Whitewater in summer

Maintenance and infrastructure are the summer focus at Whitewater Ski Resort

1 of 2Whitewater Ski Resort's Fresh Tracks food truck is a welcome sight in neighbouring communities. — Photo courtesy Whitewater Ski Resort

2 of 2The Whitewater Ski Resort sign welcomes winter athletes to the resort. — Photo courtesy Whitewater Ski Resort

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Anne Pigeon, general manager of inside operations at Whitewater Ski Resort near Nelson, B.C., is one half of the resort’s two-person management team. Her counterpart, Kirk Jensen, is manager of outside operations; together they oversee a summer staff of a mere 25 to 30 members, compared to over 200 in the winter.

Pigeon said that the staffers mostly live in Nelson and take the resort’s shuttle—which services the community as well—between home and work.

Summer upgrades

“Summer is a building time for us,” said Pigeon. “We’re doing infrastructure upgrades, and our biggest project for this summer is building a new maintenance shop.”

Pigeon acknowledged that the summer project is perhaps only exciting to the people who are actually working on it. She said that the recent rapid growth of the resort’s popularity has pushed the limits of its infrastructure and rendered the current shop—at 30 years old—simply inadequate.

“The old shop was affecting our productivity,” Pigeon said. “The new shop is big, with four bays and a price tag of about $850,000. The guys will be able to do their repairs indoors now.”

The larger space will result in improved safety and efficiency in the work environment, Pigeon said. Increased efficiency will mean improved grooming and better access to intermediate and beginner terrain. This summer will also see completion of the building that was begun last year, at the bottom of the resort’s new lift; the structure will house a food service facility and a first aid room.

New food offerings

“Our food is something we’ve always been known for,” Pigeon said, “and last September we took delivery of a mobile food truck, which proved to mark the beginning of a whole new episode in the Whitewater food story.”

Pigeon described the food truck, named Fresh Tracks Express, as a travelling billboard. The truck spent the winter at the foot of the Glory chair and will be street vending in Nelson, at Kokanee Creek Marina and several West Kootenay special events during the summer.

Pigeon said the food truck purchase was a good move because it means she can keep a few of her best food staffers employed all year round.

“We have a high staff retention rate,” Pigeon said. “Most of our snow safety crew do firefighting in the summer, and we also have a few tree planters and parks employees, who like having work available here in the winter.”