What is better than a blue bird pow day in Colorado?

Is there any thing better than a blue bird powder day in Colorado? I think not! if you ever have the chance to go and shred a pow day in Colorado with a blue bird sky you should definitely go out there and give it a shot. When you wake up in the morning when it just dumped in Colorado you see the mountains pop up over the mountains and you can see your breath it is so cold. When the sky has no clouds in it and the sun is just bright and you can see every thing you don't half to guess where all the unmarked obstacles. When one thing that helps on a bluebird day is to wear no face mask and get a narly goggle tan. This will make you look like you have been getting down skiing. It is one of the best feelings in the world to just rip threw some deep powder that just flows over you and all you can do is laugh and have the best time of your life. Even if you fall so hard that you think you will get hurt but it is just fun and it feels like you are falling in a pillow. Then when you get up out of the deep powder you just look up to see what happened and a huge smile just breaks on to your face and you just laugh. Or when you hit a jump and then you land the powder just explodes around you and you just have that awesome feeling of just popping out of that powder and just keep riding. But when that powder is gone it is a sad sight but don't you worry if we all pray to the snow gods and maybe burn some old skis for the Uller God so we can get some more fresh powder.  
  But even when there is no sun out and it is dumping that is also a wonderful feeling it is like magic when you see all those snow flakes falling every where and it is starting to pile up the powder. It is truly magical when it snows to me it is one of the best thing that i can see when i walk out my door. And when you are in the backcountry it is so quite and so peaceful that it is the best thing in the world all the  trees collect snow and it makes the best scene ever. But if you go to Colorado Mountain College, And if you live here you will see all the snow and scenes of the mountains that you will remember forever. You walk out your door and all the snow is pilled up on your car and you have to wipe off all the snow. And you just turn your defrost on all the way and drink your hot coffee while you drive to the mountain and just ready to go shred. If you have never skied Colorado champagne powder you better get out here because it is the best thing ever and like warren miller says " if you don't do it this year you will be one year older when you do".


Calvin Taylor

Risk Management & Colorado Mountain College

To fully understand Risk Management one must first understand what risk is. When asked what risk is, plenty of possible answers arise. Loss of money or time, injury to person or property and negative feelings are all possible results of enduring risks. Risk evaluation is also an important factor in understanding risks. First one must determine their level of acceptability of the risk. Identifying the risk and the possible frequency of the risk can help provide options of how to handle the task at hand. One must also determine the severity of the risk at hand. Sometimes people look at something the wrong way and assume that it may be or cause a risk when in all reality it is just their perception. Sometimes taking risks can even provide a reward but it may come as a downfall as well.


Nick Peterson

Frank Kerstetter, SAO Grad is in Year 3 Driving Cats at Beaver Creek

Frank Kerstetter, is currentally in his 3rd year of snowcat operations at Beaver Creek. Frank is working on going back to school to become a master welder and a certified mechanic.

Copper Mountain has SAO grad on the Ski Patrol

Copper Mountain has SAO grad on the Ski Patrol
Pat Stockhausen is working on the ski patrol at Copper Mountain this season!

Copper Mountain has great SAO grade operating cats

Copper Mountain has great SAO grade operating cats
Brock Camper is working at Copper Mountain as a snowmaker and snowcat operator.

Josh Hewitt is working at Snow King Resort in Wyoming

Josh Hewitt a CMC SAO grad is working at Snow King Resort in Wyoming. He is teaching, patrolling as as usually doing anything and everything else needed at a resort.

SAO Grad working for Crested Butte Mountain Resort

Rachel Brunetti is currently working as a lift Operator for Crested Butte Mountain Resort.

Connor Pettibone is driving Cats at Vail

Connor Pettibone is driving cats at Vail for the 09-10 ski season. He says he is having a great time and is planning on sticking around for thet summer. Another CMC Grad of the SAO program.

SAO Grad working as Vail Lift Mechanic Apprentice

Kelly Davis is working at Vail this season as a Vail Lift Mechanic Apprentice.

Justin Dirks is completing a 4 year degree at Western State College

Justin Dirks a CMC SAO graudate has transferred to Western State College and is working on a four year degree in Business Administraton-Management. He is planning on graduating in the Spring of 2011.

SAO Grad working in the East

Why you would leave CO to ski the East, I don't know,... :) But Patrick Torsell is  grooming at Mt. Ellen at Sugarbush. Pat is also running a couple of ski related websites.

http://www.mogulskiing.net

http://forums.mogulskiing.net

Richard Greeen is Working at Vail

Richard Green a CMC SAO Graduate is working at Vail in the grooming department. From his email it sounds like he is having a great time! Congrats Richard!

SAO Grad working as Lift Electrician at Vail

Tim Thurman is working as a lift electrician at Vail. He is thinking about continuing his education in the electrical field.

CMC SAO Grad working in France, by way of Beaver Creek, CA and New Zealand!

I've been a snow cat operator since my CMC internship in 2005, I've worked at Beaver creek, Heavenly, The Remarkables (New Zealand) Turoa (New Zealand) now I'm in France living at a ski resort called Les Arcs. 

Karen (Bruce) Gilliot 

Wow, Congrats Karen what a great story and sounds like a great life!

CMC needs your help in becoming a 4 year college

If you want CMC to get approval from the Colorado legislature (Senate Bill 101) to offer 4-year BA degrees, please let your local senators and representatives know.

To find your representative and sentators go here.

You can go here to find out how to contact your Senators and Representatives.

If your Senator is Gibbs, Schwartz, Romer, Bacon, Cadman, Hudak, Johnston, Kester, Sandoval, Scheffel, Steadman, Tapia, White or if your Representative is Scanlan and Massey, Balmer, Baumgardner, Curry, Frangas, Liston, Merrifield, Pace, thank them for sponsoring the bill.

To get a copy of Senate Bill 101 go here.

Thanks

Where are they now?

Colorado Mountai College Graduates of the Ski Area Operations program get in contact with us and let us know where you are and what you are doing? Email me a jmoss@coloradomtn.edu and let me know the year you graduated and where you are working or riding.  I'll post the information here so fellow and future graduates can see what is up?

We also post graduates and their bios at Ski Resort Operation and Management Graduates

After A Week In The Dorms (Working at a ski resort)

A Ski Area Operations student Beck Aurora wrote an interesting blog about working at a ski resort. The article After A Week In The Dorms is quite entertaining.

Both You and I Can Control Risk

By BeckyAurora Thompson

For the past 10 weeks, I have been taught how, as a ski area employee, I can eliminate, avoid, decrease the severity or frequency, manage, insure, transfer, or ignore the risk of an accident occurring.

While I can do my part as a ski area employee to control risk, it should not be entirely my responsibility. As a guest, you have control over risk also.

Ski areas try to decrease the severity of accidents by telling guests to slow down. They do this through the use of signs and the Slow Patrol. However, you can do your part by listening to the Slow Patrol, which will make everyone's day better. If you are an experienced skier/rider that does not want to slow down in the slow zones, go down a different trail.

You can avoid the risk or decrease the severity of getting frost bite by dressing appropriately. Believe it or not, there is a reason why ski areas advise you to not wear things like cotton, blue jeans, and 3 pairs of socks. There is a reason why they suggest sunscreen, lip balm with SPF, goggles and warm, waterproof outerwear. There are also wonderful base and on-hill lodges that serve more of a purpose than just selling merchandise with the ski area's logo on it and over-priced slices of pizza.

You can manage your risk by taking a lesson. By taking a lesson, your skills improve. As your skills improve, you will be better able to avoid those less skilled than yourself. If you don't understand the instructions that a ski area employee provided you with, ask for clarification.

A great way of avoiding the risk is to pick up a trail map. Not only do they make a great souvenir, but they also tell you that by riding up XYZ chairlift, you will only be able to access "most difficult" and "expert terrain". Reading signs also informs you of things such as "You are entering the terrain park" and "This lift serves only expert terrain".

Following the Skier Responsibility Code helps decrease the frequency of accidents. The Skier Responsibility Code contains such things as: stay in control, be able to stop or avoid objects, it is your responsibility to avoid people ahead of you, do not stop where you cannot be seen from above, yield to others when starting downhill or merging with a trail, observe signs, stay out of closed areas, and know how to use the lift.

By working together to control risk, both you (the guest) and I (the ski area employee) can have a wonderful season.

Korean Ski Resorts

By Taeho Park

Colorado has been famous for long time because of its great environment for winter sports. The land is located in the Rocky Mountain area where it is covered by fresh powder snow every winter, and since it snows a lot, Colorado's mountains and fields have become a skier's paradise. Basically, every winter sport, imaginable, can be enjoyable in this blessed land. However, there are also plenty of ski areas in the world, and they operate in quite a different style in contrast to Colorado. Ergo, much can be compared between Asian ski areas, specifically Korean ski areas, and Colorado ski areas.

Korea is known as second largest and most popular ski area in the Asia. The biggest reason for this is most Asian countries are affected by South Eastern Asia's exclusive warm climate. Consequently, the people who live in those areas visit Korea to experience real snow and winter sports. The climate of Korea is quite different compared to Colorado. Korea is in a monsoon climate and has four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Korea has nearly twenty ski resorts, and interestingly, most major ski areas are located in Gangwon-do, one of the eight states of South Korea, because of its suitable skiing environment. The area of Gangwon-do is 16,894 km², of which four-fifths are mountain area and woodlands. There are a variety of well developed leisure sports which gives a tremendous experience every season. Winter officially begins in December, and it goes to end of March; skiing season lasts approximately four months. However, since the area gets massive snows in winter, Gangwon-do becomes the most popular place to enjoy winter sports in Korea. Korea has several indoor ski areas, but they cannot replace outdoor mountain skiing because of their lack of reality. Alpine skiing and snowboarding are the two dominating major winter sports, but Telemark skiing, Nordic and new-school skiing, and other minor winter sports are increasing at the moment.                  

 In winter, Korean ski areas do not expect the same amount of natural snow that Colorado ski areas expect. Of course, Colorado ski areas have started to worry about less snow since new millennium, but Korean ski areas have a more severe problem: running ski resorts without natural snows. Additionally, most ski areas are not big and wide enough, except couple of major ski resorts, to hold large amounts of people and major winter events, such as X-Game or Winter Olympics. Therefore, Korean ski areas focus more on facilities than Colorado ski areas. For example, most Korean ski areas are equipped with newer snow making machines, which make quality snow above the freezing point. They also perform thorough grooming on every ski runs which is unusual, compared to Colorado. This various elements show noticeable differences between Korean ski areas and Colorado ski areas. Naturally, Korean skiers are trained to ski on well-groomed artificial snows, so they tend to possess carving skiing skills and are not fond of natural powder snows. Not having snow and a natural environment are seemingly impossible to overcome, but Korean ski areas are finding their own way to survive.;

Korean ski areas are tending to obtain newer facilities. The Korean ski resorts' chair-lift could be the most significant difference when compared to ski areas in Colorado. Almost all Korean ski areas are running at least quadruple detachable lift as an average model, even in some minor ski areas on the small mountains. Furthermore, nearly all major ski resorts have very new gondolas or 8 seats detachable lift systems, even though their mountains are not significantly bigger than Colorado Mountains. Ironically, these are hardly seen in Colorado ski areas, even with gigantic mountain size. Unbelievably, fixed-grip lift system and most old school surface lifts, such as t-bar and j-bar, eventually vanish. As a result, most young Korean generations have not even seen Bull-wheel or any type of bar or tow lifts. The reason for this surprising passion towards a new machine occurred because of their capacity. They have limited space for ski areas, but extremely huge numbers of skiers are visiting in their peak season. The ski areas do not want to hold the impatient Korean skiers in the long line to the lift. Consequently, Korean ski areas try to carry the skiers quickly and safely to the top of the mountain. However, large numbers of skiers wait in long lines, and this problem happens every weekend in Korean ski areas, despite the ski areas' enormous efforts. This could be the problem the Korean ski areas need to solve.          






 Korean ski areas have also developed a very remarkable marketing system for their sophisticated local skiers. Mostly, the ski areas are located in the north part of Korea; this area is not easy to access, especially in the winter. This handicap made the ski areas desperate; subsequently, they created a very localized transportation system. They run shuttle buses to almost every major city in Korea and this bus system especially spotlights Seoul, the capital city of Korea, where virtually 10 million people live. In addition, the ski areas cooperate with the train service. As a result, they made specialized trip packages to the ski resorts. Ergo, almost all Korean people who want to enjoy winter sports can easily visit the ski resorts, and the ski areas have overcome their biggest handicap.

The ski areas also provide vouchers or coupons through the internet and wireless network, so people with a cell phone, roughly 90% of Koreans, can simply take advantage. Many ski resorts have their own customers' community clubs on the internet, which are usually created by the loyal customers, and offer them free space to relax and keep their gear for free. Night skiing is not so strange anymore in Colorado too, but every ski resort in Korea is offering nights skiing; moreover, some of them are running their ski areas until 5 am. Every major ski area offers modernized facilities and array of reliable and comfortable accommodations.

Another considerable difference with Korea ski areas is multi-faceted business system. They are trying to become multi-business resorts that have a ski area as a part of their system. They do not want to have only ski areas in their resorts, but also require huge water parks or a compact amusement park or casino. These facilities could be very unique features that Colorado ski areas do not have yet. Also, these non-skiing resort facilities are certainly appealing to all generations, especially those who do not enjoy skiing or snowboarding. Moreover, these multi-business ski resorts require a big supermarket, fast-food chains, fitness center, sauna, bowling alley, game room, conference room, daycare center, night club, bar, singing room, Korean/Western restaurants, sports shop, photo studio, souvenir shop, PC room, art shop, and kid's playground mixed in with the ski resorts. These features automatically imply that Korean ski areas are trying to transform to total family vacation resorts.                  

At this time, most ski areas in the world are struggling really hard to create new revenue models. Unfortunately, Colorado ski areas cannot be exempt from this harsh truth, despite the perfect natural environment for winter sports. Korean ski resorts are also dealing with many critical dilemmas. An economic disaster drives people to be more careful with money, and numbers of new recreational activities, such as traveling, are becoming a real thorn in the ski industry's side. Nevertheless, Korean ski areas are not giving up and are trying to fight against with those threats. Colorado ski areas also need to discover a better and innovative way to recapture the golden age of skiing.




Sources:


Wikipedia: article about the ski resorts < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ski_resorts>

Visit Korea: Korea tour guide < http://english.visitkorea.or.kr/enu/index.kto>


Gangwon-do Tourism Information brochure


Pictures:

Daemyung Vivaldi Park

High one ski resorts

Ski Area Operations Risk Management

By Cory Gard

One of the most important classes you can take while participating in the Ski Area Operations program at CMC is Risk Management.  The majority of classes offered are intended to introduce you to the various aspects of ski area operations and are followed with labs and On the Job Training (OJT) hours. Risk management is not something that you want to learn OJT, being proactive is always the best practice.  Most upper level management routinely preaches safety and then pushes productivity and cost reduction.

Risk management involves both the guests and employees. As a manager it may become easy to get caught up in day to day operations and forget that prevention may take a few extra minutes now, but will save a lot of headaches in the long run.  Another reason that it is important for management to be proactive in risk management is workers compensation is very expensive for companies. Employees often don't know what benefits they are entitled so the easier management makes it for them to get taken care of, the quicker the employee can return (and want to return) to work.

Remember, taking a few extra minutes now will save you several hours (and lots of paperwork) later.