By PATRICK ADRIAN
CLAREMONT — The Arrowhead Recreation Area, Claremont’s volunteer-operated ski and tubing facility, ended its 2017-18 season with one of its busiest operating weekends.
Operators said Saturday’s volume of guests was high from open to close, hanks in part to about a foot of snow dropped in the region Thursday.
This was a uniquely challenging season in many ways, according to operations manager Spencer Allen. The facility managed well operationally, he said, but struggled at times from lack of available volunteers and sometimes uncooperative weather.
“If there was a theme of this season it was The Year of the Ice,” Allen said Saturday.
During the early season, temperatures were high enough to melt the snow but turned cold quickly enough to freeze it over, without new snowfall to replace it, Allen said. Sections of the ski area were complete sheets of ice and were closed off until temperatures stayed consistently low enough for operators to make snow cover.
“Each ski season is unique in some way,” Allen said. “The ice accumulation was different than what we’ve seen in previous years.”
There were no injuries beyond the usual minor bumps and bruises for the season, according to Allen.
But the volunteer situation was stressful this year, Allen said. Volunteers are a continual need at Arrowhead. Key, longtime volunteers left the area at the beginning of the season and several other volunteers had to leave unexpectedly during the operating season.
“It was a bit shaky at times, with some volunteers putting in more time than they were expecting to, for longer durations, which is a little taxing on people,” Allen said.
He said the drain on volunteers this season is why Arrowhead made the weekend a solid date to close, despite the return of snow.
“We pulled our volunteers in and said this was going to be our last push,” Allen said. “It’s a great opportunity with a great snow weekend to help pad our revenues for the facility.”
Despite the challenges Arrowhead still generated enough revenue to cover its $30,000 operating budget with room to spare. Almost half of its expenses, $13,000, goes to the facility’s insurance coverage and the rest toward utilities, diesel fuel, equipment repair and food for concessions.
Arrowhead Director Chuck Allen, who is Spencer’s father, said that two years ago, Arrowhead had about 80 total volunteers. This season the number hovered between 25 and 30 — though those numbers can be deceiving because some volunteers include people who only worked one or two shifts the entire season.
The elder Allen said that the ideal number per shift to operate would be 10 to 12 volunteers: six in the tubing area, two running tickets and equipment and three in concessions.
On slower days, Arrowhead can operate with less and sometimes had to. The deficit is in volunteers to relieve the core group, he added.
Spencer said Arrowhead is making recruitment its top focus this offseason, with plans to market its volunteer incentives as soon as April. Arrowhead has already begun recruitment for new members to its board of directors and committee, who will be elected in May.
The top priority for the new board will be exploring its recruitment incentives, which in the past have offered free skiing and tubing in exchange for volunteer hours.
Spencer said the board may explore other incentive variations such as membership packages. Other areas include recruiting volunteers to specialized roles like marketing, recruiting or scheduling management.
“We have a great core group who can operate the ski area well,” Spencer said. “But that’s all they can be expected to do right now. It’s going to take other people to make these programs work.”
Those interested in serving on the board or committee or volunteering can email Chuck Allen at [email protected] or call (603) 542-7016.
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