Podcast appearances and mentions of Jared Smith

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith break down Sunday's NFL playoff games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Jared Smith and Ben Stevens continue to break down the NFL playoffs and give live in-game updates for Saturday's college basketball games going on around the country. Plus, Noops Christenson joins the show to talk about the NFL playoffs. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Jared Smith and Ben Stevens begin to talk about the morning college basketball games and they start to break down Saturday's NFL playoff games. Plus, they are joined by VSiN's Greg Peterson to break down Saturday's college basketball games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the Fernando Mendoza & Indiana dominating Oregon in the Peach Bowl, and discuss the controversial PI call in the Ole Miss v. Miami game! The guys then preview the Wild Card Weekend matchups, and more! Parlay Platter, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview the NFL playoffs. Plus, Jared Smith, FOX Sports Betting Analyst joins the show to give his college football bets.Get instant access to expert picks, public betting splits data, and pro betting tools when you join VSiN pro. Grab your first month for only $9.99 or take over 15% off an annual subscription when you use promo code: POD25. Click Here to get started.        Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike Harmon and Jared Smith get started with week 18 of the NFL previewing the Sunday slate of games, while also questioning the scheduling choices. Mike and Jared also recap the Seahawks beating the 49ers for the division and 1st seed, with Jaxon Smith-Njigba responding in a cold clap back to rival Deommodore Lenoir's trash talking. Plus, the guys discuss Lamar Jackson's relationship with John Harbaugh whether it is good or bad, have some nerd talk with the Stranger Things series finale, and more!!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the College Football Playoff games that rung in the new year, including Alabama getting torched by Indiana! Previewing the biggest NFL games of the final weekend of the season, and more! Parlay Platter, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Jared Smith opens the second hour with his thoughts on Ravens vs. Steelers.

Jared Smith wraps up today's show with his favorite College Football bets for today's playoff games.

Jared Smith breaks down how he's looking to bet today's Oregon vs. Texas Tech CFB Playoff game.

Jared Smith breaks down how he's looking to bet Panthers vs. Buccaneers & Saints vs. Falcons. Plus, Jared explains why he thinks Tyer Shough might be the best rookie QB in the NFL.

Jared Smith wraps up the first hour with his thoughts on Seahawks vs 49ers, the NFC West, and who he trusts more between Sam Darnold & Brock Purdy.

Jared Smith breaks down how he's looking to bet Alabama vs. Indiana.

Jared Smith is in for Nick Kostos today! Jared Smith shares his thoughts on Miami's win over Ohio State in the CFB Playoffs.

Guest host Shannon Moody is joined by Shane Noem, a Republican lobbyist from Northern Kentucky with Roebling Solutions and a Kentucky Youth Advocates board member, Jared Smith, partner at the government and public relations firm Piper Smith based in Lexington, and Alicia Whatley, KYA's Senior Policy and Advocacy Director. They discuss what to expect in the 2026 legislative session, including priorities impacting kids, state budget considerations, and the realities facing the Kentucky General Assembly. Learn more about the Blueprint for Kentucky's Children 2026 priorities and more at kyyouth.org/blueprintKY. Thank you to Aetna Better Health of Kentucky for supporting the Making Kids Count Podcast. Visit AetnaMedicaidKY.com/choose to learn more about their health care benefits and programs designed with your family's wellbeing in mind.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about Michigan finding their new head coach in Kyle Whittingham, preview a full slate of college football games, a look at some Saturday NFL action, and a look ahead to the next round of the College Football Playoff! Plus, Parlay Platter, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan & Monse play Secret Santa for various figures across athletics, Jared Smith of FSR's Countdown to Kickoff Presented by BetMGM joins the show, Steve Kerr apologizes to Draymond Green after Green's actions the other night, and more! See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Geoff Schwartz preview the Hawaii Bowl. Plus, Jared Smith, Betting Analyst, Fox Sports Radio joins the show to preview Week 17 in the NFL.Get instant access to expert picks, public betting splits data, and pro betting tools when you join VSiN pro. Grab your first month for only $9.99 or take over 15% off an annual subscription when you use promo code: POD25. Click Here to get started.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Mike Harmon and Jared Smith (in for Jason Smith) open this "best of" edition of the show reacting live to the Monday Night Football game between the 49ers and Colts. NFL insider Jason La Canfora joins the show to weigh in with his own thoughts and talk about the rest of what turned out to be a wild Week 16 slate of games. Then Mike and Jared react to the news that the USC vs. Notre Dame rivalry game is ending, discussing Trojan legend Keyshawn Johnson's viral social media reaction to the news... is he right?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Harmon and Jared Smith (in for Jason Smith) open hour 4 discussing the 49ers' big Monday Night Football win over the Colts. Then they react to the news that the USC vs. Notre Dame rivalry game is ending. Do they agree with the decision, or is it detrimental to the sport?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Harmon and Jared Smith (in for Jason Smith) open hour 3 discussing Trevor Lawrence's outstanding play as of late... Is the former "generational talent" finally fulfilling his potential? They also talk about Tua Tagovailoa's future, discussing where he could ultimately end up playing next year, and react to Alabama's win over Oklahoma, previewing their next-round matchup vs. Indiana.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mike Harmon and Jared Smith (in for Jason Smith) open the show reacting live to the Monday Night Football game between the 49ers and Colts. NFL insider Jason La Canfora joins the show to weigh in with his own thoughts and talk about the rest of what turned out to be a wild Week 16 slate of games.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith continue to give live updates for college football and basketball games underway across the nation on Saturday. Plus, Tanner Morgan joins the show to talk about Saturday's college football playoff games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith start to give live updates for college football and basketball games underway across the nation on Saturday.  Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith continue to give live updates for college football and basketball games underway across the nation on Saturday. Plus, Cole Thompson joins the show to talk SEC Football and college football playoffs. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith recap Alabama's road playoff win over Oklahoma, how Alabama might fare against Indiana in the Rose Bowl, preview the rest of the upcoming CFP games on Saturday, a look at Week 16 in the NFL, and more! Plus - Parlay Platter, Prop It Up, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview NFL Week 16. Plus,  Jared Smith, Betting Analyst at Fox Sports Radio joins the show to preview the College Football Playoff. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the exclusion of Notre Dame from the 12 team college football playoff, the Sheronne Moore situation at Michigan, Philip Rivers un-retiring and joining the Colts, a quick Army-Navy preview, thoughts on Alabama - Oklahoma, and much more! Plus, Prop It Up, Parlay Platter, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview tonight's NHL games. Plus, Jared Smith joins the show to give his best bets for NFL Week 15. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Jared Smith, and Rich Ohrnberger talk about the Penn State head coaching vacancy finally being filled by Iowa State's Matt Campbell, preview all the games across Conference Championship Saturday in college football, Heisman Watch, and more! Plus - Prop It Up, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, Parlay Platter, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview Week 14 in the NFL. Plus, Jared Smith joins the show to give his best college football bets. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Ready, Set, Bet!, hosts Matt Brown and Jared Smith preview, recap, and give live updates of Saturday's College Football slate, and discuss Circa Survivor and NFL topics. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Ready, Set, Bet!, hosts Matt Brown and Jared Smith preview, recap, and give live updates of Saturday's College Football slate, discuss Horse Racing, and preview Week 13 NFL games. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Ready, Set, Bet!, hosts Matt Brown and Jared Smith preview Week 12 NFL games, and preview, recap, and give live updates of Saturday's College Football slate. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of The Contest Show, hosts Matt Brown and Jared Smith are joined by Derek Stevens, Founder and CEO of Circa Resort and Casino, and Jeff Benson, Circa Sports Director of Operations, to talk about the Circa Millions, Survivor, and Grandissimo contests. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Jared Smith, and Rich Ohrnberger discuss the future of Lane Kiffin, whether or not Texas has a legitimate CFP case, break down the Bears Black Friday win over the Eagles, if the Eagles can fix their offensive offense during the season, and more! Previews of all the games across the last Saturday of the regular season in college football, highlighted by THE GAME between Ohio State and Michigan! Plus, Parlay Platter, Follow the Money with Seamus Magee, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the latest CFP rankings as we head into the home stretch of the college football season, preview the biggest games of the day, including USC @ Oregon, Missouri @ Oklahoma, and more! Plus, Parlay Platter, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview tonight's NBA games. Plus, Jared Smith, Fox Sports Radio Betting Analyst joins the show to preview week 13 in college football.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On this Make A Difference Minute, Jared Smith shares what life looks like when both he and his wife, April, are battling colon cancer at the same time. From the fear of two diagnoses under one roof to the daily strength they draw from their faith, their family, and each other, Jared opens up about a journey no couple ever imagines. His message is honest, emotional, and filled with courage, a reminder that even in the toughest seasons, love and hope can still rise. Sponsor: Athens Bible School AthensBibleSchool.org

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith continue to give live updates for college football games underway across the nation on Saturday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith continue to give live updates for college football games underway across the nation on Saturday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this hour of Live Bet Saturday, hosts Ben Stevens and Jared Smith start to give live updates for college football games underway across the nation on Saturday. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith are back for another round on Fox Sports Radio's Countdown to Kickoff Presented by BetMGM! Recapping Clemson beating Louisville last night, previewing the biggest matchups on Saturday, and much more! Plus, Parlay Platter, Prop It Up, and Rapid Fire!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On this episode we are joined by three head baseball coaches.- Scott McGee, Willard HS in Missouri- Jared Smith, Bob Jones HS in Alabama- JM Kelly, Dodge City CC in KansasThese coaches share how they manipulate practice to challenge their athletes, what the process means to them, and so much more!Make sure to follow and leave a review.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, hosts Matt Brown and Mike Somich give out some best bets for tonight's college football games and NBA, and discuss some headlines around the NFL. Also in the hour, a preview of Thursday Night Football after Fox Sports Radio betting analyst, Jared Smith, joins the show to chat this week's college football and NFL slate. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith give their thoughts on the initial College Football Playoff rankings, and preview the biggest games across the slate in college football as the playoff picture starts to come into focus!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview tonight's NBA games. Plus, Jared Smith, Betting Analyst, FOX Sports Radio joins the show to preview Week 11 in college football.   Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Noe, Rich Ohrnberger, and Jared Smith talk about the wild ending to Game 6 in the World Series, forcing a Game 7 later tonight! Brian Kelly gets the boot at LSU, and more! Plus, previews of all the biggest games across the college football slate today, including #5 George taking on Florida, #18 Oklahoma on the road at #14 Tennessee, and #23 USC trying to get a Big Ten road win in Nebraska!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this hour of VSiN PrimeTime, Matt Brown and Mike Somich preview Game 5 of the World Series. Plus, Jared Smith, Betting Analyst, FOX Sports Radio joins the show to preview Week 10 in college football. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Take 20% off a paid annual ‘Storm' subscription through Monday, Oct. 27, 2025.WhoJared Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Alterra Mountain CompanyRecorded onOctober 22, 2025About Alterra Mountain CompanyAlterra is skiing's Voltron, a collection of super-bots united to form one super-duper bot. Only instead of gigantic robot lions the bots are gigantic ski areas and instead of fighting the evil King Zarkon they combined to battle Vail Resorts and its cackling mad Epic Pass. Here is Alterra's current ski-bot stable:Alterra of course also owns the Ikon Pass, which for the 2025-26 winter gives skiers all of this:Ikon launched in 2018 as a more-or-less-even competitor to Epic Pass, both in number and stature of ski areas and price, but long ago blew past its mass-market competitor in both:Those 89 total ski areas include nine that Alterra added last week in Japan, South Korea, and China. Some of these 89 partners, however, are so-called “bonus mountains,” which are Alterra's Cinderellas. And not Cinderella at the end of the story when she rules the kingdom and dines on stag and hunts peasants for sport but first-scene Cinderella when she lives in a windowless tower and wears a burlap dress and her only friends are talking mice. Meaning skiers can use their Ikon Pass to ski at these places but they are not I repeat NOT on the Ikon Pass so don't you dare say they are (they are).While the Ikon Pass is Alterra's Excalibur, many of its owned mountains offer their own season passes (see Alterra chart above). And many now offer their own SUPER-DUPER season passes that let skiers do things like cut in front of the poors and dine on stag in private lounges:These SUPER-DUPER passes don't bother me though a lot of you want me to say they're THE END OF SKIING. I won't put a lot of effort into talking you off that point so long as you're all skiing for $17 per day on your Ikon Passes. But I will continue to puzzle over why the Ikon Session Pass is such a very very bad and terrible product compared to every other day pass including those sold by Alterra's own mountains. I am also not a big advocate for peak-day lift ticket prices that resemble those of black-market hand sanitizer in March 2020:Fortunately Vail and Alterra seem to have launched a lift ticket price war, the first battle of which is The Battle of Give Half Off Coupons to Your Dumb Friends Who Don't Buy A Ski Pass 10 Months Before They Plan to Ski:Alterra also runs some heli-ski outfits up in B.C. but I'm not going to bother decoding all that because one reason I started The Storm was because I was over stories of Bros skiing 45 feet of powder at the top of the Chugach while the rest of us fretted over parking reservations and the $5 replacement cost of an RFID card. I know some of you are like Bro how many stories do you think the world needs about chairlifts but hey at least pretty much anyone reading this can go ride them.Oh and also I probably lost like 95 percent of you with Voltron because unless you were between the ages of 7 and 8 in the mid-1980s you probably missed this:One neat thing about skiing is that if someone ran headfirst into a snowgun in 1985 and spent four decades in a coma and woke up tomorrow they'd still know pretty much all the ski areas even if they were confused about what's a Palisades Tahoe and why all of us future wussies wear helmets. “Damn it, Son in my day we didn't bother and I'm just fine. Now grab $20 and a pack of smokes and let's go skiing.”Why I interviewed himFor pretty much the same reason I interviewed this fellow:I mean like it or not these two companies dominate modern lift-served skiing in this country, at least from a narrative point of view. And while I do everything I can to demonstrate that between the Indy Pass and ski areas not in Colorado or Utah or Tahoe plenty of skier choice remains, it's impossible to ignore the fact that Alterra's 17 U.S. ski areas and Vail's 36 together make up around 30 percent of the skiable terrain across America's 509 active ski areas:And man when you add in all U.S. Epic and Ikon mountains it's like dang:We know publicly traded Vail's Epic Pass sales numbers and we know those numbers have softened over the past couple of years, but we don't have similar access to Alterra's numbers. A source with direct knowledge of Ikon Pass sales recently told me that unit sales had increased every year. Perhaps some day someone will anonymously message me a screenshot code-named Alterra's Big Dumb Chart documenting unit and dollar sales since Ikon's 2018 launch. In the meantime, I'm just going to have to keep talking to the guy running the company and asking extremely sly questions like, “if you had to give us a ballpark estimate of exactly how many Ikon Passes you sold and how much you paid each partner mountain and which ski area you're going to buy next, what would you say?”What we talked aboutA first-to-open competition between A-Basin and Winter Park (A-Basin won); the allure of skiing Japan; Ikon as first-to-market in South Korea and China; continued Ikon expansion in Europe; who's buying Ikon?; bonus mountains; half-off friends tickets; reserve passes; “one of the things we've struggled with as an industry are the dynamics between purchasing a pass and the daily lift ticket price”; “we've got to find ways to make it more accessible, more affordable, more often for more people”; Europe as a cheaper ski alternative to the West; “we are focused every day on … what is the right price for the right consumer on the right day?”; “there's never been more innovation” in the ski ticket space; Palisades Tahoe's 14-year-village-expansion approval saga; America's “increasingly complex” landscape of community stakeholders; and Deer Valley's massive expansion.What I got wrong* We didn't get this wrong, but when we recorded this pod on Wednesday, Smith and I discussed which of Alterra's ski areas would open first. Arapahoe Basin won that fight, opening at 3 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 25, which was yesterday unless you're reading this in the future.* I said that 40 percent of all Epic, Ikon, and Indy pass partners were outside of North America. This is inaccurate: 40 percent (152) of those three passes' combined 383 partners is outside the United States. Subtracting their 49 Canadian ski areas gives us 103 mountains outside of North America, or 27 percent of the total.* I claimed that a ski vacation to Europe is “a quarter of the price” of a similar trip to the U.S. This was hyperbole, and obviously the available price range of ski vacations is enormous, but in general, prices for everything from lift tickets to hotels to food tend to be lower in the Alps than in the Rocky Mountain core.* It probably seems strange that I said that Deer Valley's East Village was great because you could drive there from the airport without hitting a spotlight and also said that the resort would be less car-dependent. What I meant by that was that once you arrive at East Village, it is – or will be, when complete – a better slopeside pedestrian village experience than the car-oriented Snow Park that has long served as the resort's principal entry point. Snow Park itself is scheduled to evolve from parking-lot-and-nothing-else to secondary pedestrian village. The final version of Deer Valley should reduce the number of cars within Park City proper and create a more vibrant atmosphere at the ski area.Questions I wish I'd askedThe first question you're probably asking is “Bro why is this so short aren't your podcasts usually longer than a Superfund cleanup?” Well I take what I can get and if there's a question you can think of related to Ikon or Alterra or any of the company's mountains, it was on my list. But Smith had either 30 minutes or zero minutes so I took the win.Podcast NotesOn Deer ValleyI was talking to the Deer Valley folks the other day and we agreed that they're doing so much so fast that it's almost impossible to tell the story. I mean this was Deer Valley two winters ago:And this will be Deer Valley this winter:Somehow it's easier to write 3,000 words on Indy Pass adding a couple of Northeast backwaters than it is to frame up the ambitions of a Utah ski area expanding by as much skiable acreage as all 30 New Hampshire ski areas combined in just two years. Anyway Deer Valley is about to be the sixth-largest ski area in America and when this whole project is done in a few years it will be number four at 5,700 acres, behind only Vail Resorts' neighboring Park City (7,300 acres), Alterra's own Palisades Tahoe (6,000 acres), and Boyne Resorts' Big Sky (5,850 acres).On recent Steamboat upgradesYes the Wild Blue Gondola is cool and I'm sure everyone from Baton-Tucky just loves it. But everything I'm hearing out of Steamboat over the past couple of winters indicates that A) the 650-acre Mahogany Ridge expansion adds a fistfighting dimension to what had largely been an intermediate ski resort, and that, B) so far, no one goes over there, partially because they don't know about it and partially because the resort only cut one trail in the whole amazing zone (far looker's left):I guess just go ski this one while everyone else still thinks Steamboat is nothing but gondolas and Sunshine Peak.On Winter Park being “on deck”After stringing the two sides of Palisades Tahoe together with a $75 trillion gondola and expanding Steamboat and nearly tripling the size of Deer Valley, all signs point to Alterra next pushing its resources into actualizing Winter Park's ambitious masterplan, starting with the gondola connection to town (right side of map):On new Ikon Pass partners for 2025-26You can read about the bonus partners above, but here are the write-ups on Ikon's full seven/five-day partners:On previous Alterra podcastsThis was Smith's second appearance on the pod. Here's number one, from 2023:His predecessor, Rusty Gregory, appeared on the show three times:I've also hosted the leaders of a bunch of Alterra leaders on the pod, most recently A-Basin and Mammoth:And the heads of many Ikon Pass partners – most recently Killington and Sun Valley:On U.S. passes in JapanEpic, Ikon, Indy, and Mountain Collective are now aligned with 48 ski areas in Japan – nearly as many as the four passes have signed in Canada:On EuropeAnd here are the European ski areas aligned with Epic, Ikon, Indy, and Mountain Collective – the list is shorter than the Japanese list, but since each European ski area is made up of between one and 345 ski areas, the actual skiable acreage here is likely equal to the landmass of Greenland:On skier and ski area growth in ChinaChina's ski industry appears to be developing rapidly - I'm not sure what to make of the difference between “ski resorts” and “ski resorts with aerial ropeways.” Normally I'd assume that means with or without lifts, but that doesn't make a lot of sense and sometimes nations frame things in very different ways.On the village at Palisades TahoeThe approval process for a village expansion on the Olympic side of Palisades Tahoe was a very convoluted one. KCRA sums the outcome up well (I'll note that “Alterra” did not call for anything in 2011, as the company didn't exist until 2017):Under the initial 2011 application, Alterra had called for the construction of 2,184 bedrooms. That was reduced to 1,493 bedrooms in a 2014 revised proposal where 850 housing units — a mix of condominiums, hotel rooms and timeshares — were planned. The new agreement calls for a total of 896 bedrooms.The groups that pushed this downsizing were primarily Keep Tahoe Blue and Sierra Watch. Smith is very diplomatic in discussing this project on the podcast, pointing to the “collaboration, communication, and a little bit of compromise” that led to the final agreement.I'm not going to be so diplomatic. Fighting dense, pedestrian-oriented development that could help reconfigure traffic patterns and housing availability in a region that is choking on ski traffic and drowning in housing costs is dumb. The systems for planning, approving, and building anything that is different from what already exists in this nation are profoundly broken. The primary issue is this: these anti-development crusaders position themselves as environmental defenders without acknowledging (or, more likely, realizing), that the existing traffic, blight, and high costs driving their resistance is a legacy of haphazard development in past decades, and that more thoughtful, human-centric projects could mitigate, rather than worsen, these concerns. The only thing an oppose-everything stance achieves is to push development farther out into the hinterlands, exacerbating sprawl and traffic.British Columbia is way ahead of us here. I've written about this extensively in the past, and won't belabor the point here except to cite what I wrote last year about the 3,711-home city sprouting from raw wilderness below Cypress Mountain, a Boyne-owned Ikon Pass partner just north of Vancouver:Mountain town housing is most often framed as an intractable problem, ingrown and malignant and impossible to reset or rethink or repair. Too hard to do. But it is not hard to do. It is the easiest thing in the world. To provide more housing, municipalities must allow developers to build more housing, and make them do it in a way that is dense and walkable, that is mixed with commerce, that gives people as many ways to move around without a car as possible.This is not some new or brilliant idea. This is simply how humans built villages for about 10,000 years, until the advent of the automobile. Then we started building our spaces for machines instead of for people. This was a mistake, and is the root problem of every mountain town housing crisis in North America. That and the fact that U.S. Americans make no distinction between the hyper-thoughtful new urbanist impulses described here and the sprawling shitpile of random buildings that are largely the backdrop of our national life. The very thing that would inject humanity into the mountains is recast as a corrupting force that would destroy a community's already-compromised-by-bad-design character.Not that it will matter to our impossible American brains, but Canada is about to show us how to do this. Over the next 25 years, a pocket of raw forest hard against Cypress' access road will sprout a city of 3,711 homes that will house thousands of people. It will be a human-scaled, pedestrian-first community, a city neighborhood dropped onto a mountainside. A gondola could connect the complex to Cypress' lifts thousands of feet up the mountain – more cars off the road. It would look like this (the potential aerial lift is not depicted here):Here's how the whole thing would set up against the mountain:And here's what it would be like at ground level:Like wow that actually resembles something that is not toxic to the human soul. But to a certain sort of Mother Earth evangelist, the mere suggestion of any sort of mountainside development is blasphemous. I understand this impulse, but I believe that it is misdirected, a too-late reflex against the subdivision-off-an-exit-ramp Build-A-Bungalow mentality that transformed this country into a car-first sprawlscape. I believe a reset is in order: to preserve large tracts of wilderness, we should intensely develop small pieces of land, and leave the rest alone. This is about to happen near Cypress. We should pay attention.Given the environmental community's reflexive and vociferous opposition to a recent proposal to repurpose tracts of not-necessarily-majestic wilderness for housing, I'm not optimistic that we possess the cultural brainpower to improve our own lives through policy. Which is why I've been writing more about passes and less about our collective ambitions to make everything from the base of the lifts outward as inconvenient and expensive as possible.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us for 20% off the annual rate through Monday, Oct. 27, 2025. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe