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JAY GAMBLE \u201977<\/b><\/p>\n
Cold Mountains<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> By\u00a0Brian Hudgins<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> When Gamble left a subsidiary of a Fortune 100 company to embrace ski bum status, he wasn\u2019t expecting it to become a career<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div> A skier since childhood \u2014 thanks to family trips from Kingstree, S.C., to the Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, N.C. \u2014 Jay Gamble left his position at Helena Chemical Company in South Carolina to turn skiing from a temporary pursuit into a full-time passion. A skier since childhood \u2014 thanks to family trips from Kingstree, S.C., to the Cataloochee Ski Area in Maggie Valley, N.C. \u2014 Jay Gamble left his position at Helena Chemical Company in South Carolina to turn skiing from a temporary pursuit into a full-time passion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":22273,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[21,8],"tags":[2798],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-22272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumniprofiles","category-my-clemson","tag-summer-2020-alumni-profiles"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/06\/Jay_Gamble.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22272"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22272\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22273"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22272"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/clemson.world\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=22272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\n\u201cThat was 39 years ago,\u201d he says.
\nArmed with a bachelor\u2019s degree in zoology from Clemson that had schooled him in science, math, physics, accounting and business electives, Gamble made his way to Vermont in the spring of 1982 and began building chairlifts for Lift Engineering & Manufacturing Company. From there, he became a lift operations supervisor at Killington Ski Resort. This experience gave him a ground-up view of ski area operations that benefited him later.
\n\u201cI spent my early years in mountain operations,\u201d Gamble says. \u201cSkiers come for the skiing, and the mountain is where that is happening. If we don\u2019t have good snow, lifts and skiing, we are not going to get people to come back just because the resort has a good hamburger.\u201d
\nSix years in Bethel, Maine, followed, where he served in mountain operations and chairlift construction at Sunday River. In 1992, he returned to Vermont to become the Eastern U.S. manager for Poma of America (a subsidiary of POMA, a French firm that engineered and manufactured chairlifts). New Hampshire came calling in 1998.
\nTwo decades as general manager at Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, N.H., solidified Gamble\u2019s expertise in the ski industry and prepared him for his next GM job at Ragged Mountain, where he has a hand in all aspects of the business, including tracking weather patterns. \u201cThe weather is what keeps us up at night,\u201d Gamble says. \u201cWhen we have cold temps, we can make snow.\u201d
\nAs Gamble watched the weather throughout late November 2019, he was constantly preparing for changes and making adjustments for his crew. He compares his year-round job to being the manager of the Boston Red Sox: \u201cSkiers who are season pass holders and aficionados of the sport are never reluctant to tell me what we could do better. A lot of our ideas for improvements come from our clientele.\u201d
\nWith Ragged Mountain being only 90 minutes from Boston, many skiers drive up for the day as opposed to multiple-day destination trips to Colorado or Utah. The short travel time and family-friendly nature of the sport allow multiple generations to enjoy the slopes together. \u201cIf a grandparent or parent is a skilled skier, a younger family member sees them through that lens \u2014 someone who is having the same thrills and enjoyment as they are.\u201d
\nGamble\u2019s skiing adventure has taken him from the warm subtropics of South Carolina to the cold mountains of New Hampshire, where he has forged an almost-40-year career. He wouldn\u2019t change it.
\n\u201cThere is no boredom operating a ski area,\u201d he says. \u201cIt\u2019s seven days a week!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>
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