Image provided by Ashley Seier, the director of marketing at Blue Mountain resort. Copyright is granted.
When I went skiing at Blue Mountain Ski resort in Pennsylvania, I saw dumpsters put out by “Pick Up the Poconos” for empty cans while I was riding up the ski lift. This measure to encourage skiers and snowboarders to properly dispose their litter inspires me to dig deeper into other sustainability approaches of the Blue Mountain ski resort as well as attain more information about the “Pick up the Poconos” campaign which started in 2018. I had the chance to have Brian Bossuyt, the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Operator at the Pocono Mountains Visitor Bureau, to discuss “Pick Up the Poconos” and other volunteer events to clean up the Poconos. As part of the Pocono Mountains, Blue Mountain Ski Resort collaborates with this campaign. Nick Delich, the director of Mountain Operations at Blue Mountain Ski Resort discusses the dumpsters on the slope. Besides partnering with the “Pick Up the Poconos” campaign, Blue Mountain Resort also strives to bolster sustainability.
Image of Blue Mountain Ski Resort. Taken by author on December 13, 2020.
Skiing on the East Coast can be a very different experience from skiing elsewhere. Unlike the pillowy soft snow that West Coast skiers are used to, snow on the East coast are the exact opposite. As the picture showed above, Blue Mountain in mid-December of 2020 had very minimal snow coverage. The lack of natural snow is a challenge that Blue Mountain Ski resort has to cope with. As a consequence, ski resorts on the East coast such as Blue Mountain Ski resort have to heavily use snow guns to create man-made snow. In the podcast, Nick Delich expands on new energy-saving snow-making measures that Blue Mountain has been practicing. During the ski seasons, Blue mountains sometimes had to rely completely on snow guns in order to stay operational. As the climate change keeps taking on worsening turns, Blue Mountain continues to come up with strategies to stay competitive in the industry while maintaining an environmentally friendly mindset.
Acknowledgements:
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Judith Miller, my family, my friends, Mr. Brian Bossuyt, Mr. Nick Delich, Ms. Ashley Seier, Ms. Jennifer Aquila, Mr. Kevin Furst, Ms. Chella Vaidyanathan, and Mr. Chase Lovellette for helping me complete this podcast project. It would not happen with their amazing support and assitance.
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