Replying to Response to Bishop's Blog (and some questions)

Hey
Before I start this is a pre warning, it's long but I'm asking for some help so please read it. Bitch about it, bash it, praise it, whatever you want, but make it a smart logical bash/praise. I'm just posting to ask for some help because I know you guys know more about all of this then me, thank you.

I've been on NS for about 6 months now. I don't post much on the site so this will be my first big rant/help topic.

First of all I'd like to great job to Bishop's Blog about the parks and the park makers taking the time to do it right and perfect the terrain in them. I am posting here instead of in his blog because I wanted to ask some questions along with saying good job. Hopefully I'll get more responses here.

And so my rant/story beings...

I live in Newfoundland Canada on the West coast just outside of Corner Brook. The population there is 25k and is starting to grow. I live 17km outside of the city in a small community called Little Rapids (pop. 300) which is pretty close to our local hill, Marble Mountain. I guess part of my problem I'm having has to do with the small population, but here it is anyway.

Out hill is 1700 feet. It has about 30 runs or so with a terrain park, which includes a half pipe (about 150 feet long) I personally hate the pipe, it might just be the way ours is built but I hate it. I land on the top of it or on the bottom of the wall 65% of the time. When I am about to drop in and look down the pipe to see if everything is clear I see the wall and it's shape. It's far from a straight line, in fact it looks like a 3 year old drew the top line of our pipe (I’ll take a pic sometime)

That is to the right of our park on the left we usually have 1 rail, yah that’s right 1. A week ago before mother nature decided to rape our snow they set up an amazing 2. We've had 3 before but that’s it. And if were lucky they make a "big air" jump at the end of the park. This jump is everything but big. It's icy, small (about 10-15 feet at the most) very easy to over shoot and doesn't shoot you up at all just out.

That is our park, it sucks. And sense it sucks, I suck. The best move I've ever done was a cork 5, and that was only once or twice on a good day. There is nothing to do at our hill. So I emailed the staff and asked what was going to happen with the park this year, if I could help out to actually make some stuff to hit and who was leading all of this. Turns out the lead ski patroller was the head of this. He emailed me and invited me toa meeting about the park and the development of it in the upcoming year (2006). I was stoked, I could finally get my ideas out. So I emailed him back thanking him and start showing a couple of my ideas. I showed him a picture of another hill (I think Blue) and asked if we coulg build our jumps similar to them, and pointed out how it could all fit in our park the same way. I never got a reply...

That’s my hill. I'm going to email them back and inquire about the park and what’s going to happen to it (whenever it opens again, we lost all of our snow) and weather or not there will be a group of park people.

So I ask you my first question, do you have any tips about maintaining the park and anything that is hard to do, easy to do and fun to ride?

Secondly I would like to know where I can go for a ski trip. I don't have a job right now (applying in a week after exams) and don't like spending money (so a good cheep place to stay). I've never rode real terrain, and I want to. I want to go ski a real park and try to learn how to go bigger and better. I bet over 50% of NS rides big parks every weekend, I’ve never set foot on a hill bigger then mine. Any suggestions where to go and what to do?

And lastly can a job at a ski resort make a good amount of money at all? And what can you do during the off season? When I was reading Bishops blog it got me thinking about what to do after highschool. I would like to keep skiing so I was wondering if I could find a ski hill that could provide good job and then find a university near one. Bishop also said something about working with High North in the summer, can someone tell me what High North is and what kinda jobs are there (I know it's a ski resort but where?)

Anyway if anyone read all of that I tip my hat to you. It was long, maybe boring but you did it. Hope you guys can help me out and point me in a direction to make some changes. Once again good post in your blog Bishop.
Cheers
-aaron