Surprise! Surprise!

Mark: I'm sorry you got in trouble late yesterday.  I have to say that we are becoming complacent about getting stuck.  Until recently we haven't had any significant dumps, and we haven't had any serious problems.  Before we had all the fancy (and heavy) equipment, when we got a big dump, we would make a machine pass, then roll, and finish up pulling the tracksetter, leaving everything soft and hoping things would  harden overnight.

We used to have a policy that nobody operated alone.  In the name of efficiency, and because guys like Paul and you, Mark, seem to avoid getting in trouble, or are able to extricate yourselves, we forgotten that.

At least we should get back to the idea that it is best to just pack when we have a dump, and come back a day later to finish.  We've got enough guys to make it work. And it's kind of stupid to have 5 guys show up when there is little new snow.  It would be a lot better to follow the weather and try and keep the system in decent shape all the time.

We should accept that some operators are better than others, but on average, we'll end up with better grooming results if we spread the work among us, and under normal conditions have a rotation, with no more than 3 or possibly 4 guys on a shift, and make sure everybody does a turn on each machine and implement. There's no magic about grooming and tracksetting - only practice. And we must get serious about rotating in new blood.