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Hi. I’m Ben Benton from Flagstaff, Arizona. I believe that you will enjoy my daily journal from Winter Park, Colorado, Ski Resort during Christmas break 1999-2000. I left downtown Flagstaff Wednesday morning, December 22 with my skis, duffle, and laptop computer, and ended up at Snoasis, a lodge midway up the mountain in Winter Park. My journal will continue through the first week of January. 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. |
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Wednesday, December 29, 1999Lunch Rock CafeI was on the schedule this morning to be a runner for the scramble area. It’s one of the jobs at Snoasis that I haven’t done. I believe it involves keeping the salad bar filled and plenty of ice in the Pepsi dispenser and things like that. When manager Tim came in this morning he said, “Get your coat, hat and gloves ready because I’m sending you up to Lunch Rock.” I’ve been to Lunch Rock but never worked there. It’s at 11,200 feet, just above the Jane (Mary Jane Ski Area). It’s a tiny cafe with six picnic tables, a deck with several more picnic tables and a warming hut. When the snow cat arrived with the Snoasis employees, Gabe, Margaret and I began loading the cat for the trip to Lunch Rock. We had both beef and vegetarian chili, beef stew, bratwurst, beer, yogurt, chips, sport drinks, 100 pounds of ice melt for the sun deck, and all the pots and pans necessary to run the cafe. The trip to Lunch Rock takes several minutes. We drove up Cranmer and passed Sunspot, and continued on to the Jane side. We were set up and open by 9:30 or 10, and did over $2,000 in business today, between 10 and 3. Peter came up with the Snoasis snowmobile and trailer to help close and we loaded up all the dirty pans, the cash register/computer, which fits in a small aluminum attache case, and the recyclable cardboard. Margaret drove the snowmobile with Gabe in the seat behind her, and Peter and I were on the trailer, which has a passenger deck with a grab handle. She drove over three bumps which sent the trailer flying in the air and Peter and I hanging on, while we watched the pots and pans fly in the air. We didn’t lose any, but it was close. We arrived back at Snoasis in time to wash all the pans and
get everything ready for tomorrow. I took some pictures while
at Lunch Rock and will post them tomorrow.  |
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