Management of our little ski area has always been a bit questionable... to say the least. It's a bit of a fly by night operation. You never know when the lifts are going to break down, or if the parking lot will be plowed, or whether the lifties will flip the seat down for you as you get on the chair (see December 28, 2009 entry).
Now, as someone that's done some research on the ski industry and has a reasonably decent comprehension of what it takes to run a resort, I appreciate the challenges that ski areas face--particularly small ones. The uncertainties of weather (which are likely to get more uncertain), recreational preferences, and a host of other factors make ski area management risky business at best. Even the big ones sometimes go down (e.g., Tamarack last year).
That said, there's some fundamentals about being in the service industry. Fundamental #1: it's about customer service. No service, no customers.
Now, I love The Pass and have consciously avoided any criticism of area management throughout the existence of this blog. What comes next is more of a statement than a critique: Willamette Pass management seems to have missed the memo on the customer service part of the industry. I sometimes get the sense that their attitude is... "we can do whatever we want (or don't want), where else will the go?" We are a bit of a captive audience. Plus, it's a dynamite little hill.
That is all a preamble to today's story. Dylan has been raging for the past few weeks about the lack of park facilities at The Pass. He's been going into customer service every visit and asking when they'll add more park facilities. The party line "when we get more snow." My question is: "how much snow is needed to put up a rail?" I've seen the rails and I think it's about half as much as they have right now. How much does it take to put up a jump?
To compound all this, they fired their park dude for testing positive back in December. Imagine that, a snowboarder smokes pot. Ross Rebagliati won a snowboarding gold medal in Nagano in 1998 and tested positive. It must have been a real performance enhancer. Anyway, back on topic. The customer service people told us they still had a park dude after we had direct confirmation he was fired for testing positive. How disingenuous.
Dylan is raging so hard he set up a facebook group called "Willamette Pass needs better customer service/management." Now that's dedication to the cause.
So, today Dylan asked Tim Wiper, the owner, about why they don't have more park up. Tim, went on about snow and how hard they're trying. I was watching all of this from the front of the line, but Tim got all up in Dylan's grille and was challenging him. Intimidation by violating personal space. That's customer service for ya. I was proud--Dylan held his ground and made his point. He'll get little satisfaction, other than having said his peace. I had a similar "discussion" back on New Year's Eve 2005 when they closed the EPA to respace the chairs in the middle of the day. Closing your main lift at 11am, that's customer service for ya.
Will all this make any difference? I doubt it... unless enough of us band together to make our point. My perspective is that small investments in customer service can yield big and long term benefits. The kids love the park... if The Pass decided they were going to be the park for our region, I think the kids would flock to the mountain. As it is, they advertise having a half pipe... which they haven't built since 2002, despite plenty outstanding snow years (see blog cf Jan 1, 2009).
On to today's adventure.
I. Mt. Fuji (Oregon) from the top of Destiny.
Dylan tried out a few new positions in the air that were previously untested.
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The best jibs are in the trees, built by rebels. In fact, customer service recommended that he go build features in the woods. Sounds like a great idea, eh?
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There was also air.
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VIII.
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And finally, the nose press.
We got a few pics of me, but none were deemed blog-worthy.
That's it for today. It's the start of the Vancouver Olympics, so we salute all the Olympians and will be thinking about them on the hill.
Go Canada!
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