Official Operator Spotlight: Jack Williams
An exceptional winch operator and race course builder, Jack loves his work, especially getting to share his passion with others.
Assistant Manager! 7 seasons in a snowcat! Jack has been excited to see more PistenBullys get added to the fleet at Deer Valley in recent years.
Tell us about your career path.
Operating snowcats has been the dream job since I was a kid. I would stand on the mountain after closing and wave down operators in hopes of getting a ride. After moving to Utah, I got a job at Deer Valley, aspiring to one day get in a cat. I pestered the head of grooming enough that he finally gave me a job, and I’ve been hooked since. I was lucky enough to learn from a crew with a lot of experience at Deer Valley, which helped me get to where I am today.
I have to thank a couple of mentors who have taught me a lot of what I know about operating: Dave Smith and Jake Ringquist. Challenging me with tougher projects, bigger builds, and leading the crew in my first couple of seasons greatly helped me progress in my career.
If you had to pick just one thing, what would you say has been the highlight of your career so far?
It’s hard to pick just one thing when going to work every day is the highlight. If I had to pick one, I would say building the World Cup Aerials event every year has to be the highlight—that or seeing the crew progress every season.
What feature or capability of PistenBully machines/products do you find most critical for your work?
Overall, Pistenbullys capabilities and its ability to move large amounts of snow are the most critical for what we do here at Deer Valley. We’re tearing runs apart nightly and have a huge snowmaking network, so having that power and plowing capability is big for us.
What is your best advice for mentoring/training?
I think you need to have a passion for skiing/riding and operating snowcats to be successful in this line of work. When you start, go slow and always use your blade. Getting confident in blading, I think, is the most important part of your first couple of seasons.
What do you hope to see PistenBully offer in the future?
I’m psyched for what PistenBully has in store for the future. We’re really excited to have the new tiller packages at Deer Valley, and they’ve been working out great for us. I think having a single screen with snowsat integration would be an awesome offering down the road.
What's something you want others -- especially those who are not familiar with your line of work -- to know about snow grooming?
I think the biggest thing is that it takes much more time and effort than people realize. If only it was as easy as driving around with your tiller down! The majority of our nights are spent pushing snow back uphill and to the middle of ski runs.
What do you do in the summer?
I’ve been working as a fly fishing guide on the Green River in Flaming Gorge, Utah for the past 7 seasons. However, with this new assistant managers position I’ll be at Deer Valley year round running chainsaws and managing that saw crew in the summers.
