What does an average day look like at the Bear Valley Adventure Company this time of year? During these quieter spring months, staff arrive at 8:30am to open the store and trailhead at 9am. After the eager skiers, snowshoers, and snow players start their adventures, we often experience a lull until ~10:30am when more guests arrive. Group ski lessons begin at 10:30am (weekends) and 11am (mid-week), with private lessons filling in the day. At 11am the Meadow Café opens, and guests start to smell the barbeque nearby. BVAC staff often rotate work areas to enable lunch breaks, which often include a quick ski. At 3pm the Meadow Café closes while the snowcat drivers arrive to inspect and prepare their machines. At 4pm, the sledding and tubing hills close, and the groomers often head there first before the entire trail system closing at 4:30pm. A spring grooming schedule typically requires two snowcats grooming the whole trail system, which has been about 50km this season. On the weekends, we often deploy a third snowcat to share the workload.
A new piece of grooming equipment, called the Renovator, was recently deployed at BVAC to enhance the groomed trail quality. The Renovator mounts to the front of a snowcat and aggressively breaks apart the firm snow surface before being processed by the tiller and creating the ridged corduroy that everybody enjoys. So far, we are pleased with the results and hope you will be too.
This "average BVAC day" changes dramatically when winter storms arrive. Most staff start work earlier and stay longer to ensure that the BVAC offerings are available in a timely manner. All the while BVAC strives for excellent customer service with a little humor along the way. Cheers to the BVAC staff!
