tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-71305229316745552152024-02-08T03:55:27.095-08:00The Jackson FileThis blog will contain notes on nine seasons of field observations of Jackson Ski Touring. It will not be homologated, as it cannot be approved by the international governing body that sets standards. Instead it will take whatever turns the trail builder chooses to explore.
Anonymous comments are not allowed. That ought to keep the clutter down.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.comBlogger20125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-5242864996659134292014-01-29T10:50:00.000-08:002014-01-29T10:50:36.310-08:00SIN and RedemptionDuring our years as the retailer at Jackson Ski Touring our aversion to Rottefella's NNN system might have been a sore point. Since it was virtually impossible to get constructive criticism out of the JSTF management I can never be sure. But since our position on NNN was a running theme while we were there, these new developments might have some passing interest for occasional and accidental readers of this blog.<br />
<br />
When Rottefella's minions announced the NIS binding a couple of years ago it seemed like an egregious grab for market share by forcing customers to choose the inferior NNN system over the sturdier Salomon systems. But, given time to think about it I realize that the SIN plate has accidentally cured all my objections to the NNN system.<br />
<br />
Back in about 1991, when the Salomon Profil system came out, it addressed a lot of inadequacies of Salomon's previous SNS system. At the same time it corrected the flaws in Rottefella's NNN and NNN II systems, notably the unnecessary ability to adjust the length of the binding plate to the boot size and the cheesy construction of the bindings themselves. NNN bindings were more complicated to mount, leading to more possible assembly flaws, and they broke more frequently. The adjustable-length plates notoriously came apart where the two sections joined. In early versions, the rear part of the plate frequently sheared right off the ski.<br />
<br />
Looking at these problems and finding ourselves selling a particular model of Salomon touring boot much more than any NNN boot, we decided to quit carrying NNN and beef up our stock of Salomon. We could sell with confidence. We could justify our decision on functional grounds. No one told us we couldn't sell NNN. We chose not to.<br />
<br />
Function does not necessarily determine whether a product or its parent company can survive in the marketplace. Rottefella licenses NNN to many companies. NNN gets sold in stores where the clerks and the customers don't know any better. The sales people may know other things, but for various reasons they simply believe what they're told about Nordic product.<br />
<br />
Meanwhile, the Omnitrak waxless base was killed off by K2 when they bought Karhu and destroyed the company. So the stage was set for this strange time when Rottefella's marketing ploy, the NIS plate, actually turns out to make their product -- if not outright good -- at least good enough.<br />
<br />
Point one: adjustable length requires trickier drilling. With the SIN plate, there is no drilling. The binding sections slide onto the plate which is already permanently bonded to the ski. Of course time will tell if that permanent bond really lasts. SIN plate separation could be pretty nasty on a fast, twisty downhill. But nothing has gone wrong yet...that I know of.<br />
<br />
Point two: cheesy construction causes bindings to break. SIN bindings have to be pretty robust because of the design of the plate. It's almost idiot proof, which also works well when the skis are sold at stores where no one knows or cares much about cross-country skiing.<br />
<br />
The demise of the Omnitrak base means that there's no reason not to settle for a SIN plate ski with whatever waxless pattern they've managed to mold or chisel onto it. The best in the business is gone. The competition for distant second place is crowded with probably adequate mediocrity.<br />
<br />
Many of the boots for NNN are reported to be quite comfortable. So that's good. I don't know if any of them have an inner lacing system comparable to the one Salomon has been using on their better boots for at least 20 years, but Salomon can't even be counted on not to mess that up eventually. The Escape/Siam 7 boots this year have what looks like the nice inner boot lacing system, but when you feel around you discover that it's not as separate as it used to be. They're getting perilously close to making those models just another standard boot with an annoying cover over the laces.<br />
<br />
Salomon also helped make the choice more debatable with their wide application of the Pilot binding to what had been a stable and functional line of boots and bindings. Pilot started as a skating binding, where its advantages were obvious. I could easily describe and demonstrate how the binding made skate skiing better. This is emphatically not true of the racing classic Pilot binding they introduced and have already abandoned. And the Pilot touring bindings, while they may offer some advantage with the generally wider compact touring skis, sometimes don't work perfectly smoothly for some skiers. I'm not sure how I feel about them, which is a definitely step down from how confidently I could endorse the Profil system in its heyday. At this point if someone wants an NNN boot and a SIN plate ski I can't say they're making a mistake.<br />
<br />
The NIS plate does inject complication and annoyance into the world of cross-country skiing in other ways. If a person chooses a Salomon binding and a SIN plate ski, the plate has to be masked with a special shimming plate to cover its little ridges. Otherwise the mechanism of the Salomon binding, particularly the step-in versions of Pilot, will catch on the SIN plate and jam. Rottefella may chuckle diabolically over this, but at the moment their own NNN-BC binding would need a similar adapter because there is no SIN version of NNN-BC.<br />
<br />
Alpina supposedly offers a screw-on SIN plate for flat-top skis. How long will it be before an NNN affiliate has to offer an adapter shim to mask the SIN plate as well?<br />
<br />
Even after decades of consumer confusion and a certain amount of complaint, the cross-country ski industry moves ever further from standardization rather than closer to it. Looking on the bright side, at least you can hunt around for the best or least worst solution for your particular needs. If the industry settled on a norm, there's a better than even chance it would be crap and we'd all be stuck with it.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-89656800095970877542014-01-17T10:47:00.000-08:002014-01-17T11:36:21.299-08:00Where fun goes to die.A field observer visited Jackson Ski Touring recently and reported that the ski shop "looks perfect, like the ski shop James Bond walks into in a movie."<br />
<br />
He said the shop staff of two wore snappy red vests. The shop was lavishly stocked and spotless, "as if it had just opened for the first time."<br />
<br />
Creepy. Sad. Scary, if you imagine what working there must be like. I started to feel claustrophobic,like I'd been buried alive. And that was just from hearing about it.<br />
<br />
As a customer I get suspicious when a store looks too perfect. Cleanliness like that is a sign of mental illness. Even when we had a guy with OCD working for us there it wasn't that perfect. I have to wonder how the pressure to keep up such an appearance and be unfailingly cheerful and subservient must warp or crush something inside the employees at Jackson Ski Touring and its showplace shop. Hardly surprising that they seem to advertise for a whole new staff for each ski season.<br />
<br />
Some in the JSTF hierarchy may have pretensions of liberalism but they take full advantage of a depressed and desperate labor market. Jackson itself is full of people who take a Gilded Age view of the working class. critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-49021361595180657662013-11-02T08:25:00.000-07:002013-11-02T13:07:53.548-07:00It's that time againAccording to the classifieds in the Conway Sun, the retailer at Jackson Ski Touring is advertising for a full staff for the coming winter. "Racing experience a plus."<br />
<br />
I had this sudden image of a southern plantation owner who would dump all his old slaves and get new ones every year the way some people trade their cars. It's a very Jackson thing to do.<br />
<br />
No surprise that apparently no one wants to come back for more after a winter in that happy little valley. I can only imagine how someone with racing ambitions will enjoy instawaxing gashed-up touring skis instead of skiing like a rock star...or even skiing much at all. A better fit would be a washed-up racer who still wants to talk about it. Whoever takes the position will have to stay up to date on the latest trends to sound convincing. A lot of customers in the racing realm, at least at Jackson, spend more time wrangling about gear than they do actually skiing fast. If they don't hear the right stuff from that idiot in the shop they won't buy so much as a scraper.<br />
<br />
Actually, since Jackson Ski Touring styles itself more as Jackson Ski Racing, they're hoping the spores just come spend money and ask for little in return, so the Foundation staff and retail grunts can concentrate on selling the racing crowd expensive waxes and base grinds that peel years of life off their pricey skis. You wanna be fast? It's gonna cost ya.<br />
<br />
The trick to handling the racer types is to let them know you know enough to do the most rudimentary tasks without messing them up, but still let the customers feel like they're smarter than you are. And of course they're faster. You can only play the Expert card on someone who has already voluntarily admitted they don't know and want to learn from you. You will basically never hear that from a racer.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-28970467506251110302012-11-29T09:49:00.003-08:002012-11-29T09:49:58.193-08:00Fit Night at Jackson Ski TouringHey, December 7 is Fit Night at the retail store at Jackson Ski Touring. Expert fitters from Swix and Fischer will be there to fit you to equipment.<br />
<br />
Gee. When I was there, you could get fitted to skis any day we were open, by people whose loyalty was to you, the customer, not a specific manufacturer. Everyone on staff knew how to suit a ski and ski equipment to the needs of the specific customer and we took pride in doing so. The only exception might have been the gangly, aging cyclist who worked for us one season, whose last retail experience had been at EMS in the 1970s. Turned out he didn't even know the sidecut on a Fischer Cruiser. Ah well. He moved on. An ill wind brought him and an ill wind took him away.<br />
<br />
The difference is between serving the customer and servicing the customer like the bull services the cow.<br />
<br />
There's a lot of razzle dazzle in Big Time Nordic. Bonfires, promotions, smoke and mirrors...plenty of smoke unless they've gotten that fireplace reconstructed. You have to feel you're someplace special, someplace greater than you. Someplace someone would bother to homologate.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-85959695493937177672012-11-14T11:29:00.000-08:002012-11-14T13:40:48.605-08:00Before you take a job at Jackson Ski TouringRemember: they don't care if you are intelligent and knowledgeable, they just want you to be obedient and malleable.<br />
<br />
You ski free the way the caddies got to use the facilities in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caddyshack">"Caddyshack"</a>. In fact there's quite a bit about the employer-employee relationship at Jackson Ski Touring that reminds you of Bushwood.<br />
<br />
At the time I was there, at least one member of the board of directors would always come in with glistening mucus dangling from his nose. It gives new meaning to the term rich snot. Winter brings out the drippers. These are the people who always have a hanger, who leave a trail of droplets across the service counter, the floor, your lunch, or wherever else they happen to roam. They're the ones whose sleeves and gloves are always shiny and wet and who seem to have missed school on the day handkerchiefs and facial tissue were presented as polite ways to stem this tide of nauseating nasal flow. It's just an added burden that one of their chief representatives is also in a position of some power over you.<br />
<br />
Know your place and stay in it. You are a servant. More and more of the original old guard are dying off, so almost no one really thinks you're lavishly paid at five dollars a day, but the management still wishes it was true.<br />
<br />
There's a definite pecking order among the staff at JSTF. They rank on each other constantly in the normal run of things, talking about who is the most lazy and useless. Then, once the management lets it be known that someone is on the way out, the survivors demonstrate their loyalty by taking their parting shots. It's only human and quite hard for our social species to resist. Still, it's ugly to watch and even uglier when you're on the receiving end.<br />
<br />
If it doesn't snow, you have no job. If it snows a little you may be able to shovel enough of it into the trail to stay employed. Good luck with that.<br />
<br />
The best news is that by working at Jackson Ski Touring you will qualify for our support group for PJSD (Post Jackson Stress Disorder). It's really just a drinking group where people are free to share their stories about their grand experiences in The Big Time.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-8191805198348354762012-11-07T07:27:00.000-08:002012-11-07T09:09:41.242-08:00JSTF: From Taliban to Oral RobertsUpping the ante on destructive superstition, the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation has now taken Olympian Charlie Kellogg's skis hostage and will execute them if enough people don't donate to the poor, beleaguered touring center.<br />
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It's like when Oral Roberts said God was going to take him out if his followers didn't fork over a cool million. Why someone who urgently desires heaven would tell his followers to dig deep in their pocketbooks to keep him in this vale of suffering raises questions the average superstitious believer never seems to ask. Logical thought is a sin.<br />
<br />
In another sense, Jackson Ski Touring's lighthearted rallying call to vandalism is more like a simple hostage grab by religious zealots. They don't even have to believe what they claim to believe. They've simply taken something or someone, hoping enough people value the threatened object to produce a decent payday.<br />
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If they need something to throw on the fire, how about marriage licenses people are no longer using?<br />
<br />
Burn, Baby, Burn.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-49085344405913483802012-10-18T12:14:00.000-07:002012-10-18T12:14:16.970-07:00Jackson Ski Touring and the TalibanJackson Ski Touring has been sending out emails announcing that they will burn Olympian Charlie Kellogg's skis in a bonfire to appease the snow gods and bring on a great ski season. This is a small example of the kind of thinking that led the Taliban to destroy historic Buddha figures carved into cliffs in their country. In either case, performing an act of destruction is supposed to cause powerful imaginary beings to shower the faithful with approval.<br />
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Mr. Kellogg's skis are hardly in a class with ancient, monumental sculptures, but they're still irreplaceable historical artifacts that have been taken hostage by superstitious vandals.<br />
<br />
You want to put on a good show for the snow gods? Have Thom and the entire board of Jackson Ski Touring run naked around the base lodge and the village on the weekend of the annual ski sale. Make the assembled membership watch. THAT'S a sacrifice.<br />
<br />
You want to burn something? Burn everybody's clothes while they're running around.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-35315880048826004322011-12-02T08:06:00.001-08:002011-12-02T08:43:34.856-08:00Jackson Math: $50 = FreeAn offer from Jackson Ski Touring to cross-country ski teams:<br />
<br />
"Dear Coach,<br />
<br />
Here’s a cost-effective way for your team to train this winter: ski<br />
in Jackson for free!<br />
<br />
For <b>$50/person per night<i></i></b>, [emphasis mine]your team stays overnight at the AMC’s Joe Dodge Lodge at Pinkham Notch, N.H. Dinner & breakfast are included in<br />
this special rate.<br />
<br />
Jackson Ski Touring provides you with the largest Nordic trail system<br />
in the East, including our FIS Homologated Courses.<br />
<br />
Book this combination packages for $50/person during weekdays in January.<br />
<br />
Our brochure describes all the details..."<br />
<br />
That's right! Receive this FREE offer for just $50! That's ABSOLUTELY FREE!<br />
<br />
Sure, I know what they mean. Throw some dough to the AMC and you can play on Jackson's trails during off-peak periods and admire their 100% homologated trail while you're there. I'd forgotten about all the homologation they had done. Once you've gone homologated you never go back to ordinary ski trails. I lie awake nights remembering how that homologation felt.<br />
<br />
Brother, have you ever been homologated? I mean more than just once in college as an experiment?<br />
<br />
So...scrape up $50 for your free skiing! While you're at it, if you send me $1,000.00 I can begin processing that huge lottery jackpot you didn't know you won.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-42668272110855263872011-09-29T09:03:00.000-07:002011-09-29T10:23:33.387-07:00Withdrawal Recovering from nine winters at Jackson Ski Touring has taken a surprisingly long time. As I expected, I did not miss wondering who hated me and why. That only mattered to me because whoever it was managed to get me tried, convicted and sentenced in a secret court with no chance to face my accusers or answer the charges against me and it almost cost me my position. I was then reinstated by an equally secret tribunal where I again did not appear and had no input or closure. I was told I would get to hear substantive details from people in authority, but what I got was an impatient brushoff from someone who was obviously pissed off that I had been reinserted into the situation. What I missed was the skiing.<br />
<br />
<br />
For those who felt that the retail grunts spent far too much time indulging themselves on the trails and far too little time insta-waxing the scabrous planks of legions of road-crossers, you will be pleased to know that the only person who skis in Wolfe City is the boss. I don't begrudge him. He works his ass off. Unlike a number of fat people and smokers at the upper levels of management in cross-country ski manufacturing, coaching and touring center operation, he still loves to get out there.He would let us get out there if he could. But not at the expense of his own ya-yas. Every morning he grooms. Then he skis. Then he comes to the shop. Four days a week he's gone again in the afternoon to coach the high school cross-country ski team. Because of the skeleton crew we run here we can't spare anyone during the work day, despite our leader's best intentions. We can never be sure it will stay quiet enough for long enough not to overwhelm the capacity of the staff left behind.<br />
<br />
<br />
One day at JSTF Big T asked me if I was going to ski that day. I said I hoped so.<br />
<br />
<br />
"Wouldn't it be great if you were too busy?" he said with the kind of dopy grin people use when they're trying to get a child excited about doing homework or getting a painful injection.<br />
<br />
<br />
Are you crazy, Big T? If I was into this for the money, I wouldn't be into THIS. I wold be into something that actually <b><i>makes</i></b> money.<br />
<br />
<br />
Before work the trails are not groomed. They're BEING groomed, but the pattern doesn't generally favor a good surface for a meaningful workout until the groomer has finished the job, at which point he takes first tracks. It's most efficient. He's there, the trails are ready. Just do it!<br />
<br />
<br />
After work the trails are either a slush pit or a refrozen invitation to a broken femur. The average winter temperature does not keep snow powdery fresh the way it did just a decade ago.<br />
<br />
<br />
Where does this leave the shop grunts? Riding the wind trainer at home, using the Nordic Track if you can stomach it.<br />
<br />
<br />
It took two winters to get accustomed to the fact that we would be hard-pressed to get any exercise between the end of bike commuting in the fall and its onset again in March or April. The body and the mind need to find things to replace those healthful endorphins once provided by the excellent action of cross-country skiing. Because we probably won't get it, we can't want it, because denial of it only makes the lack of it worse. Write it off. It is gone. It is over. This greasy room full of smelly ice skates and rental ski gear is the only reality.<br />
<br />
<br />
Exercise is a luxury for most people. That's why Jackson depends on wealthy elitists for its very existence. Many of them might not think of themselves as elitists, but you can't achieve the financial position they have without disconnecting from the concerns of the working class. Many club members are hard workers who are athletically but not financially elite. Others are complete snobs.<br />
<br />
<br />
We are blessed in Wolfe City that the wealthy elite do not make skiing a central part of their lives. The big money is here for the lake. Whatever problems they may have mingling with the commoners, they don't take them out on us. Not so in Jackson. Those people chose their town for the mountains and the activities they can pursue there. In the touring center we were at center stage. Many more customers have a much higher ego involvement in Jackson. This makes it much trickier for the retailer unaccustomed to dealing with such a sensitive clientele. None of that will bring back skiing, of course. But at least as my information gets stale and my enthusiasm grows more artificial no one is likely to notice.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-34105323400349505512010-11-12T13:12:00.000-08:002010-11-12T13:17:42.701-08:00What a Concept!Have you heard about the new Swix and Fischer "concept shop" at Jackson Ski Touring?<br /><br />Hey, here's a concept: How about a truly independent, knowledgeable retailer who has the best interests of each individual customer at heart, rather than some manufacturer's pimp, especially one that has to represent the Fischer tongue depressor touring skis?<br /><br />Just a thought.<br /><br />When you're up there keep your bullshit detector on high and your hand on your wallet. And enjoy the delicate balance they walk between po' penniless non-profit and full-on retail shark.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-74909697371107935342010-05-31T03:29:00.001-07:002010-05-31T03:45:15.791-07:00Smell is the strongest trigger of memoryThe smell of wood smoke hangs thickly in the air from the wildfires in Quebec. It reminded me of the smell inside the Jackson Ski Touring base lodge when the fireplace was acting up, as it frequently did.<br /><br />No sooner had I recorded that thought than I had a spasm of pain between my shoulder blades as if someone had stabbed me in the back.<br /><br />Although the stabbing at JSTF was figurative, the stress induced by the clandestine activity generated various symptoms including many variations on back pain. The sensation of a knife in the back was so appropriate I could hardly complain.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-73365597940652432382010-02-09T07:33:00.000-08:002010-02-09T08:03:38.854-08:00Retail at Jackson Ski Touring and Financial RiskIn this, the tenth year since Jackson Ski Touring ceased to be the tenant of a retailer and became the landlord instead, they may finally have realized that providing retail services for their operation is not a privilege.<br /><br />At the start of nine long years beginning in 2000, they compared the contract position they offered to retail concessions at downhill areas. Citing the high percentages downhill areas demand in fees from retail concessionaires, they rated their own rake-off from retail operations as quite reasonable. It certainly was lower than the gouge suffered by retail providers at downhill areas. And ultimately the Jackson tithe is a tiny component of the full financial exposure a retailer will face there.<br /><br />A season like the one we're enduring now highlights the uncertainty of any investment related to cross-country skiing. A bad winter in 2005-'06 caused long-term damage to the retailer at Jackson Ski Touring because they couldn't cut back hours or personnel even when there was no business. The shop had also purchased inventory for multiple locations. Because the crisis struck the whole industry, creditors were lenient as much as they could be, but most suppliers are part of larger corporations. The Nordic part of their cash flow is small enough to make it look like a mere nuisance to the bean counters in upper management.<br /><br />The current retailer at Jackson Ski Touring related similar frustrations at another contract position they had held, where they were expected to stock and staff an under-performing location.<br /><br />It must have taken thousands of dollars in fancy lawyering to allow Jackson Ski Touring, a 501(c)3 non-profit, to operate their retail store under the banner of an outside provider. One can only hope that they are also shouldering the bulk of the financial risk for this provider. Once the season ends, Jackson Ski Touring shrinks back like a little slimy creature burying itself in the drying mud at the bottom of a watering hole, awaiting the next monsoon, but the retail concessionaire has to stay above ground, foraging and fending for itself. Bicycling and cross-country skiing are tough businesses. They require a bewildering diversity of product to suit as many potential customers as possible. If operating at Jackson Ski Touring increases the risk without sufficiently enhancing income to cover more than just the expense of being there, it's a loser.<br /><br />It's especially harsh for the new provider to face this kind of slap in the face in their first year there. One can only hope, as I said, that Jackson Ski Touring realizes that they owe their retail provider a lot more than their retail provider owes them. And I hope the retail provider realizes it, too.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-59701604273033412892009-11-22T08:10:00.000-08:002009-11-22T08:17:51.732-08:00New! From XIMS!XIMS introduces the NEW Hotbox with built-in rotisserie! Treat your skis to a great base coat of wax while you cook up a couple of game hens or a chicken.<br /><br />Automatic baster applies your favorite marinade to keep meat moist. Sensors monitor internal and external meat temperature. All data is displayed on the digital remote readout panel you can locate in any convenient place.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-17005756323666294562009-11-20T12:58:00.001-08:002009-11-20T13:10:43.523-08:00The real pulling ponies in JacksonJackson Ski Touring's sucess hinges on the serious efforts of some hard workers. Chief among these is the Executive Director, as well as Mrs. Executive Director, followed by the patrol captain I commended earlier. I did not want to dilute my homage to her by commending the other draft horses in the same post. I also don't want to discount the considerable efforts by those making them.<br /><br />In season, a huge debt goes to Andy the groomer, an artiste of the Pisten Bully. As of last season, JSTF had an extremely promising trainee in grooming as well. It really wouldn't be worth going there without the grooming. But that's true of any large Nordic area.<br /><br />The present rental manager really just coasts on the superb work done by the first rental manager who set up the shop downstairs in 2000. That first rental manager, an excellent young man named Dudley, really fostered a spirit of cooperation in the building. As soon as the current rental manager took over, that began to erode. Whether he had a hidden agenda or not, he certainly gave that impression. That does not matter to the skiers using the facility, only to people who work there who might find themselves embroiled in someone else's strange intrigues.<br /><br />The patrollers and instructors definitely pull their weight in season. Sometimes it just comes down to luck. If you pull a shift when there's a lot of shoveling to do, you will shovel. At other times you might get off with a bit of light work and some nice skiing. That's part of the hook that gets people to sign up for the low pay and the threat of unemployment in the event of a big thaw.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-44827382244103749292009-11-20T10:44:00.000-08:002009-11-20T11:32:35.334-08:00Hard Workin' WomanLike any theme park, Jackson Ski Touring depends on a staff that often works largely unnoticed by the visitor.<br /><br />The patrol captain, at least through the end of the 2008-'09 season, was one such unsung hero. Any group of employees anywhere has its bickering and gossip, but in the final analysis I doubt if too many on the payroll at JSTF would like to trade workloads with this woman. Who else might have to give CPR on the far reaches of a trail and then high-tail it back to the lodge to clean kid puke off the carpet?<br /><br />JSTF gets real value for the dollar from their multi-purpose employee. She gets all manner of work dumped in front of her: trail crew, errands, shoveling snow onto areas of trail with thin cover, shoveling and snowblowing snow off the walkways, garbage detail, cleaning in the lodge and, oh yeah, patrolling the trails and providing first aid services. And I bet I left something out. She can drive a groomer in a pinch, and has done so.<br /><br />She achieves all this without a shred of perkiness. That's yet another plus in my book. She's as burnt as any of us who have been in the tourist industry longer than any psychiatrist would recommend, but she still cranks out the work. If JSTF has let her slip away, they are the greater fools. If they haven't, she still has my admiration and just a bit of condolence. But hey: we all gotta work. And if she's still on the job, I urgently recommend that you get your trail pass before skiing and make sure it is visible.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-42705296785892168212009-11-20T09:35:00.000-08:002009-11-20T10:34:34.401-08:00Is The Big Guy Actually God?Up at Jackson Ski Touring, you may be lucky enough to encounter Almghty God in the flesh.<br /><br />Consider the evidence. Some people worship him. Some people despise him. Some people have never heard of him. He works in mysterious ways. He's prone to say things that sound crushingly insensitive, but the cold pronouncements of an omniscient God might be hard to take sometimes. Other devotees may be comforted and uplfted by what they hear from his lips.<br /><br />Regarding his omniscience, I offer this example: He was telling someone about a rescue party he had led to retrieve a victim from the Hall Trail. Although the victim was able to walk by the time the rescuers arrived, and he thought he could ski out with an escort, he had hit a tree when he crashed and actually had fractured a vertebra in his neck.<br /><br />"He called me from Boston to tell me what they'd found at the hospital," said The Big Guy. "He kept saying, 'I didn't know I'd broken my neck. I didn't know.' But <strong>I</strong> knew."<br /><br />"<strong>I</strong> knew," The Big Guy said. He didn't say he knew it was a good possibility. He didn't say that a well-trained first responder would take the proper precautions following any accident of this type. He said <em><strong>he knew</strong></em>.<br /><br />Was this self-aggrandizement overstepping the bounds of modesty or the all-seeing God letting the veil slip in an unguarded moment?<br /><br />It all comes down to belief.<br /><br />As an agnostic I have failed to gain the comforting certainty of either pure belief or pure disbelief. I'm still intrigued by the possibility that genuine divine wisdom may lurk in what might sound to someone else like mere bombast or shallow, cruel dismissal. The truth is always veiled in the clouds that swirl around the Olympian heights. They cloak the counsels of God and the Angels to assure the mortals have to choose of their own free will whether to take up the faith or turn away.<br /><br />Those who speak most strongly against the Big Guy tend to be rebellious Lucifer types. You'll find no proof from them. Others who grouse are only normal. Who hasn't growled a prayer of complaint from time to time? Those whose devotion weakens temporarily always come back to the faith eventually, usually sooner than later.<br /><br />So, the next time you're skiing at Jackson Ski Touring, keep a sharp eye and ear out for manifestations of the Divine. You might see the image of a saint in the pattern of yellow snow alongside the Ellis River Trail on a busy holiday weekend, or overhear someone in the priestly hierarchy disciplining a novice whose devotion has slackened.<br /><br />You could also choose to blind yourself to the miracles and possibilties and simply enjoy the skiing. When the groomers haven't all been pulled off the other trails to work on a race course, the skiing <em><strong>is</strong></em> Divine.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-49181245312399211252009-06-10T04:26:00.000-07:002009-06-10T04:33:56.803-07:00As Jackson Turns...As long-time Jackson ski retailer Jack Frost pulls out to a new location down on Route 302, a vacancy opens in their former space in the Snowflake Inn. Snowflake Inn management contacted us to see if we would like to put a year-round shop there on the loop.<br /><br />Imagine how much fun it might be to have a location adjacent to the Jackson Ski Touring trails without having to be in the building and under the thumb of their intrusive management.<br /><br />We need to crunch some numbers.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-11342402665366138122009-03-30T09:29:00.000-07:002009-03-30T09:32:05.182-07:00The Jackson Ski Touring Foundation Retail ChallengeJackson Ski Touring is a bit like a religious institution. It isn't simply a large-scale commercial Nordic touring operation. It has some direct roots that extend as far back as the beginning of New England skiing, which is to say as far back as skiing in the United States. Yet it also has tributary streams that spring from each freshening of skiing interest.<br /><br />The real nuts and bolts operation that exists today descends fairly directly from the founding in 1972 of the non-profit organization that oversees it. But some of the people involved at the time go way back. Just as the founding of the first organized Christian churches came decades after the death of the individual for whom the faith was named, so did the founding of JSTF merely pull together a number of threads in the skiing faith. And those original saints and martyrs, or their descendants, still live around there. This is hardly obvious to someone who might be a competent skier and technically capable, but who was raised an agnostic skier, without heroes, devils, or much supporting mythology.<br /><br />The founders and their families represent just one group in the complex clientele. The customer population sorts out along many lines: skiing ability, financial status, resident, non-resident, seasonal resident, visiting tourist, visiting racer, visiting sport skier, and many more. Most local enthusiasts have favorite shops already, where they can shop before November and after April, when the touring center retail location cannot operate.<br /><br />For the Jackson touring center shop, the bulk of the revenue comes from visiting skiers. These are mostly beginners and intermediates. Some are buying their first gear. Others are upgrading. Most Nordic ski customers tend to hold onto their equipment for a long time. Thirty years is not out of the question. Ten or fifteen years is common.<br /><br />A small portion of income comes from sales of top-end performance gear. High performance skiers tend to like a lot of technical wizardry around their purchases, so they are easily discouraged from buying at any shop where they have the faintest notion that the person helping them is beneath them. Upgrading intermediates, however, are often happy to have a simpler summary of technical points, even if they're moving up to their first really expensive ski. They want to know how it works, often in detail, but they don't drop a lot of insider tidbits like code numbers for specific Fischer ski cores and flexes. They don't really care of you pull out the super-zoot ski flex tester and convince them the ski is tailored to them to the nearest gram.<br /><br />Whoever works the floor in the Jackson touring center retail shop needs to be ready to deal with this entire range of customers as well as ringing up hundreds of sales of hats, lip balm, gloves and hand and toe warmers.<br /><br />Because the retail provider is an outside contractor, whoever ends up managing the outpost will find him (or her) self squarely between the Foundation management, his own shop management, and those among the locals who like to try to call the shots whether they're in the chain of command or not. In various ways these secret shoppers can insert themselves into JSTF's decision making process in ways that may not be readily visible to the field commander. You soon find out that a lot of decisions are made well above your security clearance level.<br /><br />Jackson faces the daunting task of finding a shop that reflects the image they are trying to project, of the most formidable cross-country ski center in the northeast United States. They've negotiated with some large names in outdoor retail. But a place like L.L. Bean, for instance, is going to want to put its stamp on the operation in a big way. This threatens to eclipse the independent greatness and heritage of Jackson Ski Touring itself.<br /><br />Jackson might prefer to use a retailer with strong roots in the Mount Washington Valley, because the Valley has its own reputation in American skiing. Unfortunately, the most popular Nordic shop in Mount Washington Valley is barely in the valley at all. It sits at the bottom of the Mount Washington Auto Road, at the Great Glen Trails Outdoor Center. It is staffed by a crew of likable locals headlined by Nate and Eli, two really nice dudes who are also really great skiers. They've been with Great Glen from the beginning, as I understand it. Did I mention they're really nice dudes? However, they don't own their shop<br /><br />For Great Glen to open a branch at Jackson Ski Touring would put both places at risk of losing their independent identities. Sure as fate, the word would start to get around that Great Glen was part of Jackson or Jackson had been taken over by Great Glen. Along with all the other things that are hard to explain about JSTF and how it all works, this would be one more. No one really NEEDS to know, but curious people would WANT to know. The confusion could create unnecessary turbulence for both parties. Whose name goes on top? Who pays what to whom? And who gets custody of Nate and Eli?<br /><br />Other contenders, like Reliable Racing or Gorham Bike and Ski, would have to see considerable advantage to themselves to be willing to undertake the hassle of setting up a shop that has to completely disappear no later than the second week of April, only to be painstakingly rebuilt the following November. Mount Washington Valley-based staff would be ideal, but how do you assure their allegiance to the home office and keep their quality control at a level that reflects well on the home office's image?<br /><br />Valley-based staff for Jackson Ski Touring's retail shop would be able to take advantage of their local connections. They'd have a short commute, helping them arrive punctually and refreshed. On the down side, all outdoor sports are somewhat competitive, and Nordic skiing actually includes racing, so your local talent might have a few detractors as well as friends. Anyone who hires them inherits the bad with the good. In a little fish bowl like The Valley, some people have long memories and not a lot of forgiveness. So your retailer from away might accidentally hire someone who interviewed well but who had serious issues with some key people in the customer base or Jackson management.<br /><br /> Open lines of communication not only between the two businesses, JSTF and retail but also up and down the chains of command in both businesses will be vital to creating a truly productive working relationship for them.<br /><br />I've been aware of their dilemma since 2004, and acutely aware of it since the fall of 2005. I've even been sympathetic to it, but as long as no one was going to approach me to discuss it, I wasn't going to bring it up. I observed various potential candidates, such as the short-lived Hurricane Mountain Multisport shop. I figured them for a shoo-in, but it never happened. If JSTF had been smart about it they would have thrown that guy the bone, even if one of the local deep pockets had to bankroll him for a while and coach him on management and customer relations.<br /><br />A local deep pocket could try to buy Nate and Eli away from Great Glen, but they would have to arrange summer employment, either by setting up Nate and Eli in their own shop or just by putting them on some sort of summer retainer. Buying the boys away from Great Glen would probably start some sort of ugliness between regional power players, so that's probably not a good option.<br /><br />As you can see, someone faces a considerable challenge in sorting through all this. No retail provider is perfect. The powerful ones pose a threat to Jackson's own brand in the marketplace. Any lesser shop runs the risk of looking too dinky or like an upstart to the people who are really in the know up there. As always in business, are the risks worth the gains? A really big outfit like Bean or REI risks a much smaller percentage of their capital to extend a small feeler into what is actually quite a tight retail space. A smaller shop stands much more exposed financially for what could be proportionally greater gains, but also greater wounds in case of a bad snow year or other setbacks.<br /><br />Whatever happens, Jackson will go on. Ultimately, for the people who really love it, Jackson is about the skiing, not the shopping. They do the skiing better than anyone in the region. Maintaining that alone is an exhausting job. The rest of the stuff has to be there because that's part of the Big Touring Center experience. Jackson Ski Touring started in the back room of a shop and now has a shop in the back room. Putting together the right blend of businesses and a level of services that not only looks impressive but actually works economically is not a simple task.<br /><br />We wait to see what the next solution looks like.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-62060111004995047372009-03-30T08:12:00.000-07:002009-03-31T06:00:32.909-07:00Great Trails. Difficult People.<em>I had to seriously revise this post. Some idiot thought it was about parking. Still, I like the raw frustration in it. And hey: no one has objected directly to me about it, just talked to someone else. Par for the course.</em><br /><br />Working with the Jackson Ski Touring Foundation is like getting on the Tilt-A-Whirl: it seems like it should be fun, but long before the ride is over you're ready to puke and just want it to end.<br /><br />All Nordic areas, particularly in the eastern USA, labor under various handicaps.<br /><br />Corporately-owned areas like Bretton Woods and other networks attached to alpine areas often find themselves treated like useless appendages or even hemorrhoids by their corporate owners. Nordic never turns impressive dollars compared to lift-served sports, golf and land rape.<br /><br />Small private areas hope they can find the right size for their niche to allow them to survive the stresses any small business faces, compounded by the similarity between operating a touring center and operating a small farm. You need the weather to cooperate so you can produce the crop. Then you need people hungry for it to show up and consume it before it shrivels.<br /><br />In Jackson's case, the particular handicap is the management of the non-profit corporation by a board of directors, and the relationship the touring center has with the town from which it takes its name. They're big, with the appetite of any large organism, but held together by tenuous agreements and a never-ending battle against encroaching development as well as the usual whims of weather and fitness fads.<br /><br />As a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, the Foundation can only derive income from limited sources. In order to preserve its delicate balance with local business owners, it also has to be careful about how it introduces competitors into the local economy. Yet, as a big-time cross-country ski area it wants to be able to offer a high level of skier services to the vacationers and day trippers it ceaselessly trolls for with its marketing campaigns and relentless attempts to get inserted into the news hole of various print media.<br /><br />Because a private service provider like the retail concessionaire has to be a separate entity, the Foundation has to coexist with an entirely independent business under its roof. We're all in the fun business. We all want to keep the sport of Nordic skiing alive and well, if not growing. But the diverse and secretive board, filtering its wishes through the persona of the executive director, has a great deal of difficulty managing this symbiosis.<br /><br />As the retailer there for the past nine years, the shop I work for has operated under the critical observation of many sets of eyes. Because the board seems to relish its anonymity, they do not share with us who might be active on it from year to year. Only individual members of it might mention their status to qualify for a discount. In fact, I can find no readily accessible published list of the board. There's no easy link from their website, nor is it published in a sidebar in the newsletters piled on the front counter, as other non-profits frequently do.<br /><br />If the foundation and its board dealt openly and cooperatively with their retail contractor, the touring center could be a great place to work. Instead, their management displayed a competitive and condescending attitude toward us from the outset. Whoever tries to fulfill the retail role will face the same critical scrutiny as they try to run their business in an enclosure reminiscent of a pony ride at a spoiled little girl's birthday party. In spite of this I personally did not start out with a negative attitude toward them. I'd heard stories over the years, but I was going to wait and see. Others in my organization either lost their patience early or never had any to begin with.<br /><br /><strong>Jackson Ski Touring does a lot of things well.</strong> Unfortunately, this gives some in the organization and among its supporters the misconception that they can do no wrong. Only others can do wrong. These wrongs will usually not be pointed out in a constructive fashion.<br /><br /><strong>A large number of extremely cool people ski at the facility.</strong> It's just the small number of whiners, snobs and stuffed shirts who make a poisonous atmosphere in which to work. Of course there are always difficult people among the transient visitors during any season as well, but that just goes with running an amusement park. Welcome to the Happiest Place on Earth! (smiley face). It's the local sneaks and snakes who create the insurmountable difficulty of unrealistic expectations.<br /><br /><em>This was my gut reaction to the news that the management had finally decided to sever our retail arrangement. People can take it in a bad way as an affront and an attack or they can step back and analyze what they might be doing to inspire such feelings. Whether they intended it or not, some of their tactics amounted to psychological warfare. In the best psychological manipulation, the manipulator preserves deniability and the victim can never be sure what's intentional. That's what makes it effective. But it could also just be a lack of social and business skills on the part of the people originating it, in this case known and unknown players in Jackson.</em>critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7130522931674555215.post-62714613716771891752009-03-04T03:48:00.000-08:002009-03-04T03:55:02.792-08:00Welcome!After a few weeks this blog will contain notes on nine seasons in The Big Time. It will not be homologated, as it cannot be approved by the international governing body that sets standards. Instead it will take whatever turns the trail builder chooses to explore.<br /><br />Anonymous comments are not allowed. That ought to keep the clutter down.critiquehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13986712881304659423noreply@blogger.com0