Opening - December 8th

First - Yes, I am still here as the COO and General Manager of the Mountain and I now report directly to Martin the CEO, (no longer to someone in Colorado) of the Bear Valley Resort Group. As Martin builds our company for 2010, he will keep me on the straight and narrow - focused on continuing to improve your service experience and the nuts and bolts of the operations. Now that we have cleared that up!

It's finally happening - the snowmaking crew has made a mountain of snow - (litterly). They have created enough snow to open a couple of trails thanks to a cold Thanksgiving Holiday and now our OPENING DAY is upon us. As we approach Saturday the 8^th, it's only getting better - because it's currently snowing as well. While we all have high hopes for this storm being the "big one," the kind of dump that the Sierra's are famous for, the reality is that it is the FIRST storm of the season.

Now the big question is "how much do you need to open Grizzly"? Well let's table that discussion until we have a settled 70" base and get back down to opening day.

Opening day will have at least Moke West and Lodge Run on Saturday, with a couple of terrain features scattered about, but, we are also poised to expand terrain and lifts as the snow accumulates.

Again, the reality of the situation is that this pending storm will be the first appreciable precipitation that we have had since October. If this is the "the big one" we have a plan to open as much new and additional terrain as possible as soon as possible. BUT - we will march forward in a methodical and prudent manor to manage a sustainable opening and not be just a flash in the pan.

So what the H--does that mean? Well you can look forward to us - effectively & efficiently managing the snow. The first 12" to 15" will need to be track packed where ever the snowcats can go, this is to establish that initial base. Track packing is the compressing the snow as close to the ground as possible by using just the tracks of the snowcats no tillers, compactor bars or rollers. The next snows can then be groomed with the implements mentioned above.

Priority wise we intend to work the Cub and Super Cub areas first as they take the least amount of snow and are integral to the beginner portion of our business. Next we want the Back Side - at least to POOH chair (yep, I know, I know we should run Pooh all the time - another blog). Well, what about Koala? Not to worry it's in the mix also.

Our goal is to open as much terrain as possible, as soon as possible in a reasonable and prudent manner. We want to be open as much if not more than you want us open. One significant storm may set us for our next big push to open Cub/Super Cub. Next substantial storm after that - the Backside & Koala lifts would be a strong possibility.

May Ullr reward us all with a great winter & let the games begin!!! - gentling

Bear Valley Gears Up for the Season & Welcomes New CEO

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NEW SNOW - COME AND GET IT!

Today I indulged in an hour of powder pleasure to capture images (for the marketing office) of the latest offering from Mother Nature. Over a FOOT of new snow, 15 degrees, light to moderate winds and a mountain nearly all to myself. Normally when I go out to take care of on-hill work :-) it's a quick boot up, scoot out the back door of the admin building, take a couple runs solo and get back to the office! Today, I was lucky enough to run into friends as I was heading out... friends I rarely, in the 15 years I've worked here, get to ski with! Today, I twisted their arms and asked them to ski for me so I could snap a couple pics of them tracking up the new snow! My instructions were simple. "Ski fast, ski right at me, hug the tree line... oh, and most importantly SMILE"! Thanks Rick and Graz for humoring me!

My advice, if you can work it into your schedule, make time to get up and enjoy the fantastic Mid-winter snow conditions this week/weekend at Bear! ps - Grizz & Snow Valley were on hold today (closed due to high avalanche activity)... should re-open tomorrow after Patrol conducts safety measures... check the website or call the main line 209.753.2301 x0 after 8:30am Wednesday for the lower mountain opening schedule.
Enjoy - Arch

Blogging Polar

Well it's been two weeks since March 2, 2007, a day permanently etched on my brain, the day Polar Express went down for the entire afternoon. I have been agonizing on how to best address all of you regarding the cumulative effects of the day and the connected actions (or non-actions) of the 3(+/-) hr ordeal.

After writing pages and pages, I have come to the conclusion that the best thing I can do is communicate why it happened and what we are going to do to avoid such incidents in the future. The initial failure of the lift going down was somewhat of a fluke - a simple procedure that went awry. That's one thing, but the chain of unfortunate circumstances that followed, well, bottom line - there are just not enough words to effectively communicate how we failed you. The number of "should haves" and "why didn't we" is just plain unacceptable - we could have, and should have been better prepared to respond, and for that I owe all of those impacted by the incident a sincere apology and a "Thank You" for your patience through it all.

Since the events of that afternoon we have been very focused on ensuring that we do everything in our power to not have a repeat. We have held several debriefing meetings to assess our successes and failures of the day and action plans for the future. In attendance were the Lift Maintenance Director, Patrol Director, Lift Operations Manager, the Mountain Manager and Guest Services Director. We spent much of the time analyzing our errors and lack of effective communication. As a result - prevention, of course, is our highest priority. Immediately followed by a quicker reaction time to get to resolution, and improved communications to keep our guests apprized of the situation. Once again, I am truly sorry for the inconveniences we created and the heart ache we caused all those directly and indirectly affected, I'm confident we have covered and addressed every item that we can control and will be better prepared to respond the "next time". I wish I could guarantee that the lift will never go down, but I know that would be foolish, and time will tell if our efforts to improve will be successful.

Lift performance and lift down time have always been top of mind for me, we track it and chart it, and believe it or not we are always strategizing on how to reduce it. We track separately the operational downtime, mechanical downtime, electrical down time as well as the uncontrollable conditions of wind and my personal favorite, PG&E. Below is a brief summary of one of our tracking matrixes. This matrix does not include stop time for a mis-load/unload and has about a 10% margin of error. We use this information to better train our staff, upgrade our lift components, set part replacement schedules and establish service and maintenance schedules. I will let the numbers speak for themselves, but this chart compares the total for all last season to the beginning of this season to March 3rd.

As a result of the debriefing sessions, Poma is coming next week to further access the situation, train and retrain our maintenance staff and render some assistance on several nagging mechanical and electrical problems. In order to do this we need to bring the lift down and out of service for a day. So on Tuesday, March 20 Polar will be closed and Pooh will be operating for the day. Not sure yet on how to record this non operating day in the matrix.

Changing the subject - something else near and dear to all of our hearts - the LOWER MOUNTAIN - Just putting you all on notice - without a drop in temps or new snow Griz is not long for this world/season. I can't say how long exactly but it will most likely close before April 15 without a change in the weather. Get your runs in now - and let's hope for some new snow. The natives tell me, that just when we start thinking spring is here - we get a nice dumping! Would love to see it!

Cheers - Genling

Hows it goin everyone,

I just thought I might add a little bit to the blog... In fact this is my very first blog ever, so please feel free to respond to this to let me know if I am doin' it right or if you have any feelings on the topic I wish to bring up today. Hmmm... my topic...okay... steeps... I guess that word might relate to the tea aficionados out there or fellow snowsports enthusiasts. This blog is relative to the intermediate to advanced snow "riders" out there but you tea folks are more than welcome to read on.

This time of the season I get to thinking about pretty much one thing... The steeper aspects of my favorite mountain. I really think about the "closer to vertical" portions of Bear Valley all the time but this is the time of year when I really get to refine my skills in these areas. With a great base of snow underfoot and the warmer weather, it really makes for sweet conditions to slide around on the steeps down in the Grizzly Bowl. Yes, the black diamonds and the double black diamonds in the lower mountain. The snow has been perfect for challenging this terrain as it starts to soften up around 10:00 - 11:00 a.m. and the top to bottom laps that have me breathing hard, feeling challenged, probably a little sweaty, and completely amped! Riding up the Grizzly chair, looking down on the terrain which is simply known as "the Grizz," and knowing that I had just growled back at it for a bit of time.

Now for most folks out there, a forty-plus degree pitch can seem a bit overwhelming, undoable, and downright scary. I am here to say that for those of you that are feeling a bit complacent in your intermediate to early advanced levels of snow sliding, the "steeps" are a great place to expand your abilities and love for your sport. I am also here to say that with a little bit of guidance- perhaps from a Bear Valley Snowsports Instructor- and a bit of motivation, you can and should get out there and make it happen. Getting versed in these spring time conditions on the steeps will allow you to feel comfortable and excel in the other aspects of your skiing or riding... guaranteed. Plus, if you happen to "accidentally" take a wrong turn with your buddy and end up looking down a piece of steep, bumped out terrain, the look on their face is always classic... confidence always shines... and last to the bottom always buys.

Come out to Bear Valley, sign up for a "Steeps" private lesson... Challenge "the Grizz"...make your friend buy...

Tip for the steeps: Shorter, tighter turns allow us to control our speed. Skiers keep your hands and body forward down the "fall" line. Riders keep your hips parallel to the slope.

Hope to see you guys up here- and we serve Earl Grey in the cafe!

Happy Campers
The art of managing guest seating in the mid-mountain lodge

With over 6 feet of new snow in the past week, The Griz & Snow Valley open, no doubt we'll be seeing a lot of "happy campers" in the days and weeks ahead. Whether it's on mtn or in the lodge we strive to provide an exceptional experience! Making sure skiers/snowboarders buying lunch from the Hungry Bear Cafe have a convenient place to sit and eat is a main concern.

Visit any resort on a Saturday or peak period will have its fair share of "Campers" as we affectionately call them. These may be non-skiers/boarders in a group or family who take on the responsibility of marking out a "territory" (i.e., a table) and then sprinkling jackets, backpacks, coolers, gloves and helmets on chairs in order to "save" seats. Heck, I even saw an entire table dedicated to Scrap Booking one day. This would not be a problem on a quiet midweek day, but certainly is not OK on a busy Saturday or holiday.

Here's how we are approaching our goal to improve seating availability for customers:

1) Signage - Permanent signs have been installed every other post in the Hungry Bear Café instructing guests that "Ice Chest, Coolers and Bag Lunches NOT allowed in the Hungry Bear Cafe". This leaves the majority of seating closes to the Food Court open to guests buying their lunch.
2) Ambassadors - We've enlisted our public relations team (wearing the Gold jackets) to inform guests that the sunroom and sprung structure are the designated areas allowing ice chests and bag lunches. They'll even help you find a place to sit on the busy days!
3) More Seats - We've erected a Sprung Structure (temporary building) on the sundeck that provides an additional 1400 sq ft of indoor seating. This is space intended for Campers.

On a sunny day, guests have the opportunity to enjoy outside seating on our sundeck, near the BBQ or downstairs outside of ski rentals. Ah, those are the days! On snowy or cold weather days, a place to sit inside is like GOLD, as guests flock to the inside needing a reprieve from the elements to warm up, refuel, dry out and prepare themselves for more time on the mountain.

Let it be known to all, we do not endorse guests saving seats, tables, etc... Our mid-mountain lodge facilities are meant for one and all to share and enjoy. Unless your party will be sitting in a chair in the next 5-10 minutes, that seat is technically up for grabs! We want everyone to be a Happy Camper, whether they buy lunch from us or bring lunch from home. Next time you see a tray carrying skier or snowboard scoping the lodge or sundeck for a place to sit, invite them to share your table. Remember, what goes around comes around.

Who knows, you may even make a new friend!

Enjoy - Andrea

GRIZblog #3
Lower Mountain Is Opening Tomorrow!

Yes we have enough snow and yes we will have completed the majority of our opening procedures by this afternoon, SO GRIZZLY WILL OPEN Friday (tomorrow)! Not all of it straight away, but the main veins will be open and peripheries will open as patrol gets to them. So enjoy, be smart and please obey the signs and enjoy.

Will anything be groomed? Maybe it will; maybe it will not. When will it be groomed? Can be groomed? They used to groom all the time, I remember when. Well I am sure you do. First of all, according to the previous management it was not groomed all the time. Second, in the old days when they groomed, it was a free fall (almost uncontrolled) with 12,000 lbs of steel charging down the slope accompanied by gravity. It is, and was, a very dangerous and risky grooming technique. But 20 years ago it was acceptable to do it that way. Third, as I have stated before, I will not put our employees or equipment in harms way! Our grooming fleet has the technology to groom Griz with winch cats and we will groom as conditions, weather, priorities and staff availability allow.

We intend to groom the lower mtn more than last season. On the other hand, we will not groom during most storm cycles, we may not groom immediately prior to the arrival of a storm, we may not groom if visibility is poor, if we have equipment failure or if we do not have the appropriately trained staff.

The moral of this story, be realistic. The lower mountain is for EXPERTS. The trails are black diamond and double black diamond. The conditions and terrain features are for experts and should be treated and respected as such. Those who enter the gates into the lower mountain should be prepared for any type of condition – after all, you are an EXPERT! The lower mountain is very unique and is as close to backcountry as one can get with out actually being in the backcountry.

For all you experts that want regularly groomed trails stick to the upper mountain. Yes, I know that as we age and mature we do not want to give up the things we used to do. Yes, I know that if the lower mountain is groomed so many more people with less ability can enjoy it, yes if it is groomed it spreads people out more. But it is EXPERT terrain. At some point you need to recognize your own limitations or be patient and wait for the perfect day!

Well, enough said. Now is when I apologize to all those who are offended by my bluntness, ignorance and obstinacy. In time, maybe I will learn.

Cheers - Gentling