Photo during Saturday's powder refresh at Purg. Been a great trip. Manageable crowds. That said, I wish patrol was much more active in marking hazards and rocks.
The lack of staff help has been noticable in terms of limited F&B offerings and not spinning lifts 2,5, or 6
I was there as well... (Saturday-Monday). I saw so many Snowbowl Power Passes that I thought I was in Flagstaff!
I'll start by saying that the Purgatory NASTAR Crew were outstanding. Mike, Howard and Ivan all worked HARD to get up & running (first weekend of NASTAR ops this season) so that my group could hold a club "fun race" on Sunday on the NASTAR course (Paradise). Thanks, guys! See you again soon!
Low staff numbers were noticeable across the board, as I was warned would be the case... Same thing is happening @ Snowbowl.
The worst problem I saw on the hill at Purgatory was poor lift ops at Chair 1 loading. Poor training or simple lack of attention (you pick). There were enough people working: they simply did not manage the load well... I saw several potential injuries and stoppages directly attributable to lifties not controlling skiers and boarders. I watched 2 people I know (out of 6 attempting to load) have to jump off/out of the way of a chair when a skier jumped the line and sat on said chair as it swung around the wheel. This caused a needless chair stoppage, not to mention the hazard of injury. It appeared the jumper did so with a liftie's approval. Truly scary.
The lack of hazard warnings was noticeable as well. We "big kids" are equipped to handle terrain hazards: many weekenders are not. This seems a significant oversight.
Concur regarding F&B staffing: Dante's was a waste of time, unless you wanted to drink (slowly) at the bar. Staff @ Powderhouse worked hard, got me my food surprisingly quickly, and they had great attitudes (Tip-worthy). Purgie's was often swamped Saturday & Sunday: consequence of limited F&B options. Again, they still did their best, and the online ordering system worked. It even recognized my Power Pass discount.
We brought 31 people to Purgatory over last weekend, and their feedback was uniformly positive overall...