SNOWBIRD — Dick Hill is spending his retirement shoveling snow in Little Cottonwood Canyon and greeting skiers as they exit UTA buses.
Hill has worked as a "mountain host" at Snowbird for 14 years, but it's not for the money.
"I love the sense of purpose," said Hill, a retired vice president and general manager of Unisource in Salt Lake City. "I love people."
Hill waves to a couple he later describes as "regulars" at Snowbird during the ski season.
"I skied here all the time anyway," said Hill, who began bringing his children to the resort shortly after it opened in 1971. "I had to wait until I retired to come to work. This is my postlife crisis. I'm living a fantasy."
Hill is among an army of 62 mountain hosts — 10 paid and 52 volunteer — who work a job that's part Wal-Mart greeter, part school crossing guard and part tour guide.
Call them mountain hosts, ambassadors or fun patrol, "most of the resorts do have some sort of host program," said Jessica Kunzer, spokeswoman of Ski Utah. "It's just another way to have people accommodate them on the slopes and to help facilitate giving them directions. It's another amenity that assures the guest's experience."
Snowbird is using more mountain hosts each year, and this year's group of 62 is the largest so far. The same trend is occurring at other resorts throughout the United States.
"Resorts (are) utilizing them more and more within the last 10 years," said Troy Hawks, communications manager for the National Ski Areas Association in Lakewood, Colo. "Some of them are handing out cookies as they arrive. They also take a safety education role at some resorts, (distributing) sunblock and telling people to slow down."
At some resorts, such as Deer Valley, customer satisfaction is pushed to another level, with services such as ski valets who remove skis from cars and set them in the snow for the skier to step into.
Deer Valley also employs people to provide complimentary ski storage for overnight guests, so they don't have to take skis into their rooms, or if they go into a restaurant, said Erin Grady, Deer Valley's communications manager.
The job of a mountain host varies. At Snowbird, a mountain host in one moment may point a group of skiers to the Mineral Basin area of the resort. The next, a mountain host could help someone who has lost his skis in fresh powder. If hosts come across an injured skier, they radio Ski Patrol.
Mountain hosts spend more than half of their eight-hour shifts on skis, constantly reminding skiers to slow down and always on the lookout for people with frost bite and altitude sickness.
"We see everything," said John Cotter, supervisor of Snowbird's mountain hosts. It's his second career, after having worked as a cruise ship captain in Alaska.
Lary Matlick of New York was waiting one day this week for the mountain hosts to give him a tour of the resort. "They're usually very gracious and polite," he said.
Snowbird pays beginning mountain hosts $8 to $9 an hour. Volunteers get a free season pass — worth about $1,100 — and reduced season passes for spouses and dependents.
Cotter looks for avid skiers with customer-service backgrounds. He wants the mountain hosts to look at problems from a guest's standpoint and eagerly find solutions.
"If the guest wasn't happy, there was no reason for us to be here," Cotter said.
Guests spend at least $60 for a day of skiing at Snowbird. And if they're happy, the chances are higher that they'll ski at Snowbird in the future.
"Customers demand more than 10 years ago," Cotter said. "As prices go up, people demand more. In many cases, if you don't increase your level of service, it may be seen as a decrease in service."
During a shift at Snowbird, mountain host Fred Manar came across two children, ages 6 and 8, who had been separated from their parents in the Peruvian Gulch area of the resort. They were lost and frustrated.
He guided the children down the mountain with ski pointers and encouraging words, which is another mountain-host job description: self-esteem booster.
Maddy Corey says she coaxes inexperienced skiers down steep slopes about once a week.
"It usually takes a long time," she said. "But they're always happy when they're down, and maybe they'll come back."
E-mail: lhancock@desnews.com