Friday and Saturday at Stowe

Friday our group worke with te lift staff. We went around and looked at several of the lifts including the new quad, midway gondola, and sensation triple. Wes and I worked a little bit over at the new quad helping with directing guest traffic through the gates in the lift line. We also got to see how the new RFID system works. The RFID system is pretty cool. Lift attendants are able to see each guests name, address, number and picture through the use of a tablet positioned inside a podeum right by the RFID gates. After the quad we took a trip over to the midway gondola to work with Kelly who was operating the lift that day. At the end of the day our whole group went over to spruce peak and met Geoff, a lift mechanic who services all of the lifts at spruce peak. Geoff took us up in the top thermal of a detach triple to show us how the lift works. Saturday I worked exclusively with Geoff. We went up into every loft terminal at Stowe. This experience was unreal. The repetition of seeing all of the terminals and drives really helped me get a better understanding of how a lift functions and the differences between brands. The mechanics behind how a lift works is truly amazing. It was a lot of information to take in for such a short amount of time. I learned about the differen types of lift sensors (brittle bars and cps sensors). I learned the differences between Poma and Dopameyer. Proper lift maintenance is essential for the survival of a ski resort. Lift mechanics have to be knowledgable of fixing and diagnosing problems with lifts. This benefits the employer and employee because the mountain is using safe lifts instead of unsafe ones. This helps reduce the risks associated with operating and riding a lift and also acts as a form of risk management and loss prevention. Guests benefit from properly maintained lifts because their safety is Garranteed while riding a lift at Stowe. Routine year round maintenance on lifts is key to preventing problems and mechanical failure associated with chair lifts.