by Sarah Bradham, Mazamas Director of Marketing & Communications
In April 2018 the Mazamas launched a brand new website that changed the way the Mazamas have managed climb applications for the last 43 years. Gone is the antiquated paper process that required an intricate level of knowledge of the organization, up fronting the cost of a climb by purchasing a climb card, rewriting information over and over again on paper applications, as well as the need for envelopes and stamps. In its place is an online process that is based on a user creating a profile that details their experience and activity history, finding a climb they want to participate in, and providing payment information (and only being charged for the climb if accepted).
As we transitioned to this new system there was both a lot of excitement, as well as a heavy dose of anxiety about how the process would work. Would hopeful climbers need to be sitting at their computer at 9 a.m. on the climb registration open date to even be considered for a climb? Would the most popular climbs immediately be full? How would it work with all the climbs not opening on the same date as they had in the past? Would the new system be easy to navigate?
We did a lot of prep work in the months leading up to the launch to get the message out to our members and the community about the new application process. We shared information via our monthly magazine, weekly e-news, and social media channels. We also talked to our climb leaders about implementing a new phased application process to lessen the stress on the system; in case problems did arise we would be better able to manage them with only a subset of climbs opening on any given date. Our climb leaders also agreed to increase the number of applications they were willing to review in order to ensure applicants did not get shut out from the application process.
So what’s the verdict?
The early results are extremely promising. The first 28 climbs of the season opened at 9 a.m. on Monday, April 16. We were in full on call center mode at 8 a.m., staffed up and ready to handle all of the emails and calls from applicants. And … they never came. Between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. we handled approximately 5 phone calls and 4 emails. And in that same time we received 250 applications for climbs. We did have one major challenge that came to light on Wednesday April 18 as leaders began accepting applicants. Our 3rd party payment processor had changed something critical in their API that caused a payment failure for anyone who had previously paid for an activity through the new Mazama website. This caused approximately 50 payment failures. But thankfully, since we had launched with a phased application process, the issue was relatively small in scope.
Since that initial opening we have had 4 separate registration open dates:
- April 16: 28 climbs
- April 23: 37 climbs
- April 30: 36 climbs
- May 7: 88 climbs
What does the application data look like?
If you aren’t interested in stats you might want to stop reading now, because we are about to geek out on data. In the past, without a centralized process for activity management, the Mazamas have been unable to confirm any of the rumours that circulate regarding difficulty getting on climbs or even identifying the most popular climbs. We can now crunch the numbers to get an informed picture of the number of applications submitted, the number of unique applicants, and much more.
As of 5/7/2018 at noon, here are some stats:
- # of climbs on the schedule: 193
- # of spaces available on climbs: 1773
- # of applications for climbs: 2031
- # of unique applicants: 561
- Average # of climbs applied for per applicant: 3.62
- # of applications accepted for climbs as of today: 580
- # of unique applicants accepted on a climb: 335
- # of applications in the awaiting approval queue: 725
- # of unique applicants that have applications in the awaiting approval queue: 344
- # of Mt. Hood climbs: 19
- # of spaces available on Mt. Hood climbs: 150
- # of applications for Mt. Hood climbs: 449
- Most popular three mountains/routes: Mt. Hood South Side, Mt. Ellinor, and Unicorn Peak.
- # of climbs that have reached their applicant capacity: 15
- # of climbs that reached their applicant capacity within 24 hours: 0
- # of climbs that reached their applicant capacity within 5 days: 3
- Climbs are NOT first come first served. The climb is open until it either:
- The Registration Close Date arrives
- The climb reaches its Maximum Application Capacity
- The leader selects their team and closes the application
- Only apply for climbs that you will be able to attend, i.e. don’t apply for two climbs on the same day
- Apply for later season climbs, they tend to have more availability
- Think outside of the major peaks – there will be fewer applicants and less competition for peaks with names you might not recognize, but that doesn’t mean they will be any less fun!