On a mid-season winter day, fluffy powder blows in my face and untracked snow slides easily underneath my skis as I score the perfect line down the mountain. I’d never guess how many hours and people it took to create this amazing experience. That is the mission of ski areas, to help create memories and unforgettable moments on the slopes, making it seem effortless, despite the herculean amount of effort that goes into making a resort run smoothly. It all starts well before the snow starts to fly. Essentially, as soon as the season closes, preparation for the next starts. 

Karter Riach grew up skiing at The Summit at Snoqualmie, less than an hour from Seattle. Now the resort’s director of marketing and sales, he has witnessed the changeover in seasons since 2009 when he started working at the resort. “Our lift maintenance team starts on annual maintenance and inspections before the snow even melts, and that continues throughout the summer,” Riach says. With 19 chairlifts, five magic carpets, and two new chairlifts coming this winter, a lot must be done to ensure skier safety. 

The Summit gears up year-round, ensuring pristine conditions when winter arrives.

Photo courtesy of Summit at Snoqualmie

Unlike ski areas in the Northeastern part of the country, resorts in Washington have a lot of brush, shrubs, and slide alder to cut back and maintain. The Summit employs a team of 10 brush cutters during summer months. Using hand and power tools, and two skid-steer machines with special brush-cutting implements, the team keeps the steady growth of unwanted vegetation at bay to improve the experience on snow and to be able to open the season with less snow. 

The Summit has five full-time building maintenance personnel, as well as a team of mechanics and technicians to work on the resort’s 15 snow groomers. In October, the resort hires ski patrollers who take safety courses and undergo training. As the season comes closer, timing becomes imperative, and quite challenging. 

“One of the trickiest parts (of the season) is timing,” Riach says. “Hurry up and wait. We are in standby mode until Mother Nature delivers.” In other words, there’s always something for employees to do, but it can often feel like seasonal workers are sitting on their hands in early season, until consistent snow starts to fall. Then, it’s game on. 

In 2022, The Summit Bike Park opened at Silver Fir, adding another layer of opportunity and complications for The Summit, which is primarily a snow sports destination. “Once the bike park closes for the season our team jumps into gear to remove bike trays and reinstall chairs on Silver Fir Express,” Riach says, “and then they get to work on maintenance, testing, and certification to get it ready to operate when the snow falls.” That means more full-time employees and less turnover.

The Summit Bike Park provides thrilling rides before the mountain transforms for skiing.

Photo courtesy of Summit at Snoqualmie

Silver Fir Express

Photo courtesy of Summit at Snoqualmie

As winter approaches, The Summit goes from 200 employees to more than 1,200 in just a few months. It’s as if a small army of people descend on the area, each with their own story, skill set, needs, and unique duties. Knowing how to deploy these folks, and manage a large team in a fickle industry reliant on weather, is a challenging task.

When I ride the lifts at The Summit, preferably on a bluebird day with a few inches of fresh snow on the ground, I’m not thinking about the brush cutters, groomer technicians, or chairlift mechanics. I’m thinking about my next turns, how I’m going to feel sliding effortlessly down the slopes, what line I’m going to take – and that’s OK. In fact, that’s what the 1,200 people working at the resort want for riders. But this winter, I’m going to pay just a little more attention to the little things at the resort, how smoothly the chairs run through the lift towers, how little the summer brush pokes up from the snow, how velvety the snow groomers make the snow. I’m going to complain less about lift lines and say hi to the lift operators more often. 

Even in summer, the lifts undergo maintenance to guarantee a smooth ride when the snow falls.

Photo courtesy of Summit at Snoqualmie

Not everyone knows the back story of how a resort makes magic happen, but now you do, and maybe that will help us be a little more patient, a lot more impressed, and very stoked for this ski season.