Posted by: Kim_Hamilton on 12/22/2008 07:29 PM
Updated by: Kim_Hamilton on 12/23/2008 12:34 AM
Expires: 01/01/2013 12:00 AM
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Reaching Out on the Slopes~by the PineTree Pedaler, Brett Loring
Bear Valley, CA....Bear Valley’s ski season officially opened last weekend and the 2008-09 team of fifteen Ambassadors are reaching out to guests on the Mountain. Rosie Sundell, Senior Director of Marketing for Bear Valley Mountain Resort, trained this year’s crew of Ambassadors walking them through procedures and practices that help visitors to the Mountain to feel right at home. Some of this year’s Ambassadors include folks who are retired as well as those whose full time jobs are in education, metal work, hair styling, and pastoring a church. ......
   
Ambassadors often meet with Sundell on their assigned work days for a briefing on current events and conditions updates, and then head out to their various stations to mingle and talk with guests, making sure that visitors are receiving top-notch customer service and getting help as needed.
From helping with ticket sales to showing guests where to plug in their laptop for the best wireless connection, Ambassadors assist in the Lodge, on the slopes and in lines. A few opportunities to help on my first day included delivering a pass to a family in the lift line, assisting a guest with her first time on a snowboard, seeking lost items, hustling up extra rental forms for the new Snow Sports Learning Center, and directing families with children to Snow Play activities.
The Ambassador program, inspired by a similar model at Whistler in British Columbia, is in its third year and has proven to be a vital investment in satisfying guests and bringing them back to the Mountain as well as informing them of other local attractions and activities, including all the new services available in Bear Valley Village. Connectivity between the Village and the Mountain is becoming more visitor-friendly as shuttle services run between the two venues and as snow travelers’ ability to make a run from the Mountain into the Village becomes more feasible. In the Village, Sky High Pizza just opened this past week and features a new family friendly ambience in the early evening and then Happy Hour later, after 9:00 p.m. Bear Valley Cross Country offers cross-country skiing, snow-shoeing, sledding and tubing equipment and adventure from their Village location in the “sports shop cleverly disguised as a gas station,” as Paul Peterson, President, describes the retail and rental shop which also features food and fuel.
While enjoying the slopes or inquiring about things to do in the Village, look for the Bear Valley Ambassadors in the orange jackets or blue vests. They’ll be happy to assist and to help ensure that your visit is “snow wonderful!”
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