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Show King of the hill: mountain manager Bob Wheaton is reso if s head snow man ,jn . ; ; . ; "ft ' L ; . "vjr : ' y " V ., ' J - .i by ROBIN MOENCH ? Record copy editor ' When little kids play king of the hill, the winner crows at thejojp of a ; pile of dirt. When grown-up Bob Wheaton plays, his hill is the ski I mountain at Deer Valley ! Resort. I And Deer Valley's director of ski operations seems to be as happy with his spot on the mountaintop as any kid on a backyard mound. , In the first place, he loves to ski.,. He has worked at ski areas for 13 years. He has been a ski instructor at Park City Ski Area and started as an instructor at Deer Valley. In Sterling Heights, Mich., he was director of a ski school. That's where he met his wife, Marion. She was an instructor. She likes to ski, too. But maybe that's putting the case for skiing in their lives too mildly. Before they moved to Park City six years ago, Bob and Marion toured the ski areas of the West skiing 20 resorts in six weeks to find the one they would make their home. They think they found the j best powder in Park City. "There's no comparison," says Bob. UM' Another thing that keeps him happy hap-py is that he loves his job, informally called mountain manager. It is.com-plex, is.com-plex, sometimes a little hair-raising. But it's always interesting, he, .says. And, best of all, it keeps him outdoors out-doors and on skis or tumbling over the slopes on his company snowmobile. "I spend the minimal-minimal minimal-minimal time in the office,", he smiles. 102 t; It's a roomy office in a f gray building at the end of an unpaved road that curves behind Stein Eriksen Lodge. Its main decoration , is the maps on the wall that show . Deer Valley's 42 runs as slim black lines. Sets of skis lean here and there and a well used, wooden desk occupies oc-cupies a corner. From his chair, he can look out a window into the first floor of the clean, warm building where men work on the Snow Cat track machines that are used to groom the resort's runs. Before he took on his new job two months ago, Wheaton was the supervisor super-visor of vehicle maintenance for the resort, so the big grooming machines are old friends. Now he oversees the department that runs more than a dozen of them. And they are always busy. The main traffic runs that slice through Early in the season, the attention of Wheaton and his crew goes to snow-making on the lower slopes of Bald Eagle Mountain- about 68 acres. They also build loading ramps for the ski lifts, adjusting the terminals by raising or lowering them to get the right height. Last summer, when there was no snow to move and fewer guests to care for, Wheaton and his men were almost as busy as they are now. In the off season, "We fine-tune things that didn't work all that well (the winter before) and fix things that did work." What's his idea of a big problem at a resort where the operation is so smooth you can barely see the seams? "Losing power to the whole mountain or a major lift incident." During Christmas 1982, the power went out at Deer Valley for two hours. But even when that happens, the lifts are down no longer than eight minutes before auxiliary motors kick in, Wheaton says. To stay in touch with one another, Wheaton's crews carry two-way radios so powerful "I can stand in - my kitchen in Oakley and talk to a cab (vehicle) driver (in Park City" a distance of about 16 miles over mountains and valleys. But he won't be able to do that much longer. He just sold his house ; in rural Oakley to settle in a new f place in Prospector Square. The move will shorten his wife's daily trip to Salt Lake City, where J.she is a nursing student. And when the time comes for their son, Cody, to hit the books, he'll start in a good school. It's a little early for the 2 12-year-old to think about polishing apples, but it's just the right time to get him up on skis. But "You have to pick your day," Wheaton smiles. As for Cody's father, just about - any day on the slopes seems to agree with him. If he isn't on skis or whizzing whizz-ing along on the Polaris snowmobile he keeps parked outside his building's double doors "It's my principal mode of transportation after there's snow on the ground" he starts up the green-striped green-striped jeep that, at the moment, is sitting undisturbed under a layer of fresh snow. He takes a seat on the snowmobile and smiles for the camera, looking a little bit like a large-scale version ol j a king-of-the- mountain kid. f -j .?,! Robin Moench Wheaton's company car is a Polaris snowmobile. .:T 1 ' '.!. . .-.I 1. 1" ' ijnsT !'We plow, by hand or machine, every inch" of Deer; Valley's 290 acres s of skiable terrain, says Wheaton. 1 i:,; .an; - " ' Deer Valley's 6,800 acres (. are -manicured every day. .) :j( Wheaton says the turnover for Snow Cat drivers is the lowest of any, of the departments he supervises.-He supervises.-He admires their expertise. "A driver can burn out and bury a machine (in the snow), but it's rare. Let's say the potential is definitely there." Grooming the runs and maintaining maintain-ing the vehicles are just two slices in the pie that is his area of responsibility. respon-sibility. Here are the other pieces: snow-making and removal, rental shop, customer service, lift operation opera-tion and maintenance, underground utilities and ski patrol. . That's no small order when you consider it involves about 200 employees. Snow removal alone y means "we plow, by hand or machine, every inch" of Deer Valley's 290 acres of skiable terrain, , he says. j; r, Lift operations runs the resort's seven triple chairlifts and one dou-. dou-. ble; chairlift. More than two dozen . expert skiers patrol the mountain. ' And customer service keeps smiles on the faces of the resort's visitors. Guests arrive,with vacation hopes as high as the powdery peaks. Just as" they should, says Wheaton. "We elevate their expectations." But when a guest turns to one of Wheaton's supervisors with a rare complaint, it's the head of the operation opera-tion he wants to see. "You're the guy .. ."he laughs. But he has confidence in the managers that report to him. "They are exceptional in my opinion." |