powderfreak

I also feel like there was some sort of desire to a lot of parents to send their kids to college because they didn't get that opportunity. It was out of reach for many parents when they were growing up, then the boomer generation made some money (the economy was good), the suburbs were growing, and all the sudden the conversations of "this is an opportunity that I never had, you need to do it" started happening. For many it was a status symbol... but there were also a lot of people who wanted to provide that to their kids whether they were smart enough or not. I can see how it happens... parents work their whole life to provide for their kids and save up for college. "Son, you better damn well recognize the sacrifices I made to allow you the opportunity for college and to better yourself."

I love that parents are now doing this. I'd certainly do it if and when I have kids. Props to both of you.

The sad thing was it felt more like it was the parents who suffered some sort of shame if their kid didn't go to a 4 year college.... so it was force fed to the kid. Like having a kid take a year off before college or do anything other than go straight into a liberal arts program meant you failed as a parent... at least that seemed like the vibe back then. I know friends who used to say "I'll do it for my parents".... it was an interesting time period back in the 80s, 90s and 00s.

I think this is what's happening now in a lot of the lower wage service industry jobs. Those jobs are stigmatized so much too... "you don't want to do manual labor or serve other humans for the rest of your life do you!?!" That's why you have 50 year old delivery people and why wages, benefits, incentives are now starting to really blossom in some sectors of the service industry to attract individuals. Maybe in 10-20 years that type of benefit package, incentives, bonuses, etc will be applying not only to trades but to service sectors? This winter was the first time Vail Resorts issued bonuses to all levels of employees, straight down to the lowest part time levels (equivalent to a couple weeks of pay for the most part). COVID played a role (thank you for playing this game with us) but I've seen a marked shift in ways they try to attract entry level employees. And it's mostly money and benefits. A decade ago a seasonal ski area employee couldn't get benefits... now it's becoming a thing. Full time year round jobs were coveted for that, I still remember working seasonal for years back in like 2008 until I was "rewarded" with benefits and full-time year round status. Now you get benefits if you want to work 22 hours a week for 3 months.... the cost to the company has to be huge on some of this stuff.

Yup that's how you attract employees... sort of circles back to what I'm talking about in the service industry. In the 1990s I remember it was the absolute last thing you wanted to do was be a tradesman. The people who went to technical schools were treated like 3rd class citizens. Now who's laughing? I didn't need college... paid a ton for an economics degree that I shelved for my love of skiing and being outdoors everyday. But man back then it was such a negative thing if you didn't go straight to a four year college.

It is snowing out right now at 1,500ft. Was graupel and fat drops but just switched to all small flakes. Sure as hell not accumulating but it's legit -SN.

Last year on this date the mountain got a foot up high and we even dynamically cooled to a pasting snow in town in the evening. That was a fun event, like 1.30" water at like 0.20"/hr in a CCB dropped temps from like 50s to pounding paste.

Just had a pretty decent squall blow through the base area here though it was all rain that I could see. It's not warm, ha. Maybe some graupel later with any afternoon convective type stuff under the cold pool. The upper mountain cams were picking up flakes though throughout the morning and the view up the mountain has that milky white appearance of snow above like 3,000ft. Damn thermometer blew off the wall, ha... and the clock needs new batteries.

Yeah we actually had a couple good elevation events up here. Trying to remember the dates but I probably would've lost it if I didn't spend 12 hours a day at the ski area in the snow zone. I think one of those was a good 1+ inch QPF white rain in town that accumulated like 2" of watery white slush... while 1,000ft+ had 8-12" of paste (January I think?). I remember thinking I missed like another couple feet of snowfall this season by like 300ft since a couple elevation events were so close to the valley but just not quite there.

300ft is noticeable for sure. That’s about where you get 1 degree difference of moist adiabatic lapse rate... that’s the 33F vs 32F in an elevation event. See it around here all the time... 750ft vs 1000+ in the valley.... or 1500ft vs 1800ft in the base area. When sitting in marginal temps, 300 feet is like the distance that you really start to notice differences. Find the slop line in an elevation event, and go 300ft higher to winter, ha.

Welcome dude, the more observations the better!

Bats just haven’t gotten it going tonight. That double bobble by Xander was a routine fly in traditional positioning... but the shift had everyone vacating the left side of the infield. Sucks, but I keep telling myself they took 3 out of 4... hard to pull off the 4 game sweep

If that's towards me, and it must be (?), then I think I must be not saying it correctly. Is that what people read from my posts? I'm not having a philosophical discussion. I'm not trying to pass judgment or an opinion on the situation. My wife and I both lead a large staff trying to satisfy high-end income earners. It is rough when you don't have the staff to do that. I sure as hell don't own a business, but I bet it would suck to own a business with some demand and not be able to staff it. What's the answer there? How do you make it appealing for people to work for you so you can meet demand? Shame them? Pay them, offer them affordable housing, offer benefits? Some might say it's babying those employees. But it's a reality in parts of the service industry if you want to operate tomorrow, and next month, or the year after that. Revenue won't come if the guest experience sucks. Skilled or unskilled, doesn't matter. You need to get people to work for you who obviously find some barrier... what do you do?

Yeah it's going to be cheaper to go that route than hire people soon... especially as the expectation of higher wages continues to gain steam. Parts of the service industry will be tough to replace.... but eventually economics will win. Wonder if that becomes the new "manufacturing" industry at some point. Seeing a lot more unionization of the service industry, more demands for benefits and employees feeling like they have some leverage in places that can't fill positions. The biggest issue in the service industry is that many are pushing back on companies saying it's not possible to make a career out of it... but most of those service, food, hospitality jobs weren't designed to be careers except for the highest levels/management. In the ski industry, unions are starting to become a thing, particularly in ski patrol and I think ski instructing. When Big Sky, MT and Breckenridge, CO ski patrols unionized last month, it was because it's hard to make a career out of it. The counter was that it's a 5-month a year job, not meant to be a career per se. But these jobs are needed, they are unionizing, and collective bargaining type stuff is happening in the service industry. Parts of the service industry are mirroring some aspects of the old automotive, ironworks, mining, manufacturing type jobs.

Ah I see what you are saying... no they aren't people with mortgages out of necessity. It's usually younger aged folks. The situation I'm describing isn't "dumping money into salaries" because the staff member needs to pay a mortgage. It's pure staffing shortages 100%. Places are not able to operate unless they raise their wages to pretty high levels all things considered... because they cannot get people to fill those roles. There are no more high school or college students (or that age that used to work for very low wages while living with Mom and Dad) to fold towels and that middle aged person won't do it for that rate. So the businesses keep raising wages until someone will take the job. Eventually those rising costs will be passed off the consumer at some point for sure. And like I've said, this is probably a different economy. These aren't "local spas and small hotels" like one thinks of in N.NH or other areas of VT... the Stowe area is a bit different I think in that regard. The history of high-end tourism goes back to the 1800s when President's used to vacation here and then in the 1930s this was really the birthplace of VT skiing/tourism. There are certainly some of those small local owned lodging (usually owned by money made in NYC or BOS that want to play in VT), but I'm talking about places that are often boutique properties owned by large companies. Like my wife's owner is a hospitality group that has high end small properties in places like Stowe, Lake Placid, Boston, Montreal, Aspen, Jackson Hole, etc). The hotel that Cpick loves to visit, Stowe Mtn Lodge/Lodge at Spruce Peak is managed by Hyatt.

The hand is getting forced here. Certainly much different than other economies but places are being squeezed now to pay like $30-40k/yr for non-skilled service starter jobs. They literally can’t operate without raising wages significantly. Pretty soon you’ll be able to answer phones at a hotel switchboard for the same wage as a teacher, if you can’t already.

Yeah I thought I read $18.33 an hour for a starting full-time officer. Obviously there’s a lot of overtime and special detail work available... but for what seems like a very well funded PD department (lots of taxes from tourists and million dollar second homes) it shocked me. If there are homes on the market for like $14 million and the ski resort tax base, I’d think they’d do better for public safety than what my wife pays for a high school graduate to work at a Spa front desk checking guests in.

Yup, a lot of that in low level service industry spots. Touches back on the discussion a week or two ago about high school and college students not filling entry level jobs like when many of us were in high school. The dishwasher, delivery guy, gym attendant, pool server, etc are not the people who used to take the $10-12/hr job... this is causing places to raise their wages for those positions to like $30k a year jobs to try and attract another sector of the population. Still shocking that area hotels around here can start at $17/hr or more for entry level service positions because they need to fill them. Mom and pop stores were not designed with that budget in mind though. Stowe PD and EMS start lower than an entry level front desk agent at Stowe Mountain Lodge, or as it’s called now the Lodge at Spruce Peak.

Yeah agreed. I like that term, flex point over critical point. At some point the temps would overwhelm it but like you said, that’s a long way off in New England, especially NNE.

Ha yeah man, I won’t AC at 84/45 but I will on a rainy 68/67 day.

A buddy said it was snow, graupel, ice pellets at top of Superstar, but those photos definitely look like straight snow. Is this Alan B? Several former SkiVT-Listserve folks on this forum now.

That’s always been my take. Temperatures are still cold enough to produce snow in the means, even with multiple tenths of a degree of warming ongoing. Physics says more water in the atmosphere means more snow below 32.0F. Conceptually one would imagine a gradual increase in snowfall until at some point it starts to fall off a Cliff once that critical point is hit, no?

Yup, this is why COVID is such a loaded gun now. It’s been so strongly tied to policy and that in many minds it’s hard to separate COVID the sickness from policy. Everyone has an opinion on the resulting policy which then alters their opinion on COVID itself. My dad’s a retired ER doc... ask him to make policy it’s going to solely try to prevent accidents as he readily admits, not worry about freedoms or economy. He always jokes that backyard trampolines would be the first thing to go based on the volume of maimed kids and adults that originate from those things. He’s seen more people paralyzed from suburban trampolines than car wrecks, ha.

Ha yup late 80s and 90s in the suburbs. Every little news story or freak event would cause some parents to lose it. “Can’t do that, a kid got maimed in Ohio last week doing that!” That was probably the start of the news media freaking parents out. Watching the nightly news filled with stories of one-off accidents and everyone saying here’s how you prevent that.

That protective or over-protective stuff has been going on long before COVID though, it just highlights it more. I don’t have kids but growing up we all knew those parents and kids. My sisters and I were joking just yesterday at Mothers Day gathering about our neighbors who had the most over protective mother on the planet... if they put rollerblades on, the kids had pillows like duct taped to them as padding, eat a cracker and can’t go near a pool for a full 30 minutes (might get a cramp and drown), could only sled on the mellow side not the steep hill, would stick her head outside while we played whiffleball every 3-5 minutes to make sure everyone was still breathing, etc. Inside at dark, no questions asked. Can’t socialize with those kids because of of them swore once. Parents will be parents. Those kids missed out on a lot of fun back then even without COVID, ha. They turned out awesome though in the end.