Mount Cheeseman

The snow was heavy early on.

I have been up on Mount Cheeseman for three weeks now and not yet had the chance to write a post in some time.  I worked at a ski shop in Christchurch for a few days getting familiar with my role as Ski Technician before moving up the mountains to meet the other staff and to prepare for rapidly approaching season.  My main duties will be to rent out gear and to keep the stock tuned for use but in reality the work of one role on a small mountain becomes much more diverse than that.  I have been working in the Cafe quite a lot as well.  This customer relation type of position is very new to me and one that i had dreaded previously, thinking it would drive me crazy to deal with random people.  I have learned now that this is far from the reality of it.  As is often the case, my preconceptions led me to a premature and false conclusion.  It turns out that i love helping people solve their diverse sets of problems.  This can be anything from the daily binding adjustments on boards and skis to the more unusual and far more challenging task of picking the lock on the roof-rack of a car to free the skis held captive when someone forgot their key.  Only occasionally am i faced with problems outside of my skill set and will do my best to send them in the direction of someone who can help.  Even less frequently am i faced with the unpleasantness of a disgruntled customer.  It comes as quite a shock to me that this is a job i feel quite well cut out for and one that normally gives me great satisfaction in doing well.  However do take this with a grain of salt.  It has only been a few weeks so far.

Mt. Cheeseman glows at night.

"The core of mans spirit comes from new experiences"

~Jon Krakauer~

View from the Lodge

Living on the mountain can be spectacular.  The view from my room is unbeatable and the slopes are 50 meters away.  When the mountain is quite and customers few, I am able to get out for a few runs at a time which makes it all worth it... if it wasn't already. At the moment I am where I need to be and life is good.

Moving up the mountain.

The view from my room.

My Rental Shop

As time moves along the snow has melted to the bare minimum that would allow us to stay open.  Some creative grooming has kept our major runs in condition but we are all paying for more snow soon.  These pictures above are from the the first week.  It was a good start but we have had precious little snow since.  Everyone think cold thoughts for us that the snow might blanket our mountain in its powdery embrace once again.