Podcast appearances and mentions of aspen snowmass

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 24. It dropped for free subscribers on Dec. 1. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:What There's a good reason that the Ikon Pass, despite considerable roster overlap and a more generous bucket of days, failed to kill Mountain Collective. It's not because Mountain Collective has established itself as a sort of bargain Ikon Junior, or because it's scored a few exclusive partners in Canada and the Western U.S. Rather, the Mountain Collective continues to exist because the member mountains like their little country club, and they're not about to let Alterra force a mass exodus. Not that Alterra has tried, necessarily (I frankly have no idea), but the company did pull its remaining mountains (Mammoth, Palisades, Sugarbush), out of the coalition in 2022. Mountain Collective survived that, just as it weathered the losses of Stowe and Whistler and Telluride (all to the Epic Pass) before it. As of 2024, six years after the introduction of the Ikon Pass that was supposed to kill it, the Mountain Collective, improbably, floats its largest roster ever.And dang, that roster. Monsters, all. Best case, you can go ski them. But the next best thing, for The Storm at least, is when these mountain leaders assemble for their annual meeting in New York City, which includes a night out with the media. Despite a bit of ambient noise, I set up in a corner of the bar and recorded a series of conversations with the leaders of some of the biggest, baddest mountains on the continent.Who* Stephen Kircher, President & CEO, Boyne Resorts* Dave Fields, President & General Manager, Snowbird, Utah* Brandon Ott, Marketing Director, Alta, Utah* Steve Paccagnan, President & CEO, Panorama, British Columbia* Geoff Buchheister, CEO, Aspen Skiing Company, Colorado* Pete Sonntag, VP & General Manager, Sun Valley, Idaho* Davy Ratchford, General Manager, Snowbasin, Utah* Aaron MacDonald, Chief Marketing Officer, Sun Peaks, British Columbia* Geordie Gillett, GM, Grand Targhee, Wyoming* Bridget Legnavsky, President & CEO, Sugar Bowl, California* Marc-André Meunier, Executive Marketing Director, Bromont, Quebec* Pete Woods, President, Ski Big 3, Alberta* Kendra Scurfield, VP of Brand & Communications, Sunshine, Alberta* Norio Kambayashi, director and GM, Niseko Hanazono, Japan* James Coleman, Managing Partner, Mountain Capital Partners* Mary Kate Buckley, CEO, Jackson Hole, WyomingRecorded onOctober 29, 2024About Mountain CollectiveMountain Collective gives you two days each at some badass mountains. There is a ton of overlap with the Ikon Pass, which I note below, but Mountain Collective is cheaper has no blackout dates.What we talked aboutBOYNE RESORTSThe PortfolioBig SkySunday RiverSugarloafTopicsYes a second eight-pack comes to Big Sky and it's a monster; why Sunday River joined the Mountain Collective; Sugarloaf's massive West Mountain expansion; and could more Boyne Resorts join Mountain Collective?More Boyne ResortsSNOWBIRDStats: 3,240 vertical feet | 2,500 skiable acres | 500 inches average annual snowfallTopicsThe new Wilbere lift; why fixed-grip; why 600 inches of snow is better than 900 inches; and how Snowbird and Alta access differ on the Ikon versus the Mountain Collective passes.Wilbere's new alignmentMore SnowbirdALTAStats: 2,538 vertical feet | 2,614 skiable acres | 540 inches average annual snowfallTopicsNot 903 inches but still a hell of a lot; why Alta's aiming for 612 inches this season; and plotting Mountain Collective trips in LCC.PANORAMAStats: 4,265 vertical feet | 2,975 skiable acres | 204 inches average annual snowfallTopicsPanorama opens earlier than most skiers think, but not for the reasons they think; opening wall-to-wall last winter; Tantum Bowl Cats; and the impact of Mountain Collective and Ikon on Panorama.More PanoramaASPEN SKIING COMPANYStatsAspen MountainAspen HighlandsButtermilkSnowmassTopicsLast year's Heroes expansion; ongoing improvements to the new terrain for 2024-25; why Aspen finally removed The Couch; who Aspen donated that lift to, and why; why the new Coney lift at Snowmass loads farther down the mountain; “we intend to replace a lift a year probably for the next 10 years”; where the next lift could be; and using your two Mountain Collective days to ski four Aspen resorts.   On Maverick Mountain, MontanaDespite megapass high-tides swarming mountains throughout the West, there are still dozens of ski areas like Maverick Mountain, tucked into the backwoods, 2,020 vertical feet of nothing but you and a pair of sticks. Aspen's old Gent's Ridge quad will soon replace the top-to-bottom 1969 Riblet double chair that serves Maverick now:On the Snowmass masterplanAspen's plan is, according to Buchheister, install a lift per year for the next decade. Here are some of the improvements the company has in mind at Snowmass:On the Mountain Collective Pass starting at AspenChristian Knapp, who is now with Pacific Group Resorts, played a big part in developing the Mountain Collective via Aspen-Snowmass in 2012. He recounted that story on The Storm last year:More AspenSUN VALLEYStats* Bald Mountain: 3,400 vertical feet | 2,054 skiable acres | 200 inches average annual snowfall* Dollar Mountain: 628 vertical feetTopicsLast season's massive Challenger/Flying Squirrel lift updates; a Seattle Ridge lift update; World Cup Finals inbound; and Mountain Collective logistics between Bald and Dollar mountains.More Sun ValleySNOWBASINStats: 3,015 vertical feet | 3,000 skiable acres | 300 inches average annual snowfallTopicsThe Olympics return to Utah and Snowbasin; how Snowbasin's 2034 Olympic slate could differ from 2002; ski the downhill; how the DeMoisy six-pack changed the mountain; a lift upgrade for Becker; Porcupine on deck; and explaining the holdup on RFID.More SnowbasinSUN PEAKSStats: 2,894 vertical feet | 4,270 skiable acres | 237 inches average annual snowfallTopicsThe second-largest ski area in Canada; the new West Bowl quad; snow quality at the summit; and Ikon and Mountain Collective impact on the resort.The old versus new West Bowl liftsMore Sun PeaksGRAND TARGHEEStats: 2,270 vertical feet | 2,602 skiable acres | 500 inches average annual snowfallTopicsMaintaining that Targhee vibe in spite of change; the meaning of Mountain Collective; and combining your MC trip with other badass powder dumps.More Grand TargheeSUGAR BOWLStats: 1,500 vertical feet | 1,650 skiable acres | 500 inches average annual snowfallTopicsBig-time parks incoming; how those parks will differ from the ones at Boreal and Northstar; and reaction to Homewood closing.More Sugar BowlBROMONTStats: 1,175 vertical feet | 450 skiable acres | 210 inches average annual snowfallTopicsWhy this low-rise eastern bump was good enough for the Mountain Collective; grooming three times per day; the richness of Eastern Townships skiing; and where to stay for a Bromont trip.SKI BIG 3Stats* Banff Sunshine: 3,514 vertical feet | 3,358 skiable acres | 360 inches average annual snowfall* Lake Louise: 3,250 vertical feet | 4,200 skiable acres | 179 inches average annual snowfallSunshineLake LouiseTopicsThe new Super Angel Express sixer at Sunshine; the all-new Pipestone Express infill six-pack at Lake Louise; how Mountain Collective access is different from Ikon access at Lake Louise and Sunshine; why Norquay isn't part of Mountain Collective; and the long season at all three ski areas.SUNSHINEStats & map: see aboveTopicsSunshine's novel access route; why the mountain replaced Angel; the calculus behind installing a six-person chair; and growing up at Sunshine.NISEKO UNITEDStats: 3,438 vertical feet | 2,889 skiable acres | 590 inches average annual snowfallTopicsHow the various Niseko ski areas combine for one experience; so.much.snow; the best way to reach Niseko; car or no car?; getting your lift ticket; and where to stay.VALLE NEVADOStats: 2,658 vertical feet | 2,400 skiable acres | 240 inches average annual snowfallTopicsAn excellent winter in Chile; heli-skiing; buying the giant La Parva ski area, right next door; “our plan is to make it one of the biggest ski resorts in the world”; and why Mountain Capital Partners maintains its Ikon Pass and Mountain Collective partnerships even though the company has its own pass.More Valle/La Parva JACKSON HOLEStats: 4,139 vertical feet | 2,500 skiable acres | 459 inches average annual snowfallTopicsThe Sublette lift upgrade; why the new lift has fewer chairs; comparisons to the recent Thunder lift upgrade; venturing beyond the tram; and managing the skier experience in the Ikon/Mountain Collective era.More Jackson HoleWhat I got wrong* I said that Wilbere would be Snowbird's sixth quad. Wilbere will be Snowbird's seventh quad, and first fixed-grip quad.* I said Snowbird got “900-some inches” during the 2022-23 ski season. The final tally was 838 inches, according to Snowbird's website.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 79/100 in 2024, and number 579 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

On today's newscast: the primary results are in and the candidates have been chosen for the general election, Aspen Snowmass season pass rates are going up about 7% next winter for most options for next season, and more.

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Feb. 12. It dropped for free subscribers on Feb. 19. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoDavid Makarsky, General Manager of Camelback Resort, PennsylvaniaRecorded onFebruary 8, 2024About CamelbackClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: KSL Capital, managed by KSL ResortsLocated in: Tannersville, PennsylvaniaYear founded: 1963Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 7 days, no blackouts* Ikon Base Pass: 5 days, holiday blackoutsReciprocal partners: NoneClosest neighboring ski areas: Shawnee Mountain (:24), Jack Frost (:26), Big Boulder (:27), Skytop Lodge (:29), Saw Creek (:37), Blue Mountain (:41), Pocono Ranchlands (:43), Montage (:44), Hideout (:51), Elk Mountain (1:05), Bear Creek (1:09), Ski Big Bear (1:16)Base elevation: 1,252 feetSummit elevation: 2,079 feetVertical drop: 827 feetSkiable Acres: 166Average annual snowfall: 50 inchesTrail count: 38 (3 Expert Only, 6 Most Difficult, 13 More Difficult, 16 Easiest) + 1 terrain parkLift count: 13 (1 high-speed six-pack, 1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 3 triples, 3 doubles, 4 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Camelback's lift fleet)View historic Camelback trailmaps on skimap.org.Why I interviewed himAt night it heaves from the frozen darkness in funhouse fashion, 800 feet high and a mile wide, a billboard for human life and activity that is not a gas station or a Perkins or a Joe's Vape N' Puff. The Poconos are a peculiar and complicated place, a strange borderland between the Midwest, the Mid-Atlantic, and the Northeast. Equidistant from New York City and Philadelphia, approaching the northern tip of Appalachia, framed by the Delaware Water Gap to the east and hundreds of miles of rolling empty wilderness to the west, the Poconos are gorgeous and decadent, busyness amid abandonment, cigarette-smoking cement truck drivers and New Jersey-plated Mercedes riding 85 along the pinched lanes of Interstate 80 through Stroudsburg. “Safety Corridor, Speed Limit 50,” read the signs that everyone ignores.But no one can ignore Camelback, at least not at night, at least not in winter, as the mountain asserts itself over I-80. Though they're easy to access, the Poconos keeps most of its many ski areas tucked away. Shawnee hides down a medieval access road, so narrow and tree-cloaked that you expect to be ambushed by poetry-spewing bandits. Jack Frost sits at the end of a long access road, invisible even upon arrival, the parking lot seated, as it is, at the top of the lifts. Blue Mountain boasts prominence, rising, as it does, to the Appalachian Trail, but it sits down a matrix of twisting farm roads, off the major highway grid.Camelback, then, is one of those ski areas that acts not just as a billboard for itself, but for all of skiing. This, combined with its impossibly fortuitous location along one of the principal approach roads to New York City, makes it one of the most important ski areas in America. A place that everyone can see, in the midst of drizzling 50-degree brown-hilled Poconos February, is filled with snow and life and fun. “Oh look, an organized sporting complex that grants me an alternative to hating winter. Let's go try that.”The Poconos are my best argument that skiing not only will survive climate change, but has already perfected the toolkit to do so. Skiing should not exist as a sustained enterprise in these wild, wet hills. It doesn't snow enough and it rains all the time. But Poconos ski area operators invested tens of millions of dollars to install seven brand-new chairlifts in 2022. They didn't do this in desperate attempts to salvage dying businesses, but as modernization efforts for businesses that are kicking off cash.In six of the past eight seasons, (excluding 2020), Camelback spun lifts into April. That's with season snowfall totals of (counting backwards from the 2022-23 season), 23 inches, 58 inches, 47 inches, 29 inches, 35 inches, 104 inches (in the outlier 2017-18 season), 94 inches, 24 inches, and 28 inches. Mammoth gets more than that from one atmospheric river. But Camelback and its Poconos brothers have built snowmaking systems so big and effective, even in marginal temperatures, that skiing is a fixture in a place where nature would have it be a curiosity.What we talked aboutCamelback turns 60; shooting to ski into April; hiding a waterpark beneath the snow; why Camelback finally joined the Ikon Pass; why Camelback decided not to implement Ikon reservations; whether Camelback season passholders will have access to a discounted Ikon Base Pass; potential for a Camelback-Blue Mountain season pass; fixing the $75 season pass reprint fee (they did); when your job is to make sure other people have fun; rethinking the ski school and season-long programs; yes I'm obsessed with figuring out why KSL Capital owns Camelback and Blue Mountain rather than Alterra (of which KSL Capital is part-owner); much more than just a ski area; rethinking the base lodge deck; the transformative impact of Black Bear 6; what it would take to upgrade Stevenson Express; why and how Camelback aims to improve sky-high historic turnover rates (and why that should matter to skiers); internal promotions within KSL Resorts; working with sister resort Blue Mountain; rethinking Camelback's antique lift fleet; why terrain expansion is unlikely; Camelback's baller snowmaking system; everybody hates the paid parking; and long-term plans for the Summit House.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewA survey of abandoned ski areas across the Poconos underscores Camelback's resilience and adaptation. Like sharks or alligators, hanging on through mass extinctions over hundreds of millions of years, Camelback has found a way to thrive even as lesser ski centers have surrendered to the elements. The 1980 edition of The White Book of Ski Areas names at least 11 mountains – Mt. Tone, Hickory Ridge, Tanglwood, Pocono Manor, Buck Hill, Timber Hill (later Alpine Mountain), Tamiment Resort Hotel, Mt. Airy, Split Rock, Mt. Heidelberg, and Hahn Mountain – within an hour of Camelback that no longer exist as organized ski areas.Camelback was larger than all of those, but it was also smarter, aggressively expanding and modernizing snowmaking, and installing a pair of detachable chairlifts in the 1990s. It offered the first window into skiing modernity in a region where the standard chairlift configuration was the slightly ridiculous double-double.Still, as recently as 10 years ago, Camelback needed a refresh. It was crowded and chaotic, sure, but it also felt dumpy and drab, with aged buildings, overtaxed parking lots, wonky access roads, long lines, and bad food. The vibe was very second-rate oceanfront boardwalk, very take-it-or-leave-it, a dour self-aware insouciance that seemed to murmur, “hey, we know this ain't the Catskills, but if they're so great why don'chya go there?”Then, in 2015, a spaceship landed. A 453-room hotel with a water park the size of Lake George, it is a ridiculous building, a monstrosity on a hill, completely out of proportion with its surroundings. It looks like something that fell off the truck on its way to Atlantic City. And yet, that hotel ignited Camelback's renaissance. In a region littered with the wrecks of 1960s heart-shaped-hottub resorts, here was something vital and modern and clean. In a redoubt of day-ski facilities, here was a ski-in-ski-out option with decent restaurants and off-the-hill entertainment for the kids. In a drive-through region that felt forgotten and tired, here was something new that people would stop for.The owners who built that monstrosity/business turbo-booster sold Camelback to KSL Capital in 2019. KSL Capital also happens to be, along with Aspen owner Henry Crown, part owner of Alterra Mountain Company. I've never really understood why KSL outsourced the operation of Camelback and, subsequently, nearby Blue Mountain, to its hotel-management outfit KSL Resorts, rather than just bungee-cording both to Alterra's attack squadron of ski resorts, which includes Palisades Tahoe, Winter Park, Mammoth, Steamboat, Sugarbush, and 14 others, including, most recently, Arapahoe Basin and Schweitzer. It was as if the Ilitch family, which owns both the Detroit Tigers and Red Wings, had drafted hockey legend Steve Yzerman and then asked him to bat clean-up at Comerica Park.While I'm still waiting on a good answer to this question even as I annoy long lines of Alterra executives and PR folks by persisting with it, KSL Resorts has started to resemble a capable ski area operator. The company dropped new six-packs onto both Camelback and nearby Blue Mountain (which it also owns), for last ski season. RFID finally arrived and it works seamlessly, and mostly eliminates the soul-crushing ticket lines by installing QR-driven kiosks. Both ski areas are now on the Ikon Pass.But there is work to do. Liftlines – particularly at Stevenson and Sunbowl, where skiers load from two sides and no one seems interested in refereeing the chaos – are borderline anarchic; carriers loaded with one, two, three guests cycle up quad chairs all day long while liftlines stretch for 20 minutes. A sense of nickeling-and-diming follows you around the resort: a seven-dollar mandatory ski check for hotel guests; bags checked for outside snacks before entering the waterpark, where food lines on a busy day stretch dozens deep; and, of course, the mandatory paid parking.Camelback's paid-parking policy is, as far as I can tell, the biggest PR miscalculation in Northeast skiing. Everyone hates it. Everyone. As you can imagine, locals write to me all the time to express their frustrations with ski areas around the country. By far the complaint I see the most is about Camelback parking (the second-most-complained about resort, in case you're wondering, is Stratton, but for reasons other than parking). It's $12 minimum to park, every day, in every lot, for everyone except season passholders, with no discount for car-pooling. There is no other ski area east of the Mississippi (that I am aware of), that does this. Very few have paid parking at all, and even the ones that do (Stowe, Mount Snow), restrict it to certain lots on certain days, include free carpooling incentives, and offer large (albeit sometimes far), free parking lot options.I am not necessarily opposed to paid parking as a concept. It has its place, particularly as a crowd-control tool on very busy days. But imagine being the only bar on a street with six bars that requires a cover charge. It's off-putting when you encounter that outlier. I imagine Camelback makes a bunch of money on parking. But I wonder how many people roll up to redeem their Ikon Pass, pay for parking that one time, and decide to never return. Based on the number of complaints I get, it's not immaterial.There will always be an element of chaos to Pennsylvania skiing. It is like the Midwest in this way, with an outsized proportion of first-timers and overly confident Kamikaze Bros and busloads of kids from all over. But a very well-managed ski area, like, for instance, Elk Mountain, an hour north of Camelback, can at least somewhat tame these herds. I sense that Camelback can do this, even if it's not necessarily consistently doing it now. It has, in KSL Resorts, a monied owner, and it has, in the Ikon Pass, a sort of gold-stamp seal-of-approval. But that membership also gives it a standard to live up to. They know that. How close are they to doing it? That was the purpose of this conversation.What I got wrongI noted that the Black Bear 6 lift had a “750/800-foot” vertical drop. The lift actually rises 667 vertical feet.I accidentally said “setting Sullivan aside,” when asking Makarsky about upgrade plans for the rest of the lift fleet. I'd meant to say, “Stevenson.” Sullivan was the name of the old high-speed quad that Black Bear 6 replaced.Why you should ski CamelbackLet's start by acknowledging that Camelback is ridiculous. This is not because it is not a good ski area, because it is a very good ski area. The pitch is excellent, the fall lines sustained, the variety appealing, the vertical drop acceptable, the lift system (disorganized riders aside), quite good. But Camelback is ridiculous because of the comically terrible skill level of 90 percent of the people who ski there, and their bunchball concentrations on a handful of narrow green runs that cut across the fall line and intersect with cross-trails in alarmingly hazardous ways. Here is a pretty typical scene:I am, in general, more interested in making fun of very good skiers than very bad ones, as the former often possess an ego and a lack of self-awareness that transforms them into caricatures of themselves. I only point out the ineptitude of the average Camelback skier because navigating them is an inescapable fact of skiing there. They yardsale. They squat mid-trail. They take off their skis and walk down the hill. I observe these things like I observe deer poop lying in the woods – without judgement or reaction. It just exists and it's there and no one can say that it isn't (yes, there are plenty of fantastic skiers in the Poconos as well, but they are vastly outnumbered and you know it).So it's not Jackson Hole. Hell, it's not even Hunter Mountain. But Camelback is one of the few ski-in, ski-out options within two hours of New York City. It is impossibly easy to get to. The Cliffhanger trail, when it's bumped up, is one of the best top-to-bottom runs in Pennsylvania. Like all these ridge ski areas, Camelback skis a lot bigger than its 166 acres. And, because it exists in a place that it shouldn't – where natural snow would rarely permit a season exceeding 10 or 15 days – Camelback is often one of the first ski areas in the Northeast to approach 100 percent open. The snowmaking is unbelievably good, the teams ungodly capable.Go on a weekday if you can. Go early if you can. Prepare to be a little frustrated with the paid parking and the lift queues. But if you let Camelback be what it is – a good mid-sized ski area in a region where no such thing should exist – rather than try to make it into something it isn't, you'll have a good day.Podcast NotesOn Blue Mountain, PennsylvaniaSince we mention Camelback's sister resort, Blue Mountain, Pennsylvania, quite a bit, here's a little overview of that hill:Owned by: KSL Capital, managed by KSL ResortsLocated in: Palmerton, PennsylvaniaYear founded: 1977Pass access:* Ikon Pass: 7 days, no blackouts* Ikon Base Plus and Ikon Base Pass: 5 days, holiday blackoutsBase elevation: 460 feetSummit elevation: 1,600 feetVertical drop: 1,140 feetSkiable Acres: 164 acresAverage annual snowfall: 33 inchesTrail count: 40 (10% expert, 35% most difficult, 15% more difficult, 40% easiest)Lift count: 12 (2 high-speed six-packs, 1 high-speed quad, 1 triple, 1 double, 7 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Blue Mountain's lift fleet)On bugging Rusty about Ikon PassIt's actually kind of hilarious how frequently I used to articulate my wishes that Camelback and Blue would join Alterra and the Ikon Pass. It must have seemed ridiculous to anyone peering east over the mountains. But I carried enough conviction about this that I brought it up to former Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory in back-to-back years. I wrote a whole bunch of articles about it too. But hey, some of us fight for rainforests and human rights and cancer vaccines, and some of us stand on the plains, wrapped in wolf furs and banging our shields until The System bows to our demands of five or seven days on the Ikon Pass at Camelback and Blue Mountain, depending upon your price point.On Ikon Pass reservationsIkon Pass reservations are poorly communicated, hard to find and execute, and not actually real. But the ski areas that “require” them for the 2023-24 ski season are Aspen Snowmass (all four mountains), Jackson Hole, Deer Valley, Big Sky, The Summit at Snoqualmie, Loon, and Windham. If you're not aware of this requirement or they're “sold out,” you'll be able to skate right through the RFID gates without issue. You may receive a tisk-tisk email afterward. You may even lose your pass (I'm told). Either way, it's a broken system in need of a technology solution both for the consumer (easy reservations directly on an Ikon app, rather than through the partner resort's website), and the resort (RFID technology that recognizes the lack of a reservation and prevents the skier from accessing the lift).On Ikon Pass Base season pass add-onsWe discuss the potential for Camelback 2024-25 season passholders to be able to add a discounted Ikon Base Pass onto their purchase. Most, but not all, non-Alterra-owned Ikon Pass partner mountains offered this option for the 2023-24 ski season. A non-exhaustive inventory that I conducted in September found the discount offered for season passes at Sugarloaf, Sunday River, Loon, Killington, Windham, Aspen, Big Sky, Taos, Alta, Snowbasin, Snowbird, Brighton, Jackson Hole, Sun Valley, Mt. Bachelor, and Boyne Mountain. Early-bird prices for those passes ranged from as low as $895 at Boyne Mountain to $2,890 for Deer Valley. Camelback's 2023-24 season pass debuted at just $649. Alterra requires partner passes to meet certain parameters, including a minimum price, in order to qualify passholders for the discounted Base pass. A simple fix here would be to offer a premium “Pennsylvania Pass” that's good for unlimited access at both Camelback and Blue, and that's priced at the current add-on rate ($849), to open access to the discounted Ikon Base for passholders.On conglomerates doing shared passesIn November, I published an analysis of every U.S.-based entity that owns or operates two or more ski areas. I've continued to revise my list, and I currently count 26 such operators. All but eight of them – Powdr, Fairbank Group, the Schoonover Family, the Murdock Family, Snow Partners, Omni Hotels, the Drake Family, and KSL Capital either offer a season pass that accesses all of their properties, or builds limited amounts of cross-mountain reciprocity into top-tier season passes. The robots aren't cooperating with me right now, but you can view the most current list here.On KSL ResortsKSL Resorts' property list looks more like a destination menu for deciding honeymooners than a company that happens to run two ski areas in the Pennsylvania Poconos. Mauritius, Fiji, The Maldives, Maui, Thailand… Tannersville, PA. It feels like a trap for the robots, who in their combing of our digital existence to piece together the workings of the human psyche, will simply short out when attempting to identify the parallels between the Outrigger Reef Waikiki Beach Resort and Camelback.On ski investment in the PoconosPoconos ski areas, once backwaters, have rapidly modernized over the past decade. As I wrote in 2022:Montage, Camelback, and Elk all made the expensive investment in RFID ticketing last offseason. Camelback and Blue are each getting brand-new six-packs this summer. Vail is clear-cutting its Poconos lift museum and dropping a total of five new fixed-grip quads across Jack Frost and Big Boulder (replacing a total of nine existing lifts). All of them are constantly upgrading their snowmaking plants.On Camelback's ownership historyFor the past 20 years, Camelback has mostly been owned by a series of uninteresting Investcos and property-management firms. But the ski area's founder, Jim Moore, was an interesting fellow. From his July 22, 2006 Pocono Record obituary:James "Jim" Moore, co-founder of Camelback Ski Area, died Thursday at age 90 at his home — at Camelback.Moore, a Kentucky-born, Harvard-trained tax attorney who began a lifelong love of skiing when he went to boarding school in Switzerland as a teenager, served as Camelback's president and CEO from 1963, when it was founded, to 1986."Jim Moore was a great man and an important part of the history of the Poconos," said Sam Newman, who succeeded Moore as Camelback's president. "He was a guiding force behind the building of Camelback."In 1958, Moore was a partner in the prominent Philadelphia law firm Pepper, Hamilton and Scheetz.He joined a small group of investors who partnered with East Stroudsburg brothers Alex and Charles Bensinger and others to turn the quaint Big Pocono Ski Area — open on weekends when there was enough natural snow — into Camelback Ski Area.Camelback developed one of the most advanced snowmaking systems in the country and diversified into a year-round destination for family recreation."He was one of the first people to use snowmaking," said Kathleen Marozzi, Moore's daughter. "It had never been done in the Poconos before. ... I remember the first year we opened we had no snow on the mountain."Marozzi said her father wanted to develop Camelback as a New England-type ski resort, with winding, scenic trails."He wanted a very pretty ski area," she said. "I remember when the mountain had nothing but trees on it; it had no trails.I also managed to find a circa 1951 trailmap of Big Pocono ski area on skimap.org:On Rival Racer at CamelbeachHere's a good overview of the “Rival Racer” waterslide that Makarsky mentions in our conversation:On the Stevenson ExpressHopefully KSL Resorts replaces Stevenson with another six-pack, like they did with Sullivan, and hopefully they can reconfigure it to load from one side (like Doppelmayr just did with Barker at Sunday River). Multi-directional loading is just the worst – the skiers don't know what to do with it, and you end up with a lot of half-empty chairs when no one is managing the line, which seems to be the case more often than not at Camelback.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 11/100 in 2024, and number 511 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Today I'm interviewing the world's foremost ski historian, Seth Masia, who is President of the International Skiing History Association and the Publisher of Skiing History since 2014, and its Editor since 2002. He is perhaps best known for his 20 years of service at SKI (from 1974 to 1993), mostly on the equipment beat, where he was a pillar of the ski media, in those days, a very big deal. He segued from print to the cyber world when, between 1994 and 1996, he designed, built and launched skinet.com, the first consumer website. He capitalized on that experience with a three-year stint at Microsoft, followed by a year as director of Internet strategy at Intrawest, giving him a close-up view of one of the biggest resort conglomerates of its day. Seth is also a Level 3 member of PSIA, logging long teaching stints at Squaw Valley (as it was then known), 22 years at Vail/Beaver Creek ski schools and Aspen/Snowmass. He also saw the ski market from the equipment supplier side, serving as alpine product manager at K2 (during my tenure at Snow Country) in 1993 through 1994. Currently, he serves as a marketing consultant for Wagner Custom skis, as he has since 2007.

PSIA-AASI First Chair Podcast host George Thomas catches up with Alpine Team member Josh Fogg at Team Training in Keystone, CO. George and Josh talk about the lack of snow this year and what it looks like at Josh's home mountain of Aspen Snowmass. George asks Josh about the plan for working with his new staff as the Training Director at Aspen. Josh talks about his time on the National Team and how he's progressed through the years. Josh is planning on trying out for a third term on the team so he can continue to contribute his ideas and thoughts to the organization. George and Josh talk about the future and what he's proud of looking back on the last few years.

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Sept. 29. It dropped for free subscribers on Oct. 6. To receive future pods as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoDave Fields, President and General Manager of Snowbird, UtahRecorded onSeptember 18, 2023About SnowbirdClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Powdr Located in: Snowbird, UtahYear founded: 1971Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: 7 days, shared with Alta, no blackouts* Ikon Base Plus Pass: 5 days, shared with Alta, holiday blackouts* Ikon Base Pass: 5 days, holiday blackouts* Mountain Collective: 2 days, no blackouts* Altabird: unlimited accessClosest neighboring ski areas: Alta (1 second), Solitude (:39), Woodward Park City (:39), Brighton (:42), Park City (:47), Deer Valley (:55) - travel times vary dramatically depending upon weather and time of day and year.Base elevation: 7,760 feet (at Baby Thunder)Summit elevation: 11,000 feet (at Hidden Peak)Vertical drop: 3,240 feetSkiable Acres: 2,500Average annual snowfall: 500 inchesTrail count: 140 (35% most difficult, 38% intermediate, 27% beginner – this is the official breakdown by trail name; anyone who has skied Snowbird knows that the count is closer to 99% Oh S**t, 1% for mortals)Lift count: 14 (1 tram, 6 high-speed quads, 4 doubles, 3 conveyors)Why I interviewed himSince I've skied hundreds of ski areas and I write about them incessantly, people often ask me which one is the best, or at least which is my favorite. It should be a hard question to answer. Nothing else in America delivers the drama of Big Sky, the energy of Palisades Tahoe, the aura of Aspen-Snowmass, the sprawl of Vail Mountain. How could I possibly choose a winner? But it is not a hard question to answer. Because the answer is Snowbird and Alta. And nothing else comes close. Not in Utah. Not in Colorado. Not in Tahoe. Not up and down the Rockies. Not in Alaska. Not in BC. Yes, I'm including Whistler. There is no better skiing.One lift to the top. Three thousand feet of sustained pitch. Five hundred inches of snow – on average. Last season, 838. That's more snow than the Poconos have tallied in every winter since the Lincoln Administration, combined. And all of it like a bag of cottonballs, so light it's a wonder the stuff doesn't float off into the sky. The terrain: vast, varied, labyrinthian, mesmerizing, scarcely groomed. Trees like Narnia, spaced for loping pow turns, chained one to the next by snow meadows smooth and ever-rising. Big open bowls. Chutes stacked off The Cirque like weapons arrayed along an armory wall. Hidden Peak. Mineral. Baldy up top. Alta through the gate. Amazing.That such a place exists at all is a stunning confluence of a dozen natural phenomena. That this snowy freefall sits not in some sawtoothed Alaskan range 600 miles from the nearest road, but 34 miles – half of it interstate – from a major international airport is one of the most amazing facts that I'm aware of. And I've witnessed human birth. Twice.Snowbird is so good that it's hard to imagine how we'd think about great ski areas if it didn't exist. Like contemplating the best basketball player if there'd been no Michael Jordan, or arguing over the best way to light a room prior to the invention of lightbulbs. Whatever you think of as the attributes of a great ski area - and by that I mean the skiing, not the shopping or the apres or the wacky tire-tube races - Snowbird transcends them all.Of course, Alta, as a brand and as an organized ski hill, was there first (by 33 years), and it shares Snowbird's every attribute, with a bit more soul and a bit more snow and a bit less flash and lift-served vert. Part of the Snowbird mystique is proximity to – and the direct connection with – its atmospheric neighbor. If Snowbird stood alone on some Utah steppe, perhaps it would not be so easy to notch the mountain above its peers. But the interplay of the two, their vastness and mystery, their videogame-like tap-dancing between realms, their surreal Cloud City patina, creates, in their fusion, the best version of skiing that we have.What we talked aboutLiving through 838 inches of snow; what happens when hundreds of employees have to spend the night to make sure the mountain can open; why Alta gets more snow than Snowbird; assessing Snowbird's new tram cars and related upgrades; why Snowbird didn't build an all-new tram; catastrophe installing the new tram cars; “I've never had an ocean-liner tracker on my phone until this came to pass”; dealing with disappointment; reminiscing on the mysterious pre-Olympics Utah; the legacy of Snowbird's former longtime GM, Bob Bonar; the transition from independent resort to member of Powdr; “I'm amazed at how quickly the marketplace has changed” from a multi-mountain pass point of view; why Snowbird didn't join the Mountain Collective for its inaugural season in 2012; why Snowbird and Alta joined the Ikon Pass as one combined “destination”; why Snowbird didn't follow Alta off the Ikon Base Pass and whether they'll reconsider that decision; how much we can really blame the Ikon Pass for LCC crowding; why the Altabird pass soared in price for 2023-24; Snowbird's “Freeloader” Pass; reflecting on Fast Tracks two years in; why the tram is excluded from Fast Tracks and whether that will continue to be the case; the potential for a Fast Tracks season pass at Snowbird (which Copper and Killington already sell); breaking down the proposed Little Cottonwood Canyon Gondola; “the highway only works as well as the worst car and bus in it”; why this lift would be the least-impactful solution to LCC traffic; paying for the gondola; how the gondola would alter the calculus of canyon closures; “the more people learned about gondola and how it works, the more they supported it”; the current state of the proposed Mary Ellen Gulch expansion; upgrading Wilbere to a new lift on a new line; potential to develop more green terrain at Snowbird; potential for a six-pack lift at Snowbird and where it could go; and phasing out the howitzers.      Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewFrom 1992 to 2002, Utah recorded around 3 million skier visits per winter, plus or minus a couple hundred thousand. Then the Olympics hit. And the world was like, “Damn.” Like aliens had landed and shown them how to teleport. Or turn pinecones into pterodactyls. Or something else that would be as amazing as seven giant ski areas that all average 300-plus inches of fluffy light snow per winter being situated two sitcoms' drive-time from a major airport.By the 2005-06 ski season, four years after the Games, Utah skier visits crested 4 million for the first time. Which seemed amazing until the Ikon Pass landed for the 2018-19 season, the same winter that Utah skier visits (coincidentally or not), blew past 5 million for the first time. Setting aside the Covid-shortened 2019-20 ski season, they just kept accelerating, hitting an astonishing 7.1 million skier visits last winter.Whether you blame the Olympics or the megapasses or the fact that Utah's population has grown by more than a million people (a 50 percent surge) over the past two decades, the state's ski areas – and only 14 are public facilities that can manage any kind of volume – are getting crushed.Luckily, unlike Washington, where a surging population has no choice but to deal with traffic or drive to Idaho, Utah has no shortage of potential solutions to its high-altitude cluster. Deer Valley recently outlined plans to nearly triple in size. A proposed passenger train could thin traffic on Park City's cluttered roads. And the Utah Department of Transportation recently ruled that a gondola from the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon to the base of Snowbird and Alta was its preferred option to combat the untenable traffic on State Route 210.The gondola would be eight miles long and run high over the road, skirting the firing squad of 50 avalanche paths that run through the canyon. The highway has “the highest uncontrolled avalanche hazard index of any major highway in the world,” University of Utah professor Jim Steenburgh told KSL News Radio in April. Snowbird is in favor of building the gondola. So is Alta. Here's an overview:And a little explainer video:Just about anywhere else in the world, the gondola would be viewed for what it is: a rational solution to an untenable traffic problem. But this is U.S. America, and the lift has instead been recast as an existential threat to both the natural and manmade worlds. I can't even mention it on Twitter without sending a dozen Brobots into fits of feral rage. It's weird. SR-210 would never be built today – the most disruptive possible thing humans can build into the wilderness is a paved road. But this avalanche-prone, congested scar of concrete has been strangely lionized as the only acceptable conduit to the end of the canyon, while the gondola, a light-footprint machine with 22 towers that would run high above the rich natural environment on the canyon floor, is demonized.That's the reality that Snowbird officials are dealing with coming off a record snow season. In our conversation, Fields goes deep into this project, which is unquestionably the most controversial in U.S. American skiing. He has thoughts for the buses-will-fix-it crowd, for the environmental-doomsday crew, for the fiscal hawks fretting over the cost. I could write a book on this, but Fields makes a compelling argument to just build the damn thing.Questions I wish I'd askedI've always been curious why the Peruvian lift terminates where it does, rather than hoisting skiers up to High Baldy Traverse, or even making a turn up Baldy itself. The answer, I'm sure, is some combination of wind and desire to preserve a high-altitude hike-up experience. But that tunnel cutting over to Mineral couldn't have been cheap, and I'd like to hear the story behind how they landed on that configuration.What I got wrongI said that Snowbird had secured approval for the proposed Mary Ellen Gulch expansion from the U.S. Forest Service, but that approval actually came from the Utah County Board of Adjustment.Why you should ski SnowbirdSnowbird is the closest thing I've found to a perfect ski area. For capable skiers. Don't bother if you're a groomer god, or if you haven't skied - or don't like to ski - powder or bumps, or if carving Chip's Run with half the population of Texas doesn't sound fun (it isn't). I say that not to be an a-hole, but because I don't want you to be disappointed. Snowbird is only fun if you're a very good skier. And by that I mean a very good skier on ungroomed terrain. Because the mountain doesn't groom much. And if you're not so good, but you think you are, well, the mountain will have some news for you.It will have a message for you, regardless. This place is savage. Respect the double-blacks. Because Man do they mean it. There is no bailout on The Cirque, no cat-track oopsie-doodle exit. Move too far the wrong way and find yourself staring down Wilma's or Mach Schnell, sheer cliffs disguised as ski trails, mandatory airs between you and your ride home. Chip's is safe, but wander 50 yards off-trail and try not to miss the “Cliffs Ahead” signs. Because when Snowbird says “cliffs” they mean like 100-footers. And don't ski alone into the trees – tree-well safety bulletins were practically invented for this place.Please excuse me here. I'm usually allergic to tough-guy talk. But this place can kill you if you're not careful. Once, a few years back, a group of us skied off Black Forest and into Organ Grinder, a swatch of wooded snowfields skier's right off the Gad 2 lift. Organ Grinder, on the map, is a single run, a line arcing through Niehues whites. On the ground it is a multi-sheathed arsenal of fierce chutes stacked along a wooded face. After gliding through easy trees, we emerged at the top of one of these, a shot tilted at the approximate angle of a rocket launch. A four- or five-foot drop, a half-dozen steep turns to a wall of trees. Then the terrain cinched shut. The only exit a shot between trees and rock walls. Point and go.The run is a single black diamond.But put all that aside for a moment. Snowbird, and especially Snowbird together with Alta, should be the aspirational capstone for any skier driven to master this quirky sport. The vastness and quality and challenge of the terrain is absolutely unmatched anywhere in America. The two ski areas together are twice as large as Jackson and half as groomed as Palisades, with more and better snow than Whistler. And easier to get to than all of them. So go there. Just wait until you're ready.Podcast NotesMiscellany on items discussed in the podcast:On Jackson Hole's tramTo lend context to our discussion around Snowbird's tram upgrade, we talked quite a bit about Jackson Hole's $31 tram project, which stretched from 2006 to ‘08. I could try to explain it myself, or you could just watch this series of videos:On Powdr's portfolioSnowbird is one of 10 ski areas owned by Park City-based Powdr:On the Mountain CollectiveFields said that one of his regrets was not joining the Mountain Collective's inaugural class in 2012. The founding four were Alta, Jackson Hole, Aspen, and Palisades Tahoe. The pass cost $349 for two days at each ski area.On the varying Snowbird/Alta access on Mountain Collective and IkonOne of Mountain Collective's selling points is that rather than combining Snowbird and Alta days, as Ikon Pass does, the pass gives you two days at each, with no blackouts. As Alta, Aspen, and others have backed out of the Ikon Base Pass, the Mountain Collective has become a potent Ikon Pass Base Base, with most of the pass' top ski areas and a substantially lower price.On rope-drop days on Mineral BasinI don't know if this is inspiring or hilarious or horrifying:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing all year long. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 79/100 in 2023, and number 465 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

We discuss autumn glacier skiing in Austria, what's new in Aspen and whether golf is easier in the mountains. Iain was joined by Rana Dershowitz, VP at Aspen Snowmass and journalist Rob Rees. Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code Save money on your ski hire by using the code ‘SKIPODCAST' at intersportrent.com, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied at the checkout. SHOW NOTES Rob was last on the show in Episode 179 discussing the Aosta Valley (1:15) National Snow Week takes place from 14-22 October (3:30) The Ski Podcast Live will feature at the shows on each Sunday at 1pm (3:45) Secure a free ticket to the show using the code ‘SKIPODCAST' (4:15) The Ski Podcast is a finalists at the Travel Media Awards (4:45) Iain skied in Zermatt in August Gethin James told us about skiing in Solden in October in Episode 159 (5:50) Stubai above Neustift is one of Rob's favourites (6:45) Find out more about the Intersport Schneetage (7:45) Rob shared a lift with Hermann Maier in Pitztal Iain spoke with Dave Ryding in Saas Fee in Episode 57 (11:30)            Find out about the ‘White 5' lift pass (13:15) Check out the lifts designed by Zara Hadid if you travel to Innsbruck (14:00) Ski Launch took place in September 2023 (16:00) The European Masters Golf takes place in Crans Montana (18:00) The new ‘Hero's' terrain expansion is the biggest in Aspen for 40 years (21:00) The Ikon Pass includes Aspen Snowmass and more than 50 other resorts (26:30) Aspen hosts the Winter X Games (28:00) The Mountain Collective pass is another option for multiple resort skiing (32:00) Find out about the 'Give A Flake' advocacy campaign (34:00) Aspen's Environment Foundation is a great campaign (36:45) Take a look at the melting gondola sculpture (37:30) Feedback (39:45)   I enjoy all feedback about the show, so if you have any thoughts or ideas for features please contact me via social @theskipodcast or by email theskipodcast@gmail.com  Paul: "[Your] hard work and imagination is being rewarded"   Heather Hannam: "Still loving listening to your Podcasts with my daughter. Congratulations on your nomination by the way, we should be ably to buy you a glass of something fizzy, rather than just a coffee"    Paul Sonn: "I live in the US and really enjoy your podcast."    If you like the podcast, there are couple of things you can do to help:  1) Review us on Apple Podcasts (103 ratings) or Spotify (30 ratings)    2) Buy me a coffee at buymeacoffee.com/theskipodcast Podcast Stats - 51% of listeners catch the podcast on Apple Podcasts and 34% on Spotify - Listens are up 20% over the last year. - There are 186 episodes to catch up with and 115 were listened to in the last week.  - For the first time that more than half of our listeners were from outside the UK - 21% of our listeners were in the USA You can follow Iain at @skipedia and the podcast @theskipodcast

The skiing in Aspen is world-renowned, and it's easy to understand why. The mountains are full of challenging slopes that appeal to all levels of skiers and snowboarders. The Aspen area is known for its abundant snowfall yet sunny days. The ski season in Aspen typically runs from November through April, but the best time to ski Aspen is the end of January to early February. Consisting of 4 mountains, Aspen is a very large resort but very easy to navigate with the well-organized bus system. Whether you're an expert or a beginner, you'll find plenty of runs to enjoy. Sebastian's favorite mountain was Highlands which had the most advanced terrain. Ajax, also known as Aspen mountain, is the "locals" mountain with great advanced skiing. Buttermilk is the best mountain for beginners. Snowmass is the largest mountain and a more extensive resort; however, it is where most of the traffic can be found. Sebastian also stayed in Snowmass and stopped for snacks at Snowmass Mall. On all of Aspen's mountains, the expert terrain is easily accessible, which is not the case in all mountain resorts.Aspen is also home to some of the best hiking trails in Colorado. There are dozens of trails in and around Aspen, ranging from easy to difficult. Many of these trails are accessible even in the winter months, and the views of the surrounding mountains are breathtaking. In the summer, you can also find plenty of other outdoor activities in the area, such as rafting, mountain biking, and horseback riding. When the sun goes down, Aspen transforms into a vibrant nightlife scene. There are countless bars, restaurants, and nightclubs to explore in the city, as well as numerous music festivals throughout the year. For those looking for a more laid-back evening, there are plenty of cozy pubs and cafes to choose from. Some of Sebastian's favorite restaurants he and Jess visited in Aspen were French Alpine Bistro, Almresi, and Venga Venga. French Alpine Bistro is an upscale spot with excellent fondu, beef bourguignon, and truffle and cheese gnocchi. The best part? You can find amazing vintage wine such as the Portuguese 2019 pinot noir called Quinta Do Javali, Clos Fonte Do Santo. Another great dinner spot, Almresi, had tasty beef stroganoff, and must-have fondue.Some of Seb's favorite bar recommendations are Hooch Cocktail Bar, which has an excellent Mezcal drink, and a dive bar called Silver City. If you are incredibly boujee and looking for a one-of-a-kind "experience," visit Cloud 9 off the Cloud 9 chairlift. Cloud 9 is famous for its Veuve Clicquot parties.Whether you are on a honeymoon, a birthday trip, or a vacation break,  Aspen is the perfect destination for an unforgettable vacation. From world-class skiing to vibrant nightlife, you'll have a blast at any time with anyone in Aspen.

To support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. The discounted annual rate is back through March 13, 2023.WhoChristian Knapp, Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer of Pacific Group ResortsRecorded onFebruary 27, 2023About Pacific Group ResortsPacific Group Resorts (PGRI) owns and/or operates six North American ski areas:While they don't have a single unified pass like Vail Resorts or Mountain Capital Partners, PGRI's ski areas do offer reciprocity for their passholders, largely through their Mission: Affordable product. Here are the 2022-23 exchanges – the company has not yet released 2023-24 passes:Why I interviewed himThere are more than a dozen companies that own three or more ski areas in North America. The National Ski Areas Association itemizes most of them* here. Everyone knows Vail and Aspen, whether they ski or not. The next tier is a little more insider, but not much: Alterra, Boyne, Powdr. These are the ski companies with national footprints and Ikon Pass headliner resorts. If skiers haven't heard of these companies, they're familiar with Mammoth and Big Sky and Snowbird. Everything else on the list is regionally dense: Invision Capital's three California ski areas (Mountain High, Dodge Ridge, China Peak); Wisconsin Resorts six Midwestern bumps (Alpine Valley, Pine Knob, Mt. Holly, and Bittersweet in Michigan; Alpine Valley in Wisconsin; and Searchmont in Ontario); the State of New York's Belleayre, Gore, and Whiteface. Some – like Midwest Family Ski Resorts' trio of gigantors – align with Indy Pass, while others stand alone, with a pass just for their mountains, like Mountain Capital Partners' Power Pass.PGRI doesn't fit any of these templates. The company has a national footprint, with properties stretching from coastal BC to New Hampshire, but no national pass presence (at least before the company inherited Jay Peak's Indy Pass membership). Its properties' season passes sort of work together but sort of don't. It's all a little strange: a small ski area operator, based in Park City, whose nearest ski area is more than a 400-mile drive away, on the edge of Colorado's Grand Mesa. PGRI is built like a regional operator, but its ski areas are scattered across the continent, including in improbable-seeming locales such as Maryland and Virginia.Despite the constant facile reminders that American Skiing Company and SKI failed, small conglomerates such as PGRI are likely the future of skiing. Owning multiple resorts in multiple regions is the best kind of weather insurance. Scale builds appeal both for national pass coalitions and for banks, who often control the cash register. A larger company can build a talent pipeline to shift people around and advance their careers, which often improves retention, creating, in turn, a better ski experience. Or so the theories go. Independence will always have advantages, and consolidation its pitfalls, but the grouping together of ski resorts is not going away. So let's talk to one of the companies actively growing on its own terms, in its own way, and setting a new template for what corporate skiing balanced with local control can look like.*Missing from the NSAA's list is the Schmitz Brothers trio of Wisconsin ski areas: Little Switzerland, Nordic Mountain, and The Rock Snow Park; the list also includes Sun Valley and Snowbasin, which are jointly owned by the Holding Family, but excludes the other two-resort groups around the country: Berkshire East/Catamount, Labrador/Song, 49 Degrees North/Silver Mountain, Homewood/Red Lodge, Perfect North/Timberline, and Mission Ridge/Blacktail - there may be others).What we talked aboutThe bomber western winter; closing Wintergreen early; the existential importance of Eastern snowmaking; why Mid-Atlantic ski resorts are such great businesses; growing up in the ski industry; Mt. Bachelor in the ‘90s; Breck in the early Vail days; why founding the Mountain Collective was harder than you probably think; the surprising mountain that helped start but never joined the pass; how essential the existence of Mountain Collective was to Ikon Pass; why Ikon didn't kill Mountain Collective; the origins and structure of Pacific Group Resorts (PGRI); reviving the historically troubled Ragged Mountain; the two things that PGRI did differently from previous owners to finally help Ragged succeed; the Mission: Affordable pass suite; how Jay Peak turbocharged reciprocity between the company's resorts; how reciprocity for Jay Peak may shape up for 2023-24 passes; why we're unlikely to see a Mission: Affordable pass at Jay Peak; why Mount Washington Alpine hasn't had a Mission: Affordable pass; the future of Jay Peak – and, potentially the rest of PGRI's portfolio – on the Indy Pass; the fate of Ragged's Pinnacle Peak expansion; how and why PGRI started running and eventually purchased Wisp and Wintergreen; wild and isolated Mount Washington Alpine; could that Vancouver Island resort ever be a destination?; thoughts on replacing the West End double at Powderhorn; why PGRI has not prioritized lift replacements at the rate of some of its competitors; priorities for lift upgrades at Wisp; winning the bid for Jay Peak; reflecting on receivership; the chances of getting a new Bonaventure lift; and whether PGRI will buy more ski areas.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe lazy answer: PGRI just bought Jay Peak, and while writing the various stories leading up to and after the auction in which they acquired the joint,  I established contact with PGRI corporate HQ for the first time. My first impression was not a great one (on their side), as I managed to not only jack up the company name in the headline announcing their opening bid, but get the fundamentals of the story so wrong that I had to issue a correction with a full article re-send for the only time in Storm history. Which apparently created a huge PR pain in the ass for them. Sorry.Maybe the stupid jokes eventually disarmed them over or something, but for whatever reason Knapp agreed to do the pod. As you know I don't typically host marketing-type folks. I work with them all the time and value them immensely, but that's just not the brand. The brand is talk-to-whoever-is-in-charge-of-whatever-mountain-or-company-I'm-talking-about. But Knapp is a unique case, the former CMO of Aspen Skiing Company and the creator of the uber-relevant-to-my-readers Mountain Collective Pass. So Knapp joins the equally impressive Hugh Reynolds of Snow Partners as the only other marketing lead to ever carry his own episode.Ahem. What I was trying to get to is this: yes, this was a convenient time to drill into PGRI, because they just bought one of the most important ski resorts on the Eastern seaboard and everyone's like, “Now what, Bro?” But this is a company that has been quietly relevant for years. It cannot be overstated what an absolute shitshow Ragged Mountain was for five decades. No one could get that thing right. Now it is one of the most well-regarded ski areas in New Hampshire, with knockout grooming, a killer glade network, one of the state's best lift systems, and a customer-friendly orientation that begins with its ridiculous Mission: Affordable season pass, one of the few all-access season passes under $400 at a thousand-foot-plus mountain in New England.Which set them up perfectly to glide into the Jay marquee. Almost any other buyer would have ignited mutiny at Jay. No one I've spoken to who skis the mountain regularly wanted the place anywhere near the Ikon Pass. So no Alterra, Powdr, or Boyne. Epic? LOL no. Locals have seen enough downstate. Another rich asshat cackling with cartoon glee as he shifts hundreds of millions of dollars around like he's reorganizing suitcases in his Escalade? F**k no. Jay will be shedding the scabs of Ariel Quiros' various schemes for decades. PGRI hit that Goldilocks spot, a proven New England operator without megapass baggage that has operated scandal-free for 15 years, and is run by people who know how to make a big resort go (PGRI CEO Vern Greco is former president and GM of both Park City and Steamboat, and the former COO of Powdr Corp).PGRI is just good at running ski areas. Wisp opened Thanksgiving weekend, despite 70-degree temperatures through much of that month, despite being in Maryland. Visitation has been trending up at Powderhorn for years after steady snowmaking improvements. It's hard to find anyone with a bad opinion of Ragged.But PGRI has never been what business folk call a “consumer-facing brand.” Meaning they let the resorts speak for themselves. Meaning we don't know much about the company behind all those mountains, or what their plans are to build out their network. Or build within it, for that matter. PGRI has only stood up one new chairlift in 16 years – the Spear Mountain high-speed quad at Ragged. Powderhorn skiers are side-eyeing the 51-year-old, 1,655-vertical-foot, 7,000-foot-long West End double chair and thinking, “are you kidding me with this thing?” Five years into ownership, they want a plan. Or at least to know it's a priority. There are lesser examples all over the portfolio. It was time to see what these guys were thinking.Questions I wish I'd askedI had a few questions teed up that I didn't quite get to: why is Ragged still owned by something called RMR-Pacific LLC (and operated by PGRI)? I also wanted to understand why some PGRI ski areas use dynamic pricing but others don't. I'm still a little confused as to the exact timeline of Pacific Group purchasing Ragged and then PGRI materializing to take over the ski area. And of course I could have filled an entire hour with questions on any of the six ski areas. What I got wrongWhen I summarized Ragged's traumatic financial history, I said, “ownership defaulted on a loan.” It sounded as though I was suggesting that PGRI defaulted on the loan, when it was in fact the previous owner. You can read the full history of Ragged's many pre-PGRI financial issues on New England Ski History.I said that Midwest Family Ski Resorts had announced two new high-speed six-packs “in the past couple years.” They've actually announced two within the past year, both of which will be built this summer: a new Eagle Mountain lift at Lutsen, and a new sixer to replace three old Riblets on the Jackson Creek Summit side of Snowriver.Somehow though I got through this entire interview without calling the company “Pacific Resorts Group” and I would like credit for this please.Why you should ski PGRI's mountainsWell let's just fire through these real quick. Jay: most snow in the East. Nearly 300 inches so far even in this drab-until-the-past-two-weeks New England season. Some of the best glade skiing in the country. Just look:Ragged: Also strong on glades, though it gets maybe a third of Jay's snowfall if it's lucky. When the snow doesn't come, Ragged has some of the best grooming in New Hampshire:Wisp and Wintergreen: you know, I take my kid to Mt. Peter, a small ski area outside of New York City, every Saturday for a seasonal ski program. I'd say 80 percent of the parents arrive in street clothes, drop their kids, and sit in the lodge zombie-scrolling their phones for 90 minutes. Why? Why wouldn't a person ski every opportunity they have? This is what Wisp and Wintergreen exist for. Sure, you live in the Mid-Atlantic. No one is trying to pretend it's Colorado. But these are good little mountains. Wisp is a zinger, with terrific fall line skiing. Wintergreen sprawls, with a fun trail network and two high-speed sixers. If you live anywhere near them, there's absolutely no reason not to pick up their sub-$400 season passes (though Wintergreen's is not a true season pass, excluding Saturdays and holidays, which are reserved for club members) to supplement the Epic or Ikon Pass you use for those Western or New England vacations:Powderhorn: If you live in Grand Junction, you can fight your way east, or stop on the Mesa and go skiing:Mt. Washington Alpine: I know you'll all tell me this is for locals, that no one would bother trekking out to Vancouver Island when they can reach Whistler in a fraction of the time. But I don't know man, I've done enough wild voyages to the ass-ends of the earth to have convinced myself that it's always worth it, especially if skiing is involved:Besides, you're not going to find Whistler crowds here, and this is about enough mountain for most of us.Podcast NotesOn Wisp and Wintergreen opening and closing datesI mentioned on the podcast that Wisp opened in November. The exact date was Nov. 25 for Wisp. The resort is still open today, though on “limited terrain,” and I imagine the season is winding down quickly. Wintergreen opened on Dec. 20 and closed Feb. 26. Ugh.On the world's largest snow fortKnapp said he helped start this tradition when he worked at Keystone:On the Mountain CollectiveKnapp and I had an extensive discussion about his role founding Mountain Collective, which debuted in 2012 with two days each at Alta, Aspen-Snowmass, Jackson Hole, and Palisades Tahoe. At $349, it's underwhelming to today's ski consumer, but it's impossible to overstate how miraculous it was that the product existed at all. I won't give away the whole story, but this 2012 Powder article crystalizes the shock and stoke around the realization that these four resorts were on the same pass, Brah!On Pinnacle Peak at Ragged PGRI is probably hoping I will stop asking them about this stalled expansion at Ragged sometime this century. No luck so far, as I presented Knapp with the same set of questions that I'd asked Ragged GM Erik Barnes on the podcast last year. Here's what I was talking about: in 2007, PGRI took over Ragged. From 2014 to 2019, the mountain teased this future expansion on its trailmaps:Then, without explanation, the expansion disappeared. What happened? “The expansion does not make financial sense,” Knapp told me last year. But I wanted a more thorough explanation. Knapp delivered. This is still one of the most talked-about projects in New England, and its sudden abeyance has been a source of curiosity and confusion for Ragged skiers for a few years now. Listen up to find out what happened.The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. The discounted annual rate is available until March 13, 2023.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 19/100 in 2023, and number 405 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane, or, more likely, I just get busy). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Joe DeMoor is about as Colorado as they come; he's from Buena Vista, ran collegiately for the Buffalos at CU Boulder, lives in Carbondale, and works on Aspen Snowmass's trail crew in the summer and grooms ski runs there in the winter. As a professional mountain runner for La Sportiva, he's had a breakout year of racing thus far, with several wins under his belt. Redlining up mountains is in Joe's blood, so we sat down with him to talk about growing up on Colorado trails; the ins and outs of sub-ultra-distance racing; graveyard shifts; pain caves; and a whole lot more. TOPICS & TIMESGrowing up in CO (3:02)Running with the Buffaloes (5:49)Transitioning to the trails (11:21)Tourism management, what's that? (14:45)Trail crews & graveyard shifts (15:46)How Joe prepares for a race (18:46)Does having a super physical job help or hurt his training? (21:40)Recovery hacks (24:12)Following in his brother's footsteps (27:20)Year-in-review (29:22)Racing Vertical Kilometers (35:31)Skyrunning World Champs (41:09)Making his international racing debut in Italy (43:33)Thailand travelog (45:00)FKTs (48:00)Skimo season (53:00)CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PODCASTSCRAFTEDBlister PodcastGEAR:30Bikes & Big Ideas Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 25. Free subscribers got it on June 28. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.WhoRusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra Mountain Company, owner of the Ikon PassRecorded onJune 23, 2022About Alterra Mountain CompanyOwned by: KSL Capital and Henry Crown and CompanyAbout the Ikon PassHere’s a breakdown of all the ski areas that are party to Alterra’s Ikon Pass:Why I interviewed himIn its first five years, Alterra has gotten just about everything right – or about as right as any ski company can as it Starfoxes its way through an asteroid belt filled with Covid and empowered workers and shattered supply chains and The Day After Tomorrow weather patterns and an evolving social fabric and the sudden realization by U.S. Americans that there’s such a thing as outside. The company changed the name of one of America’s iconic resorts, managed a near meltdown of its Pacific Northwest anchor, met Covid as well as it could, and continually tweaked Ikon Pass access tiers to avoid overwhelming partner mountains while still offering skiers good value. Oh, and adding Sun Valley, Snowbasin, Chamonix, Dolomiti Superski, Kitzbühel, Schweitzer, Red Mountain, Mt. Bachelor, and Windham to the pass – all since Covid hit.If it’s all seemed a little improvisational and surprising, that’s because it has been. “I have a great propensity for enjoying chaos and anarchy,” Gregory tells me in the podcast. That explains a lot. In the frantic weeks after Covid zipped North American skiing shut in March 2020, angry skiers demanded concessions for lost spring skiing. Vail released, all at once, an encyclopedic Epic Pass credit plan, which metered discounts based upon number of days skied and introduced an “Epic Coverage” program that secured your investment in the event of everything from a Covid resurgence to the death of a beloved houseplant. Alterra, meanwhile, spun its plan together in four dispatches weeks apart – a renewal discount here, a deferral policy there, an extension six weeks later. “We’re continuing to strengthen our offerings,” Gregory told me on the podcast mid-way through this staggered rollout.In other words, Dude, just chill. We’ll get it right. Whether they ultimately did or not – with their Covid response or anything else – is a bit subjective. But I think they’ve gotten more right than wrong. There was nothing inevitable about Alterra or the Ikon Pass. Vail launched the Epic Pass in 2008. It took a decade for the industry to come up with an effective response. The Mountain Collective managed to gather all the best indies into a crew, but its reach was limited, with just two days at each partner. M.A.X. Pass, with five days per partner, got closer, but it was short on alpha mountains such as Jackson Hole or Snowbird (it did feature Big Sky, Copper, Steamboat, and Winter Park) and wasn’t a season pass to any ski area. The Ikon Pass knitted together an almost impossible coalition of competitors into a coherent product that was an actual Epic Pass equal. Boyne, Powdr, and the ghosts of Intrawest joining forces was a bit like the Mets and the Red Sox uniting to take on the Yankees. It was – and is – an unlikely coalition of competitors fused around a common cause.The Ikon Pass was a great idea. But so was AOL-Time Warner – or so it seemed at the time. But great things, combined, do not always work. They can turn toxic, backfire, fail. Five years in, Alterra and Ikon have, as Gregory tells me, “dramatically exceeded our expectations in every metric for the fifth year in a row.” While Rusty is allergic to credit, he deserves a lot. He understands how complex and unruly and unpredictable skiing and the ski industry is. He came up under the tutelage of the great and feisty Dave McCoy, founder of the incomparable and isolated Mammoth Mountain, that snowy California kingdom that didn’t give a damn what anyone else was doing. He understood how to bring people together while allowing them to exist apart. That’s not easy. I can’t get 10 people to agree to a set of rules at a tailgate cornhole tournament (the beer probably doesn’t help). Everyone who loves the current version of lift-served skiing – which can deliver a skier to just about any chairlift in the United States on a handful of passes (and that’s definitely not all of you), and has inspired an unprecedented wave of ski area re-investment – owes Gregory at least a bit of gratitude.What we talked aboutThe accidental CEO; Alterra’s “first order of business was to do no harm”; Rusty’s mindset when the Ikon Pass launched; the moment when everyone began believing that the Ikon Pass would work; reflections on the first five years of Alterra and Ikon; the challenges of uniting far-flung independent ski areas under one coalition; “every year we have to make the effort to stay together”; the radically idiosyncratic individualism of Dave McCoy; what it means that Ikon has never lost a partner – “there’s no points in life for losing friends”; Alterra doesn’t like the Ikon Base Plus Pass either; Covid shutdown PTSD; the long-term impact of Covid on skiing and the world; the risks of complacency around the Covid-driven outdoor boom; why Alterra’s next CEO, Jared Smith, comes from outside the ski industry; how the Ikon Pass and Alterra  needs to evolve; preserving the cultural quirks of individual mountains as Alterra grows and evolves under new leadership; “we dramatically exceeded our expectations in every metric for the fifth year in a row”; the importance of ceding local decisions to local resorts; “I have a great propensity for enjoying chaos and anarchy”; the current state of the labor market; Ikon Pass sales trends; “having too many people on the mountain at one time is not a great experience”; staying “maniacally guest-experience focused”; Crystal Mountain’s enormous pass price increase for next season; why Deer Valley and Alta moved off the Base Pass for next season; Mayflower, the resort coming online next to Deer Valley; the Ikon Session Pass as a gateway product; why Alterra pulled Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe, and Sugarbush off the Mountain Collective Pass; Sun Valley and Snowbasin joining Ikon; Ikon’s growing European network; whether Alterra would ever look to buy in Europe; “we’re making constant efforts” to sign new Ikon Pass partners; “we’re very interested in Pennsylvania”; I just won’t let the fact that KSL owns Blue and Camelback go; “Alterra needs to move at the right pace”; whether we will ever see more Ikon partners in the Midwest; why Alterra hasn’t bought a ski area since 2019; whether Alterra is bidding on Jay Peak; and thoughts on Rob Katz’s “growth NIMBYism” speech.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewGregory has been Alterra’s CEO for about four and a half years. That seems to be about four and a half years longer than he wanted the job. In 2017, he was enjoying retirement after four decades at Mammoth. As an investor in the nascent Alterra Mountain Company – a Frankenski made up of Mammoth, Palisades Tahoe, and the remains of Intrawest – he helped conduct a wide-reaching search for the company’s first CEO. He ended up with the job not through some deft power play but because the committee simply couldn’t find anyone else qualified to take it.His only plan, he said, was to do no harm. There are, as we have seen, plenty of ways to make multi-mountain ski conglomerates fail. Boyne alone has managed the trick over the extra long term (a fact that the company does not get nearly enough credit for). The years after Gregory took the job in February 2018 certainly tested whether Alterra and Ikon, as constructs, were durable beyond the stoke of first concept.They are. And he’s done. At 68, confined for the past half decade to a Denver office building, I get the sense that Gregory is ready to get away from his desk and back in the liftline (or maybe not – “I will be so pissed if I have to wait in a line,” he tells me on the podcast). He’s earned the break and the freedom. It’s someone else’s turn.That someone else, as we learned last month, will be Jared Smith, Alterra’s current president. Gregory will move into a vice chairman of the board role, a position that I suspect requires extensive on-the-ground snow reporting. Smith, who joined Alterra last year after nearly two decades with Live Nation/Ticketmaster, has plenty to prove. As I wrote in May:Gregory was the ultimate industry insider, a college football player-turned-liftie who worked at Mammoth for 40 years before taking the top job at Alterra in 2018. He’d been through the battles, understood the fickle nature of the ski biz, saved Mammoth from bankruptcy several times. Universally liked and respected, he was the ideal leader for Alterra’s remarkable launch, an aggressive and unprecedented union of the industry’s top non-Vail operators, wielding skiing’s Excalibur: a wintry Voltron called the Ikon Pass. That such disparate players – themselves competitors – not only came together but continued to join the Ikon Pass has no doubt been at least partly due to Gregory’s confidence and charisma.Smith came to Alterra last June after 18 years at Live Nation and Ticketmaster. I don’t know if he even skis. He is, by all accounts, a master of building products that knit consumers to experiences through technology. That’s a crucial skillset for Alterra, which must meet skiers on the devices that have eaten their lives. But technology won’t matter at all if the skiing itself suffers. Alterra has thrived as the anti-Vail, a conglomerate with an indie sheen. Will the Ikon Pass continue to tweak access levels to mitigate crowding? Will Alterra continue its mega-investments to modernize and gigantify its resorts? Can the company keep the restless coterie of Boyne, Powdr, Jackson Hole, Alta, Taos, A-Basin, Revelstoke, Red, and Schweitzer satisfied enough to stay united on a single pass? For Alterra, and for the Ikon Pass, these are the existential questions.I have been assured, by multiple sources, that Smith does, in fact, ski. And has an intuitive understanding of where consumers need to be, helping to transform Ticketmaster from a paper-based anachronism into a digital-first experience company. Covid helped accelerate skiing’s embrace of e-commerce. That, according to Gregory, is just the beginning. “Different times require different leadership, and Jared Smith is the right leader going forward,” Gregory tells me in the podcast.Alterra’s first five years were a proof of concept: can the Ikon Pass work? Yes. It works quite well. Now what? They’ve already thought of all the obvious things: buy more mountains, add more partners, play with discounts to make the thing attractive to loyalists and families. But how does Alterra sew the analogue joy that is skiing’s greatest pull into the digital scaffolding that’s hammering the disparate parts of our modern existence together? And how does it do that without compromising the skiing that must not suffer? Is that more difficult than getting Revelstoke and Killington and Taos to all suit up in the same jersey? It might be. But it was a good time to get Gregory on the line and see how he viewed the whole thing before he bounced.Questions I wish I’d askedEven though this went long, there were a bunch of questions I didn’t get to. I really wanted to ask how Alterra was approaching the need for more employee housing. I also wanted to push a little more on the $269 Steamboat lift tickets – like seriously there must be a better way. I also think blackout dates need to evolve as a crowding counter-measure, and Vail and Alterra both need to start thinking past holiday blackouts (as Indy has already done quite well). I’ve also been preoccupied lately with Alterra’s successive rolling out of megaprojects at Palisades Tahoe and Steamboat and Winter Park, and what that says about the company’s priorities. This also would have been a good time to check in on Alterra’s previously articulated commitments to diversity and the environment. These are all good topics, but Alterra has thus far been generous with access, and I anticipate ample opportunities to raise these questions with their leadership in the future.What I got wrongWell despite immense concentration and effort on my part, I finally reverted to my backwater roots and pronounced “gondola” as “gon-dole-ah,” a fact that is mostly amusing to my wife. Rusty and I vacillated between 61 million and 61.5 million reported U.S. skier visits last year. The correct number was 61 million. I also flip-flopped Vail’s Epic Pass sales number and stated at one point that the company had sold 1.2 million Epic Passes for the 2021-22 ski season. The correct number is 2.1 million – I did issue a midstream correction, but really you can’t clarify these things enough.Why you should consider an Ikon PassI feel a bit uncomfortable with the wording of this section header, but the “why you should ski X” section is a standard part of The Storm Skiing Podcast. I don’t endorse any one pass over any other – my job is simply to consider the merits and drawbacks of each. As regular readers know, pass analysis is a Storm pillar. But the Ikon Pass is uniquely great for a handful of reasons:An affordable kids’ pass. The Ikon Pass offers one of the best kids’ pass deals in skiing. Early-birds could have picked up a full Ikon Pass (with purchase of an adult pass) for children age 12 or under for $239. A Base Pass was $199. That’s insane. Many large ski areas – Waterville Valley, Mad River Glen – include a free kids pass with the purchase of an adult pass. But those are single-mountain passes. The Ikon lets you lap Stratton from your weekend condo, spend Christmas break at Snowbird, and do a Colorado tour over spring break. The bargain child’s pass is not as much of a differentiator as it once was – once Vail dropped Epic Pass prices last season, making the adult Epic Pass hundreds of dollars cheaper than an Ikon Pass, the adult-plus-kids pass equation worked out about the same for both major passes. Still, the price structures communicate plenty about Alterra’s priorities, and it’s an extremely strong message.A commitment to the long season. On April 23 this year, 21 Ikon partners still had lifts spinning. Epic passholders could access just nine resorts. That was a big improvement from the previous season, when the scorecard read 20-2 in favor of Ikon. Part of this is a coincidence – many of Alterra’s partners have decades-long histories of letting skiers ride out the snow: Killington, Snowbird, Arapahoe Basin, Sugarloaf. Others. But part of it is Alterra’s letting of big operational decisions to its individual resorts. If Crystal Mountain wants to stay open into June, Crystal Mountain stays open into June. If Stevens Pass has a 133-inch base on April 18… too bad. Closing day (in 2021) is April 18. The long season doesn’t matter to a lot of skiers. But to the ones it does matter to, it matters a lot. Alterra gets that.That lineup though… The Ikon Pass roster has been lights out from day one. But as the coalition has added partners, and as key mountains have migrated from Epic to Ikon, it has grown into the greatest collection of ski areas ever assembled. As I wrote in March:Whatever the reason is that Snowbasin and Sun Valley fled Epic, the ramifications for the North American multipass landscape are huge. So is Alterra’s decision to yank its two California flagships and its top-five New England resort off of the Mountain Collective. Those two moves gave the Ikon Pass the best top-to-bottom destination ski roster of any multi-mountain ski pass on the continent.Good arguments can still be made for the supremacy of the Epic Pass, which delivers seven days at Telluride and unlimited access to 10 North American megaresorts: Whistler, Northstar, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Park City, Crested Butte, Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, and Breckenridge, plus Stowe, one of the top two or three ski areas in the Northeast.But many of Vail’s ski areas are small and regionally focused. I like Hunter and Jack Frost and Roundtop and Mount Brighton, Michigan, and their value as businesses is unquestioned, both because they are busy and because they draw skiers from rich coastal and Midwestern cities to the Mountain West. But the Epic Pass’ 40-some U.S. and Canadian mountains are, as a group, objectively less compelling than Ikon’s.The Ikon Pass now delivers exclusive big-pass access to Steamboat, Winter Park, Copper Mountain, Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth, Crystal Washington, Red Mountain, Deer Valley, Solitude, and Brighton, as well as a killer New England lineup of Killington, Stratton, Sugarbush, Sunday River, and Loon. The pass also shares big-mountain partners with Mountain Collective: Alta, Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Snowmass, Banff Sunshine, Big Sky, Jackson Hole, Lake Louise, Revelstoke, Snowbasin, Snowbird, Sugarloaf, Sun Valley, and Taos. For pure fall-line thrills and rowdy, get-after-it terrain, there is just no comparison on any other pass.In large parts of America, it’s become impossible to imagine not buying an Ikon Pass. The lineup is just too good. Epic still makes more sense in many circumstances. But for the neutral party, aimed primarily for big-mountain destinations in a city not defined by access to a local, the Ikon is telling a damn good story.Podcast NotesRusty and I talked a bit about the huge jump in Crystal’s pass price for next season. Here’s a more comprehensive look that I wrote in March, based on conversations with Crystal CEO Frank DeBerry and a number of local skiers.We also discuss Mayflower Mountain Resort, which is to be built adjacent to Deer Valley. Here’s a bit more about that project, which could offer 4,300 acres on 3,000 vertical feet. The developers will have to overcome the ski area’s relatively low elevation, which will be compounded by Utah’s larger water issues.Rusty explained why Alterra pulled Palisades Tahoe, Mammoth, and Sugarbush off the Mountain Collective pass ahead of next ski season. Here were my initial thoughts on that move. A tribute to Mammoth Mountain founder Dave McCoy, who died in 2020 at age 104:Previous Storm Skiing Podcasts with Rusty or Ikon Pass mountain leadersThe Summit at Snoqualmie President & GM Guy Lawrence – April 20, 2022Arapahoe Basin COO Alan Henceroth – April 14, 2022Big Sky President & COO Taylor Middleton – April 6, 2022Solitude President & COO Amber Broadaway – March 5, 2022The Highlands at Harbor Springs President & GM Mike Chumbler – Feb. 18, 2022Steamboat President & COO & Alterra Central Region COO Rob Perlman – Dec. 9, 2021Jackson Hole President Mary Kate Buckley – Nov. 17, 2021Crystal Mountain, Washington President & CEO Frank DeBerry – Oct. 22, 2021Boyne Mountain GM Ed Grice – Oct. 19, 2021Mt. Buller, Australia GM Laurie Blampied – Oct. 12, 2021Aspen Skiing Company CEO Mike Kaplan – Oct. 1, 2021Taos Ski Valley CEO David Norden – Sept. 16, 2021Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory – March 25, 2021Sunday River GM Brian Heon – Feb. 10, 2021Windham President Chip Seamans – Jan. 31, 2021Sugarbush President & GM John Hammond – Nov. 2, 2020Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Part 2 – Sept. 30, 2020Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Part 1 – Sept. 25, 2020Palisades Tahoe President & COO Ron Cohen – Sept. 4, 2020Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory – May 5, 2020Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – April 1, 2020Sunday River President & GM Dana Bullen – Feb. 14, 2020Loon Mountain President & GM Jay Scambio – Feb. 7, 2020Sugarbush President & COO Win Smith – Jan. 30, 2020Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – Nov. 21, 2019Killington & Pico President & GM Mike Solimano – Oct. 13, 2019Future Storm Skiing Podcasts scheduled with Ikon Pass mountainsBoyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – September 2022Sun Valley VP & GM Pete Sonntag – September 2022The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 69/100 in 2022, and number 315 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Want to send feedback? Reply to this email and I will answer (unless you sound insane). You can also email skiing@substack.com. Please be patient - my response may take a while. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Aventuras en el hermoso Giessbach Grandhôtel en Suiza .Deby nos invita a degustar Cono Sur, vino de sabor auténtico y expresividad de la tierra. Viajemos al espacio de magia y placer en La Santísima Trinidad. Alexis nos transporta a Top of The Village en Aspen Snowmass. Consejos para el bienestar y la tranquilidad mental. Melanie nos platica de la develación de la placa de Onomura por Marcas de Lujo Asociadas. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/diariojudio-mexico/message

Aún estas a tiempo de escaparte a Aspen Snowmass y disfrutar en sus cuatro montañas, de la nieve y los deportes invernales que ofrece el resort de esquí más grande de América a sus visitantes. En este martes de podcast, Marco Aguilar, representante en México de Aspen Snowmass, nos cuenta detalles de lo que aún puedes hacer en el destino, los atractivos descuentos que ofrece, así como los eventos que mantienen al celebrar su 75 aniversario. Aguilar señala que Aspen Snowmass está conformado por cuatro montañas que, en conjunto, integran uno de los resorts de esquí más grandes de América. Cada una es muy diferente entre sí, pero solo necesitas un boleto de lift para las cuatro, que se comunican por un servicio de autobuses gratuito. También es uno de los destinos de las Montañas Rocosas más accesibles, con conectividad aérea desde ciudades como Denver, Chicago, Dallas, Los Ángeles o San Francisco.

Abriremos una botella del exquisito ron Dictador. Melanie nos llevará a una casa única en Acapulco. Descorcharemos la botella que expresa la historia de Casa Madero. Pasaremos con Alexis unos días nevados en el 75 Aniversario de Aspen Snowmass. Deby nos contará la historia de un mezcal agave espadín, ligeramente ahumado simplemente excepcional. Viajaremos al viñedo de Puente Alto para degustar la fiel expresión de un Cabernet Sauvignon. Y después a Château Bellefont-Belcier en el corazón vinícola de Francia. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/diariojudio-mexico/message

Challenge Aspen Military Opportunities invites active duty, retired, and veterans to Aspen Snowmass to participate in summer and winter outdoor adaptive recreation. Our professional sports instructors teach people with disabilities how to use adaptive equipment so they can re-engage in outdoor physical activity.  Listen to LTC Olivia Nunn speak to John Klonowski, the Director of Challenge Aspen Military Opportunities, about his passion for giving back to the military community. 

The new PSIA-AASI National Team will set the standard for snowsports instruction and embody the ski and snowboard experience. In April 2021, PSIA-AASI hand-selected the 37 team members – 8 coaches chosen last season and 29 team members selected spring 2021 – for their range of skills that allow them to serve as inspirational leaders and build enthusiasm for learning and having fun skiing and riding. Meet returning PSIA Alpine Team member, Josh Fogg, who hails from Aspen Snowmass, Colorado. Learn more about Josh: http://tiny.cc/meetjosh

The new PSIA-AASI National Team will set the standard for snowsports instruction and embody the ski and snowboard experience. In April 2021, PSIA-AASI hand-selected the 37 team members – 8 coaches chosen last season and 29 team members selected spring 2021 – for their range of skills that allow them to serve as inspirational leaders and build enthusiasm for learning and having fun skiing and riding. Meet PSIA Alpine Team member Jonathan Ballou who hails from Aspen Snowmass, Colorado.

The new PSIA-AASI National Team will set the standard for snowsports instruction and embody the ski and snowboard experience. In April 2021, PSIA-AASI hand-selected the 37 team members – 8 coaches chosen last season and 29 team members selected spring 2021 – for their range of skills that allow them to serve as inspirational leaders and build enthusiasm for learning and having fun skiing and riding. Meet PSIA Alpine Team member Kevin Jordan who hails from Aspen Snowmass, Colorado. Learn more about Kevin: http://tiny.cc/meetkevin

This week Dawson and Clint welcome Jake Wheeler back to Day Fire! Jake is the Social Media Manager for Aspen Snowmass. Did you know mountains and ski slopes have personalities? Well they do - and they talk about the different personalities and characteristics of each mountain in the Aspen Snowmass family. Plus, they talk about art, diversity, marketing, hosting the X-Games and other events, and yes - sticking with the Day Fire tradition - they shared some stories. When Jake isn't working with his social media marketing team to produce the best content possible, he loves to take advantage of all that Aspen has to offer, which usually involves something outdoors. Good times were had by all on this episode of Day Fire! Thanks for listening! Find all our episodes at dayfirepodcast.com This podcast is powered by ZenCast.fm

Welcome back to Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in Covid Times.    For this show we've brought in one of the industry experts - Christian Knapp - to fill us in on how the multibillion dollar resort industry is adapting to a virus that has turned the world upside down. Christian has managed some of the biggest resorts in the world for the past 20 years including Breckenridge and Aspen Snowmass and now he is on the hunt for The Snowboard Project.  The season is underway - and with it cases of Covid and ever changing restrictions being put into place around the country. Fortunately we are still able to ride - a very bright spot on an increasingly dark year.    In this, our final episode of the  mini series we examine what resort riding is like right now, what we can expect from the rest of the season as well as what we can expect next year.  We are still game on for this season even if it is shaping up to be much different than expected. We ask that all our listeners do their part now to try and slow the spread of Covid so that we can keep these resorts open. Also tag us in your posts and stories so we can see how your experience is going riding resorts this year. Our next episode will cover the perspective of the riders. Tag us with the hashtag #liftticketpodcast and shoot us a DM - we want to know how it's going on your end! This is Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in COVID Times  Episode 6: Full Pull Hosted by:  Christian Knapp and Mark Sullivan   Developed & Produced by: Mark Sullivan   This episode is sponsored by:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)  Never Summer www.neversummer.com   Melvin Brewing www.melvinbrewing.com   Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject  

So much excellent information on this episode of the Family Vacationer. Thanks to our special guest, Sonia Bekhaazi.Aspen gets 300 blue sky days a year. Couple that with legendary powder that comes largely from natural snowfall, this is one exciting place to ski.There are four mountains within the Aspen/Snowmass complex: Aspen, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass. Free transportation will get you from mountain to mountain and they are all on the same lift ticket.There is a Kid's Hideout on Buttermilk and Sonia pointed out that Snowmass is the largest of the four mountains and a good place to go when you have skiers of varying skill levels.Summer turns the mountains into a haven for Gold level fly fishing, Jeeping, Hiking, Biking, Golfing, Horseback Riding and more.LodgingAspen offers all types of lodging from chains to condos. Interestingly in Snowmass, 95% of the rooms are Ski in, Ski out lodging which means you literally leave your lodging and skill right on and off the slopes. Very convenient. Sonia signaled out the Limelight Hotel as a particularly family friendly hotel.Food! You know we won't forget about the restaurants. Sonia suggested places like Venga Venga, The Artisan, The Stew Pot on Snowmass. Aspen has over 100 restaurants. Sonia suggested Jimmy's (she singled out the Mac and Cheese), L'Hosteria, CP Burger (connected to an ice skating rink and mini-golf), 520 Grill, and Brunelleschi's.EventsAspen's event calendar is an exciting one. Buttermilk has offered a drive in theather and Snowmass has an art installment called Luminescence. Additionally, the Snowmass Balloon Festival and Labor Day Music Festival are both on for this year. For more information on the events calendar, click HERE.Aspen Snowmass, is working hard to keep visitors safe. If you order your lift ticket seven days before your arrival, it will be delivered to your place of lodging. You can also use their QR Delivery to keep you out of the ticket office. All of their lift tickets use RFID techonology, so you can put it in your pocket and proceed to the lift. For more information on the Aspen Snowmass COVID-19 operating procedures, click HERE.If you're ready to start planning your Aspen Snowmass vacation, I would love to help you. My services as a travel agent are always free to my clients. Just drop me a line at rjones@starstufftravel.com. Thanks for listening!

Rob and Danny welcome special guest, Karina Duran to the show. This episode is a little bit different in that instead of looking at one specific location, we're looking at all of the family-friendly resorts by Karisma Hotels.Here are the links to the hotels for more information.Generations Riviera MayaAzul Beach Riviera CancunAzul Beach NegrilNickelodeon Punta CanaSensatori Punta CanaMargaritaville Island ReserveAll of these fantastic properties offer something fun and exciting to families. From the balconies pools at Generations to getting slimed at the Nickelodeon resort to the only all-inclusive Margaritaville.Each property is going above and beyond to make sure that travelers are safe with heightened COVID protocols in place.If you're ready to plan your next vacation to one of these resorts or anywhere else, contact Rob at rjones@starstufftravel.com. His services are always free to his clients.Check back next week as we finish up the Embracing the Cold/Escaping the Cold Series with a look at Aspen Snowmass.

Tercer episodio de Cota Zero en el que os traemos una entrevista con Mónica Barrera-Pansini, propietaria y manager de MundoSki: una agencia especializada en ski en Usa localizada en Denver que nos explicará la mejor manera de esquiar en USA sin dejarnos una pasta. Además contaremos con Jennifer Gil, account director para LATAM, España y Portugal en Aspen Snowmass, la famosísima estación de Colorado. Y además actualidad de la semana: la nieve del Sahara, apertura de Fuentes de Invierno y mucho más. Aspen Snowmass: https://www.aspensnowmass.com/ Mundoski: https://mundoski.com/

Chris Klug was born and raised in Aspen, Colorado and knows a thing or two about athletic achievement and real estate success. He got involved in the sport of snowboarding in the early days and was a three-time Olympic Winter Games participant and 2002 Bronze Medalist in Salt Lake City. As the recipient of a liver transplant, Chris started the Chris Klug Foundation in 2004 with the mission of promoting life-saving donation and helping improve the quality of life for donors, recipients, and transplant families.  Chris leveraged his snowboarding career, non-profit experience, motivational speaking, and passion for the outdoors into an extraordinarily successful real estate career in a short amount of time with Aspen Snowmass Sotheby's International Realty. In the episode we cover successful marketing strategies that have propelled Chris to one of the top producers in Aspen Snowmass, the challenge of balancing family life with athletic achievement, and finding a job you love so you never have to work another day in your life. ----- Thanks for listening to this episode of Selling The Mountains. You'll never miss an episode if you subscribe or follow the show. If you liked what you heard, please leave a short review and share it with a friend. For more information, feedback, suggestions, or sponsorship opportunities, please visit https://www.sellingthemountains.com/ or email christian@seekyourmoment.com. You can follow the show on Instagram or Facebook @SellingtheMountains. You can follow Christian on Twitter @Christianknapp, Instagram @Knappstagram, or LinkedIn @ChristianKnapp.

Welcome back to Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in Covid Times.    For this show we've brought in one of the industry experts - Christian Knapp - to fill us in on how the multibillion dollar resort industry is adapting to a virus that has turned the world upside down. Christian has managed some of the biggest resorts in the world for the past 20 years including Breckenridge and Aspen Snowmass and now he is on the hunt for The Snowboard Project.    The season is underway - and with it cases of Covid and ever changing restrictions being put into place around the country. Fortunately we are still able to ride - a very bright spot on an increasingly dark year.    In this episode of Lift Ticket you can listen to there latest resort news from both Europe and North America.  We check in with Maya Samara in Switzerland about their current COVID situation.  Then we talk with Steve Wright from Jay Peak in Vermont to see how they have had to pivot their business model due to a boded closure with Canada.    We are still game on for this season even if it is shaping up to be much different than expected. We ask that all our listeners do their part now to try and slow the spread of Covid so that we can keep these resorts open. Also tag us in your posts and stories so we can see how your experience is going riding resorts this year. Our next episode will cover the perspective of the riders. Tag us with the hashtag #liftticketpodcast and shoot us a DM - we want to know how it's going on your end! This is Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in COVID Times  Episode 5: Walking a Tightrope   Hosted by:  Christian Knapp and Mark Sullivan   Developed & Produced by: Mark Sullivan   This episode is sponsored by:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)  Never Summer www.neversummer.com   Melvin Brewing www.melvinbrewing.com   Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject  

Chris Davenport - Legendary Freeskier, Ski Mountaineer, Mountain Guide - | Brought to you by Alta Ski Area “We decided we would go rally this [borrowed] Nissan Pathfinder around in the deep snow and just see what it was capable of, and we ended up upside down on the roof, we flipped it, crashed it, hit a telephone pole, everyone was ok, but we had to drive that thing to the dealership the next day and… I didn't film for Warren Miller for a couple of years after that. Big Trouble.” - Chris Davenport Chris Davenport was the world extreme skiing champion in both 1996 and 2000. He's been in over 30 Warren Miller ski movies and a multitude of other ski movies doing things like huck 100' cliffs in Alaska. Chris' ski mountaineering achievements are unparalleled. He was the first to ski all 54 of Colorado's 14,000' peaks in a single year. The guy even skied the Lhotse face at 27,000' in the shadow of Mt. Everest. Oh, and then he summited Everest while guiding. No biggie. Chris is also an author, a TV commentator, a professional speaker, a professional mountain guide, a first descent aficionado, and an all-around good guy. In this episode, Chris & Miles discuss skiing the Lhotse face, climbing Mt. Everest, Chris' favorite mountain ranges to ski, skiing all 54 of Colorado's 14,000' peaks within 1-year, climate change, ski guiding, Chris' favorite books, Chris' funniest accidents, the glory days of extreme skiing contests, and much more. Chris Davenport answers these insightful questions: Best part/worst part of summiting Mt. Everest? What was it like skiing the Lhotse Face at 27,000'? The 14er project was a genius idea, Chris. How did you come up with this concept? What was it like skiing in the glory days of the extreme contests against Shane McConkey and crew? Have you ever been in an avalanche? What happened? What evidence of climate change have you seen in your lifetime? Tell us about writing the legendary book " 50 Classic Ski Descents of North America". How has your body changed over your career and what are you doing differently now to stay in great shape? Why did you stop starring in the big ski movies? Where do is your favorite place to ski? “I love to go wherever it's good…I'm just gonna list out my favorite places: The Chugach mountains of Alaska, The Coast Range of British Columbia, The island of Hokkaido in Japan, Aspen Snowmass where I live in the elk mountains right here, The San Juan Mountains of Southwest Colorado, the Tetons of Wyoming and Idaho, the Swiss Alps, and to a degree the French Alps as well, and the Dolomites of Italy, I skied my first trip in Morocco, in the Atlas Mountains last spring… That place is Stunning, and then Portillo Chile… the Antarctic Peninsula, one of the greatest destinations for ski touring in the world.” - Chris Davenport Many more... Please enjoy! *** This episode is brought to you by Alta Ski Area. Come for the skiing, stay for the skiing. *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please share with friends & family and please subscribe. Follow SnowBrains: SnowBrains.com Facebook: facebook.com/snowbrains Instagram: instagram.com/snowbrains Twitter: twitter.com/snowbrains The SnowBrains Podcast Episode #10 - Chris Davenport, Recorded on November 17, 2020 in Park City, UT (Miles Clark) and Aspen, CO (Chris Davenport). This episode was edited by Robert Wilkinson. Music by Chad Crouch. Host, producer, and creator = Miles Clark.

Welcome back to Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in Covid Times.    For this show we've brought in one of the industry experts - Christian Knapp - to fill us in on how the multibillion dollar resort industry is adapting to a virus that has turned the world upside down. Christian has managed some of the biggest resorts in the world for the past 20 years including Breckenridge and Aspen Snowmass and now he is on the hunt for The Snowboard Project.    The season has arrived - and with it rising cases of Covid and new restrictions being put into place around the country. Fortunately we are still able to ride - a very bright spot on an increasingly dark year.    In this episode of Lift Ticket you can listen to our global roundup where we check in with Europe to see how they are handling the new 'surge'. Then we check in with Jack Mitrani to find out what is happening with COVID and snowboarding in Vermont.  Finally we check in with Ninja - Jasen Isaacs - to see how the reservation system is going in Vail.   We are still game on for this season even if it is shaping up to be much different than expected. We ask that all our listeners do their part now to try and slow the spread of Covid so that we can keep these resorts open. Also tag us in your posts and stories so we can see how your experience is going riding resorts this year. Our next episode will cover the perspective of the riders. Tag us with the hashtag #liftticketpodcast and shoot us a DM - we want to know how it's going on your end! This is Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in COVID Times  Episode 4: Boots on the Ground   Hosted by:  Christian Knapp and Mark Sullivan   Developed & Produced by: Mark Sullivan Dustin H. James   Business Development:  Dustin H James   This episode is sponsored by:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)  Never Summer www.neversummer.com   Melvin Brewing www.melvinbrewing.com   Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject  

Grammy Award, Sirius XM The Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer was born and raised in New York City. Nabaté's debut album called, 'Eclectic Excursions' dropped in the Summer of 2018 and until that point, he's had a glorious career journey. During his high school years, Nabaté represented the fifth generation of jazz for the preview of the Louis Armstrong Archives, with trumpet greats Dr. Donald Byrd, "Doc" Cheatham, "Dizzy" Gillespie, Jimmy Owens, Jon Faddis and Wynton Marsalis. Nabaté also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial, directed by John Singleton and produced by Roy Eaton. While attending Eastman, Nabaté was a featured soloist with the Rochester Pops Orchestra. Nabaté also participated in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz summer program at Aspen Snowmass and its Jazz Gala at the Kennedy Center. He went on to receive his BM from the Eastman School of Music and his MA from New York University. Nabaté has performed, toured and/or recorded with unique artists Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Christian McBride, Kenny Lattimore, Philip Bailey, Fantasia, Jeffrey Osborne, Jill Scott, Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, José James, Savion Glover, Gregory Porter, Freda Payne, Shareefa, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Wilson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Matthew Shipp, Charli Persip, Mike Longo, Uri Caine, Buster Williams, Grady Tate, Jay Hoggard, Holt McCallany, the Mingus Big Band, and the José Limon Dance Company. He composed a solo double bass composition called 'Lessons', which was premiered by world-renowned double bassist James VanDemark at Louisiana State University. Nabaté also received a commission from the Festival of New Trumpet Music to compose and premiere a new piece which he entitled, 'We Need Unity in the Community'. Nabaté provided private trumpet instruction to the actor Rob Brown for his role as trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux on the HBO series, 'Treme'. Nabaté was part of both of Christian McBride Big Band's Grammy-winning albums, 'The Good Feeling' (2012) and 'Bringin' It' (2018) as well as the band's performance at the White House for the last concert under President Barack Obama's administration. He has composed five music scores for short films as well as contributing original music to Amos Poe's innovative film, 'Empire II'. He recently completed a score for his first feature called, 'The Rhythm in Blue'. Also, Nabaté is an accomplished producer and host for SiriusXM NBA Radio & he hosts his own weekly television show called 'So Much to Talk About' on MNN (Manhattan cable). Also, a sports trivia expert, Nabaté excelled on TV gameshows, ESPN's Stumb The Schwab and Crackle/NBC Sports' Sports Jeopardy. Nabaté Isles' Eclectic Excursions featuring the joined talents of: Nabaté Isles - Trumpet Alex Han - Alto and Soprano Saxophone David Gilmore - Guitar Theo Hill - Keyboards Brad Jones - Bass Rudy Royston - Drums Special Guests: Alita Moses - Vocals Michael Mayo - Vocals Find Nabaté Isles via social media: Instagram: @nsi.universal Twitter: @NabateIslesSMTA Facebook: www.facebook.com/NabateIslesTrumpet The trumpeter Nabaté Isles recently released his debut album, “Eclectic Excursions,” and it lives up to its title. Mr. Isles has worked most often as a side musician for artists across hip-hop, jazz and R&B, and his own record manages to throw it all together — making room along the way for a few guest singers and rappers — while keeping a firm center. Playing with a quintet, Mr. Isles started off with “Minute Pieces of Wozzeck,” a trippy, motivic original composed around a set of 12-tone harmonies from Alban Berg’s experimental opera, “Wozzeck.” As Adam Klipple’s organ and Joshua Crumbly’s bass hit a stopped-up, two-chord pattern, Mr. Isles retorted with a circular phrase. The guitarist David Gilmore ran snaky improvisations around them, leading your ear gently astray until the rhythm section dropped decisively into a thrashing rock beat. Mr. Isles and the soprano saxophonist Ian Young played in wet blasts of harmony, and Mr. Isles drove headlong into a rugged solo. He pushed hard, leaning into the song’s screwball-fusion vibe but maintaining a measured sense of swing. Midway through the set, the rapper Elzhi — a onetime member of Slum Village, and a guest on the album — guested on two songs, and the band switched comfortably to a radiant, festive mode. Then the vocalist Alita Moses came on to sing “Find Your Light,” a standout from “Eclectic Excursions,” with a strong redolence of Esperanza Spalding’s dreamy neo-soul side. Over a mid-tempo groove, Ms. Moses sang the song’s lyrics of invitation with acrobatic poise, moving deliberately at cloud altitude. Mr. Isles responded with a solo of sharp bursts and grounded rumbles, filling some of the vertical space in the atmosphere below her. A version of this above article appears in print on , on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Contradictions and Fresh Material Abound. ©2020 Building Abundant Success!! 2020 All Rights Reserved Join Me on iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS Spot Me on Spotify: https://tinyurl.com/yxuy23ba

Como cada año Aspen Snowmass celebró el inicio de la temporada de esquí 20-21 a la par del “Día de acción de Gracias”. Para hablar a detalle de esta temporada, tenemos en nuestro podcast de Experiencias de Viaje a Marco Aguilar, representante en México de Aspen Snowmass, quien destaca que si bien será diferente esta temporada, traerá mucha diversión a los amantes de los deportes invernales, a los cuales invadirá la nostalgia al volver a vivir la esencia original de su encuentro con las montañas como hace algunos años. Marco destacó que desde el 25 de noviembre están abiertas las pistas debido a la gran cantidad de nieve que ha caído. “Las pistas están listas para recibir a todos los esquiadores del mundo”. Esta temporada dijo Marco, será única, atípica, con muchas cosas diferentes. “Para empezar no esperamos el mismo aforo, pues hay mucha gente que aún no quiere viajar, sin embargo eso nos va a ayudar para que las personas estén más a gusto, despejadas, disfruten más los espacios abiertos. Todos los hoteles y restaurantes van a tener una capacidad restringida, pues la normatividad impone una capacidad del 30%”. Apen Snowmas nowmass, se localiza en el corazón de las Montañas Rocallosas, y está compuesto por cuatro majestuosas montañas: Snowmass, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands y Buttermilk, las cuales incluyen 362 pistas para todos los niveles de esquiadores: desde los primerizos que nunca antes han esquiado, hasta los expertos que se lanzan de manera más que temeraria por las escarpadas laderas... hay de todo para todos.

This special episode comes from Christian Knapp, former CMO of Aspen Snowmass, as he shares the State of Marketing During the Pandemic from the November issue of SAM Magazine. We're testing these audio articles out, let us know what you think by emailing sarah@saminfo.com. This article, and more, are available when you subscribe to SAM at www.saminfo.com/subscribe.    

Welcome back to Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in Covid Times.    For this show we've brought in one of the industry experts - Christian Knapp - to fill us in on how the multibillion dollar resort industry is adapting to a virus that has turned the world upside down. Christian has managed some of the biggest resorts in the world for the past 20 years including Breckenridge and Aspen Snowmass and now he is on the hunt for The Snowboard Project.    The season has arrived - and with it rising cases of Covid and new restrictions being put into place around the country. Fortunately we are still able to ride - a very bright spot on an increasingly dark year.    In this episode of Lift Ticket you can listen to our global roundup where we check in with France, Japan, and Canada to find out the situation with the pandemic in their countries.  How are border restrictions changing the way Canadian snow operators do business? Will Americans be able to go to Japan this year? Are French ski resorts already shut down? We get the lowdown from the north island of Japan, the French Alps, and Banff, Alberta.  We also check in with Eric Webster, Events Director for the US Ski and Snowboard Team, about the status of competitions from olympic qualifiers, to the X-Games, and even regional comps.  We are still game on for this season even if it is shaping up to be much different than ever before. We ask that all our listeners do their part now to try and slow the spread of Covid so that we can keep these resorts open. Also tag us in your posts and stories so we can see how your experience is going riding resorts this year. Our next episode will cover the perspective of the riders. Tag us with the hashtag #liftticketpodcast and shoot us a DM - we want to know how it's going on your end! This is Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in COVID Times  Episode 3: Around the World     Hosted by:  Christian Knapp and Mark Sullivan   Developed & Produced by: Mark Sullivan Dustin H. James   Business Development:  Dustin H James   This episode is sponsored by:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)  Never Summer www.neversummer.com   Melvin Brewing www.melvinbrewing.com   Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject  

Welcome back to Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in Covid Times.    For this show we've brought in one of the industry experts - Christian Knapp - to fill us in on how the multibillion dollar resort industry is adapting to a virus that has turned the world upside down.   Christian has managed some of the biggest resorts in the world for the past 20 years including Breckenridge and Aspen Snowmass and now he is on the hunt for The Snowboard Project.  In episode 2 we take a look at how the resort industry has planned and prepared for the upcoming winter and what changes riders can expect to see at their resorts.   We also get the local perspective on the changing face of ski towns and discuss the effects of the virus on snow media.    Christian talks to Olivia Rowan about how she mobilized the entire resort industry to face Covid-19 head on.    We get an update from Jackson Hole about what policies they have put in place to keep riders safe this year and the current status of Travis Rice's long anticipated Natural Selection competition.    Then we talk to journalists Jason Blevins from the Colorado Sun and Mike Rogge, who recently purchased the Mountain Gazette, about what it's like to have so many new neighbors in their local communities.   This is Lift Ticket: Resort Riding in COVID Times  Episode 2: Opening Day     Hosted by:  Christian Knapp and Mark Sullivan   Developed & Produced by: Mark Sullivan Dustin H. James   Business Development:  Dustin H James   This episode is sponsored by:   Cardiff Snowcraft  @cardiffsnow www.cardiffsnow.com Coupon Code: “THESNOWBOARDPROJECT15” {15% off at their website)    Tow Pro Lifts @towprolifts www.towpro-lifts.com   United Shapes @unitedshapes www.unitedshapes.us   Check them out!   Subscribe to us on YouTube for video content {including Real Talk} www.youtube.com/c/thesnowboardproject   Please support The Snowboard Project: www.patreon.com/thesnowboardproject

Chris Davenport is a legend in the ski world…I call a lot of people legends, but Dav is worthy of that title.  I mean, he’s the first US Red Bull Athlete.  On part 1 of the Dav podcast, we talk about Chris’s race career, skiing Tuckerman’s at 12, McConkey and the friends he made at University of Colorado, Dean Cummings, the US Extreme's and a lot more.  Don’t miss this one. Chris Davenport Show Notes: 5:00:  Everything in person, our crazy world, and not going to South America 15:00:  Born into skiing, oil money, and biking 24:15:  Stanley:  Get 30% off site wide with the code drinkfast 10 Barrel Brewery:  Buy their beers, they support action sports more than anyone 26:15:  Natural ability, empty nesting it, Tuckerman’s, and NOLS courses 35:30:  How good is he as a ski racer, racing against McConkey, and boarding school 46:45:  COAL Headwear Save 15% off your order with the code powell15 Peter Glenn Ski and Sport 47:45:  Getting on the ski team, why he quit the team, and The Dead 53:00:  Fraternity life, Greg Stump movies, and hitting cliffs 58:00:  Graduating and a “real” job in Aspen (Snowmass), The US Extremes, and Cummings 69:00:  Inappropriate Questions with Mike Douglas

Whats up listeners! In this episode I had RFMBA Executive Director and friend Mike Pritchard over to the house for my first in "studio" interview. It was great catching up with Mike and learning about his background, coming from humble mountain bike beginnings in New Jersey, to carving out a full time position as Executive Directer of RFMBA. Throughout the interview Mike describes how RFMBA was "formed under fire", the patience you need, and the process it takes to create a mountain bike trail project. Eventually we get around to the recent IMBA Gold designation that the Aspen/Snowmass area was awarded, and what exactly that means to the area and mountain bike community. Mike briefly talks about the future of mountain biking, E Bikes and trail development. So what does the future hold for the Roaring Fork Valley and beyond, tune in and check it out. This is Ride On! Ramblings. Discussion topic Time Stamps: 1 min: Mike Pritchard History 13 min: RFMBA History 37 min: IMBA history and IMBA Gold 51 min: Future of Mountain Biking 56 min: Conclusion Q&A --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/brian-buell/message

On this episode of The Rocky Mountain Review, hosts Maximos Hunter and Ren Wadsworth discuss Aspen Snowmass being rated the number one ski resort in the western United States. Reporters Dixon Lawson, Kota Babcock, and Rylyn Todd each do a newscast in sports, local news, and campus news. Hunter and Wadsworth break some news about […] The post RMR Nov 19: Slopes and Statues appeared first on KCSU FM.

Grammy Award, Sirius XM The Grammy-winning trumpeter and composer was born and raised in New York City. Nabaté's debut album called, 'Eclectic Excursions' dropped in the Summer of 2018 and until this point, he's had a glorious journey. During his high school years, Nabaté represented the fifth generation of jazz for the preview of the Louis Armstrong Archives, with trumpet greats Dr. Donald Byrd, "Doc" Cheatham, "Dizzy" Gillespie, Jimmy Owens, Jon Faddis and Wynton Marsalis. Nabaté also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial, directed by John Singleton and produced by Roy Eaton. While attending Eastman, Nabaté was a featured soloist with the Rochester Pops Orchestra. Nabaté also participated in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz summer program at Aspen Snowmass and its Jazz Gala at the Kennedy Center. He went on to receive his BM from the Eastman School of Music and his MA from New York University. Nabaté has performed, toured and/or recorded with unique artists Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Christian McBride, Kenny Lattimore, Philip Bailey, Fantasia, Jeffrey Osborne, Jill Scott, Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, José James, Savion Glover, Gregory Porter, Freda Payne, Shareefa, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Wilson, Muhal Richard Abrams, Matthew Shipp, Charli Persip, Mike Longo, Uri Caine, Buster Williams, Grady Tate, Jay Hoggard, Holt McCallany, the Mingus Big Band, and the José Limon Dance Company. He composed a solo double bass composition called 'Lessons', which was premiered by world-renowned double bassist James VanDemark at Louisiana State University. Nabaté also received a commission from the Festival of New Trumpet Music to compose and premiere a new piece which he entitled, 'We Need Unity in the Community'. Nabaté provided private trumpet instruction to the actor Rob Brown for his role as trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux on the HBO series, 'Treme'. Nabaté was part of both of Christian McBride Big Band's Grammy-winning albums, 'The Good Feeling' (2012) and 'Bringin' It' (2018) as well as the band's performance at the White House for the last concert under President Barack Obama's administration. He has composed five music scores for short films as well as contributing original music to Amos Poe's innovative film, 'Empire II'. He recently completed a score for his first feature called, 'The Rhythm in Blue'. Also, Nabaté is an accomplished producer and host for SiriusXM NBA Radio & he hosts his own weekly television show called 'So Much to Talk About' on MNN (Manhattan cable). Also, a sports trivia expert, Nabaté excelled on TV gameshows, ESPN's Stumb The Schwab and Crackle/NBC Sports' Sports Jeopardy. Nabaté Isles' Eclectic Excursions featuring the joined talents of: Nabaté Isles - Trumpet Alex Han - Alto and Soprano Saxophone David Gilmore - Guitar Theo Hill - Keyboards Brad Jones - Bass Rudy Royston - Drums Special Guests: Alita Moses - Vocals Michael Mayo - Vocals Find Nabaté Isles via social media: Instagram: @nsi.universal Twitter: @NabateIslesSMTA Facebook: www.facebook.com/NabateIslesTrumpet The trumpeter Nabaté Isles recently released his debut album, “Eclectic Excursions,” and it lives up to its title. Mr. Isles has worked most often as a side musician for artists across hip-hop, jazz and R&B, and his own record manages to throw it all together — making room along the way for a few guest singers and rappers — while keeping a firm center. Playing with a quintet, Mr. Isles started off with “Minute Pieces of Wozzeck,” a trippy, motivic original composed around a set of 12-tone harmonies from Alban Berg’s experimental opera, “Wozzeck.” As Adam Klipple’s organ and Joshua Crumbly’s bass hit a stopped-up, two-chord pattern, Mr. Isles retorted with a circular phrase. The guitarist David Gilmore ran snaky improvisations around them, leading your ear gently astray until the rhythm section dropped decisively into a thrashing rock beat. Mr. Isles and the soprano saxophonist Ian Young played in wet blasts of harmony, and Mr. Isles drove headlong into a rugged solo. He pushed hard, leaning into the song’s screwball-fusion vibe but maintaining a measured sense of swing. Midway through the set, the rapper Elzhi — a onetime member of Slum Village, and a guest on the album — guested on two songs, and the band switched comfortably to a radiant, festive mode. Then the vocalist Alita Moses came on to sing “Find Your Light,” a standout from “Eclectic Excursions,” with a strong redolence of Esperanza Spalding’s dreamy neo-soul side. Over a mid-tempo groove, Ms. Moses sang the song’s lyrics of invitation with acrobatic poise, moving deliberately at cloud altitude. Mr. Isles responded with a solo of sharp bursts and grounded rumbles, filling some of the vertical space in the atmosphere below her. Mr. Isles released his album“Eclectic Excursions” in July. A version of this above article appears in print on , on Page C5 of the New York edition with the headline: Contradictions and Fresh Material Abound. ©2019 Building Abundant Success!! 2019 All Rights Reserved Join Me on ~ iHeart Radio @ https://tinyurl.com/iHeartBAS See you on @ facebook.com/BuildingAbundantSuccess'

Doug Leibinger, real estate agent with Compass in Aspen, is one of the Top 150 Brokers in the United States and consistently in the top 10 brokers not only in Aspen/Snowmass but the entire State of Colorado. He joins Jere on the podcast to share how bringing it back to basics and focusing on customer service will lead to success.

At 71, Phil Weir is committed to a fitness regimen and healthy lifestyle that enables him to enjoy an active life with his wife and three children, ages 7-17. Phil has incorporated working out into his daily routine for over 30 years. By doing so, he was able to recover quickly from multiple orthopedic surgeries and maintain his strength and cardiovascular health.Phil is a Broker Associate with Roaring Fork Sotheby's International Realty, based in Glenwood Springs and has been a Realtor in the Roaring Fork Valley for over 35 years. As your Realtor, Phil will be your guide, your advocate, your representative, and your advisor.In the interview Phil shares:- The decision he made over 30 years ago that dramatically changed his life for the better.- How fitness has become a permanent part of his daily life.- How fitness helped him recover from multiple surgeries.- What he does to build strength and maintain his cardiovascular health.- How fitness impacts his physical and mental health.- The first thing anyone must do to start living a healthy lifestyle.- The secret to doing a 16-minute plank.If you are interested in real estate in the Glenwood, Colorado area, feel free to contact Phil at any time with any questions you may have concerning real estate on the Western Slope of Colorado. You are also invited to explore Phil’s website and view the many choices for land and homes in Glenwood Springs, New Castle, Carbondale, Basalt, Silt, Rifle and Aspen/Snowmass.https://philweirglenwood.comNever Too Late for Fitness Radio with Phil Farishttp://businessinnovatorsradio.com/never-too-late-for-fitness-radio-with-phil-faris/

Torin Yater-Wallace had to overcome more challenges than anyone I’ve talked to.  From growing up with a dad in prison, to moving countess times as a kid, to injuries, to a sickness that became so bad that he was medically paralyzed for 10 days.  Through all of this, Torin had skiing and all his dreams revolved around becoming a professional.  With all the cards stacked against him, Torin never quit or felt sorry for himself and made his dreams happen.  The funny thing is, listening to the podcast, it doesn’t even sound like he likes halfpipe skiing. Torin Yater-Wallace  Show Notes:  2:34:  Qualifying for the 2018 Olympics 7:50:  What is going on with his foot and does he think about the future 12:00:  Video parts and halfpipe skiers 16:00:  Evo (Use the code TPM10 for 10% off at checkout) and RESQWATER (enter the code resqwatertpm for a 20% discount on a 12 pack) 17:30:  Born and raised in Basalt Colorado and talking about his dad going away to prison. 22:57:  Growing up in the Aspen Valley and chasing the dream of becoming a pro skier with his mom. 28:00:  Gatorade Free Flow Tour and making a name for himself 30:00:  Armada fake recruiting trip 34:04:  Getting connected with Target, his first X-Games and his sponsors Red Bull, Armada, Giro, Toyota , DaKine, Look Bindings, Aspen Snowmass , Comcast/Xfinity and Smuckers 38:50:  How much can he make as a skier in his best year? 41:45:  10Barrel Brewery and The Summit at Snoqualmie (use the code Powell18 to get pre-season pass prices) 43:00:  He’s a normal kid, did his life feel like a rollercoaster and the whole dry needle collapsed lung saga 50:00:  Back To Life Movie A must see documentary (produced by Clayton Vila) about Torin, and his mom’s cancer diagnosis 55:43:  His Olympic experience and partying 59:00:  The worst case of strep throat in the history of Olympic Pipe skiers

Butterflies of Wisdom is a podcast where we want to share your story. We want to share your knowledge if you have a small business if you are an author or a Doctor, or whatever you are. With a disability or not, we want to share your story to inspire others. To learn more about Butterflies of Wisdom visithttp://butterfliesofwisdom.weebly.com/ Be sure to FOLLOW this program https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wins-women-of-wisdom/id1060801905. To find out more about Challenge Aspen go to https://challengeaspen.org. To find out how Win walk and about Ekso go to http://www.bridgingbionics.org/ or email Amanda Boxtel at amanda@bridgingbionics.org.   On Butterflies of Wisdom today, Best-Selling Author, Win C welcomes Carol Hood Peterson. Carol has been living in and enjoying the lifestyle of Aspen/Snowmass for over 30 years. She grew up in a real estate family in St. Louis, MO, graduated with a BS degree from the University of MO, and also participated in exchange classes with Stephens College in Columbia, MO. One week after graduation, she moved to Aspen just for the summer, a familiar story of many locals! Carol has been a licensed Realtor in the State of Colorado since 1985. She has earned her GRI, CRS, CNE and EcoBroker designations and is a candidate for the CIPS designation in international real estate. She has received many awards for excellence in sales and also received the distinguished award of Realtor of the Year in 1996. She has been very involved in her state and local association including as President of the Aspen Board of Realtors, Chairperson of Political Legislative Committee, CARHOF (affordable housing) Chair, Vice Pres. of Communications for the Colorado Association, Chair of The Colorado Realtor News, and Chair of Small Board Forum for CAR. Also, was active on the Bd. of Dir. for Neighbor to Neighbor under The Aspen Medical Foundation. Carol also served as the real estate liaison for The Aspen Chamber Resort Association and has served on the executive committee. Currently, Carol is a volunteer for Lift Up. Carol is married to Brooke Peterson and has two adult children, Justin and Natalie, who are both married. Carol loves the Aspen lifestyle, skiing, cycling, hiking, and selling real estate in the mountains. As many of you know, Carol was a broker with Mason & Morse for over 26 years and is happy to go full circle in coming back to CBMM. To learn more about Carol email her at carol@masonmorse.com. To find out more about Win Kelly Charles visit https://wincharles.wix.com/win-charles. To follow Win on Twitter go to @winkellycharles. To support Win on Instagram go to winkcharles. To support Win on Snapchat go to Wcharles422. To support Win on Snapchat go to Wcharles422. To see Win's art go to https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/2-win-charles.html. "Books for Books," you buy Win's books so she can purchase books for school. "Getting through school is a 'win' for her fans and a 'win' for her."Please send feedback to Win by email her at winwwow@gmail.com, or go tohttp://survey.libsyn.com/winwisdom andhttp://survey.libsyn.com/thebutterfly. To be on the show please fill out the intake at http://bit.ly/bow2017. Butterflies of Wisdom sponsored by Kittr a new social media tool that is bringing about new ways of posting on Twitter. It's fun, full of free content you can use, helps you schedule at the best times, is easy to use, and it will help you get more followers. Visit Kittr atgokittr.com. This is a 20% off code for www.gracedbygrit.com. The code will be XOBUTTERFLIES. If you would like to support Butterflies of Wisdom go to https://www.patreon.com/wcharles. If you want to check out what Win’s friend, Dannidoll, is doing (a.k.a. Dannielle) go to https://www.facebook.com/dannidolltheragdollclown/?notif_t=page_invite_accepted¬if_id=1492366163404241. To learn more about Danielle visithttp://www.dancanshred.com. To learn about the magic of Siri go to https://www.udemy.com/writing-a-book-using-siri/?utm_campaign=email&utm_source=sendgrid.com&utm_medium=email. If you want to donate Butterflies of Wisdom, please send a PayPal donation toaspenrosearts@gmail.com or aspenwin@gmail.com. Please donate to Challenge Aspen or the Bridging Bionics Foundation. Please send a check in the mail so 100% goes to Bridging Bionics Foundation.    In the Memo section have people write: In honor of Win Charles. Please donate to the charity of your choice thank you in advance, Win.   Send to:   Challenge Aspen PO Box 6639 Snowmass Village, CO 81615 Or donate online at https://challengeaspen.org.   Bridging Bionics Foundation  PO Box 3767 Basalt, CO 81621   Thank you Win  

“We want skiers to literally help save the world,” said Porter Fox, editor at Powder Magazine. Climate change has already impacted the length and intensity of winters and reduced snowfall means many of the nation's ski centers will eventually be forced to close, especially those at lower temperatures. Jeremy Jones, professional snowboarder and founder of Protect Our Winters, reminisced about a spot he revisited in Chamonix: “I used to be able to snowboard here.” This two-panel conversation first explores the science and personal experiences behind shorter winters, then looks at how ski resort CEOs are dealing with the problem. “If you're going to allow carbon emissions to be free, in the end nobody's really going to do anything,” said Mike Kaplan, president and CEO of Aspen/Snowmass. With the popularity of winter sports, the ski industry may be able to help communicate the impacts of climate change. “This industry gets it,” Kaplan said. Porter Fox, Editor, Powder Magazine; Author, The Deep: The Story of skiing and the Future of Snow (November 2013) Anne Nolin, Professor, Geosciences and Hydroclimatology, Oregon State University Jeremy Jones, Founder and CEO, Protect our Winters; Professional Snowboarder Dave Brownlie, President and CEO, Whistler Blackcomb Mike Kaplan, President and CEO, Aspen/Snowmass Jerry Blann, President, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort This program was recorded in front of a live audience at The Commonwealth Club in San Francisco on October 22, 2013