I think having an employee restroom or somehow just more restrooms would be helpful, some of us don't have time to go on the weekends when the lines are out the door. Possibly a health concern for some older employees? I'm sure Sahale lodge will help with that but even portable ones or something in the meantime would be cool.
Also having Pre-made sammies/snacks and Yerba Mate/other drinks available later in the day, Fresh Tracks and higher grounds aren't open late and often close early and the extra options would be nice, and would also save time for people trying to grab something quick on a break!
It would also be nice to get emails when fresh tracks is closing 1-2 hours early, which is more often than not.
Also, quick shout out to HR for always being awesome, anyone who helped shovel the 9 feet of snow we got last month, and everyone else out there grinding and still making time to shred!
Thanks for the comments. We are trying to keep Fresh Tracks open to the posted hours…occasionally on a very slow day we do close it a bit early…but we always try to keep that to a minimum. It is difficult to keep it open into the evenings due to transportation…those employee do need to catch the bus. Midweek, we close it at 2:30p typically as there are no customers there typically after 2pm. I hope you did notice that most of the season with the peak day shuttle option, we kept it open until 6p on most Saturdays and 4:15 on most Sundays.
-Mark Fellows
I was planning on moving into the day shift after nights ended but then it was announced that the Toyota lesson days were going to be extended into April. The Toyota nights have put so much strain on rentals, we don’t have the gear, the space to store it or the staff numbers to set it up or pass it out when those folks arrive. I used to love going to work, now I dread every Friday and Saturday.
Especially when we also have weekend programs going on. We are so busy most the staff don’t get to take dinner breaks on fridays and Saturday’s any more.
And what’s worse is we get no recognition or appretiration for the work we put into it.
Extending Toyota definitely does not perpetuate the stoke.
Thanks for expressing your concern about the impact of the Toyota learn to ride promotion on our rental operation on Saturday evenings. From a guest perspective it has been very popular because of the price and the availability - it is offered at a time that families can take advantage of it. The Saturday also provides us with the greatest number of instructors who are here for programs, so we're not having to bring up a whole crew on an a different evening for this program. The Saturday evening offering does add pressure to an already busy rental shop. I don't think switching it to another night that overlaps the weekend will work (move to Friday or Sunday) because we will still have the same issues.
As a company, it is in our best interest to grow our sport by bringing new people into it. Our Toyota learn to ride nights has been a great success from that standpoint.
I'd like to know if you have a recommendation for how we could accommodate this on Saturdays, or if there is another time frame that this would be successful?
We are extending the promotion to Friday and Saturday afternoons from March 15 - April 13. The package is $45 and includes a noon to close Progression lift ticket, equipment rentals and a two hour lesson. We choose these afternoons after reviewing historical ski school volume - and there is a great opportunity to drive visitation to these afternoons. Historically we do well in the morning, but not in the afternoon. We don't expect this Spring promotion to have the same impact on rentals as there won't be as much equipment rented out in the first place, so we will be able to prep and tech equipment specifically for these afternoon rentals.
Thank you for sharing - in order for a promotion like this to be successful and sustainable, it needs to be work for our team as well as our guests.
I hope you'll be able to attend the Team Night Appreciation event Thursday!
Dave Tragethon
Please please please buy a $2 screw driver and chain it to the top of hood river express. I turn away at least 5 people a day requesting one and then they have to make the difficult choice of whether to ride down with loose gear and hope they make it or take the life back down and feel embarrassed the whole way. I hope the higher ups notice the obvious safety risks here and reconcile it with a simple screw driver on a chain. it's only a matter of time before some guest gets seriously hurt riding with loose bindings.
Thanks for the feedback, we do have a bench with screw drivers attached at the top of Mt. Hood Express as well as the base area. We have discussed setting up something similar for the top of Hood River Express for next season based on your comment.
-Jeremy Riss
Today (3/8) the Vista and Cascade lifts had a very delayed start on a bluebird morning when Cascade was only open until 11:30 pm for the whole day. The reason I heard was because Park crew was not able to rope off vista park. No other lifts except for buttercup (no daisy or easy rider!) on that side of the mountain were operating at least 9:45 (could of been longer but that's when I finally left!)
I can not tell you how negatively this impacts customer experience. I spent 45 minutes listening to everyone in the line complaining about the park and how it blocks the traverse to boulevard! I also didn't get any free runs before my shift because of this...
There are many challenges that go into getting the upper mountain open that cannot be seen from the base area. Even on sunny days the top of the lift can look much different than the bottom. For some insight into what our teams deal with when trying to get the upper mountain open I would encourage you to check out this blog post:
https://www.skihood.com/about-us/meadows-blog/posts/2019/01/cascade-express-a-full-day-of-storm-recovery-and-we-are-still-not-quite-done
-Jeremy Riss
I have to say first that the snow has been exceptional!! Second I would like to send a shout out to Jason Roberts for providing exceptional leadership as the Night Manager. I have worked with Jason for a number of years and have always been impressed with his dedication and general healthy attitude towards his job and his coworkers.
On more operational note, I think we need to find a way to prevent our guests from sliding down the ice wall into the parking lot below the propane tank. I have seen several close calls over the past few weeks.
Kudos to Jason and our entire night crew! It is their commitment and passion for our night riding experience and guests that makes nights at Meadows so popular.
Thank you for the suggestion about the ice wall.
Dave Tragethon
This season has been awesome and working with an amazing team, not only HR, but the whole mountain. Everyone has really stepped up with staff shortages and keeping this mountain running at its best. MHM staff rocks!!
Ski Patrollers continue to express their concerns to me about the lack of radio reception. They feel unsafe and that their ability to provide rescue to our guests may be compromised.
Another issue that is consistently raised is lack of quality uniforms. At times the uniforms issued at the beginning of the season are sub par. Often when an employee has a uniform failure and needs a new uniform piece they cannot get the correct size or the uniform is ripped/not waterproof.
As a Manager I want to make these issues right for my team members. I believe having the ability to communicate and be warm/dry are imperative to being a successful Patroller. The guidance I have received on how to resolve these issues is: It's complex and involves big and expensive changes. I'm struggling with how to deliver this feedback to my team. Any further guidance or tips on how I can help fix these problems would be greatly appreciated.
I know our existing system isn’t perfect, but feel it can be made to work adequately. Some of the more remote areas that are out of line of sight from the repeater will have limited or no connection to the repeater, in those places using a human repeater located where they can communicate on channel 4 can be a work around.
A new digital repeater system would be very expensive as it would require replacing all the older non digital radios, it would also require more repeaters located in places that have better line of sight. These repeaters would need to be connected via fiber network. This would be a significant capital investment and still might not cover all the nooks and crannies. I believe we have higher priority projects to take care of first.
I will be surprised if the stubby antenna provides as good or better connection than the standard antennas. I think that they are intended to be a compromise between efficiency and user comfort. The wave length of our UHF radios is about 26 inches but that’s too long so we compromise and use ¼ wave antennas that are about 6 ½ inches. The stubby is probably around 3 is inches, so 1/8 wave.
In my experience, using a speaker mike and holding the radio up and away from my body provides the best fringe performance. I can communicate from my home if I stand in the right place. When we first installed ticket scanners the radio guys that came out to set it up told us that human bodies look like a big bags of water to a radio wave, absorbing signal before it can get in/out of the radio. Keep that in mind when you’re in a fringe location.
-Steve Warila
Continual attrition of experienced personnel because wages are inadequate for this region bums me out big time. Many new employees are interested and available to enter the department but too few can be retained after the several years it takes to achieve the skills we need. Sadly, these high skill employees' options for home ownership and supporting a family are better elsewhere.
The average of averages method of determining wages is not working for my department. Leadership positions are not wanted because the value proposition is not good enough to meet the commitment required of leadership. We cannot retain the people we need with current compensation. I'll be making some new compensation proposals in this budget cycle - I hope they are seriously considered.