitation has been much more controlled. We have found that without the upper mountain it is actually ideal to be at a maximum of 2800 visits per hour but when we have the upper mountain, we can comfortably go to 3800 per hour.
I do anticipate now that we are out of the holidays our visitation will continue to be controlled and we will adjust inventory of day tickets available based on likelihood of the upper mountain being open and feedback from our team.
-Jeremy Riss
Rain gear is not a uniform that we are able to put on and take off when we are at home. That gear is necessary some days for our safety, therefore, time spent: getting it, putting it on, and returning it should be paid labor.
It would be nice to have some of the amenities that other departments have that work regular hours while the lodge is open. We are still without a coffee pot. Other than that I love my winter home!
Very happy with the way things are going so far this season. Especially impressed with lift operations and lift maintenance!
This has been a challenging fall with more change than we can effectively communicate to our seasonal staff.
I’d like to see Blue chair running every morning we anticipate crowding. Like today 12/22 at 10a.
In general I’m proud of our company and our community. But exhausted by getting so many people on board with new processes; helping them understand why the changes are needed, then working through the kinks; and physically assisting so many people with technology needed to engage with mhm.
The Dayforce How To Videos were greatly needed and appreciated.
I noticed the Ballroom ticket price for kids 6 and under is $15 where as the all mountain for 6 and under is $12.
All these unknowing parents who just want to take there kid to ballroom are going to select ballroom and not look at all mountain which makes sense. This year we don't have the opportunity to tell them otherwise because they are ordering from home.
Seems like a sneaky way to scalp people for $3 extra dollars don't you think... We might want to think about changing the ballroom price to $12 or even $10... I mean in my opinion the carpet should be free but I know hell is more likely to freeze over before that happens. Just a thought I figured I'd share.
Thank you for pointing this out. I have changed the minimum age to buy a Ballroom Carpet ticket to 7 so anyone 6 and under will be directed to the cheaper ticket.
The Ballroom Carpet was a significant cost to install, maintain and operate so I think charging something to offset those costs is fair.
-Jeremy Riss
-I'd like to acknowledge the COVID team for their hard work and compassion. Thank you for your efforts to keep our Mountain Home safe and open. We appreciate you!
-Haley Giannone is doing an amazing job as the new HR/Uniform Coordinator team member! Keep up the great work Haley!
-Shout out to Karen Lasher for her outstanding maze control effort. Thank you for being a champion of mask enforcement!
Thank you for the positive feedback!
-Jeremy Riss
We are all doing a great job encouraging each other to mask up. The employees and guest are keeping us conscious of our mask, distancing.