Lift Maintenance Training isn’t just important to any ski area, it is vital. Speaking in support of lift maintenance training is something I have done several times in the Steep Newsletter. I can't always say I was an advocate for such training. During my leadership years at the helm of either Mad River Glen or Sugarbush,

Better Meeting - All Leaders Should Read In a past post, I wrote about the importance of meetings as meetings relate to an organization's culture; . Not surprisingly, there was little response to the post. It isn't a subject that grabs this audience's attention, especially those immersed in the maintenance end of mountain operations. But meetings

Sunshine Coming and Covid Going (we hope) For most of the country, the ski season is about half over. It sure has been an interesting one. I heard a comment from John Hammond of Sugarbush Resort, "we have never worked so hard to lose money." I think this is a very appropriate comment for this season. Usually,

Paying Attention to Injuries There was a recent article written by Jason Blevins published by Colorado Sun. Jason is a talented writer and one who supports the outside world. Jason brings to light a lot of information relating to skier and rider injuries. The relevance of these injuries during the Covid pandemic is the possible impact

Covid has hit the MountainOffice normal enhancement development hard. European ski areas are in more difficult situations than here in North America. With the Alps being where MountainOffice earns most of its turns, the company had to hunker down with reduced development efforts. But the effort never stopped; it just took longer than planned.  Interestingly many

Great podcast on organizational health Listen Here I am pleased to share with you a podcast from the ED EPPLEY EXPERIENCE – how to build and maintain smart and health business – minisodes and full episodes with guests. ED EPPLEY is a leading global expert in professional management, sales strategy, and performance management. He is a former

HAPPY HOLIDAYS Not to make fun of our colleagues across the pond but here are examples of stark contrast on safe mazes.  Park City vs. Verbier The season has started. Snow has been plentiful for a few and the rest are doing the best they can with what mother nature has offered and snowmaking. Let’s hope the

Are you a fan of meetings? You should be. Meetings are the stage you work on if you are a manager, director, VP, GM, COO or CEO of a ski area. I know, you probably never thought of meetings that way. Meetings are a puzzling paradox. On one hand, they are critical. Meetings are the activity

Kudos to Jackson Hole Mountain Resort for an inspiring tribute to the front-line staff. It takes a village to make a ski area, large or small.  Let’s all remember it is the hard work of these frontliners who make it happen. You may have seen this video, but it is worth watching again as a reminder

Here is an article from Reliabilityweb.com by Drew Norman that discusses the issues of test your AC  motors with high voltage. This should have some interest for lift technicians as well as the service people in snowmaking. Maintenance professionals tasked with maintaining electric motor reliability are often concerned  with testing their critical motors at voltages well

Computerized maintenance management systems, CMMS, are by nature complex, wide-spanning systems that cover a lot of different factors. One of the most important of these is failure and defect codes. What are these codes and what do they do?  Failure and defect codes are alphanumeric codes that provide detailed information on why an asset failed. This information

Everyone thinks they want to be a leader. Many people are promoted to a management position without a thoughtful review of whether they are meant for leadership. So what are the right motives for being a leader? There are two fundamental leadership motives. They are: Reward-centered leadership: the belief that being a leader is the reward

CMMS systems do not run by themselves My experience with CMMS system failures is 99% related to lack of commitment from senior management, lack of resources, human and technology, and a vision for the desired results. When these elements are present, the CMMS system installation and use are successful.   CMMS systems do not run by themselves. The

These uncertain times are challenging for all ski resorts and areas Extensive press regarding the procedures being put in place to manage the sales of tickets and access to the mountains has been widespread. A form of reservation requirement exists at some ski areas, or season pass holders do not need reservations, and most ski areas

As of late this summer, all ski resorts and areas now have a useful tool to implement a solid and well-structured lift maintenance training program. This tool is the NSAA LIFT MAINTENANCE TRAINING RESOURCE GUIDE. This 148-page guide is the culmination of significant effort by NSAA staff and volunteers in the ski industry. The idea of the

The WHY of my decision to become a CAPAo mem I never thought after retiring from the ski industry that I’d be offering to help ski areas become healthy organizations. In fact, when I retired, I am not sure I heard of organizational health. I know I was aware of company culture, but not in the

What useful life can you expect from a motor if it is installed and maintained with an eye toward precision? While I have no data on the failure rate of lift motors, electric, the issue of vibration has to be one that many of you have had to deal with over time.  The elimination or near

Plant the Friggin Tree Mid-summer for most of us, some limited skiing is going on South of the Equator. Expect we here in North America will learn a bit from those operators in New Zealand, few in Australia and the few South America. My concern is that I hope we get the chance to apply that

Reviewing  my commitment to I never thought after retiring from the ski industry that I’d be selling a software system. How’d that happen? One winter day, I was searching for info relative to a T-bar installation, and I tripped on something called MountainOffice. Wondering what this was my curiosity triggered an inquiry, and the next thing

How to gain a competitive advantage In these unique and uncertain times, leadership and organizational health will be the keys to success going forward in the ski industry.  The information I am sharing here I did not have in my quiver while running a ski area, I wish I had. I do feel compelled to share

Build Team Leadership and a path to a Organizational Health during COVID 19 shut down The strange times persist with uncertainty ahead. Having bullwheels not spinning with plenty of snow on the hills, parking lots empty with snowy trails is all strangely eerie. For those who have been furloughed or laid off, the ski world is

Uncertainty, questions and fear running through my mind, but as look out my office window at the ski hill basking in bright sun with trails fully covered in white gleaming snow, the scene conveys reassurance that someday in the future life will resume again. Probably not as we know it before March 15th but hopefully

In my semi-retired position, I sit on many civic boards. The pay isn’t so great, but it is enriching. One of the biggest challenges I see quite frequently is the lack of buy into the strategy of the organization. I seem more conscious of it now, but as I think back to being involved in

The title sounds sort of like a title for a fictional novel, but unfortunately, it is not. Many operational silos exist within many ski areas. An operational silo is a vertically thinking organization such as mountain operations, even departments within mountain operations, or food and beverage, ski school, marketing, and accounting, to name some examples.

Learning from the ski lift While the average age of the ski lifts in North America is reported to be 27 years old, it is hard to think there should be a discussion about artificial intelligence, AI or MI, machine learning, and how it relates to ski lifts, but there should be. In Europe, the average

The times require creativity As more bullwheels begin to turn, many ski areas are still struggling to fill their seasonal staffing needs. From a mountain operations perspective, this can mean a strain on lift operations, snowmaking, and grooming. Not an easy challenge to solve. I’ll leave the recruiting solutions to the HR pros. Regrettably, it may

Based on Article from SAM archives The title says it all. These two stories are so tragic and yet were fully preventable. Mike Mechanic has done his morning safety check of lift A and found the brake needs adjustment. It is about 20 minutes before opening time, so Mike hurries back to the shop and gets the tools

Based on - A Winning Culture Keeps Score - John Case, and Bill Fotsch - Harvard Business Review. So, if you, as Mountain Ops Director, asked your Lift Maintenance Manger – What is the score of your department’s culture? What would you get back as an answer? Would it be an answer that you thought was meaningful?

Leadership is tough, not doubt about it I am sure you have heard the statement that employees don’t quit companies but managers/leaders. I bet if you look back at your own experience,m and if you had quit, that the reason you quit was more your boss than the company itself. Here is an article, 8 Things Leaders Do

A quick look at your maintenance status MountainOffice is pleased to announce that with the 2019 system update a dashboard is now part of the system. This dashboard can be configured by each user to the relevant information specific to the user. There are many different selections for displaying system information. The flexibility of the dashboard enables each

July 2019 Ski Area Maintenance Survey The survey that many of you participated in this July came back with what I would say were encouraging results. The response rate wasn't as good as I hoped, 8%. The pool was limited to mountain ops maintenance staff. The encouragement came in that a high percentage of respondents indicated that

The title question is a big fuzzy question, but one that should be important to you, as a manager, as an employee, and as a leader. Not much conversation in the ski industry about organizational culture, although I imagine it is thought about in Broomfield, CO. If you think about what many managers and leaders

Connecting six resorts via remote server Not usual for Steep to report on the activities of SEC Gmbh, partners in Steep Management, but SEC has just inked a contract with the Schultz family group, www.schultz-ski.at which owns six ski resorts, eight hotels, and a golf course. The news that is important is that this installation will be on a

Utilizing new tools for predictive maintenance From some of the folks, I know in the lift maintenance world what I am about to share is probably not news, but to many, I suspect it might be. The logic of it, I think, will resonate with all. The challenge is to see the upside versus the investment

Maintenance Facts Earlier this year, I wrote about the leadership needed to foster a maintenance culture. To support the need in a broader form beyond the ski industry, here are some facts I have found that puts the issue in perspective as to why it is difficult to raise the maintenance awareness. I have not verified

Summer seems to be here, albeit we still have skiing here in North America with plenty of snowpack in the higher Western mountains. It was a GOOD winter and hopefully, many of you are enjoying some added benefit from such. I know the late snow melt has created some challenges with scheduling work on the

Here comes one of those articles I write and know there is a good possibility that I am going to annoy many readers. In keeping with my strong advocacy of employee engagement, well-being/happiness as the keys to success, I am sharing an article from strategy + business, http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/Why-Net-Promoter-Score-is-past-its-prime, that explains the risk of overplaying the

The way you use equipment can have a big impact. The ski industry has gone through a significant transformation in the last decade as it relates to snowmaking. The concept is the same, mix air and water at the right temperature and you get snow. The trick is how to reduce your costs, with the two

Ski patrollers across the country provide many services to the skiing and riding public. However, with the plethora of snow in the West this year many have been asked to go way beyond their normal duties. Shoveling out and doing the mitigation work to make the slopes safe is obvious. Throwing bombs. A recent article in the

Recently I had the opportunity to ski at two different resorts on back to back days. With my critical eye I often pay attention to small details at a ski area, guess I can’t let go. This experience gave me food for thought that the maintenance culture of a ski area really matters in the