Labor shortage?

[throbster]

Tell me more about how the economy works "Feel the Bern boy". Trump is doing everything possible to lower energy prices and put people back to work. You are probably for minimum wage at $15 but will turn around and bitch if his/her lift ticket becomes more expensive.

[Jeff_CT]

According to JT the state of VT required Killington to have the latest emissions technology for the diesel engines. Now that we are at final tier 4, and no more stringent technology being law at this point, they may want to buy if that is a cheaper option.

Interesting that they still use diesel powered compressors. Electric is much cheaper to run and the new ones are fairly efficient. I work at a large facility with a lot of air use and we recently replaced all of our old electrics with new. It’s made a big difference. I suppose with rentals they probably don’t have the proper power supplies in place but in the long run I hope they look into it.

[GSKI]

Tell me more about how the economy works "Feel the Bern boy". Trump is doing everything possible to lower energy prices and put people back to work. You are probably for minimum wage at $15 but will turn around and bitch if his/her lift ticket becomes more expensive.

Drumpf is a menace. I would put all these folks out of work in their very pitiful low paid ski area jobs and give them social benefits. We and the environment will be far better off. It is coming and cannot be stopped. Democrats will take the Congress back in November then you will see a real transformation of America into what it should be. You cannot stop it we have the demographics on our side. You will lose. Like in California no racist Republican will ever have a significant political office ever again. Then we will wipe those folks out once and for all.

[Jeff_CT]

They run the compressors from late October to February, and the cold push on Superstar probably doesn't take that much air. That's a little over 4 months, a third of a year. Those compressors are extremely portable, and are used elsewhere the rest of the time. Sounds to me like a picture perfect case for renting.

1600 cfm diesel rental is ~8000 per month
1600 cfm electric to purchase ~150,000

4 years give or take and you’ve paid for one that you own plus the energy savings from not burning diesel which may initial be negated by a permanent installation cost. I’m not in the ski business so I do not know the financials at all but if you’re in it for the long term it just seems to make sense to make this investment even with the initial overhead. You also vastly improve your product by always having the capacity needed to blow snow. I’m fairly certain Mt Snow installed compressors in their west lake project. They also have a ton of fan guns which greatly reduces the demand on their compressed air system. They will pretty much resurface 600 acres in 3 days. I wish Killington could accomplish something like that in the future. The weather patterns are only getting worse.

[Nikoli]

Tell me more about how the economy works "Feel the Bern boy". Trump is doing everything possible to lower energy prices and put people back to work. You are probably for minimum wage at $15 but will turn around and bitch if his/her lift ticket becomes more expensive.

Drumpf is a menace. I would put all these folks out of work in their very pitiful low paid ski area jobs and give them social benefits. We and the environment will be far better off. It is coming and cannot be stopped. Democrats will take the Congress back in November then you will see a real transformation of America into what it should be. You cannot stop it we have the demographics on our side. You will lose. Like in California no racist Republican will ever have a significant political office ever again. Then we will wipe those folks out once and for all.

Drinking a posting on forums is probably not the best idea!

[Mister Moose]

They run the compressors from late October to February, and the cold push on Superstar probably doesn't take that much air. That's a little over 4 months, a third of a year. Those compressors are extremely portable, and are used elsewhere the rest of the time. Sounds to me like a picture perfect case for renting.

1600 cfm diesel rental is ~8000 per month
1600 cfm electric to purchase ~150,000

4 years give or take and you’ve paid for one that you own plus the energy savings from not burning diesel which may initial be negated by a permanent installation cost. I’m not in the ski business so I do not know the financials at all but if you’re in it for the long term it just seems to make sense to make this investment even with the initial overhead. You also vastly improve your product by always having the capacity needed to blow snow. I’m fairly certain Mt Snow installed compressors in their west lake project. They also have a ton of fan guns which greatly reduces the demand on their compressed air system. They will pretty much resurface 600 acres in 3 days. I wish Killington could accomplish something like that in the future. The weather patterns are only getting worse.

I'm guessing a multi unit, multi month contract bid months in advance for use during the off season for construction would see rates far lower than 8k a month. Plus cost of capital. Plus maintenance/repair. You're w-a-a-a-ay beyond 4 years.

While I'd love to see fan guns all over a dozen trails, so far we don't have one trail. Didn't Mt Snow invest in theirs prior to the Snow Logic debut of the very efficient DV4 guns? These guns run as low as 5cfm and may have negated the fan gun, given the high fan gun cost and the fan gun ice-up issues.

[Mister Moose]

Tell me more about how the economy works "Feel the Bern boy". Trump is doing everything possible to lower energy prices and put people back to work. You are probably for minimum wage at $15 but will turn around and bitch if his/her lift ticket becomes more expensive.

Drumpf is a menace. I would put all these folks out of work in their very pitiful low paid ski area jobs and give them social benefits. We and the environment will be far better off. It is coming and cannot be stopped. Democrats will take the Congress back in November then you will see a real transformation of America into what it should be. You cannot stop it we have the demographics on our side. You will lose. Like in California no racist Republican will ever have a significant political office ever again. Then we will wipe those folks out once and for all.

Drinking a posting on forums is probably not the best idea!

Am I the only one sensing in GSKI's last 2 posts?

[Jeff_CT]

I'm guessing a multi unit, multi month contract bid months in advance for use during the off season for construction would see rates far lower than 8k a month. Plus cost of capital. Plus maintenance/repair. You're w-a-a-a-ay beyond 4 years.

While I'd love to see fan guns all over a dozen trails, so far we don't have one trail. Didn't Mt Snow invest in theirs prior to the Snow Logic debut of the very efficient DV4 guns? These guns run as low as 5cfm and may have negated the fan gun, given the high fan gun cost and the fan gun ice-up issues.

Oil less electric air is about as maintenance free as you can get so you would incure very little expense there. I don’t know if you get a contract discount. I do know that the 8k estimate is what United Rentals charges. They’re nationwide so they can shift equipment by demand so I don’t think you’d get a big winter discount. Mt Snow did indeed get the fan guns before the new DV4 and I can not say how much less air is used between the two. I can say it appears K-Ton does not have enough air at the moment to hit more than 3 trails at a time. Unless there is just a shortage of snow makers.

I love Killington. By far my favorite place to ski and I spend a few weeks a year there. Hopefully this week goes smooth while I’m there.

[Big Bob]

I think Killington uses Blue Line Rental for their compressors. I see them heading down I 89 when they return them to the Boston area store. They can barely get enough power to run the snowmaking system with the diesels. They had to shut the system down in December when GMP said there was a shortage of power back during the cold snap. GIS, please correct me if I am wrong!

[Captain Hafski]

BAck to the original topic. I will put in my normal plea for going RFID; they have been doing a horrible job scanning [labor shortage?] this year. The guns don't work well so when a ticket doesnt scan the scanners just let them through anyway.

Mike needs to fix this. Too many peeps skiing free.

[Guy in Shorts]

Yes the Vermont labor market is tight as everyone who wants to work already has a job. It was all hands on deck for this weekend with most full time Killington employees getting additional assignments. Mike's personal assistant Amy was up busing tables in the Peak Lodge on Sunday afternoon.

[yiddle on da fiddle]

GSki....proof that there is more to painful rectal itch....than just Hersheyhighwaystar.

[Dickc]

Its not just K that is having trouble filling jobs. Sunday River has made way less snow this year because they are struggling to find help. Many of the normal snow makers are working somewhere else as they are finding other work with better pay. This means that many of the current snow makers are rookies, so you need to put one experienced man with the group and work on teaching. As such, it just takes longer to do the work. You also have to make sure the group working has the proper experience so you do not freeze up any pipes at the really cold temps we seems to keep having. This may mean only one group out so there are enough experienced hands to prevent a freeze up.

Sunday River has also been slow to open lifts because of the lack of help. On some lifts they are using lift mechanics to operate at times. If a lift breaks, it creates a strain as they have to pull a mechanic from ops to fix the busted lift, and that means sending someone else over to that lift. I would love for them to be fully staffed, but it is what it is.

[Kpdemello]

Labor shortages at seasonal resorts should not come as a surprise. H-2B visas are limited. Summer resorts are having the same problem.

I thought the H1B visa program was supposed to be for skilled workers, not unskilled labor like lift operators? I'm curious if Killington actually uses the H1B visa program or something else to bring in their seasonal workers. It's clear they do have some sort of program to bring in overseas personnel for help.

I've heard the job market in the U.S. is strong (for employees) so I can imagine any lower-paying jobs are having a hard time getting filled.

[Bubba]

Labor shortages at seasonal resorts should not come as a surprise. H-2B visas are limited. Summer resorts are having the same problem.

I thought the H1B visa program was supposed to be for skilled workers, not unskilled labor like lift operators? I'm curious if Killington actually uses the H1B visa program or something else to bring in their seasonal workers. It's clear they do have some sort of program to bring in overseas personnel for help.

I've heard the job market in the U.S. is strong (for employees) so I can imagine any lower-paying jobs are having a hard time getting filled.

H-2B not H-1B