Hello Amazing MLC Instructors!
Well, Winter finally has arrived! We have had more than 7 feet of snow fall since last weekend and there’s more on the way, plus very cold temperatures expected this weekend. With the cold temps and some snow forecasted in Portland, some buses canceled for tomorrow. We are waiting to hear about Sunday. However, this is Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday weekend, and with all the new snow, our visitation, especially pass holders, will be quite high. Plan for longer than “normal” travel times to the mountain, leave early, take the team member shuttle, and bring extra layers!
In this update …
Dayforce Scheduling – Internet Outage
Mountain Buzz
Weather Forecast
Frost Bite Signs
All Things Lessons
Free Business Cards
Deep Snow Safety
Dayforce Scheduling – Internet Outage
With the Internet being down at the moment has prevented us from getting all the lesson assignments posted in Dayforce. Please check your assignments in another hour, as we are having to make these assignments from home, where we have Internet access.
Mountain Buzz
- As I mentioned above, we did get 7 feet of snow and Mt. Hood delivered in its classic way!
- Shooting Start has not opened for a few days now, but will open tomorrow with lots of people wanting to get freshies over there.
- Hood River Express (HRE) was “down” for about 90 minutes today, but is fixed, and will be open at 8:30AM tomorrow, hopefully taking some pressure off the Main lot, disbursing guest arriving to two locations rather than just the main lot.
- Cascade is closed for tomorrow – storm recovery. It’s possible the haul rope is covered in ice or buried in all the drifted snow.
- Vista is highly unlikely, but Easy Rider is back up and running, after sourcing a part from another resort in Wyoming or Utah I think.
- Heather and Private Reserve are a “no go” for tomorrow as they still need to build bridges across the creeks on the run out. Light powder snow is not good for snow-bridge building, but they’re going to try – maybe we’ll get Heather sometime this weekend.
- PG&E power has been off and on, and our Internet went down, so we couldn’t take any payments anywhere.
- We had one of our generators go down, which needs a rebuild, and luckily, it’s under warranty, but with a generator down, we can’t power the whole resort like we normally can, especially at night when we run the night lights.
- That’s also why lifts that have their own motors and have been running on diesel, due to the lack of reliable power from PG&E.
- The Nordic Center opened for the season today, with about half the trails groomed, but tomorrow they should all be groomed and ready for action.
- Both the Umbrella Falls and Sahalie Falls snowshoe trails are set, open and have tours scheduled!
So, that’s the life of operating a winter resort on the side of Oregon’s tallest volcanic peak. If you want to see the Daily Fact Sheet for tomorrow – click here.
NOAA Weather Forecast
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-121.6688576341901&lat=45.34194381514135#.XiOSF8hKiUl
Saturday: Snow, mainly after 10am. The snow could be heavy at times. Widespread blowing snow. Steady temperature around 4. Wind chill values as low as -16. South wind 10 to 14 mph, with gusts as high as 23 mph. Chance of precipitation is 90%. New snow accumulation of 4 to 8 inches possible.
Frost Bite Signs
Cold temps and wind = potential frost bite for you and your students, and especially kids in your lessons. Forst bite is a condition in which skin and the tissue just below the skin freezes. Frostbite mostly affects small, exposed body parts such as fingers and toes. With frostbite, the skin gets very cold, then numb, hard, and pale. Mild cases can be treated with gradual warming. Severe cases require medical care to prevent complications. Please be checking yourself and your students for signs of frostbite all weekend. Here’s a link for more information: https://www.nationwidechildrens.org/conditions/frostbite
All Things Lessons
We can still accommodate more daily lesson guests with our current staffing, and we’ll be taking walk-up lesson bookings all weekend. We are promoting the Beginner Specials and Night Lessons which are very attractive in price compared to peak day Tier 4 pricing. Even this weekend we are offering night Beginner Special pricing, which is just $49 for the group lesson, + $10 for rentals and +$10 for a Progression ticket – so it’s essentially $69 which is a good price. Due to the weather in town, we know of 3 program buses that have canceled for tomorrow – this affects 33 SnoBlasters, 14 Trailblazer and 2 High School lessons. Those students will be able to make up those lessons anytime this season, however the program did not cancel, and we are expecting most of the drive-up students tomorrow. We will also plan for a “rolling start” for daily lessons tomorrow if we find early Main Lot closures, and delayed arrivals. Last weekend we had a 15% checked-in rate at the start of morning lessons – which is unhear of! I’m hopeful lessons guests will leave home earlier to make their morning lessons.
Free Business Cards
100 business cards finally arrived, and they will be in the black file cabinet outside the MLC Admin office in the basement of the South Lodge. I ordered these on 12/23 and the printer took a long time to complete the order. If you submitted your business card order after 12/23, your cards are not here yet. I am placing that order on Monday, so if you have not ordered you FREE business cards yet, please do so at this link: http://mhm.snowproportal.com/current-staff/self-promotion-tools/bulk-business-order/
Deep Snow Safety
Now with the increase in back country and “side country” skiing and snowboarding it became clear that everyone, whether in a lesson or free skiing/riding, should have some basic knowledge about snow safety. Prevention is one of the best ways to stay safe whether in the back country or within avalanche-controlled areas of ski resorts. We have a FREE course on the Instructor Portal that is required if you plan to take any students into gated terrain, however the course is extremely valuable for you individually, as well. It covers Tree Well and Snow Immersion Suffocation, What to Do if you’re caught, Prevention, etc. You may take the course here: https://mhm.snowproportal.com/courses/extremely-difficult-terrain-safety-protocolsand
Hope to see you this weekend! Yours in snowsports,
Tyler
