SMUGGLER’S NOTCH, Vermont ??” TLC at Smugglers’ Notch Resort means Tender Loving Care or Top Level Care or Totally Lavish Care. Employees at Smuggs make every effort to enhance the guests’ experience during a vacation at this renowned family resort. Efforts range from welcoming kids and parents to TREASURES, the Resort’s slopeside child care center, to careful bootfitting in Three Mountain Equipment, to teaching students how to negotiate the challenging slopes of Sterling and Madonna mountains. Here are just a few of the Resort’s employees who are dedicated to making the difference between a good vacation and a great vacation.

Elizabeth Skypeck, the director of TREASURES, joined Smugglers’ in the summer of 2005 with fifteen years of experience in kids’ programs. Her easygoing manner and quick smile put both kids and parents at ease right away. Elizabeth grew up in western Massachusetts, and her studies took her from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, to the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, to Bankstreet College and Fordham University in New York. Employment in the Head Start program focused her interest on child development. When asked what age she most enjoys working with, Elizabeth said she likes toddlers a lot because their emotions are right there, easy to read. Elizabeth has spent quite a bit of time on the slopes this winter enjoying the toddlers in Smugglers’ Little Rascals on Snow program, an innovative teaching program for ages 2 1/2 to 3. In keeping with her goal to make TREASURES as family friendly as possible, she established a toy library this winter that allows families to check out a selection of toys to enjoy during their stay at the Resort. Elizabeth’s hobbies include kayaking and canoeing, hiking, gardening and cooking.

Ken Roberts is his name, and tweaking ski boots is his game. Ken joined Smugglers’ equipment shop, Three Mountain Equipment, this season as a professional bootfitter. He has worked in the ski industry all his life and has 30-plus years of bootfitting experience. “Your foot and ankle must be properly aligned for a strong weight bearing foundation, “Ken says. “Footbeds/orthotics, custom or not, create a proper platform for stability, helping make sure your boots and feet work in harmony for both comfort and performance.” Ken has attended many ski industry clinics and seminars and completed a technical program at the University of Minnesota School for Pedorthics (the making of orthotics). Ken’s goal is to make customers more comfortable and to give them better performance. In the summer months, he operates Bert’s Boats, a canoe and kayak tour business that he owns.

When SKI Magazine released its list of the top 100 instructors in the magazine’s November issue, one of the winning instructors was Glen Findholt, a veteran with thirty years of experience at Smugglers’. At Smuggs, Glen most enjoys helping people experience parts of the mountain that they haven’t tried before, because they didn’t think they could. As such, he has found his true calling in working as an instructor for the Mountain Experience, Smugglers’ wintertime four-day camp for adults. In this program, Glen and other instructors lead a small group of adults on forays into the Resort’s glades, bumps, steeps, and terrain parks, all the while building the skill and confidence levels of each member of the group. Glen has attended Masterfit University, and has a good eye for the effect of ski boots on one’s skiing performance. His summertime passion is sailing. He holds a Coast Guard captain’s license, and, in the off-season, runs Whistling Man Schooner Company and does daily sails in Burlington Bay on Lake Champlain.

For information on lodging and programs at Smugglers’ Notch Resort, please call 1-800-451-8752 or log on to www.smuggs.com.