Writer’s note: if you feel so inclined, throw on some music as background noise while reading. My recommendation, as a die-hard no-shame Taylor Swift fan, is her newest album Evermore. But… I suppose I’ll settle for Christmas music if you prefer to keep with the festive times 😊

Being tasked to write the Dec 24th Blog Post is daunting, I won’t lie. I’ve been told that I’m a bit of a Grinch – I don’t decorate until the last minute, I don’t listen to Christmas music until the day of, and everything is taken down by Boxing Day. Truth be told, I’m not a big Christmas person; but I do love this time of year.

The holiday season is a time for reflection and resolutions, for gratefulness and generosity, for kindness and caring. There is a tendency for compassion, benevolence, and lightness during the holidays – in my opinion, all things the world could have used a bit more of this year.

That being said, we (all of us at CMH) have received an overwhelming amount of support, kindness, and understanding from our guests throughout this year that we won’t soon forget – here’s a (quick) recap:

  • January saw us blissfully thinking that things would be fine, and our guests were all enjoying care-free skiing and riding! 
  • As things got more serious in February, we heard from guests that they were thankful for the updates about how we were responding to the early stages of COVID. 
  • By March, guests made sure to tell us how impressed they were with our organized reaction to the realities of COVID and felt taken care of during the lodge evacuations and season suspension.
  • As we moved through the months of April to July, our Summer guests sadly, but understandingly, rebooked their trips for 2021 knowing that their Summer Adventure is worth waiting for!
  • In August and September, we successfully executed a huge call campaign reaching all Winter 2020-21 guests to check in, say hello, and show off all the hard work done testing our new COVID protocols. In short, guests were thrilled and the stoke was still high!
  • October saw us launch (and crush!) a Canadian-only season option at the Bobbie Burns, reinvigorating our teams and Canadian guests with hopes of seeing the rotors turning this winter.
  • Since November, the Guest Services team has been hard at work cancelling the regular Winter 2020-21 trips and rebooking guests into the same trips for Winter 2021-22. At this point, over 75% of guests have kept their later S21 trip or rebooked for next season!  

The Sales and Guest Services teams have remotely kept each other going by sharing some of the funniest guest moments in various Teams chats. Here are a few good ones the past few months:

  • Inquiries of single family members and offers of marriage so they can legally enter Canada
  • Guests writing to the government petitioning the borders to open so they can come skiing
  • One suggestion to nebulize peroxide and put it into a hookah at the bar and people can “have a puff to sanitize themselves, then we don’t need masks”
  • Countless hello’s, well wishes, thinking of you’s, and miss you all’s to go around

My all-time favourite guest response and subsequent group chat is courtesy of @Phil Mathewson, with this gem:

I called a guest named Scott and the guy that answered said “Scott’s no longer with Janice, I am with her now and took his number.” Damn dude, stole the guys girl and his number!??!?!

You will all be happy to know that Scott now has a new number and is still stoked to come skiing!

What this shows me is that there is good in this world, and while a lot of it is embodied in our guests, even more of it is present in all of you. The uncertainty has been draining and we’ve needed to re-invent nearly every aspect of our company. On a personal note, this has been the most challenging year for me on so many levels – yet one of the only things I can say with 100% certainty is that I would not be here right now if it wasn’t for so many of you.

With all that said, I hope you let compassion, benevolence and lightness guide you through the rest of the holidays and into 2021 (because, frankly, we don’t know what kind of gongshow that might be too). Take a moment for reflection, set resolutions, express gratitude, share generosity, show kindness and be caring with your words and actions.

Someone said in a Teams meeting yesterday, “I forgot how infectious someone else’s happiness can be!” – let’s make that the infectious thing we spread this year! ❤

With love,

Lou

PS – When in doubt, I strongly believe gin solves all problems so a stiff G&T can’t hurt