This was the final training day, or half-day. We only actually trained in the morning. They did not run the snow machines today; it must not have been cold enough. We had a brief run and then learned and played some more children’s games to get kids moving in their boots. We thought of different games and exercises for different age groups. Our trainer Chris made an obstacle course out of poles near one of the lifts and had us run through it. He meant to just demonstrate ideas but we all wanted to do it. One of my poles was flat on the snow and of course it got a big ugly scratch all down its length, after I’d guarded the paint so carefully until now. I did a roll on the snow to leap over it and duck under the next obstacle, because Chris had been talking about making his kids do “commando rolls” down the hill to lunch. I think we provide valuable entertainment for the lifties during our training.
Up on the hill we practiced wedge Christies, which are wedge turns with skis matching to parallel towards the end. It’s the intermediate stage between wedge and parallel turns. Chris says that’s the hardest turn to do, and what takes students the longest time to learn. Most of us had trouble keeping really good turn shapes while doing that. He said goodbye and let us go at about a quarter to noon, and thanked us for being a good group. I tried to thank him for being a great coach. He was very thorough and always kept it interesting and fun.
Most of the others went down to get some food and get to the company orientation meeting on time, but I had one last free run before noon. I had prepared a sandwich in the morning, and ate it all on gondola on way down. I changed out of my boots, spoke to a few people, and even had time to ask the at the lost-and-found if anyone had found the one Cat-Track I lost two days before, running the short way between the locker room and the gondola. That’s a rubber sole that snaps onto the bottom of ski boots to protect them. They hadn’t found it. I’m sure that they can be bought around here if I need them, since I’ve seen others walking around with them.
The four hour meeting was actually fairly engaging. Coffee and other drinks were available, and a tray of cookies too. I took many more than my fair share of cookies. The meeting was mainly about our “corporate culture” of “PRIDE” (yes it seemingly has to be capitalized but doesn’t even stand for anything) and went at great length about customer service. If you didn’t think it was possible to talk about customer service for several hours, you would be surprised. Some of it was pretty funny. We heard a couple audio clip examples of bad customer service. There was a brief section on safety towards the end. That was a review of the rules, and some statistics. 40% of injuries last year were from slipping and falling around the resort on ice or the old unsafe metal stairs left all over the place. Over 120 instructors got injured last year badly enough to go to the clinic.
As I said, the woman leading the meeting (except for the safety part, led by the Risk Manager) tried hard to engage us and get us to talk. She asked for a few people from each table to introduce themselves. I introduced myself and told where I was from and what I was proud of: getting into The Unit after recovering from cancer. During a break and after the meeting people came up to talk to me. One woman came up to tell me she’d gotten through cancer last year. A funny guy who had spent a year in Kibbutz Beit Hashita asked, “me-aiyfo ata?” I spoke much during the orientation, answered and asked a few questions.
On the round tables we sat at there was some Silly Putty and rubbery snakes to play with. I noticed a couple of the boys at my table wearing them as headbands, and I wore one too and stuck two more in it which dangled before my ears as “payot” or sidelocks. I accidentally shot someone in the eye with a missile of snakes, and hit someone else in the throat snapping around another. Then I stopped playing with them.
At the end of the meeting Jo (the woman in charge of ski school training) arrived to handle our training confirmation sheets (to prove we’d attended all that.) She coughed and couldn’t talk, which was very fortunate for us. As I’m a certified instructor, she cleared me to teach and said I should do a standard shadowing without a trainer, just following around a lesson to learn their protocols.
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