What would it take to have Perfects pre season rail jam?

.jr

.jr

Active member
As much as we pride ourselves on having a sick park, its kind of disappointing that we don't have any real annual pre season rail jam. I'm not talking like the rail jam of 08/09, Im talking like 2-3 rail set up with some ice rink snow. It seems almost every resort in the midwest is having one besides Perfects and Paoli, and I cant really justify driving 4 hours to Boston Mills, Brandywine, or Alpine Valley (all had rail jams this weekend.) I don't think cost would be an issue, hell I'm sure we could get at least 50 kids paying $5 for a jam, but I assume there is something..?
 
seriously, this has to happen. bmbw threw a sick jam yesterday, i was there. they had 4 lines and id say well over 100 kids payed the $10 entry fee. mrm had one oct 2nd and will be having another on the 6th (which everybody here should attend) with a $3000 cash purse. even freaking alpine valley, which i have never been to but have heard sucks, had a jam yesterday. PNS should definitly host one, i know there is enough interest to justify it
 
Upper management giving it the greenlight. Basically would have to convince them its worth the effort, insurance costs, snow transport and all that. Perhaps show them how successful all the other rail jams being put on by the other resorts are. Maybe Tad can weigh in on it, because historically a pre-season kind of thing has only happened when we've been able to turn the guns on and make snow.
 
Yeah I kind of figured it may be the upper management's call, and they probably don't know much about rail jams. How would we be able to show them how successful they are besides stories from a bunch of teenagers? What exactly would successful look like to them, because I can guarantee that it won't generate enough money or them to be actively involved.

Yeah, I can't really think of any rail jams that weren't man made snow involved, but I would think that would be much harder to clear than having free snow brought in.
 
I can't really answer any of that, I don't really have the knowledge about any of it, that would be something Tad would have to answer just because I don't know what they're looking for, or what they deem successful or "worthy" of the investment.
I do agree though, I think that we need to step it up when it comes to pre season stuff, because frankly I'm sick of seeing Capitol Park everywhere...
 
Yeah, I love perfect north, but Capital Park kills preseason, two rail jams (that I know of) with a $3000 purse at one? Crazy.

Im sure Tad will see this sometime and he'll likely know whats up.
 
Lots of good stuff here...
I don't have many solid answers for you I guess. One is probably as you pointed out, is it worth it? Short answer probably not. If we could get 100 people out and they all paid $10 that's $1000. Not bad, but with the amount of time and effort involved in prepping the rails and getting them set up and then fetching snow, we probably would be over budget. However, that isn't to say that it isn't worth it. Just from a PR standpoint look how much chatter is happening for the other parks i.e Capital Parks. So I wouldn't say it is a no go, but it really is a lot of effort to make this happen. I'll talk to some people and see what they think but basically it all falls on me to make it happen i think and to be completely honest, i'm swamped. But i'll run it up the flag pole and see what they say. Additionally, Perfects really tries not to do anything half-assed, so if we're gonna have a Rail Jam we want it to be the best we can make it, and that is hard to do with Ice Rink snow.
Tad
 
Half-assed is a valid point. While pre-season rails jams sound cool, once you get there they usually suck within half an hour. Snow melts/ not enough snow, 1 or 2 boxs, endless lines.

Think about when PNs has put on a rail jam, they are always legit. They turned the chairlift on one year for gods sake.
 
its probably too late this year but ive also noticed that most of these have a bunch of sponsors. for instance, the capital jam is being backed by Bud Light, asbco, byers imports, columbus magazine, subaru, mrm, tehcnine, quicksilver, and i think maybe a few others. bmbw was on a much smaller scale but i saw monster nordica and sun valley stuff there. i bet bringing in sponsors like that would help out the budget. I saw a lot of lakers sponsors at PFC, maybe theyd help out?

the other thing that would be sick would be to throw a post season jam, i dont know of any other hills doing that. just put something on at the end of april with whatevers left from the PFC booter at the bottom of audition. it would be a cool way to wrap up the season, i know i had fun at fountain freestyle a few years back

Even if you guys came out even in terms of money on one of these its still great marketing. i think billups said earlier that hes sick of seeing capital park everywhere but really that just means that theyre doing an excellent job of getting their name out.

their jam is on the 6th and then after that i dont think any hill in the area has an event till opening day. if PNS did another thing in november where they made a little snow, set up some rails, and turned on the chairlift preseason, there would probably be a good turnout because theres nothing else going on in the area
 
I would have to disagree with this, if Perfects had a 2 line set up I wouldn't call it half assed. A few of us went up the Capital park rail jam in Dayton a couple weeks back, they had 2/3 (2 lines, swapped features after a bit) features and limited snow. For the first ~2 hours, both lines had about 30-40 people in them, and we were making probably 5 minute laps. After those first two hours, it dropped off to around 10 on each and you could hit it a few seconds after you got done walking to the top. And everyone there was stoked out of their mind to sesh. This rail jam got people from everywhere, some traveled from MI, some came from 7 springs.

Tad - as far as budget goes, what needs to be paid for? The only thing I can think of that MRM had to pay for was transportation of rails, (MRM to Dayton), being in the outdoor festival (I assume they had to pay something for this,) the cost of whatever swag they through out, and maybe some gas money to those who fetched the snow. I can't see Perfects having to pay much for transportation, nor the festival as I assume it would be at Perfects. It couldn't of been too high of a number for MRM as they did the event for free. If its man power that would cost, I'm sure you could round up a few overly eager skiers to help set up, if it meant a rail jam.

Now, don't get me wrong, that November 'rail jam' where they essentially had an entire lift run park, was sooo sick. In fact, I still have my lift ticket from that day it was so epic. But we can't always plan on having such great opening weather, but I think what you guys consider a half assed rail jam would get a ton of people stoked on Perfects..
 
Ha true, I will admit Im not the biggest fan of pre season rail jams. I enjoy my fall times and the small amount of free time I get with it. But every MRM rail jam I have been to, and really any rail jam for that matter, is always muddy, lacking in snow, and has way to big of lines for my taste.
It is fun to get out there with the homies, but I can wait a couple weeks and enjoy it on the real snow with them.
PS, that might sound like a rant... Not intended to be, I am totally for pre season stuff, even rail jams, it gets me excited. But small rail jams just arent my thang. I think we should do movie nights if anything. I do love me a good ski movie!
 
I like the idea of a post-season rail jam, that sounds fun and doable, but most of us are burnt on the season when it is over so we really don't want to keep it going, but that might be do able.
As far as costs go there are more than you would think. We have to pay someone to prep the rails, i.e. clean, wire-wheel, paint, fix, then we have to have them set up the rails, then likely pay them to fetch the snow as well build the infrastructure that we would likely use to make the jam less messy and work with less snow. I say that we would to pay these people because there are likely legal implications if we use volunteer work, like if someone got hurt in the process. Which leads to insurance which we may have to get an insurance rider to cover the event which has a cost associated with it. I get that it doesn't seem like a simple rail jam should cost much but once you start adding things up, they add up quickly. Someone to work the rail jam, and supervise everything, having patrol on staff, office staff to field questions, or sell passes. That isn't to say that all of these costs will occur but you can see where they may come from.
That list is in no way complete or official, i'm just rattling stuff off, and it also in no way is what will keep us from having a pre-season rail jam. My biggest issue is finding enough usable snow, that will last 3-5 hours to get a rail jam going and sustained. I just don't know if we can find enough ice rinks close enough to make it fly.
If you will remember the Fountain Freestyle event we had at Fountain Square... that event took 3 Tri-axle dump trucks full of PNS snow to make happen and it still was barely enough... We can make up for some of that with efficiencies but we would still need a lot of snow for the kind of traffic we're talking about. One tri-axle dump truck of ice rink snow is a lot of ice rinks and a TON of work to gather.
Tad
 
What!? Ha when the season is over, I die a little. If anything I am more stoked to ski during March, than I am during peak season.

I completely get what you are saying about costs, just talking it though. I have dont 'volunteer' work (worked for free as a childrens ski instructor) and Perfects didn't seem to mind, but I don't know the legalities behind whether they had insurance or whatnot for me. Just know that if this idea did prosper, Id be down with doing all the unskilled bitch work by choice, and not 'volunteering,' so you guys hopefully wouldn't need to pay, nor cover me.

I unfortunately didn't make it to the Fountain Square jam, so I cant comment on that. But at the Dayton MRM jam, they had 2 lines, with each line had no more than the amount that would sit in the back of a pick up, and they had a 3rd load in the back of the truck, but thats all they had/could get.

I know it may be too late, but I still think a preseason sesh should happen, and if you took a quick poll, Im sure everyone would be down. But I really do like the idea of a post season sesh. Id be just as stoked on that.

Shaggy - Ha that didn't sound like a rant to me. Everyones got their own preferences, ha but Im kind of the opposite of you. Ski movies kind of bore me, the only ones that have ever really been of interest to me were FP32/Jibulant, and that's cause I know you guys.. In fact, out all the pro/am ski movies I bought the last two years (10ish) I cant remember making it all the way through. I'd much rather go romp around in the mud for a quick sesh.
 
I'm not sure how much you know, but the employees (full timers) work a lot. They work 6-7 days a week and work 12 hour shifts. That is why they are a little burned out. Not to mention, Tad has a family and I can only assume he does not get to see them as much as he would like during the winter due to the hours put in. He obviously is not the only employee who has a family and works a bunch.

Furthermore, I do think a pre-season jam would be cool, but as stated would be hard to set up in limited time. Snow obviously being one of the main things... maybe Perfect's should build an ice skating rink. A post-season would definitely be ill too. I'm sure some people could be put together to make it happen(pre or post season), if it were given the go!

As far as Capital Park... Like someone said, it shows they are doing things right! Props to them for the jams and step up in parks. It definitely gets people talking and stoked for their season along with the other resorts.
 
I'm just not sure where you are getting your facts, as I can only assume one company requiring workers to work 12 hour shifts 7 days a week, is illegal. I may be wrong, but I somewhat doubt it.

I am aware of how much time employees of perfect north actually put in. I know groomers/snow blowers work all night to give us perfectly covered groomed snow in the morning. I know that Tad/Tom/Trav bust their ass cleaning up the park just nice, but I honestly think your facts are a bit over exaggerated.
 
Managers work 6 days a week and average 65 hours, some more, some less. An end of season jam would be pretty cool, especially since our season ends relatively early compared to places out west, and would be a nice way to send off the season. Probably wouldn't be too tough to put together after PFC either if you can convince the coaches/diggers to stick around and help set it up one day.
 
from my experience with backyard sesh's the closest ice rink we could find that puts there shaved ice out back was on the other side of cinci kinda long drive. definitely didn't do any sesh's at my house
 
Well, I like the after season jam better than the preseason jams. Hell, id even be willing to come out and dig and set up a few rails. Just let us hike it, Id be more than willing to. Im sure others feel the same.
 
haha there is literally nothing within 20 minutes of kams house. just shitty roads, hillbillies and turkeys. but a pre-season jam would ever so enjoyable :) :) hehe
 
lineskier87 has it right... early season we work 7 days a week and average about 12 hours a day. It's only illegal if your under 18. He isn't joking. So yeah burnt out is the phrase most of us use.
I'm working on seeing what people think hang tight, but don't hold your breath.
Tad
 
Ha big ups to everyone involved in throwing the impromptu rail jam, it was exactly what I was hoping for. Tom/Trav/Tad/anyone else I'm missing, you guys are the tits! ha.. but seriously.. thanks.

Oh and lineskier7, you're a big goomba.

Ya heard me bad luck bryccuuun!
 
If I had to guess, I would doubt it. It would be awesome, but it is supposed to be mid to upper 60's through the week. I would say quite a bit of the snow will melt, but soon enough it will be the season!
 
Yeah we tore most of it down yesterday. Chopped up the lip and such, and I'd imagine the rail is gone by now too. Might be a couple other things in works if the weather cooperates, but we'll just have to wait and see.
 
keep us updated because me and some folks from MRM would definently make the drive to session some rails maybe around thanksgiving break
 
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