Summer Update Series Pt.1

Welcome to our summer update series! As our year-round employees know, the fun never stops at Shawnee Mountain. Our winter season typically runs from late November through late March, and summer prep starts immediately following our closing day. This week we talked with Nick, our President and CEO, about what projects become a priority over the summer.

A little bit about Nick:

Nick Fredericks has been a part of Shawnee Mountain since our beginning, waaay back in 1975. He helped build the ski area (literally) from the ground up. Or, if you know our history, from the top down! Those first few years Nick did everything, from working in the rental trailer and serving hot cocoa off of a hot plate to running the lift and working maintenance. These days he’s able to delegate those tasks out but he certainly knows all of the work that goes into running an independent ski area. Nick has an extensive background in ski area management, maintenance, and construction, and now oversees our operations year-round. He’s made the business one that’s family-oriented and during the season you can see him chasing his grandkids through the lodge while heading to the cafeteria for a cup of hot chocolate.

Our Summer Projects

“I’m Nick Fredericks. I’m the President and CEO of Ski Shawnee, Inc. I’ve been asked to talk a little bit about our pre season preparations. I’ll start with ski patrol. Ski patrol right now is teaching classes. We have five to eight candidates for this upcoming season which is really a good thing and very important to us.  Another department that is starting to gear up is ski school. Rich has already been touching base with our international contractors for help for the winter. Also preparing for their fall start.

The next department would be the rental shop. We have placed our order for the 2024/25 season for new snowboards, new boots, new helmets. That will come in usually in September and we‘ll start gearing up and bring crews in mounting skis and snowboards. Next department is my favorite, Marketing. Michaela and Rachel are just getting ready to launch our season pass information.

The outside operation right now for the summer is really broken into two categories: lift maintenance and snowmaking, both maintenance and installation of new guns, new automated hydrants throughout the mountain. The rest of the mountain crew is out there mowing, doing soil and erosion control, that work is an ongoing thing so we can comply with the state and insurance regulations. And it takes months. All our non-destructive testing, X-ray has been done on the grips and chairs to-date, now they’re re-hanging the chairs. Our double double is getting ready to come, the bottom station is coming off and getting rebuilt. It’s a full-time, full-time job to do what we need to do for the upcoming winter.

There’s gonna be some new changes in our accounting department. We’re also working forward with a very large energy supplier, trying to see if we can be 100% renewable energy, meaning wind and solar. So hopefully that will be in place before the season really gets going. All is really good and we’re looking forward to a great year. That’s the end of the game. Stay tuned tomorrow, it’ll change!”

And change it did…

Just Announced: Shawnee runs on 100% renewable energy

Beginning this November, we will be running on 100% renewable energy from a wind farm in Texas. Join us over on our socials for the big announcement and more details on our push to practice environmental sustainability.

Written on: June 5, 2024  |  Written by: Michaela K., Marketing Asst.