Sky's Sentiments Closing Day

The fat lady will sing tomorrow, Sunday, March 25. It’s with a heavy heart, and a very thin t-shirt, that we announce that we announce our closing day.

This season’s been quite unusual; all that’s left to say is an enormous thank you for being such a dedicated member of our mountain community this past winter, a season that presented serious snow challenges everywhere. Despite the hand Mother Nature dealt us, our mountain team performed what often seemed to me like a miracle. Even with the arsenal of snowguns and fleet of snowcats, it took the big heart of a great team to deliver conditions unparalleled in New England, maybe anywhere.

The outpouring of support and kind words about our conditions, the mountain experience and our team here at Stratton has been a constant reminder of why we do what we do. Thanks to our snowmakers wrangling guns and hoses and perfecting the air-to-water ratio at all hours of the day and night, and our groomers working from sunset to sunrise to lay down our signature corduroy with the precision of a surgeon, we all had a chance to do what we love: Ski, Ride, Enjoy Snow Days, even if they were of our own making.

The dedication of our employees, who have worked tirelessly battling Mother Nature day in and day out through this volatile winter, has moved me beyond words. Theirs is an enthusiasm and passion for the mountain matched only by you, our loyal Stratton family.

Whether the weekend warrior or the homeowner, we’ve seen skiers and riders come from near and far to stand with us in the face of Mother Nature. Her dry winter couldn’t squash our inner fire to hit the hill!

All of us wish you a wonderful summer – please come visit us – and we look forward to making 2012-2013 the best ever!

See you on the links!

Cheers,

Sky Foulkes

Mike's Mountain Report - March 22, 2012

You’ve read it in our snow report, we’re sweating through our base layer.  Stratton is in the midst of one of the most bizarre weather patterns I’ve ever experienced in New England. This string of unseasonably sunny days has certainly taken its toll on us and our neighbors to the north and south.


The skiing is fun and soft, albeit patchy, and there is something about throwing skis on my back as I play mountaineer to traverse the mountain that keeps me coming back for more. But how long will it last? That’s your main question and the one we’re evaluating every hour.

Our Mountain Ops and Ski Patrol teams are working tirelessly to preserve the snow as long as possible, as well as mark the terrain as it morphs under the California Vermont sun.


We’ve got a keen eye on the forecast, and have waited as long as absolutely possible to keep our grooming machines off the snow surface this week in hopes that we’d make it past these extreme temps in order to preserve the snow for as long as we can. Grooming in these sorts of temps does more damage to the snow surface than the sun itself.  But we’ve waited as long as we can so we sent our fleet of cats out last night to harvest snow from closed terrain and from the stock piles we created earlier in the week.


We’re full steam ahead for the U.S. Freestyle Championships taking place this weekend when the best athletes in the country will compete for the national title in moguls, dual moguls and aerials.



As we head into the weekend, we should have a clearer picture of what our masterful Ops team might be able to do to keep us skiing and riding into April. If it weren’t for their snowmaking and grooming efforts throughout the season, we wouldn’t even be here today!


Please stay tuned to the snow report on a daily basis as to what the future holds for the remainder of our 2011-2012 ski season.

My skis have got a few more turns in them and I’m fairly certain yours do too. Join us this weekend for some fun in the sun and Thank You for all of the support you have shown us this season. We greatly appreciate your business.



Mike Quinn

VP of Operations

Hey, how'd you get THAT job?!

If Marsha and I had a quarter for every time someone has told us how cool our job is, well, let’s just say Mountain Sweets would be having a serious candy shortage! And we do! Have a cool job, I mean, not pockets full of candy (though we wouldn’t say no to some chocolate covered gummy bears).

But seriously, in between the 5:30 am mornings and Mother Nature’s mood swings, we have a lot of fun and get to ski and snowboard for a living! After a whole season of snow reporting at Stratton, we've finally gotten the system down pat and we've put together this little viddie so you can follow us through a day of our lives. Enjoy, and we’ll see you out there!

(For those of you wondering just how we got this job, all it takes is an application through Stratton.com! As for our backgrounds, Marsha and I both have college degrees in marketing and communication plus video experience - you can read more about us here and here.)

A Petite Plot

This is the tiniest cemetery ever.*

I drive past this surprising sight every day. I love its intricate fence, guarding its claimed ground against the incursion of Route 30 and the gas station. This strange little piece of land goes easily unnoticed while rushing to and from the ski slopes, but now I always pass by and wonder why and how it exists. The headstone reads:

Bailey Rawson

1760 - 1848

Pioneer settler of Rawsonville

1812

So the puzzle of the petite plot is solved, though after a little expert Googling, the man behind the fence really began to come to life (sorry, bad joke). Rawson was a rambling man and occasional scoundrel who traveled the Jamaica hills on horseback, worked as a farrier, and cleared Rawsonville’s first trees in 1812. There, he built a cabin and a sawmill and called it “home”. And the rest, I suppose, is history, a little piece of which is kept safe and sound behind the funny green fence across from Tony’s Pizza.

*Know of an even smaller one? Share it!

February Park Update

With a good chunk of the season already under our belts and behind our boards, it's high time to check in with the Stratton Parks Crew and see what's going on.




To sum up, they've just finished reshaping Lower Middlebrook to make the most difficult of our three parks more spacious and flowing. A total of 59 features are dotted around the mountain in Big Ben, Lower Middlebrook and Tyrolienne. Test 'em out and get ready for this weekend's Cold Wars Rail Jam, the last of the season, and the upcoming Red Bull Butter Cup on February 25.

Happy shredding!

Thoughts from Stratton safety

Play Safe, Play Smart, Enjoy the Mountain

Some thoughts from Mountain Safety & Compliance Manager, Kathy Buckley, and VP of Operations, Mike Quinn.

We take pride in creating an awesome mountain experience, but we know great snow, fast lifts and exhilarating terrain are just part of a great day on the slopes. That’s why we take great measures to promote a culture of safety for our  guests and employees alike.

We’re serious about fun, so we are serious about safety too because getting hurt is no fun.  Although we never like to, we WILL pull your pass, your ticket, your privilege to ski and ride Stratton Mountain if you fail to follow the Skier and Rider Responsibility Code.  

Here at Stratton, a team of 95 Ski and 48 Safety Patrollers is out in force, in their red or yellow jackets, from 7 am to 4:45 pm, from before first chair to that final slope sweep.   So far, Patrollers have answered 323 calls for help, but they devote even more energy to education and prevention as they do rescue.  As of January 25, they have logged 504 hours in the URSA slow zone alone,  288 hours encouraging that easy-does-it style of skiing and riding on EZ Street and 108 hours checking SES passes in the terrain parks..  A second team focuses on trail maintenance and marking hazards to prevent incidents.

We know that just one accident, one injury, is one too many.  Especially if that one is you or your daughter or brother or friend. Know that Patrol is enforcing the code and clipping  tickets to keep YOU safe, so please respect and obey their requests.  Reckless behavior has cost 48 people the right to ski or snowboard Stratton this season.

The list of every day safety initiatives is long. Throughout the resort, you will see safety messages on snow reports, screens and lifts. Safety tips are incorporated in lessons and mountain tours. Patrol recognizes safe skiers and riders with coupons, stickers and other goodies. Contests and games engage our young guests in the message of safety. Employees set an example by always wearing a helmet and bi-weekly discussion topics make safety a key priority on and around the mountain.

In fact, Stratton has earned the National Ski Areas Association Safety Award in 2010 and again last year; our renowned terrain park Safety Education Session has also been recognized with three national awards.

But even with 150 men and women on patrol, and heightened visibility at merging trails and slow zones,  they cannot be on all 600 acres of terrain at all times.  So we need your help, please take personal responsibility for safety.  Know the Code. Own your Zone.  Check your bindings, tune your boards, call it a day when you get tired.  For those of us old enough to remember Hill Street Blues, “Be careful out there.”  Please.

Mountain Update: January 27, 2012

At the end of a challenging day, I wanted to give everyone the insider’s look at what we’ve faced today and an update on our action plan and focus heading into the weekend.

After the herculean effort of de-icing and chipping the lifts, we’re confident that skiing and riding conditions for this weekend will be back to what you’ve come to expect from us here at Stratton. While icing was a huge challenge today, it actually helped protect the snow surface. Groomers will be out tonight and we expect a nice weekend ahead.

What our lifties had to contend with...

We received two inches of snow early last night before it quickly changed over to mixed precipitation and then freezing rain. This morning, the mountain was encased in ice with a few tenths of an inch on the lower mountain and 1.5 to 2 inches on the upper mountain. Early this morning we groomed the lower mountain trails out of the main base while our lift crews worked to de-ice the lower mountain chair lifts. We got AMEX clear by 7:45 and opened without delay. Our crew moved on to each Lower Mountain Lift, starting with Villager and Tamarack before heading to Sun Bowl and the Upper Mtn in preparation for this weekend’s operation.







Ain't no rain getting through that.



With the lower mountain open, we shifted our focus to preparing for Saturday operations. Although the ice is a huge menace for our lifts crews as they must climb each and every tower to chip sheave wheels to free the tower assemblies in order for the haul rope to move (no small task and one that will take hours per lift), it’s actually a blessing for our snow surface as it creates a layer of insulation that sheds the water off the surface. For that reason, we’re staying off the majority of our trails until the rain passes later tonight.

Thanks for bearing with us today as we work our way through these challenges and we look forward to seeing you on the mountain this weekend.

Mike

VP of Operations