Whis. Day #3 - Training/Orientation Day

Today was the first day of my orientation!  I was so excited to get started and woke up early to get ready everything.  Plan was to head down around 8:45am to Merlin's bar and start the training with all the lifties.

Had a nice breakfast of bacon and salad, packed my bags and trekked down the blackcomb mountain to Merlins.  There was about 20-25 new lifties all together.  Many of which switched from another department such as snow school, to lift operations.  There are still quite a few new first seasons but most of them arrived earlier in the season to work.  Everyone was dressed out in their uniform and only me and a few others were kinda left out in our casual clothes haha.  

So at 9:00am we were in Merlin's bar getting our basic training down.  We were handed our manual for lift operations and given a few sheets to sign.  Our manager, Mike, said today was pretty much an indoor day.  He went over a slideshow of some main things like safety procedures, day in a life of a lift host, duties and responsibilities etc.  Lots of stuff were generalized and not much specifics were talked about.  We then had a 10 minute session in which we would find another liftie that we've never met before and introduce ourselves to each other.  I met a guy named Max and he got his instructors for skiing (Level 1 & 2) during this season at Whistler.  He was originally from England and complained how crap the weather and environment was compared to here.  So after our little meet and greet, each pair had to one by one introduce each other to the whole group.  Lot's of interesting people with a variety of different skills and interests.

After that we took a lunch break for about an hour and a half or so.  I headed up the blackcomb mountain to the cabin to check in with employee experiences.  Since I couldn't of done this the first two days, I decided it'd be best to do this now and grab my uniform.  However, after I checked in, I was told that uniform pick up was actually at another building (Springs building) and that's a whole 'nother direction towards the Fitzsimmon gondola.  So figuring out I didn't have much time, I might as well just eat some lunch at home and head back down for rest of the training day.

So we got back and it seemed that during the break, the few others left to springs building to pickup their uniform so I was pretty much the one that stand out hehe.  So for the rest of the day, we watched some videos regarding employee attitudes, went over some more stuff about safety, procedures, how a lift works etc.  All very general but still taught a lot of things.  Mike concluded with tomorrows plan at The cabin, where we will have our FSO (First Season orientation).  There's a good chance many won't show up because it isn't required for people that already got their FSO to come do it again.  So after all that was over, I headed over to the Springs building to pick up my uniform.  They gave me a whole bunch of stuff.  In total I received:

• 2 Collared shirt (Green)
• Orange Jacket
• Black Whis. snowpants (really cool)
• Black glacier jacket
• 2 Shorts (black)
• A cap

I was told that  can keep everything except the snow pants, and two jackets.  Bummer but the summer uniforms are still pretty sweet.  After wards, I headed down to the library to take out a book and get a Whistler library card.  I checked out a book about personal finances and I'll probably be reading that for the next few weeks.  Things are shaping up to be fun soon,  Mike told us thursday will be our hands-on training so we get to interact with the lift soon and push some buttons.

Oh before I finish up, here's a photo of my room after fully setup.  I don't have a roommate yet so I get quite a lot of room.