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.
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.
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
The real pulling ponies in Jackson
Jackson 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Hard Workin' Woman
Like any theme park, Jackson Ski Touring depends on a staff that often works largely unnoticed by the visitor.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
Is The Big Guy Actually God?
Up at Jackson Ski Touring, you may be lucky enough to encounter Almghty God in the flesh.
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.
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.
"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 I knew."
"I 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 he knew.
Was this self-aggrandizement overstepping the bounds of modesty or the all-seeing God letting the veil slip in an unguarded moment?
It all comes down to belief.
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.
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.
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.
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 is Divine.
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.
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.
"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 I knew."
"I 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 he knew.
Was this self-aggrandizement overstepping the bounds of modesty or the all-seeing God letting the veil slip in an unguarded moment?
It all comes down to belief.
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.
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.
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.
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 is Divine.
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