Sundown Mountain Resort — Attraction in Graf

My first time ever coming here and it was mostly a positive experience. Buying tickets and lessons there was simple. Getting the equipment was a little less simple. Most of the workers are young and act as if everyone's been there a bunch of times. I told the girl getting our boots that I had no clue what to do with the rental form (filling it out as a first time makes no sense without instruction) and she asked our boot sizes. I had to ask her twice more how to fill them out and rather than explain it, she grabbed the forms, asked us our height and weight, and marked things on the forms. She did explain what the different numbers meant when I asked though, so that was nice. Getting our skis I asked the kid if we put these boot things on inside and then the skins outside and he replied, "yes, you ski outside" as if I was completely retarded and had just asked if we ski indoors. No one said anything about poles but we saw them when heading outside and I made the mistake of asking the same kid how we knew which ones we need. He said "well you need to be able to do this" and mimed how you use them, then when I just stared at him he said "I'd say the 110s" and started to walk away. The look on my face must have said a lot because then he pointed to what he was talking about (a pole that said 110 on the handle) and walked away. This was the start of my first skiing experience and I was already frustrated because this kid was so rude. We went outside for our lesson and the first instructor we worked with while they were finding the one that was supposed to be there was very nice. He was patient, explained things well, and I began to feel better about the day. Our main instructor took over and he also was patient, gave clear detailed instructions and explained things in an easy to understandway, and told us how we could improve on what we were doing. I ended up having a lot of fun and discovering I don't totally suck at skiing. My first excursion off the bunny slope did not go the beat, however, as I wasn't aware all the slopes intersect, and that to ski the easiest one I needed to stay all the way to the left -- so I went right and ended up on slopes far top steep for me. I was scared to death but made it to the bottom using the skills learned in my lesson that was well worth the money! If you've never skied before, beware that you will probably encounter rudeness here. Be prepared to ask simple questions over and over to get a response. I recommend taking a lesson, as the instructors are phenomenal. Be sure to be careful and follow instructions and you'll have...

First the good stuff. I enjoy Sundown. My son learned to ski here and was on the junior ski team a few years back. You have done a nice job improving snow making and grooming efforts. You have a nice new equipment rental building although with a little foresight, placing large windows on the south side overlooking the sloops would have really brightened up a dark interior . My main concern is in the lodge. Again you have improved the looks with the new tables and removing the office cubicle dividers. Food service at the tables also adds to an improved atmosphere.

However, today, Sunday, December 26, you unfortunately demonstrated extremely poor service in the food and bar area. The lodge was extremely busy but only had two bartenders, who did their best in a bad situation. There was no way they could handle the crowd.. In addition, the entire lodge table sitting patrons had to come to the bar in order to order any type of drink whether it was pop, beer or mixed drink. This caused a backup of service between table serve and bar seating service. Waits for service were up to and over 10 minutes at times. The POS software at the register is terrible or at least poorly setup . Not having the second register working also extremely slowed service.

Throughout the afternoon a couple of management individuals would come out from the back office, check the one register working and then leave. No help was provided to the wait staff. At one point instead of waiting on customers(while I waited almost 10 minutes) one bartender was forced to wash glasses needed to serve and the other bartender had to run to the back to replace an empty bottle of liquor. During this time, no one was being served. Absolutely no management personnel to observe these issues or help in the crisis.

While Sundown has certainly concentrated on the quality of snow, lifts and rental gear, they need to realize that the food and drink end of the house needs the same level of expertise as the slopes. But currently, it is certainly missing. Ownership and management are responsible for this area and would do well to take serious steps to improve. Here’s...

We had a blast at Sundown. I had never skied before but picked it up quickly and really enjoyed the slopes. There's really only one green run, though they boast several, they're all connected to each other. The run is a good length, however, and because they have several different hills connected, it makes it great for first-time skiers because you can stop at the "bottom" of each segment to wait or meet up with your group. Also helpful to take a break or a complete stop if you're still trying to learn how to control your speed. The runs do intersect so you can hop from green to blue and vice versa, which is a nice way to mix up your runs.

My biggest suggestion for Sundown actually revolves around the check-in process. We did the SMART pass online to save time, but upon arrival, found it very difficult to easily determine the difference between the SMART pass experience and those who purchase tickets at the resort. We wasted a lot of time trying to figure out where to go to scan in and where to find our gear.

I'd recommend putting a large sign over the window where the SMART pass scan-in is located and make sure to train all employees to tell customers where their next stop is. Or provide big signs with arrows. So from SMART scan, you get your boots, which is just down the way from the scan in window. From there, your skis are already pulled (which we didn't know, so we waited in line for a long period of time before having to go elsewhere to locate our skis). I do realize the SMART pass outlines this, but when you're new and you're trying to figure out which slopes are where and it's packed with people, providing a little more direction will make the experience even better.

All in all, we loved it and are going back this weekend for their final season days. For the first time in my entire Iowa-residency, I'm actually looking forward to next winter so we can come back...