Happy 2009!

Staff members enjoyed visiting family and friends over Christmas, but then it was back to work as the resort filled quickly during the week leading up to New Years. Guests were treated to some excellent snow conditions for playing around in. For the season to date we have received 50 inches of snow! All the ski trails were open and machine groomed several times over the holidays. One big storm brought in about a foot of snow one day! Needless to say, there were some sore muscles around here after shoveling and plowing all that! The horse drawn sleigh rides have been a big success and have drawn in hundreds of people to Cascade Lodge. The rides started on the 20th of December and went out everyday, 3 times a day starting after Christmas. Marco is the driver and a great guy to have leading the rides. His two big Belgium Draft Horses Jack and Julie, are strong enough to pull a sleigh loaded with a driver and 15 people! The ride through the woods lasts about one hour and is followed up with hot chocolate and a bonfire to warm up. The horses are brother and sister, weigh about 1700 lbs each, stand 15 ½ hands tall, and are 10 years old. They eat lots of hay, oats, and love when people feed them carrots and apples. They are living on the property here all winter long behind the maintenance garage on top of the hill. In the off-season they enjoy logging massive trees and plowing earth. Say hi to them on your way up for a ski or snowshoe!
In staff news Cascade Restaurant has hired two new local servers, Shannah and Breanna. They are really friendly and excellent servers too! Our two foreign students, Johnathan and Laura from Columbia are really great workers. They work both in housekeeping and in the restaurant. Their advanced English speaking abilities allow them to easily communicate with guests and other workers. Johnathan has even been trained by Matt in the fine art of snow shoveling. Michael Jr. and Matt each received ice fishing gear for Christmas and look forward to hitting the “hardwater” many times this season. We were said to see a long time front desk worker Tim, have to leave us this January. Tim is a very likable guy, easy to get along with, and a fantastic salesperson. He will stay in the area, but his new full-time job will be managing the Stille Havet vacation home. He will be sorely missed. Michael Jr. will be taking his shifts from here on out. Hope to see you all out on the trails sometime this winter!