Everyone’s so friendly at Baldy
Special to The Okanagan Weekend
“Everybody that we've met has been just so friendly,” my companion commented. That was on the first of our four days at Baldy Mountain Resort in the South Okanagan. And that experience got better every day.
I was walking down the metalgrate steps of the daylodge with skiing-hiking buddy Lawrence when one of the four buckles on his downhill boot caught the step edge and the buckle popped off. The rivet end was still visible on the boot so I advised him to walk over to the nearby rental-repair shop and get a quick rivet replacement.
Unfortunately, the shop didn't have a rivet gun (both Lawrence and I have one at home). So he popped into the ticket office next door for information on runs and mentioned in passing about the lack of a rivet gun at the shop. After heading out the door, general manager Andy Foster ran after him, offering a pair of loaner boots for the next two days without charge. Lawrence was quickly back on the slopes.
When you are visiting downhill resorts and cross-country ski areas, the experience is often heightened by friendly interaction with the staff, especially if there is an unexpected problem.
Word-of-mouth means pleasant experiences get shared (not to mention social media). Lawrence talked about his experience for the next three days.
When it comes to the attitude of resort staff, it's not just about talking the talk but listening.
In an interview, Foster said that after he arrived at Baldy eight months ago, “I spent a long, long time listening to the team, really trying to understand the history of the mountain, having long, long meetings with people like Kevin (Rand, operations manager) who has been here almost 20 years, Terry (Rand) 17 years.
“Honestly, I couldn't be happier with the team we have, the people we have. It’s a very happy work environment we have here and that’s important for a local mountain. It’s all about a different experience, more personalized. Staff buy into the culture we have here, that community, that local mountain feel which I’m just so happy to be a part of,” he said.
Operations manager Kevin Rand started working at Baldy as a ski instructor 19 years ago, then as a ski patroller and a paramedic.
After skiing 90 per cent of B.C. resorts, he and his wife, Terry, bought a home at Baldy and Terry took over his position last year as risk manager this year.
There were a lot of new faces among the 40-50 employees this winter (and long-term staff like him are in new positions) so it was crucial to instil the Baldy ethic of community and cameraderie.
“I’d love to retire here," Kevin Rand admitted with a laugh. “I’d love to be the 90-year-old guy up on skis bothering everybody because I love it.”
“Baldy is family," said Terry Rand who has worked there for 17 years.
“There's no place like Baldy. It has a really great family feel as a whole. Everybody co-parents everybody's kids like a community parenting program. You can safely have your kids riding around and not worry about them getting lost or misplaced. We are getting larger, of course, because we’re getting more and more skier visits, but it still has that same intimate, friendly, everybody-becomes-family no matter what your walk in life.
“Nowhere else has the same vibe. I go to other ski hills and it's just not warm and intimate. We go to a great deal of effort to get our new employees to understand the vibe that makes it so special here, and continue that theme of keeping it warm and welcoming and interacting with our guests just like they are your family, to show people what makes us amazing and different.”
When she lived and worked fulltime in downtown Oliver for 13-14 years, she always felt that when she came up to Baldy on weekends, “this was the only place where you could genuinely be yourself. And as soon as you get on the mountain, it’s like you could finally breathe. You don’t have that pressure of everyday life weighing you down. You just feel like you've come home.”
Foster was taking a level one snowboard instructor course when we visited. Why?
“Anything I do I really like to do it properly. I haven't got a massive amount of experience in the ski industry. I lived in Whistler for five years and I ran an outdoor adventure company. I've worked for a big auction corporation, Richie Bros. Auctioneers, and I ran a company in England. But when I go into something, I really like to understand it,” he said.
“I’ve snowboarded for a long time, but this course also allows me to be a standby instructor if we need it. You never want to turn away customers. And it also gives me a better understanding of that one role within this multi-faceted organization. I plan to do other things too.”