Hi. I’m Ben Benton from Flagstaff, Arizona. I believe that you will enjoy my daily journal from Winter Park, Colorado, Ski Resort during spring break 2000. I left downtown Flagstaff Sunday morning, March 19 with my skis, duffle, laptop computer, and portable 4-person spa, and ended up at Snoasis, a lodge midway up the mountain in Winter Park. My journal will continue through the end of March. You’ll read about Winter Park Ski Resort, Snoasis, Sunspot Lodge, the great people who work here, and anything else I can think of to write about.

I’m the author of “National Park Employment Data,” a guide to working in national parks, which is available for purchase on my web site at www.gorp.com/nped/. I’ve been working in national parks and ski areas off and on for over twenty years.

Because I want the data in my book to always be fresh, I continually test the concepts, employers, and tips that I provide. I first worked at Winter Park in the late 70s while I was a student at Arizona State University.

Previous
Journals

12/22
12/23
12/24
12/25
12/26
12/27
12/29
12/30
12/31

1/2
1/3
1/4
1/6

Spring Break
3/19/00
3/20
3/21
3/22

Thursday, March 23, 2000

Odds and Ends

They just brought in the Pepsi products, including 90 cases of AquaFina. AquaFina is chlorinated city water drawn into the local Pepsi bottler’s plant and purified through reverse osmosis.

We sell it for $2.50 per 20-ounce bottle and the 90 cases will last a week or two. That’s 2160 bottles of city water hauled over Berthoud Pass to the West Portal warehouse, then loaded on snow cats to be dragged up the mountain to Snoasis.

Just up the mountain from Snoasis, next to the half pipe, is our own well. It pumps the freshest, purest water this side of heaven out of the mountain.

Our guests could walk over to one of two fountains in Snoasis and draw free water into free paper cups and receive purer, healthier water.

*****

These skierisms are contributed by my roommate at Snoasis, Chris Westbye and others at Snoasis:

“Why don’t you use both sides of the lift when you’re really busy?”

“At what time of the year do the deer turn into elk?”

“Where do you keep the moguls in the summer?”

“Do you put boxes on the ski runs to make the moguls?” (Standard response: “No, we use Volkswagen Beetles.”)

“What happens to the white when the snow melts?” (That was actually asked last year.)

How about the urban cowboy skier who had his hat, Wranglers, and was actually swinging his rope all the way down Cranmer.

“Are there onions in your onion rings?”

If nothing else, it's entertaining working in a ski resort.

 Copyright ©2000 Ben Benton -- All Rights Reserved