Idea #1: Double Insurance
When a power outage hits a ski resort, nothing feels worse than switching to auxiliary power and finding that a battery thought to be good is dead. When this happened at Winterplace, W.V., the lift maintenance crew set out to find the cause and develop a permanent solution. Examining the battery, they realized that the conventional chargers were often left connected too long and, as a result, were destroying the batteries by overcharging them.
The crew’s solution was twofold: First, they installed 10 amp, 3-stage float chargers made by Guest in Connecticut. The float charge monitors the charging battery and cuts the juice once the battery has a full charge. Second, Winterplace bought additional insurance by installing an additional battery. As shown in the picture on the left, Winterplace now has two auxiliary batteries and a marine Perko switch that enables the crew to quickly switch from one to the other (or use them simultaneously) as might be needed. The switch is available from marine suppliers for about $50.
Idea #2: Web Makes Good
With permission, the marketing manager at Snowshoe Mountain, W.V., Brian Rowe, collected more than 20,000 e-mail addresses from regular skiers and snowboarders in order to provide snow and mountain information cheap and efficiently. Boy, did it pay off!
For example, last season, a large tour group canceled its room reservations on the Thursday of an otherwise sold-out weekend in the middle of the season. Within hours, the Snowshoe team sent out an e-mail advertising “newly available rooms, slightly discounted” and the phones started ringing off the hook. By Saturday, the lodge was once again sold out.
Snowshoe GM Steve Rice says that the Internet has allowed the area to increase lodging utilization about 15 to 20 percent with little added cost. In addition, they have created an online community among the area’s guests, and the marketing team has begun to meet weekly to decide on what discounts or special deals to offer.
Check it out at: http://www.snowshoemtn.com
Idea #3: Hold the Snow
At Snow Trails, Ohio, controlling the machine-made snow cover at the spot where the flat unloading zone turns into steep hillside was a problem. With nothing to hold it back, the snow slid down the hill and reduced the size of the staging area at the top.
As an initial solution, mountain crews at Snow Trails tried lining up bails of hay at the bank transition space to hold the snow in place. This worked, but it had to be redone each season at a cost of $5 per bale plus plenty of labor. Area manager Thad Philpott then came up with a more permanent idea—build up wooden boards to the desired height to keep the snow in place. It worked.
As shown in the photo, the barriers use two widths of 2- by 12-inch treated lumber joined at the ends. At the first location where this was constructed, it worked so well that Snow Trails added identical snow barriers at three other hilltop unloading terminals. Not shown in the picture is a fence that was added this winter to guide skiers and further preserve the snow cover along the unloading path.
