The Culture of powder days.

            Growing up in a community that depended on how many inches of snowfall it received each winter season can be stressful. That sounds ridiculous but in the ski resort town of Park City, UT that is the case. The economy, employment rates, real estate, schooling and more all depend on four and half months out of the year-the sacred ski season. With a year around population of no more than 8,000 people and having only one high school within a 35 minute radius Park City is an exclusive community. The environment is special, generations of families depend on whether the white stuff flies starting in October. If the first snowfall has not happened by Halloween, panic ensues, there should be a couple solid inches on the upper mountain by Thanksgiving and the base of the resort should be built up by the third week of December between natural snowfall and the snow guns (snow making devices).  The year around preparation for the ski season is seen in every aspect of life back home and I want to take you through parts of that experience.

            Ski season officially ends in April for the Canyons, Park City Mountain Resort and Deer Valley at the end of April.  That makes May the month of rest, the only month out the year that people are not focusing on the upcoming winter. Starting in June come property evaluations, looking at chairlifts, lodges and the idea of expansion in ski resort property. Did you know that a chairlift can cost anywhere between 1 to 10 million dollars? It depends on size (quad, T-bar, etc.) and if it is high-speed or not. That is a huge investment for a ski resort, that does not included inspection fees and helicopter rental for installment.  As visitors come they have no idea of the behind scenes work it takes for a ski resort of function at it’s peak. That though is the goal, the best resorts in the country want to make it seem as though that everyone is on a vacation at the resort. At major resorts around the country such as Deer Valley (where I work) the behind the scenes is comparable to Disney Land in a sense, there are underground tunnels connecting aspect of the resort, codes and signals and special accommodations and masses of employees each with specific and unique job.

            The skiing spills over even in schooling in the community. The school calendar gives a full week off for Presidents in February because the town becomes so populated and busy, it is easier to gives families the time off and not to coordinate around the chaos of the visitors. In elementary school it is only half day Friday because kids are required to participate in a winter sport the other half of the day ranging from skiing to ice skating, this includes public schools. The community places high value on every child having skills in winter regardless of socio-economic status. You also will find attendance rates in the high school extremely low on a powder day, I have even found myself sitting next to a teacher on a chairlift one time where we were both supposed to be in his classroom at that time. The values of the community are reflected in the significance that we place in skiing.

            You always hear about Texas football, and how Texas life lives for football season. The time, passion, money and future that people place into those high school games.  Park Cities version of Texas football, is ski racing.  The stakes are high, most young athletes aspiring for the winter Olympics. The Olympics is something that every athletic kid dreams of but in Park City that is a reality, a reachable goal. We have a school in Park City called: “The Winter Sports School”, that school year is June-November so that some of the most high performing winter athletes can still receive a high school education but not when the winter season is at is peak.  Every afternoon kids leave school 2 hours early to head to the mountain and stay out long past the sun going down into the frigid night to run iced racecourses. I did it myself, enduring bruises form the gates all down my right side, spending most weekends away from home and when I was not on the snow, I was in the gym doing a workout called: “dry-land.” Dry-land training is the off snow work that puts every skier body into elite shape through grueling run work out and sprints that simulate the 20 second course. You spend your summer traveling the world from Mt. Hood in Oregon to Chile to keep finding now to practice on.   Skiing is the most time consuming sport for any high school student, it requires dedication that cannot be found in any other sport.  Ski racing is so momentary, kids in Park City spend their childhood looking to win based off a 15 second race, no more than that, it all comes down to that. Skiing with the elite is so momentary but the work is worth a lifetime.

A video that gives the vibe of the community, featured at Park City Mountain Resort- http://vimeo.com/35857064

           

It takes a community to run a ski resort, that cliché line actually applies in every way to the ski resort culture. Every person no matter how much they want to be involved has to be, it is what the pay check comes from.  Ski resort’s hire employees from not only the local area but reach even internationally. You need people to work retail, be ski technicians, work helicopters, mechanics, chefs, bakery, cleaning, ski instructors, ambassadors, life operators, communications, the list goes on but this is no small effort.  This builds a international community of people who all share a passion for one single thing-snow. Which is pretty cool, it creates an atmosphere around town that unites and inspires everyone to be apart of a larger picture.  Ski resort culture, the culture that I can leave but it cant leave me. 

Finding snow in Texas, well it is right here.

                        I am thinking to myself right, are people really going to want to read this? Hmm...We will find out. So brace yourselves, this blogging world is all brand new to me and the start may be a little rough. This blog is just like anything though, until you jump in how else are you going to find out if you are good or not?  That same thought crosses many peoples mind when they first come learn how to ski. Now you are wondering how I came to this point in the conversation. Well that is what this blog is all about, the translation between my college life here in the grand state of Texas and my life back home that revolved all around skiing, snow and the  children I taught how to ski.  This is truly where ski meets Greek.

            Who knew that the few of my crafting skills I do have come from sitting around midget size tables consoling melodramatic children for hours on the weekends.  I colored endless suns, rainbows and a variety of animals on butcher paper for 4 years along with battling 5 year olds on the perils of glitter and glue.  Deer Valley Ski School ended up being the best preparation for my upcoming week of big/little crafting for Chi Omega.  Working at ski school though prepared me for than just mediocre crafting skills, it equipped with some of best costumer services skills in the industry, taught me how to deal with high stress situations and some intense ski tuning skills.

            One of the first and most important things I learned form ski school was understanding geography and culture, that seems obvious but if you talk the current 5 year olds of the world you will find that they have a serious lack geographic understanding.  The most common response I receive when I ask kids where they are from is this: “The United States”, thank you small one, how insightful! It is awfully cute how innocent and naïve there are in their answer but it makes me wonder about the education system, sometimes you get their home address “1234 American Saddler Drive, Park City, UT” which brings a lot more to the table for discussion.  

            I also learned how to turn a very complicated topic into a very simplistic one, my ability for accommodating different needs is quite strong.   You cannot describe how to do a basic turn like this to a 6 year old: “A wedge Christy, putting pressure on your downhill ski and slowly progress onto the other ski”- I barley understand what that means. Why would they? It needs to sound a lot more like this: “Make a pizza pie with your ski and point your toes toward me and remember stand up tall”. Within that description though you have to adjust for every child’s individual need, this sounds ridiculous in way, why would I put so much thought into one child’s lesson? Well these parents do not spend $1,000 a day to come off the mountain with the same little skier they dropped off and on a personal level I don’t want to give them anything less, skiing is an amazing sport and I want all those little snow monsters to love it as much as I do.

             I may no longer be a mere five minutes away from the best powder in North America but that does not mean the knowledge I gained from days spent on the mountain for my enjoyment or trying to provide the joy to others did not follow me all the way to the hot and flat state of Texas.  Not only that but it does not mean my newfound love for Texas and what I have here is not following me back to Utah, I am living in the best of both worlds currently.  Taking my experiences back and forth to each place I spend my time in has really broaden my perspective on things and I cannot wait for two and a half more years of this.  Through the next semester y’all will somehow find out how I can continue to connect skiing to SMU.   I have met students who have yet to see the snow yet in their lives, I find that nearly impossible but maybe this blog is the answer.  I guess I am looking at Texas from 8,000 Feet.