Mountain Safety

We've had a rash of accidents on the mountain recently, mostly between skiers and snowboarders not paying attention to some of the basic rules of the mountain. For example, we've had several snowboard go ripping down the mountain minus their leash and rider into crowds of people. We've also had several skiers and boarders just running into people, or not knowing how to get off the lifts.

These are all usually rules we cover during the class sessions, but the truth is not everyone takes classes. So the resort has moved to printing them on the lift ticket as well. Turns out most people don't read past the "VALID xx/yy/zzzz aa:bb:cc" line. This basically leaves us with having put up a bunch of posters, banners, etc with lame sayings such as "Know the Code" or "It's cool to ski in control". I don't think either slogan really makes people think about what they do or don't know on the mountain.

Enter the new promotions manager for the season who has suggested a brilliant change, even if it is a bit odd. Throughout the season several members of the staff (patrol, instructors, lifties, park crew, kitchen staff, etc) will be randomly assigned a bright reflective jersey with a big number on the back. That number correlates to one of the codes of conduct on the mountain. Our jobs as a number are to be wondering through the resort doing whatever we usually do, only this time armed with a changing stamper.

Customers on the other hand have been given a game, similar to a scavenger hunt. Their job is to find all 7 of the codes of conduct. At each code person, they need to repeat what the code is to the employee to receive a stamp. What's the stamp good for? The first 100 people with all 7 stamps get a next season pass for free. After that 100 random people will awarded similar gifts at the end of the season (passes, helmets, skis, boards, etc).

I got to be the 3rd rule, which states "you must not stop where you obstruct a trail, or are not visible from above", which proved to be fun. Most of the people approaching me were really good about it, a few of the snowboarders who found me skiing past them, were those sitting just below the lip invisible to someone coming down the run.

We'll see how well the promotion works, but so far it's at least got people thinking reading the random code bits around the mountain.