Shadowing

Fortunately I could carpool again this morning: Josh and I showed up for work, checked in on the computer, and changed in the locker room. When I finally finished donning my uniform and left the lockers it was blowing snow all the way down at the resort base. I was up at the Carvers (7-14 year old groups) meeting area by perhaps 0847. They meant to do a safety meeting at 0845 (describing the evacuation procedure in the event that the gondola stopped working) but only did the meeting at 0900, and the groups only went out at 0930 so I got to hang around there for a while and see where everything was.

I shadowed an instructor with only one student, in the “blue zone” (the colors correspond roughly to the runs they can ski.) Lucky kid: paid for a group lesson and got a private lesson with two instructors. The instructor forgot about me and I had to catch up to them at the top of High Meadow.

It was freezing cold today. Our uniform pants are very poorly insulated and cold, and I froze my bum just sitting on the first snow-covered chairlift in the morning. The snow was just lovely though: fluffy fresh powder boot-deep in some places. It made me very happy and was a pleasure to ski on.

It was so cold that the instructor and I both had to put up masks on the chairlift and wanted to go back in to warm up, but we asked the kid if he wanted to and he said, “If you want, I don’t care: my face is numb already so it doesn’t bother me.” We went in for hot chocolate near 1130 and only had time for one run between leaving there and returning for lunch.

We don’t get paid for shadowing, but got a free lunch. After lunchtime I left them and a few of the other new hires and I had a two-hour meeting and briefing with Tameca. That’s the supervisor (coordinator) for the Carvers program and my direct boss. She showed us where everything was supposed to be and explained all the procedures and paperwork for check in, swapping kids between groups on the mountain, check-out, and filling out time sheets.

We only finished about when the ski school finished, around 1500. I’m not allowed to ski in uniform but Tameca said she didn’t mind as long as I acted professional. I considered it, but didn’t feel like freezing again. The kid was only out there for two days so he was happy to ski in the snowstorm, but I can afford to wait for the bright sunny day after the storms, with all the fresh snow still on the ground.