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| NEWSLETTER • June 9, 2026 |
 The Meadow is already in summer mode—but up above, there’s still plenty of winter prep underway! 🚁 Our snowmaking team is hard at work installing new fan guns on World Cup, boosting both efficiency and snow quality for the upcoming season. Just one of many exciting improvement projects happening across the mountain! |
| WHAT’S UP IN SRS |
| What’s Up! We hope you are enjoying the increased cadence of the newsletter. We heard your feedback about needing more communication and wanting to be brought along into changes earlier. Strategy – Strategy – Strategy. That has been our focus since we last connected with you. Ali & George, Amy, Patrick, and Tami each have taken on a strategic project aimed at addressing Continuous Listening feedback as well as what we see as opportunities to continually raise the quality of what we all do and how we do it. Patrick’s project is focused on all thing’s safety. He is working closely with the HV Safety team to analyze the data behind our safety score, understand how we got there, and identify opportunities to improve. One area that has produced some interesting findings is collisions, which Patrick will discuss in more detail below. Based on that data, expect an increased emphasis on environmental awareness, teaching the Responsibility Code, and increasing both the quality and quantity of real-time lesson observations. Ali & George’s projects relate to the restructuring of the school by location. They are working through reporting structure, communication flow, officing, location improvements, scheduling across the school, and more. It all starts with the disciplined process of identifying and hiring two new location managers. We have a strong pool of applicants allowing us to be very selective. Not sure who will join us – but we are confident it will be the right folks to lead us into the future. Amy is taking responsibility for the seamless adoption of the SRS in My EPIC app coming to Heavenly SRS next season. She is creating plans for training, hyper care support, equipment, and identifying potential issues before they become problems. Come into the season expecting to change some aspects of how you teach to utilize this new tool and with a positive mindset toward the natural bumps that will come along the way. We had a joint meeting with the uniform team to work through improving the uniform experience for you all. A lot of the focus so far has been on processes, efficiencies, and the need to return and maintain uniforms. We also met with the Heavenly Ski and Snowboard Foundation to start mapping the future of the Teams programs. In addition to all of the above we have been working with PSS and DX to build our products and edit the website around products changes, hiring for winter and summer camps, and brainstorming on improving the youth guest experience at Cal. By the time we connect next, we will be up to our elbows in budgeting in addition to moving all our special projects ahead. -Tami |
| WELCOMING TRENT POOLE |
| Hello, Heavenly Team! I wanted to take this opportunity to introduce myself and share how excited and honored I am to be joining the Heavenly team. Heavenly has a long legacy of legendary leaders and teams, and I’ve been an admirer from afar of the resilience, grit, passion, and dedication this team is known for bringing day-in and day-out. You’ve built something truly special, and I feel incredibly fortunate to be joining the Heavenly team and community. A little bit about me and my background. I’ve spent more than 21 years building my career at Vail Resorts, including working in finance, accounting, project management, and resort operations. I’ve held leadership roles in support of operations at Breckenridge and Keystone, and I’ve led resort operations as the General Manager at Mad River Mountain, Jack Frost Big Boulder, and most recently Hunter Mountain. Over the course of my career here I’ve had the opportunity to work on some incredible projects including the development of the Peak 6 expansion at Breck, the transformation of snowmaking at Keystone, resort acquisitions and integrations, five new chairlifts in five months at JFBB as a part of the company’s Epic Lift Upgrade initiative, and two new chairlifts and snowmaking upgrades at Hunter. On a personal note, my wife and I have always loved Tahoe and Heavenly, and we spent time there as visitors prior to having a family. I’ve experienced a lot of ski resorts over the course of my life and career, and the views and energy at Heavenly are second to none. I can’t wait to return with my family and to call Tahoe home. Over the coming weeks I will be making a few trips out there and working remotely while my family works on our plans to relocate to the Tahoe region, targeting mid-July. I’m looking forward to meeting all of you soon, doing a lot of listening and learning, and continuing the incredible momentum coming out of the resort’s 70th anniversary season. See you soon. Trent Poole Vice President and General Manager Heavenly Mountain Resort |
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| DEVELOPMENT JOURNEY |
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| TRAINING REFLECTIONS |
| Situational Awareness: Seeing the problem before it starts. As it was mentioned above, I have been spending some time diving into the data around safety incidents within the ski and ride school. Most of these incidents are not the result of one big mistake. They’re the result of small moments where awareness slipped, moments that, in many cases, could have been prevented. Situational awareness is one of the most important skills we have as instructors. It impacts everything from safety, to lesson quality, to the confidence of the guest. It’s also not something that just happens. It requires constant attention and management. The trends are pretty clear. Over half of our incidents involved collisions, with the majority of those coming from behind. We continue to see the same patterns: not checking uphill before stopping, stopping in busy or low-visibility areas, allowing spacing to break down, and not adapting as traffic increases (specifically in beginner terrain). One trend that really caught my attention was that nearly half of our collisions were between a student and an instructor. Most of these happen during routine teaching, not because anyone is being reckless, but because we’re working so close to our students. As instructors, we need to think about more than what the student is doing right now. We need to think about what they might do next. Give yourself an out. Avoid positioning yourself where a student’s mistake puts you directly in their path. Leave room to move, adjust, or step away if needed. Beginner students can be unpredictable. Where we put ourselves shouldn’t be. I do have good news though. The solutions are straightforward. Scan uphill before stopping and starting. Choose stopping locations carefully. Maintain appropriate spacing. Position yourself with options. Adjust your lesson based on what’s happening around you. The strongest instructors aren’t just reacting to what’s happening around them, they’re seeing it develop and making adjustments before it becomes a problem. – Patrick |
| SUMMER VIRTUAL TRAINING |
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