Podcasts about vail

Jeffrey Epstein owned multiple properties in Colorado, including a large ranch near Edwards and a mansion in Aspen, yet there was never a known state or local criminal investigation into his activities there while he was alive. Despite extensive scrutiny of his conduct in Florida, New York, New Mexico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands, Colorado authorities did not publicly pursue charges, execute high-profile searches, or announce formal inquiries related to trafficking or abuse tied to his residences in the state. Law enforcement agencies in Colorado have stated in the past that they did not receive actionable complaints during the period when Epstein maintained homes there, even as allegations elsewhere were mounting.The absence of a Colorado investigation has drawn criticism from observers who question whether Epstein's wealth, social connections, and low-profile presence in the region contributed to a lack of scrutiny. Unlike in Palm Beach or Manhattan, where documented victim reports triggered investigative action, no comparable prosecutorial effort materialized in Colorado before Epstein's 2019 arrest in New York. As a result, questions remain about whether any potential misconduct tied to his Colorado properties was ever examined in depth, or whether the state simply never received complaints that would have compelled formal action.to contact me:bobbycapucci@protonmail.comsource:Police say feds never contacted them about Epstein's Vail property | VailDaily.com

We relive the epic Vail trip. ShopMy: https://shopmy.us/shop/commentsbycelebsCodes:Leesa.com for 25% off mattresses plus get an extra $50 off with promo code COMMENTSSKIMS.com - after you place your order, be sure to let them know we sent you! Select "podcast" in the survey and be sure to select our show in the dropdown menu that followsSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Robinhood revealed the companies their VC fund invested in… because it's IPOing this month.Stanley's Quencher sales are dropping… so it's pivoting to guys, gym bags, and protein #ManlyHow do you save Colorado's worst ski season?… With one innovative fence. And a trick from Fenway park.Plus, forget Olympic gold… because a Girl Scout just set the record for most cookies ever sold: $700K$HOOD $MTN $BTCBuy tickets to The IPO Tour (our In-Person Offering) TODAYAustin, TX (2/25): SOLD OUTArlington, VA (3/11): https://www.arlingtondrafthouse.com/shows/341317 New York, NY (4/8): https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/0000637AE43ED0C2Los Angeles, CA (6/3): SOLD OUTGet your TBOY Yeti Doll gift here: https://tboypod.com/shop/product/economic-support-yeti-doll NEWSLETTER:https://tboypod.com/newsletter OUR 2ND SHOW:Want more business storytelling from us? Check our weekly deepdive show, The Best Idea Yet: The untold origin story of the products you're obsessed with. Listen for free to The Best Idea Yet: https://wondery.com/links/the-best-idea-yet/NEW LISTENERSFill out our 2 minute survey: https://qualtricsxm88y5r986q.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_dp1FDYiJgt6lHy6GET ON THE POD: Submit a shoutout or fact: https://tboypod.com/shoutouts SOCIALS:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tboypod TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@tboypodYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@tboypod Linkedin (Nick): https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolas-martell/Linkedin (Jack): https://www.linkedin.com/in/jack-crivici-kramer/Anything else: https://tboypod.com/ About Us: The daily pop-biz news show making today's top stories your business. Formerly known as Robinhood Snacks, The Best One Yet is hosted by Jack Crivici-Kramer & Nick Martell. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The boys are bring plenty of Sense, and just enough Nonsense to another rambunctious edition. We dive into pond hockey, Southwest Airline changes, skiing tales, ninja hostory, unicorns, and more. Plus the always demanded fact check and other smiles. Salut!!

Before we get philosophical, we debrief our throuple weekend in Vail after teaching at The River in Denver, including a podcasting mishap we absolutely did not plan, what we learned from a full weekend of workshops, and everything coming up next. Giana is dreaming up a new retreat, Bradshaw is diving into a restorative training, and we share more about upcoming collaborative events and teacher trainings.Then we get into it. What does “advanced” actually mean in yoga? We look at it from both the teacher and student lens and unpack how our definitions have shifted over the years. What makes an advanced teacher? Is it complexity, or the ability to create class-to-class without ego? What makes an advanced student? Is it flexibility, or nervous system regulation?We talk about the current inclination to move fast in yoga and the power of the pause. We explore teaching and practicing with versus without music, and how sometimes removing layers can create more depth. Giana reflects on how not needing music anymore feels like a personal marker of growth, especially since it once felt uncomfortable. We also explore the subtle internal markers that signal a deeper experience unfolding within the practice.Because maybe advanced is not about harder shapes. Maybe it is about subtler awareness.We also speak to those who love a sweaty feel-good workout and why that can be great, while also asking how we use practice to feel more, question more, and expand our capacity. Advanced evolves. It is personal. It is different for everyone. And it rarely looks the way we expect it to. Want to support our podcast? Join our Patreon for extra content** CHECK OUT OUR 300-HOUR PROGRAM **

In this episode of the Uplevel Dairy Podcast, Peggy Coffeen interviews Peter Vail, a prominent figure in the dairy cattle show world and the fertilizer business.  Vail recounts his career journey from starting CaroVail Fertilizer Company in 1964 to his significant investments in various dairy cattle breeds. He shares personal anecdotes about his childhood on a commercial dairy farm, his ventures in fertilizer, and his return to dairy cattle in the 1990s. Vail highlights key milestones, including the success of his family business now in its third generation, and his achievements in dairy cattle showing. At 86 years old, Vail reflects on his career, the importance of knowledge, and his enduring passion for the dairy industry.01:09 Peter Vail's Early Life and Introduction to Dairy03:10 First Experiences in Dairy Showing07:29 Transition to Fertilizer Business08:39 Challenges and Successes in the Fertilizer Industry11:18 Career Growth and Relocation15:26 Starting a New Venture18:16 The Start of CaroVail18:26 Building a Family Business19:43 Returning to Cattle19:55 High-Flying Investor Days20:45 Adventures in Cow Trading23:38 Success with Jerseys26:39 Memorable Cows and Achievements29:49 Reflections and Future Goals 30:42 Conclusion and GratitudeLink to award applications: https://dairyshrine.org/awards/Link to scholarship applications: https://dairyshrine.org/youth/#scholarLink to donate to Dairy Shrine: https://dairyshrine.org/donate/Link to YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@dairyshrine?si=dS_EVxaA1XhUXBhzInformation about webinarTopic: “Avoiding Burnout in a 24/7 Industry”Date: February 11, 2026Time: Noon CentralClick here to register: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_eTGV4PLeTe2gI4np7Lrlzg

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

This week on the Regional Roundup, we'll hear about the formation of a new federal agency: the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, and a report on so-called “death cards” found in abandoned vehicles following rumored ICE activity near Vail, Colorado. We'll also check in on an avalanche training program in Wyoming, and efforts underway to reintroduce wolverines to Colorado. Plus, a look at the dismantling of a beloved gathering place for some locals in Moab by the Bureau of Land Management, and we wrap up the show in Park City with a look at the Sundance Film Festival, the final year the festival will call Utah home before moving to Boulder, Colorado, next year.

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/science-technology-and-society

Friction, the force that resists motion, is synonymous with difficulty and complication. If you've ever replaced tires worn smooth by the road or reached for a can of WD-40 to fix a creaking door hinge, then you know the headache this force can cause. In Friction: a Biography (Harvard UP, 2026), Dr. Jennifer Vail reveals beneath the difficulty and complication a force as enigmatic and intriguing as it is central to the human story. She traces how, from the moment we first harnessed the power of fire to the Industrial Revolution and beyond, the quest to manipulate friction has driven innovation, culture, and even our own evolution. Today, as scientists study friction in the most unexpected of places, they're learning why some viruses lie dormant for years while others devastate our cells immediately; where elusive dark matter might be found; and how the climate crisis ought finally be addressed. And yet, for all they've learned, scientists still haven't cracked the greatest mystery of all: how to bridge the distinct laws that govern friction at its largest and smallest scales. Connecting the discoveries of historical luminaries like Newton, da Vinci, and the Wright brothers to the latest breakthroughs in engineering, Friction is a captivating biography of this unsung hero of the physical world. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Erik is joined by Beth Swearingen and John Tedstrom from the Vail Valley Theatre Company to preview their ambitious and joy-filled 2026 season. From big, bold productions to beloved community offerings like Valley Voices and improv—described by John as “really just games with friends”—this conversation captures the heart of what makes VVTC so special.February 7th is a community Casting Call for all shows, including Rent, Murder on the Orient Express, Rocky Road Improv, and A Christmas Carol, and talk about how VVTC has grown into more than a theatre. It's a safe space, a gathering place, and— for many— a second family.  IF you cannot make Feb 7th, never fear, there are more than enough ways to get involved.Find out more about the upcoming Casting Call HEREFind out more about Vail Valley Theatre Company HERE

In this episode Annie Fast, Oregon-based freelance writer and former professional snowboarder, joins the Ski Moms to discuss two critical barriers facing ski families: accessible childcare at resorts and mothers competing at elite levels. Annie's investigative work for Ski Area Management revealed a troubling trend of resort daycare closures post-COVID, including Vail's Small World, Jackson Hole, and Bridger Bowl facilities, while highlighting success stories at Mount Bachelor, Mount Hood Meadows, Brundage, and Tamarack with year-round programs. She explains why finding childcare information on resort websites is nearly impossible and how this impacts both visiting families and employee retention. Annie also previews her coverage of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, spotlighting Olympic moms competing with young children and the challenges of decentralized venues. The conversation covers practical advocacy tips for ski families, the reality of split-day skiing for toddlers, and why true "family-friendly" resorts must offer guest childcare. Keep up with the latest from Annie!Website: https://anniefast.contently.comInstaSHOP HEREUse Code SKIMOMS for 15% off all labels. Code is not valid on sale items or stamps. Other restrictions may apply.  There  are 4 events happening this year at: Sugarbush, Sunday River and Stratton, plus a cross country skiing event at the von Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe. Register here, spots are limited https://www.theskimoms.co/events Find your perfect family-friendly mountain stay—or list your own! 

Along with the rest of the country, Denverites are reeling from the killing of ICU nurse Alex Pretti at the hands of federal immigration agents in Minneapolis on Saturday. Host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi discuss the local reactions, including from Pretti's parents in Arvada. Plus, what's the deal with the “Ace of Spades” cards ICE agents left on detainees cars after a traffic stop outside Vail? We also talk about the new conservative-backed ballot measure to limit local law enforcement's cooperation with federal immigration agents and some good news! Longmont pizzerias are putting on a Colorado Pizza Festival in September.  Come see us live this Friday! We are the guests for Dude IDK's monthly late-night talk show Good Night Denver. It's super funny, and we'd love to see you there. Get your tickets here! Paul mentioned photographer Drew Kartos (who has photos from last weekend's protests up on his Instagram), the recent NYT/Siena poll on President Trump's immigration crackdown, this helpful history of playing cards in Vietnam, and the distinction between ICE and the Border Patrol. Bree quoted this Al Jazeera interview with a former border patrol officer.   How do you think Coloradans will vote on that ballot measure? We'd love to hear your predictions! Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418 For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Follow us on Instagram: @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm Learn more about the sponsors of this January 27th episode: Denver Art Museum Cozy Earth - Use code COZYDENVER for up to 20% off Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise

Now that host Ali Vallarta is learning to ski, she asks More Perfect Union reporter Jordan Zakarin why Vail and Alterra had to ruin all the fun. And, if city-owned ski resorts are the future? Listen more on how we could save Park City.  Get more from City Cast Salt Lake when you become a City Cast Salt Lake Neighbor. You'll enjoy perks like ad-free listening, invitations to members only events and more. Join now at membership.citycast.fm.  Subscribe to Hey Salt Lake, our daily morning newsletter. You can also find us on Instagram @CityCastSLC. Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: (801) 203-0137 Looking to advertise on City Cast Salt Lake? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads. Learn more about the sponsors of this episode:  Salt Lake Sewciety

On today's newscast: ICE and local law enforcement are investigating an incident near Vail; the city of Aspen released a list of the 12 bidders who are vying for a subsidized restaurant space at 455 Rio Grande Place; and Democrats in the Colorado legislature are at odds over how to regulate the booming data center industry.. Tune in for these stories and more.

Ever went to visit Heaven while you're still alive? Your tour guide will be medium Melinda Vail

 Jake Voss, Assistant General Manager of the Residence Inn Vail, takes Erik on a “plodcast” (yes, that's walking + podcasting and Erik is still very proud of it) through the property to explore the amenities and, more importantly, spotlight an often-overlooked community resource. With affordability and short-term housing options increasingly hard to find in the Valley, the Residence Inn offers a comfortable, flexible solution for local businesses needing temporary placements for employees and families. Jake leads the tour, Erik asks the questions, and together they unpack why this hotel is more than a place to stay — it's a practical workforce tool for our community. Learn more about the Residence Inn Vail HERE

Nick Goepper has 2 Olympic Silver and 1 Olympic Bronze in his closet and this year, in a totally new discipline, Nick is aiming to take his first gold medal home at the Milan Cortina Olympic Games. What's crazy is that 3 years ago, when Nick came out of retirement and told the world he was gunning for halfpipe gold, a lot of us thought it was a publicity stunt. But Nick knew exactly what he was doing and now, he's one of the front runners for gold.  Nick's whole life has been an underdog story and time and again and time and again and time and again and now a 4th time and again, Nick is off to compete on the biggest stage in the world.  It's part 3 with a guy who used to be my least favorite comp skier, who then became my favorite skier. Steve Stepp asks the Inappropriate Questions. Nick Goepper Show Notes: 4:00: Sports, skiing for himself, the halfpipe prophecy in Bad Gastein, social media, Vail, Pit Viper, 21:00: Ski Idaho: With 19 mountains, a ton of snow and no lift lines, why wouldn't you Visit Idaho Best Day Brewing:  All of the flavor of your favorite IPA or Kolsch, without the alcohol, the calories or sugar. 23:00: Money, mental health, retiring, divorce, and making his 4th Olympic team 38:00: Elan Skis:  Over 75 years of innovation that makes you better. Outdoor Research: Click here for 25% off Outdoor Research products (not valid on sale items or pro products) 43:00: Will he compete more, Snow League, Olympics, and what's next 47:00: Inappropriate Questions with Steve Stepp

Episode 759: Neal and Toby do a roundup of this week's big bank earnings, which showed across the board falling short of expectations…except for one. Then, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon's new movie ‘The Rip' premieres on Netflix, but it's the kind of deal they inked that could pave the way for future movie productions in the landscape of streaming. Also, Beyond Meat pivots one more time, this time, into the sports recovery drink category. Meanwhile, Vail, one of the country's biggest ski resort companies, is seeing a slow down in demand because there's simply a shortage of snow. Finally, Spotify is increasing their prices again.  Explore Indeed's full findings at https://www.indeed.com/2026hiringtrends Subscribe to Morning Brew Daily for more of the news you need to start your day. Share the show with a friend, and leave us a review on your favorite podcast app. Listen to Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.swap.fm/l/mbd-note⁠⁠⁠  Watch Morning Brew Daily Here:⁠ ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/@MorningBrewDailyShow⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

WhoJimmy Ackerson, General Manager of Corralco, ChileRecorded onJuly 24, 2025About CorralcoClick here for a mountain stats overviewLocated in: Curacautín, Araucanía, ChileYear founded: 2003, by Enrique BascurPass affiliations: Indy Pass, Indy+ Pass – 2 days, no blackoutsBase elevation: 4,724 feet (1,440 meters)Summit elevation: 7,874 feet (2,400 meters) top of lifts; 9,400 feet (2,865 meters) hike-toVertical drop: 3,150 feet (960 meters) lift-served; 4,676 feet (1,425 meters) hike-toSkiable acres: 2,475 acres lift served; 4,448 acres (1,800 hectares), including hike-to terrainAverage annual snowfall: 354 inches (899 cm)Trail count: 34Lift count: 7 (1 high-speed quad, 1 double, 5 J-bars)Why I interviewed himThe Andes run the length of South America, 4,300 miles from the southern tip of Argentina north to Venezuela. It is the longest continental mountain range on Earth, nearly six times the length of the Alps and 1,300 miles longer than the Rockies. It is the highest mountain range outside of Asia, topping out at 22,841 feet on Mount Aconcagua, more than a mile higher than the tallest point in the Rockies (14,439-foot Mount Elbert) or Alps (15,772-foot Mont Blanc).So this ought to be one hell of a ski region, right? If the Alps house more than 500 ski areas and the Rockies several hundred, then the Andes ought to at least be in the triple digits?Surprisingly, no. Of the seven nations transected by the Andes, only Argentina and Chile host outdoor, lift-served ski areas. Between the two countries, I'm only able to assemble a list of 37 ski areas, 33 of which skiresort.info categorizes as “temporarily closed” – a designation the site typically reserves for outfits that have not operated over the past several seasons.For skiers hoping to live eternal winter by commuting to the Upside Down each May through October, this roster may be a bit of a record scratch. There just aren't that many ski areas in the Southern Hemisphere. Outside of South America, the balance – another few dozen total - sit in Australia and New Zealand, with scattered novelties such as Afriski lodged at the top of Lesotho. There are probably more ski areas in New England than there are south of the equator.That explains why the U.S.-based multimountain ski passes have been slow to move into the Southern Hemisphere – there isn't much there to move into. Ikon and Mountain Collective each have just one destination on the continent, and it's the same destination: Valle Nevado. Epic offers absolutely nothing in South America.Even with few options, Vail moved south a decade ago with its purchase of Perisher, Australia's largest ski area. That English-speaking nation was a logical first pass frontier, but the five Kangaroo resorts claimed by the Epic and Ikon passes are by far the five largest in the country, and they're a 45-year flight from America. New Zealand is similarly remote, with more but generally less-developed ski areas, and Ikon has established a small presence there.But South America remains mostly wide open, despite its obvious appeal to North Americans: the majesty of the Andes, the novelty of summer skiing, and direct flights with no major timezone hopping required. Mountain Capital Partners has dropped anchor in Chile, purchasing Valle Nevado in 2023, neighboring La Parva the following year, and bidding for also-neighboring El Colorado in 2025 (that sale is pending regulatory review).But perhaps it's time for a broader invasion. Last March, Indy Pass added Corralco as its first South American – and first Southern Hemisphere – ski area. That, as Ackerson and I discuss in the podcast, could be just the start of Indy's ambitions for a continent-spanning (or at least, Argentina- and Chile-spanning) resort network.So this is a good time to start getting to know Chilean skiing. And Ackerson, longtime head of the Chilean Ski Areas Association, former leader of Chilean giants Portillo and Valle Nevado, and a Connecticut-born transplant who has been living the upside-down life for more than 50 years, is probably better suited than anyone on the planet to give us that intro.What we talked aboutReverse ski seasons; why Corralco draws (and retains) so much more snow than any other ski area in Chile; no snowmaking; Corralco as training ground for national ski teams; the logistics of moving a high-speed quad from Holiday Valley, New York to the Chilean Andes; rebuilding a lift as a longer machine; how that lift transformed Corralco; new lift, new alignment; the business impact of replacing a double chair with a high-speed quad; how a dude who grew up in Connecticut with non-skiing parents ended up running a ski area in South America; Chile's allure; Portillo; Chilean skiing past and present; Corralco's founding and evolution; shrinking South American ski areas; Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) buying four more ski areas in Chile after purchasing Valle Nevado in 2023 and La Parva in 2024; the Americans are coming; why La Parva, Valle Nevado, and El Colorado “have to be consolidated” for the benefit of future skiing in Chile; MCP's impact on Chilean skiing so far; “the culture is very different here” both on the hill and off; MCP's challenges as they settle into Chilean skiing; why Corralco joined Indy Pass; a potential Indy Pass network in South America; and getting to Corralco from the U.S., from airplane to access road – “we have no switchbacks.”What I got wrong* In the intro, I said that it was the “heart of ski season in South America.” This was true when we recorded this conversation in July 2025. It's not true in January 2026, when the Chilean ski season is long over.* I said the highest peak in Chile only received a few inches of snow per year and didn't retain it, but I couldn't remember the name of the peak – it is 22,615-foot Ojos del Salado.* I gave new stats for Corralco's high-speed quad, but did not mention where those stats came from – my source was skiresort.info, which catalogues a 4,921-foot length and 1,148-foot vertical drop for the lift, both substantially longer than the 4,230-foot length and 688-foot vertical rise that Lift Blog documents for the antecedent Mardi Gras lift at Holiday Valley, New York. We discuss the logistics and mechanics of moving this machine from North to South America and extending it in the pod. Here are a few pics of this machine I took in New York in January 2022:Podcast NotesOn Corralco's evolving footprintCorralco is a new-ish ski area, at least insofar as public access goes. The 2008 trailmap shows a modest vertical drop served by surface lifts:But growth has been rapid, and by 2022, the ski area resembled modern Corralco, which is now an international training center for athletes:On Camp Jewel, ConnecticutAckerson learned to ski on a two-tow bump called Camp Jewell, a YMCA center in Connecticut. NELSAP has some fun info on this defunct ski area, including photos of what's left of the lifts.On Sigi GrottendorderAckerson's conduit to South American skiing came in the form of Austrian-born Sigi Grottendorfer, who led the ski schools at both Sugarbush, Vermont and Portillo, Chile. He passed away in 2023 – The Valley Reporter ran an obituary with more info on Grottendorfer's expansive and colorful life.On Chile “five years after the coup had occurred”We reference past political instability in Chile, referring to the 1973 coup that launched the military dictatorship of the notorious Augusto Pinochet. The nation transitioned back to democracy in 1990 and is considered safe and stable for tourists by the U.S. State Department.On PortilloWe discuss Portillo, a Chilean ski area whose capacity limits and weeklong ski-and-stay packages result in Windham-is-private-style (it's not) confusion. Skiers can visit Portillo on a day pass. Lift tickets are all of $68. Still, the hotel experience is, by all accounts, pretty rad. Here's the bump:On previous podcastsWe mention a few previous podcast guests who had parallels to Ackerson's story. Bogus Basin GM Brad Wilson also left skiing for several years to run a non-ski resort:Longtime Valle Nevado GM Ricardo Margolis appeared on this podcast in 2023:On the shrinking of Volcán Osorno and PillánI won't reset the entire history here, but I broke down the slow shrinkage of Volcán Osorno and Pillán ski areas when Mountain Capital Partners bid to purchase them last year:On Kamori Kankō buying HeavenlyFor a brief period, Japanese company Kamori Kankō owned Steamboat and Heavenly. The company sold both to American Skiing Company in 1997, and they eventually split owners, with Heavenly joining Vail's roster in 2002, and Steamboat now part of Alterra by way of Intrawest. Today, Kamori Kankō appears to operate five ski areas in Japan, all in Hokkaido, most notably Epic Pass partner Rusutsu:On MCP's free season passes for kids 12 and underOne pretty cool thing that Mountain Capital Partners has brought to Chile from its U.S. HQ is free season passes for kids 12 and under. It's pretty incredible:On Sugarbush Ackerson worked for a long time at Sugarbush, an Alterra staple and one of the best overall ski areas in New England. It's a fully modern resort, with the exception of the knockout Castle Rock terrain, which still spins a double chair on all-natural snow:On skiing El ColoradoWe discuss the insane, switchbacking access road up to El Colorado/La Parva/Valle Nevado from Santiago:The route up to Corralco is far more suited to mortals:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

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In this podcast episode, Dr. Jonathan H. Westover talks with Mindy Vail about creating a supportive environment for organizational change. Mindy Vail has more than two decades of experience in leadership development, change management, education, and public speaking. Working with emerging leaders to veteran executives, her focus is cultivating a growth mindset and fostering resilience. Her new book, The Mindshift Effect: Where Change Management Is Redefined and Leadership Is Defined (April 16, 2024), provides a wellspring of inspiration for leading meaningful organizational change.  Check out all of the podcasts in the HCI Podcast Network!

A Year of Adventure: Why 2025 Set the Bar High2025 was stacked. International trips, deep dives into U.S. cities, mountain towns, beach escapes, national parks, and friendships that only happen when you travel together. From Europe to the Caribbean to coast-to-coast U.S. adventures, this year reminded us why we started The Travel Brats in the first place:Travel opens doors—to places, people, and moments you never forget. 

For episode 207, Phil Waidner is our guest – Now if you read the title, it says West Virginia Mountain Biking and the Arrowhead Bike Farm – This is where Phil Lives and what Phil does, but how he got here is a whole lot of different stories. Phil took us from Indiana to Ashville, to China to Bolivia, to Vail Colorado and finally to Fayetteville, WV. He's had a lot of different roles in the mountain bike community that span from Tour Guide / Instructor to Leading Teen Trail Corps for NICA and a ton more. There's so much to unpack about this conversation that an intro just won't do it justice. Topics Include: Phil Waidner Back Story Heading to China to guide for climbing and mountain biking Getting a job as a mountain bike guide in Bolivia Transitioning back to the U.S. as a ski instructor in Vail, CO. Moving to West Virginia to take a role as the Wheels Program Manager at the Summit Bechtel Reserve Boy Scout Camp Getting the keys to a brand new 35-mile trail system at the Summit Bechtel Reserve The importance of Trail Maintenance Hired by NICA to run the Teen Trail Corps – Nationwide The success of NICA Teen Trail Corps Coming onboard at the Arrowhead Bike Farm in Fayetteville, WV Arrowhead Bike Farm Backstory What the Arrowhead Bike Farm is and what they do there (lots!) Mountain Biking in the New River Gorge Region The uniqueness of West Virginia Events and Festivals in the region What Phil looks for in trail communities Closing Comments Bonus Bolivia Content Trail EAffect Show Links: Arrowhead Bike Farm: https://arrowheadbikefarm.com/ West Virginia Mountain Bike Association: https://wvmba.com/ Summit Bechtel Reserve: https://www.summitbsa.org/ Gravity Bolivia: https://www.gravitybolivia.com/   Show Support By: Outdoor Marketing Bootcamp: https://www.outdoormarketingbootcamp.com/ KETL Mtn Apparel Affiliate Link: https://ketlmtn.com/josh Trail One Components: https://trailone.bike/josh Smith's Bike Shop – 130 Years of Excellence: www.smithsbikes.com Trail EAffect Podcast Website: www.traileaffectpodcast.com   Contact Josh at evolutiontrails@gmail.com This Podcast has been edited and produced by Evolution Trail Services

Real difficulties can be overcome; it is only the imaginary ones that are unconquerable. - Theodore Vail Check out John Lee Dumas' award winning Podcast Entrepreneurs on Fire on your favorite podcast directory. For world class free courses and resources to help you on your Entrepreneurial journey visit EOFire.com

Happy New Year and Welcome to another year of pairing some great spirits together! For this show, the Boys sip on bottles that both came from Drew's shelf: The 10th Anniversary American Single Malt from 10th Mountain, which was bought at the gift shop during a trip to Vail, CO, and the Cambio Tequila Blanco Cellar Series - #4 El Corazon, which was purchased at Sabor y Cultura in Chicago.  Come along as the Boys rant on Dry January, Drew recommendations more Christmas movies, Joby Holland of Fourche Creek lends his musical talents, there are some fantastic QuickSips™ and so much more! You might not be able to find these exact bottles, but you can definitely get the regular American Single Malt from 10th Mtn and the regular Blanco from Cambio (which the boys cannot recommend enough).  So scoop 'em up, invite your friends, listen and sip along, and as always: Make It A Happy Friday!™

We are very excited to have Dawn Vail speak at our services to open 2026. She and her husband, Ted, have long been leaders and high contributors towards the local and global ministry of our Foursquare denomination. Dawn has served in pastoral ministry in numerous cities where she taught Scripture and formed disciples. Her husband presently serves as the Vice President of Foursquare, which causes them to travel around the world to continue ministry in the name of Jesus. Dawn is a deeply kind and caring human, and we're thrilled to have her among us. We've previously heard from Ted and now we get to receive from Dawn! What a kind gift.

It takes a village to raise an Olympic hopeful. And sometimes, that village has to change ZIP codes. Brooklyn DePriest is a snowboarder for Team USA, hoping to make his Olympic debut at the 2026 Milan-Cortina Games. He competes in slopestyle. Brooklyn grew up in Northern California in a Sacramento-area suburb called Rocklin. The DePriests spent their winter weekends in Tahoe. Brooklyn's snowboarding talent quickly became apparent as competitions would result in him standing on podiums. By the time he was 12, his parents were advised that their son had the potential to go pro and maybe even go to the Olympics. The catch? He'd need to move for more specialized coaching. The problem? The entire DePriest family loved their home and neighborhood in Rocklin. "There were probably about 10 families involved in the neighborhood," Brooklyn DePreist said. We would ride to school on our bikes and skateboards every single day. We all played the same sport, so we were on the same sports teams." Neither of Brooklyn's parents came from a winter sports background. "The coaches are telling us, like, he has real talent, but we're like, does he? I don't know," Courtney DePriest, Brooklyn's mom, said. The DePriests made the tough decision to relocate to Vail, Colorado, where both their sons could attend a good school while Brooklyn pursued his Olympic goals. Seven years later, Brooklyn DePriest is a contender to compete at the 2026 Winter Olympics. This is one of the most candid conversations I've ever had with an athlete's parents about the sacrifice entire families make to follow Olympic dreams. On this Dying to Ask: The Road to Milan-Cortina: How the DePriests made the call to go all-in on Brooklyn's snowboarding future when he was only 12 The pressure young athletes feel to perform when their parents sacrifice so much How Olympic hopefuls handle the mental health challenges of injuries Learn tricks to calm your brain while your body is healing And did they or didn't they? The DePriests reveal whether they purchased Olympic tickets before knowing whether or not their kid has made the team     Other places to listen CLICK HERE to listen on iTunes CLICK HERE to listen on Stitcher CLICK HERE to listen on Spotify See more coverage of top California stories here | Download our app | Subscribe to our morning newsletter | Find us on YouTube here and subscribe to our channel  

At our Longmont training event, Pastor Nate Morris explores the heart behind preaching and the practical movements that help us communicate Scripture faithfully. Opening with a story about waiting tables, Nate reminds us that preachers do not invent the meal. We carry what God has already prepared and deliver it with care. This session combines pastoral insight, clear structure, and encouragement for anyone who wants to handle God's word well.About Pastor Nate MorrisNate Morris is the lead pastor of Mountain Life Calvary Chapel, a multi location church serving Vail, Gypsum, and Glenwood Springs, Colorado. He and his wife Jen live in the Colorado mountains with their children Caleb, Zoe, and Josiah. Having grown up in the mountains himself, Nate has a deep passion to see mountain communities reached and transformed by the gospel.He hosts Truth and Love with Nate and Jen Morris and is a regular contributor to Mountain Life Church's Unscripted podcast. You can learn more at mountainlife.church, follow @natemorris1, or visit pastorn8.com.Speaking with the Weight of Scripture1 Peter 4:11 calls those who speak to speak as those delivering God's words. Nate anchors the room in this reminder: preaching is a sacred trust. Our role is not to improve the message but to carry it faithfully, just as a good waiter brings a prepared meal without dropping the plate.Two Questions That Shape Every SermonWhere am I taking them?Preaching needs a clear destination shaped by the passage itself.How do we get there?Listeners need a guided path. Structure is one of the ways we serve them well.Caring for Souls Through the WordNate highlights the preacher's pastoral task: understanding people's real needs and showing how the gospel addresses them. As Samuel Brengle observed, the truth in Jesus brings healing to every kind of spiritual condition. Preaching becomes an act of care as we discern and apply Scripture wisely.Five Movements That Help People Follow the Message1. IntroductionHelp listeners orient themselves to the theme and direction of the passage.2. NecessitationShow why the message matters and surface the tension the text resolves.3. ExpositionOpen the Scriptures carefully. Let the text drive the content.4. ApplicationInvite people to respond. Show what trust, obedience, or repentance looks like in daily life.5. InspirationLeave listeners with hope in Christ, not pressure to perform.Tools That Support Clear and Helpful DeliveryHumour, illustrations, vulnerability, inflection, and physical movement can all help the message connect, provided they serve the text rather than distract from it.Working Heartily, Depending FullyNate ends by reminding us that preaching is both labour and reliance.Colossians 3:23 calls us to work heartily for the Lord, while Augustine's well known line captures the balance: pray as though everything depends on God, work as though everything depends on you.For information about our upcoming training events visit ExpositorsCollective.com Join our private Facebook group to continue the conversation: https://www.facebook.com/groups/ExpositorsCollective

With the night terror cast away, Amirah takes a well earned nap. Blinx, happy that his friends are safe, makes a request of Rivic. And Poppy makes a discovery about La'Vail. Before Poppy can confront her, there is an explosion from outside. Probably nothing right? Right!? Find out this episode, the 2025 closer!

Send us a textWhat if the song inside of you is the very thing someone else needs to survive their hardest moment?In this episode, Stellar Award–nominated singer, speaker, and storyteller Doreen Vail takes us deep into the sacred intersection of music, healing, and calling. Her voice has comforted people in their final days, lifted men sitting behind prison walls, and opened hearts that had almost given up on joy.Doreen shares powerful stories from nursing homes, hospital rooms, and prisons—moments where God used her voice to bring peace, dignity, and hope when words weren't enough. She reminds us that healing doesn't always look dramatic. Sometimes it sounds like a single note. A whispered lyric. A song breathed into a quiet room.Doreen invites you to see your voice - spoken or sung as a gift meant to be shared. Not polished. Not perfect. Just offered.This episode will stir something in you. It will make you listen differently. And it might awaken a song you've been holding inside for too long.Listen in and discover what healing sounds like. 

WhoRyan Brown, Director of Golf & Ski at The Mountaintop at Grand Geneva, WisconsinRecorded onJune 17, 2025About the Mountaintop at Grand GenevaClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Marcus HotelsLocated in: Lake Geneva, WisconsinYear founded: 1968Pass affiliations: NoneClosest neighboring U.S. ski areas: Alpine Valley (:23), Wilmot Mountain (:29), Crystal Ridge (:48), Alpine Hills Adventure Park (1:04)Base elevation: 847 feetSummit elevation: 962 feetVertical drop: 115 feetSkiable acres: 30Average annual snowfall: 34 inchesTrail count: 21 (41% beginner, 41% intermediate, 18% advanced)Lift count: 6 (3 doubles, 1 ropetow, 2 carpets)Why I interviewed himOf America's various mega-regions, the Midwest is the quietest about its history. It lacks the quaint-town Colonialism and Revolutionary pride of the self-satisfied East, the cowboy wildness and adobe earthiness of the West, the defiant resentment of the Lost Glory South. Our seventh-grade Michigan History class stapled together the state's timeline mostly as a series of French explorers passing through on their way to somewhere more interesting. They were followed by a wave of industrial loggers who mowed the primeval forests into pancakes. Then the factories showed up. And so the state's legacy was framed not as one of political or cultural or military primacy, but of brand, the place that stamped out Chevys and Fords by the tens of millions.To understand the Midwest, then, we must look for what's permanent. The land itself won't do. It's mostly soil, mostly flat. Great for farming, bad for vistas. Dirt doesn't speak to the soul like rock, like mountains. What humans built doesn't tell us a much better story. Everything in the Midwest feels too new to conceal ghosts. The largest cities rose late, were destroyed in turn by fires and freeways, eventually recharged with arenas and glass-walled buildings that fail to echo or honor the past. Nothing lasts: the Detroit Pistons built the Palace of Auburn Hills in 1988 and developers demolished it 32 years later; the Detroit Lions (and, for a time, the Pistons) played at the Pontiac Silverdome, a titanic, 82,600-spectator stadium that opened in 1976 and came down in 2013 (37 years old). History seemed to bypass the region, corralling the major wars to the east and shooing the natural disasters to the west and south. Even shipwrecks lose their doubloons-and-antique-cannons romance in the Midwest: the Great Lakes most famous downed vessel, the SS Edmund Fitzgerald, sank into Lake Superior in 1975. Her cargo was 26,535 tons of taconite ore pellets. A sad story, but not exactly the sinking of the Titanic.Our Midwest ancestors did leave us one legacy that no one has yet demolished: names. Place names are perhaps the best cultural relics of the various peoples who occupied this land since the glaciers retreated 12,000-ish years ago. Thousands of Midwest cities, towns, and counties carry Native American names. “Michigan” is derived from the Algonquin “Mishigamaw,” meaning “big lake”; “Minnesota” from the Sioux word meaning “cloudy water.” The legacies of French explorers and missionaries live on in “Detroit” (French for “strait”), “Marquette” (17th century French missionary Jacques Marquette), and “Eau Claire” (“clear water”).But one global immigration funnel dominated what became the modern Midwest: 50 percent of Wisconsin's population descends from German, Nordic, or Scandinavian countries, who arrived in waves from the Colonial era through the early 1900s. The surnames are everywhere: Schmitz and Meyer and Webber and Schultz and Olson and Hanson. But these Old-Worlders came a bit late to name the cities and towns. So they named what they built instead. And they built a lot of ski areas. Ten of Wisconsin's 34 ski areas carry names evocative of Europe's cold regions, Scandinavia and the Alps:I wonder what it must have been like, in 18-something-or-other, to leave a place where the Alps stood high on the horizon, where your family had lived in the same stone house for centuries, and sail for God knows how many weeks or months across an ocean, and slow roll overland by oxen cart or whatever they moved about in back then, and at the end of this great journey find yourself in… Wisconsin? They would have likely been unprepared for the landscape aesthetic. Tourism is a modern invention. “The elite of ancient Egypt spent their fortunes building pyramids and having their corpses mummified, but none of them thought of going shopping in Babylon or taking a skiing holiday in Phoenicia [partly in present-day Lebanon, which is home to as many as seven ski areas],” Yuval Noah Harari writes in Sapiens his 2015 “brief history of humankind.” Imagine old Friedrich, who had never left Bavaria, reconstituting his world in the hillocks and flats of the Midwest.Nothing against Wisconsin, but fast-forward 200 years, when the robots can give us a side-by-side of the upper Midwest and the European Alps, and it's pretty clear why one is a global tourist destination and the other is known mostly as a place that makes a lot of cheese. And well you can imagine why Friedrich might want to summon a little bit of the old country to the texture of his life in the form of a ski area name. That these two worlds - the glorious Alps and humble Wisconsin skiing - overlap, even in a handful of place names, suggests a yearning for a life abandoned, a natural act of pining by a species that was not built to move their life across timezones.This is not a perfect analysis. Most – perhaps none – of these ski areas was founded by actual immigrants, but by their descendants. The Germanic languages spoken by these immigrant waves did not survive assimilation. But these little cultural tokens did. The aura of ancestral place endured when even language fell away. These little ski areas honor that.And by injecting grandiosity into the everyday, they do something else. In coloring some of the world's most compact ski centers with the aura of some of its most iconic, their founders left us a message: these ski areas, humble as they are, matter. They fuse us to the past and they fuse us to the majesty of the up-high, prove to us that skiing is worth doing anywhere that it can be done, ensure that the ability to move like that and to feel the things that movement makes you feel are not exclusive realms fenced into the clouds, somewhere beyond means and imagination.Which brings us to Grand Geneva, a ski area name that evokes the great Swiss gateway city to the Alps. Too bad reality rarely matches up with the easiest narrative. The resort draws its name from the nearby town of Lake Geneva, which a 19th-century surveyor named not after the Swiss city, but after Geneva, New York, a city (that is apparently named after Geneva, Switzerland), on the shores of Seneca Lake, the largest of the state's 11 finger lakes. Regardless, the lofty name was the fifth choice for a ski area originally called “Indian Knob.” That lasted three years, until the ski area shuttered and re-opened as the venerable Playboy Ski Area in 1968. More regrettable names followed – Americana Resort from 1982 to '93, Hotdog Mountain from 1992 to '94 – before going with the most obvious and least-questionable name, though its official moniker, “The Mountaintop at Grand Geneva” is one of the more awkward names in American skiing.None of which explains the principal question of this sector: why I interviewed Mr. Brown. Well, I skied a bunch of Milwaukee bumps on my drive up to Bohemia from Chicago last year, this was one of them, and I thought it was a cute little place. I also wondered how, with its small-even-for-Wisconsin vertical drop and antique lift collection, the place had endured in a state littered with abandoned ski areas. Consider it another entry into my ongoing investigation into why the ski areas that you would not always expect to make it are often the ones that do.What we talked aboutFighting the backyard effect – “our customer base – they don't really know” that the ski areas are making snow; a Chicago-Milwaukee-Madison bullseye; competing against the Vail-owned mountain to the south and the high-speed-laced ski area to the north; a golf resort with a ski area tacked on; “you don't need a big hill to have a great park”; brutal Midwest winters and the escape of skiing; I attempt to talk about golf again and we're probably done with that for a while; Boyne Resorts as a “top golf destination”; why Grand Geneva moved its terrain park; whether the backside park could re-open; “we've got some major snowmaking in the works”; potential lift upgrades; no bars on the lifts; the ever-tradeoff between terrain parks and beginner terrain; the ski area's history as a Playboy Club and how the ski hill survived into the modern era; how the resort moves skiers to the hill with hundreds of rooms and none of them on the trails; thoughts on Indy Pass; and Lake Geneva lake life.What I got wrongWe recorded this conversation prior to Sunburst's joining Indy Pass, so I didn't mention the resort when discussing Wisconsin ski areas on the product.Podcast NotesOn the worst season in the history of the MidwestI just covered this in the article that accompanied the podcast on Treetops, Michigan, but I'll summarize it this way: the 2023-24 ski season almost broke the Midwest. Fortunately, last winter was better, and this year is off to a banging start.On steep terrain beneath lift AI just thought this was a really unexpected and cool angle for such a little hill. On the Playboy ClubFrom SKI magazine, December 1969:It is always interesting when giants merge. Last winter Playboy magazine (5.5 million readers) and the Playboy Club (19 swinging nightclubs from Hawaii to New York to Jamaica, with 100,000 card-carrying members) in effect joined the sport of skiing, which is also a large, but less formal, structure of 3.5 million lift-ticket-carrying members. The resulting conglomerate was the Lake Geneva Playboy Club-Hotel, Playboy's ski resort on the rolling plains of Wisconsin.The Playboy Club people must have borrowed the idea of their costumed Bunny Waitress from the snow bunny of skiing fame, and since Playboy and skiing both manifestly devote themselves to the pleasures of the body, some sort of merger was inevitable. Out of this union, obviously, issued the Ultimate Ski Bunny – one able to ski as well as sport the scanty Bunny costume to lustrous perfection.That's a bit different from how the resort positions its ski facilities today:Enjoy southern Wisconsin's gem - our skiing and snow resort in the countryside of Lake Geneva, with the best ski hills in Wisconsin. The Mountain Top at Grand Geneva Resort & Spa boasts 20 downhill ski runs and terrain designed for all ages, groups and abilities, making us one of the best ski resorts in Wisconsin. Just an hour from Milwaukee and Chicago, our ski resort in Lake Geneva is close enough to home for convenience, but far enough for you and your family to have an adventure. Our ultimate skier's getaway offers snowmaking abilities that allow our ski resort to stay open even when there is no snow falling.The Mountain Top offers ski and snow accommodations, such as trolley transportation available from guest rooms at Grand Geneva and Timber Ridge Lodge, three chairlifts, two carpet lifts, a six-acre terrain park, excellent group rates, food and drinks at Leinenkugel's Mountain Top Lodge and even night skiing. We have more than just skiing! Enjoy Lake Geneva sledding, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing too. Truly something for everyone at The Mountain Top ski resort in Lake Geneva. No ski equipment? No problem with the Learn to Ride rentals. Come experience The Mountain Top at Grand Geneva and enjoy the best skiing around Lake Geneva, Wisconsin.On lost Wisconsin and Midwest ski areasThe Midwest Lost Ski Areas Project counts 129 lost ski areas in Wisconsin. I've yet to order these Big Dumb Chart-style, but there are lots of cool links in here that can easily devour your day.The Storm explores the world of North American lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

What if Forrest Gump taught a six-year-old how to never worry about money again? In this episode, Jerremy Newsome shares how watching Forrest Gump at age six sparked a question that changed everything: "What does it mean to not have to worry about money?" That question led him to pick blackberries door-to-door, earning $1,500 that his dad matched to buy $3,000 worth of Apple stock in 1995. While those shares would be worth $39 million today, Jerremy sold them in 2000 for $12,000. That early win, and the lesson from selling too soon, ignited a 20-year journey mastering liquid markets. Now Jerremy helps people understand stocks, options, crypto, and other "liquid markets" using what he calls "second grade math" to achieve financial freedom. He shares the story of Jordan, a police officer making $80,000 a year who recently made more in one month trading than his entire monthly salary. But Jerremy's impact goes beyond teaching trading. When he stood up at a Vail event and matched $40,000 in donations for blind and special needs children learning to ski, he didn't just change those kids' lives. He turned a skeptic named Preston Brown into a lifelong friend and business ally. Jerremy reveals how meeting his wife at a Tony Robbins event, connecting with business partner Brittany Turner through Instagram, and operating from abundance instead of scarcity has created a life where impact matters more than income.   [00:04:00] The Forrest Gump Moment That Changed Everything At age six, watching Forrest Gump with his dad and brother when Lieutenant Dan "invested in some kind of fruit company" Growing up poor, hearing someone didn't have to worry about money was a huge paradigm shift Asked his dad what investing meant, learned about Apple as a computer company Dad gave every excuse: "I don't have time, I'm not smart enough, I don't have enough money" [00:05:20] Picking Blackberries to Buy Apple Stock Dad said "If you bring me some money, I'll match it dollar for dollar" Jerremy's favorite quote: "It's not your resources, it's your resourcefulness" Picked blackberries, sold them door-to-door for a dollar a bag in summer 1995 Made $1,500, dad borrowed from uncle to match, bought $3,000 of Apple at exact bottom [00:06:00] The $39 Million Lesson Those shares today worth about $39 million Sold them in 2000 for $12,000 when family moved from Georgia to Florida Dad called it "the best investment, the best trade I'd ever make my whole life" Got $12,000 at age 12 and has been studying markets "like a heathen" ever since [00:07:00] From History Teacher Dream to Teaching Financial Freedom Wanted to be history teacher since fourth grade, teacher said "You don't get paid any money" Has blend of entrepreneur spirit and teacher spirit Loves learning unique things and teaching them simply because that's how he learns Teaches "liquid markets": stocks, options, crypto, futures, bonds, gold, silver, commodities [00:08:00] Making Complex Things Simple What motivates him: helping people understand complex subjects and explaining them easily When someone learns something and it clicks, that energizes him more than anything Teaches "second grade math to how to become financially free as quick as possible" If you have access to internet, you have access to income once you have knowledge and tools [00:09:20] Jordan the Police Officer's Transformation Started working with Jordan 7-8 months ago, police officer in Northern California making $80,000/year Jordan said police officers are massively undertrained, don't have equipment/knowledge for wide array of situations Last month Jordan made more trading than his monthly salary Made $12,000 net on $60,000 account (20% return in one month) [00:11:20] From Scarcity to Abundance Jordan paying off debts, taking wife and kids to Disneyland Using money to feel abundant, taste prosperity, be in place of creation versus fear Most people find themselves in scarcity when it comes to money The opportunity to create income exists every single day in the stock market [00:12:20] Giving People Choices and Freedom Jordan now realizes he has choices and options For entrepreneurs doing $500K-$3M, you're in the swamp: making enough to do well but not enough to be free Mindset shift from "I have to work to make money" to "I get to create to attract more value" Making (grinding energy) versus attracting/receiving/creating (different energy) [00:15:40] Two People Who Changed Everything His wife: Met at Tony Robbins UPW event November 4, 2012 in Orlando Brittany Turner: Reached out via Instagram in February 2020 through mutual connection Both have helped him heal, expand, and step into greatness [00:16:00] Meeting His Wife at Tony Robbins Boss said "you really should go to this Tony Robbins event called UPW" Met his wife at Unleash the Power Within in Orlando Took 12 years to figure it out, got married about five years ago Have three boys together, she's helped him expand and step into greatness [00:17:00] The Brittany Turner Partnership Needed real estate specialist for his Money Grows on Trees conference Sent Brittany Turner video via Instagram DM in February 2020 In coming-up-on-six-year relationship: organizations built, purpose stepped into, islands, investments, opportunities Alignment with someone who brings joy, understanding, and awareness of more into your life [00:18:40] The Web of Million Dollar Connections Brittany introduced him to Ané Gupta (relationship specialist) Ané introduced him to Chuck Hogan who ran Your Best Life mastermind Chuck's mastermind had three main members: Chuck, Dean, and Preston Brown Got asked to speak at event in Vail, Colorado in February 2022 [00:19:40] The $80,000 Donation That Changed a Relationship Organization helping blind and special needs kids learn to ski said "$5,000 would change our whole life" Preston Brown admittedly didn't like Jerremy before they met Jerremy stood up and said "I will match every donation given today" Room raised over $40,000, Jerremy matched $40,000 for $80,000 total to Little Champions [00:21:00] From Skeptic to Lifelong Friend Preston came up afterwards, gave hug: "You are my guy, that reminded me of Christ" "Between me and you, we'll be friends for life" Preston has given so much business, referrals, opportunities since Coming to Vegas this weekend with 40 entrepreneurs for "radical business" [00:23:00] When Making More Money Ceases to Inspire Kevin: Once family needs are met, making more money ceased to inspire him Having conversations with entrepreneurs, making introductions that lead to big deals, that's what inspires It's not the revenue, it's the impact Les Brown taught Jerremy: "Your income is directly tied to your impact" [00:25:40] Connecting with Jerremy Name spelled J-E-R-R-E-M-Y (stands for Jerry + Me, his dad's name was Jerry) Newsome: N-E-W-S-O-M-E.com All social media platforms, look for blue verified check mark Broke to Woke podcast with Brittany Turner (six seasons, 24 episodes, season seven coming) [00:27:00] Ask For More Awareness of what's possible comes by asking for more It's okay to want more so you can offer more, provide more, give more God is the God of infinite, receiving more doesn't take away from anyone else "Those who knock, door is opened" - ask for more and change your awareness   KEY QUOTES "It's not your resources, it's your resourcefulness. That's probably what entrepreneurship is." - Jerremy Newsome "If you have access to the internet, you have access to income once you have the knowledge and the skills and the tools." - Jerremy Newsome "The secret to living is giving, and one of the best things to give is the gift of a relationship." - Jerremy Newsome "Your income is directly tied to your impact. You wanna make more, figure out a way to impact more." - Les Brown (quoted by Jerremy) CONNECT WITH JERREMY NEWSOME 

We're welcoming special guest Paul Karolyi, podcast veteran and Senior Executive Producer of City Cast Denver! Paul is catching us up on The Denver-est Denver Awards, presented by City Cast Denver this Thursday at the Oriental Theatre!   If you want to attend, head to their website to purchase tickets, or subscribe to the Real Good Denver Newsletter for your chance to win a free pair! Sign up at realgooddenver.com   As always, we've got the top Denver news and things to do on our radar this week as well.   Follow RGD: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8u8GmvBi6th6LOOMCuwJKw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/real_good_denver/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realgooddenver   Do you have a Denver event, cause, opening, or recommendation that you want to share with us? We want to hear from you! Tell us what's good at tom@kitcaster.com. We're opening up early access to a custom Denver job alert program through our newsletter thanks to https://www.jobstreamai.com/. Sign up at realgooddenver.com to be the first to know when it's ready!! News & Events: Probabilistic Snow Forecast This week Steamboat, Eldora, Vail and Copper are the places to be! House For The Holidays @ Two Moons City Cast Denver - Denverest Denver Awards @ The Oriental Theatre ETH Denver Registration Den Thai Grand Opening   Shout Outs: City Cast Denver Den Thai Grand Opening Los Dos Potrillos Phatt Matts Rockmount Ranchwear   Our Sponsors: Motor Street 360 Telescope Mapping   ​​Music produced by Troy Higgins Goodboytroy.com  

WhoMike Giorgio, Vice President and General Manager of Stowe Mountain, VermontRecorded onOctober 8, 2025About StoweClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail Resorts, which also owns:Located in: Stowe, VermontYear founded: 1934Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass: unlimited access* Epic Local Pass: unlimited access with holiday blackouts* Epic Northeast Value Pass: 10 days with holiday blackouts* Epic Northeast Midweek Pass: 5 midweek days with holiday blackouts* Access on Epic Day Pass All and 32 Resort tiers* Ski Vermont 4 Pass – up to one day, with blackouts* Ski Vermont Fifth Grade Passport – 3 days, with blackoutsClosest neighboring U.S. ski areas: Smugglers' Notch (ski-to or 40-ish-minute drive in winter, when route 108 is closed over the notch), Bolton Valley (:45), Cochran's (:50), Mad River Glen (:55), Sugarbush (:56)Base elevation: 1,265 feet (at Toll House double)Summit elevation: 3,625 feet (top of the gondola), 4,395 feet at top of Mt. MansfieldVertical drop: 2,360 feet lift-served, 3,130 feet hike-toSkiable acres: 485Average annual snowfall: 314 inchesTrail count: 116 (16% beginner, 55% intermediate, 29% advanced)Lift count: 12 (1 eight-passenger gondola, 1 six-passenger gondola, 1 six-pack, 3 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip quad, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 2 carpets)Why I interviewed himThere is no Aspen of the East, but if I had to choose an Aspen of the East, it would be Stowe. And not just because Aspen Mountain and Stowe offer a similar fierce-down, with top-to-bottom fall-line zippers and bumpy-bumps spliced by massive glade pockets. Not just because each ski area rises near the far end of densely bunched resorts that the skier must drive past to reach them. Not just because the towns are similarly insular and expensive and tucked away. Not just because the wintertime highway ends at both places, an anachronistic act of surrender to nature from a mechanized world accustomed to fencing out the seasons. And not just because each is a cultural stand-in for mechanized skiing in a brand-obsessed, half-snowy nation that hates snow and is mostly filled with non-skiers who know nothing about the activity other than the fact that it exists. Everyone knows about Aspen and Stowe even if they'll never ski, in the same way that everyone knows about LeBron James even if they've never watched basketball.All of that would be sufficient to make the Stowe-is-Aspen-East argument. But the core identity parallel is one that threads all these tensions while defying their assumed outcome. Consider the remoteness of 1934 Stowe and 1947 Aspen, two mountains in the pre-snowmaking, pre-interstate era, where cutting a ski area only made sense because that's where it snowed the most. Both grew in similar fashion. First slowly toward the summit with surface lifts and mile-long single chairs crawling up the incline. Then double chairs and gondolas and snowguns and detachable chairlifts. A ski area for the town evolves into a ski area for the world. Hotels a la luxe at the base, traffic backed up to the interstate, corporate owners and $261 lift tickets.That sounds like a formula for a ruined world. But Stowe the ski area, like Aspen Mountain the ski area, has never lost its wild soul. Even buffed out and six-pack equipped and Epic Pass-enabled, Stowe remains a hell of a mountain, one of the best in New England, one of my favorite anywhere. With its monster snowfalls, its endless and perfectly spaced glades, its never-groomed expert zones, its sprawling footprint tucked beneath the Mansfield summit, its direct access to rugged and forbidding backcountry, Stowe, perhaps the most western-like mountain in the East, remains a skier's mountain, a fierce and humbling proving ground, an any-skier's destination not because of its trimmings, but because of the Christmas tree itself.Still, Stowe will never be Aspen, because Stowe does not sit at 8,000 feet and Stowe does not have three accessory ski areas and Stowe the Town does not grid from the lift base like Aspen the Town but rather lies eight miles down the road. Also Stowe is owned by Vail Resorts, and can you just imagine? But in a cultural moment that assumes ski area ruination-by-the-consolidation-modernization-mega-passification axis-of-mainstreaming, Aspen and Stowe tell mirrored versions of a more nuanced story. Two ski areas, skinned in the digital-mechanical infrastructure that modernity demands, able to at once accommodate the modern skier and the ancient mountain, with all of its quirks and character. All of its amazing skiing.What we talked aboutStowe the Legend; Vail Resorts' leadership carousel; ascending to ski area leadership without on-mountain experience; Mount Brighton, Michigan and Midwest skiing; struggles at Paoli Peaks, Indiana; how the Sunrise six-pack upgrade of the old Mountain triple changed the mountain; whether the Four Runner quad could ever become a six-pack; considering the future of the Lookout Double and Mansfield Gondola; who owns the land in and around the ski area; whether Stowe has terrain expansion potential; the proposed Smugglers' Notch gondola connection and whether Vail would ever buy Smuggs; “you just don't understand how much is here until you're here”; why Stowe only claims 485 acres of skiable terrain; protecting the Front Four; extending Stowe's season last spring; snowmaking in a snowbelt; the impact and future of paid parking; on-mountain bed-base potential; Epic Friend 50 percent off lift tickets; and Stowe locals and the Epic Pass.What I got wrongOn detailsI noted that one of my favorite runs was not a marked run at all: the terrain beneath the Lookout double chair. In fact, most of the trail beneath this mile-plus-long lift is a market run called, uh, “Lookout.” So I stand corrected. However, the trailmap makes this full-throttle, narrow bumper – which feels like skiing on a rising tide – look wide, peaceful, and groomable. It is none of those things, at least for its first third or so.On skiable acres* I said that Killington claimed “like 1,600 acres” of terrain – the exact claimed number is 1,509 acres.* I said that Mad River Glen claimed far fewer skiable acres than it probably could, but I was thinking of an out-of-date stat. The mountain claims just 115 acres of trails – basically nothing for a 2,000-vertical-foot mountain, but also “800 acres of tree-skiing access.” The number listed on the Pass Smasher Deluxe is 915 acres.On season closingsI intimated that Stowe had always closed the third weekend in April. That appears to be mostly true for the past two-ish decades, which is as far back as New England Ski History has records. The mountain did push late once, however, in 2007, and closed early during the horrible no-snow winter of 2011-12 (April 1), and the Covid-is-here-to-kill-us-all shutdown of 2020 (March 14).On doing better prepI asked whether Stowe had considered making its commuter bus free, but it, um, already is. That's called Reeserch, Folks.On lift ticket ratesI claimed that Stowe's top lift ticket price would drop from $239 last year to $235 this coming season, but that's inaccurate. Upon further review, the peak walk-up rate appears to be increasing to $261 this coming winter:Which means Vail's record of cranking Stowe lift ticket rates up remains consistent:On opening hoursI said that the lifts at Stowe sometimes opened at “7:00 or 7:30,” but the earliest ski lift currently opens at 8:00 most mornings (the Over Easy transit gondola opens at 7:30). The Fourrunner quad used to open at 7:30 a.m. on weekends and holidays. I'm not sure when mountain ops changed that. Here's the lift schedule clipped from the circa 2018 trailmap:On Mount Brighton, Michigan's supposed trashheap legacyI'd read somewhere, sometime, that Mount Brighton had been built on dirt moved to make way for Interstate 96, which bores across the state about a half mile north of the ski area. The timelines match, as this section of I-96 was built between 1956 and '57, just before Brighton opened in 1960. This circa 1962 article from The Livingston Post, a local paper, fails to mention the source of the dirt, leaving me uncertain as to whether or not the hill is related to the highway:Why you should ski StoweFrom my April 10 visit last winter, just cruising mellow, low-angle glades nearly to the base:I mean, the place is just:I love it, Man. My top five New England mountains, in no particular order, are Sugarbush, Stowe, Jay, Smuggs, and Sugarloaf. What's best on any given day depends on conditions and crowding, but if you only plan to ski the East once, that's your list.Podcast NotesOn Stowe being the last 1,000-plus-vertical-foot Vermont ski area that I featured on the podYou can view the full podcast catalogue here. But here are the past Vermont eps:* Killington & Pico – 2019 | 2023 | 2025* Stratton 2024* Okemo 2023* Middlebury Snowbowl 2023* Mount Snow 2020 | 2023* Bromley 2022* Jay Peak 2022 | 2020* Smugglers' Notch 2021* Bolton Valley 2021* Hermitage Club 2020* Sugarbush 2020 with current president John Hammond | 2020 with past owner Win Smith* Mad River Glen 2020* Magic Mountain 2019 | 2020* Burke 2019On Stowe having “peers, but no betters” in New EnglandWhile Stowe doesn't stand out in any one particular statistical category, the whole of the place stacks up really well to the rest of New England - here's a breakdown of the 63 public ski areas that spin chairlifts across the six-state region:On the Front Four ski runsThe “Front Four” are as synonymous with Stowe as the Back Bowls are with Vail Mountain or Corbet's Couloir is with Jackson Hole. These Stowe trails are steep, narrow, double-plus-fall-line bangers that, along with Castlerock at Sugarbush and Paradise at Mad River Glen, are among the most challenging runs in New England.The problem is determining which of the double-blacks spiderwebbing off the top of Fourrunner are part of the Front Four. Officially, the designation has always bucketed National, Liftline, Goat, and Starr together, but Bypass, Haychute, and Lookout could sub in most days. Credit to Stowe for keeping these wild trails intact for going on a century, but what I said about them “not being for the masses” on the podcast wasn't quite accurate, as the lower portions of many - especially Liftline - are wide, often groomed, and not particularly treacherous. The best end-to-end trail is Goat, which is insanely steep and narrow up top. Here's part of Goat's middle-to-lower section, which is mellower but a good portrayal of New England bumpy, exposed-dirt-and-rocks gnar, especially at the :19 mark:The most glorious ego boost (or ego check) is the few hundred vertical feet of Liftline directly below Fourrunner. Sound on for scrapey-scrape:When the cut trails get icy, you can duck into the adjacent glades, most of which are unmarked but skiable. Here, I bailed into the trees skier's left of Starr to escape the ice rink:On Vail Resorts' leadership shufflesTwelve of Vail's 37 North American ski areas began the 2024-25 ski season with a different leader than they ended the 2023-24 ski season with. This included five of the company's New England resorts, including Stowe. Giorgio, in fact, became the ski area's third general manager in three winters, and the fourth since Vail acquired the ski area in 2017. I asked Giorgio about this, as a follow up to a similar set of questions I'd laid out for Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz in August:I may be overthinking this, but check this out: between 2017 and 2024, Vail Resorts changed leadership at its North American ski areas more than 70 times - the yellow boxes below mark a new president-general-manager equivalent (red boxes indicate that Vail did not yet own the ski area):To reset my thinking here: I can't say that this constant leadership shuffle is inherently dysfunctional, and most Vail Resorts employees I speak with appreciate the company's upward-mobility culture. And I consistently find Vail's mountain leaders - dozens of whom I have hosted on this podcast - to be smart, earnest, and caring. However, it's hard to imagine that the constant turnover in top management isn't at least somewhat related to Vail Resorts' on-the-ground reputational issues, truncated seasons at non-core ski areas (see Paoli Peaks section below), and general sense that the company's arc of investment bends toward its destination resorts.On Peak ResortsVail purchased all of Peak Resorts, including Mount Snow, where Giorgio worked, in 2019. Here's that company's growth timeline:On Vernon Valley-Great GorgeThe ski area now known as Mountain Creek was Vernon Valley-Great Gorge until 1997. Anyone who grew up in the area still calls the joint by its legacy name.On Paoli Peaks versus Perfect NorthMy hope is that if I complain enough about Paoli Peaks, Vail will either invest enough in snowmaking to tranform it into a functional ski area or sell it. Here are the differences between Paoli's season lengths since 2013 as compared to Perfect North, its competitor that is the only other active ski area in the state:What explains this longstanding disparity, which certainly predates Vail's 2019 acquisition of the ski area? Paoli does sit southwest of Perfect North, but its base is 200 feet higher (600 feet, versus 400 for Perfect), so elevation doesn't explain it. Perfect does benefit from a valley location, which, longtime GM Jonathan Davis told me a few years back, locks in the cold air and supercharges snowmaking. The simplest answer, however, is probably the correct one: Perfect North has built one of the most impressive snowmaking systems on the planet, and they use it aggressively, cranking more than 200 guns at once. At peak operations, Perfect can transform from green grass to skiable terrain in just a couple of days.So yes, Perfect has always been a better operation than Paoli. But check this out: Paoli's performance as compared to Perfect's has been considerably worse in the five full seasons of Vail Resorts' ownership (excluding 2019-20), than in the six seasons before, with Perfect besting Paoli to open by an average of 21 days before Vail arrived, and by 31 days after. Perfect's seasons lasted an average of 25 days longer than Paoli's before Vail arrived, and 38 days longer after:Yes, Paoli is a uniquely challenged ski area, but I'm confident that someone can do a better job running this place than Vail has been doing since 2019. Certainly, that someone could be Vail, which has the resources and institutional knowledge to transform this, or any ski area, into a center of SnoSportSkiing excellence. So far, however, they have declined to do so, and I keep thinking of what Davis, Perfect North's longtime GM, said on the pod in 2022: “If Vail doesn't want [its ski areas in Indiana and Ohio], we'll take them!”On the 2022 Sunrise Six replacement for the tripleIn 2022, Stowe replaced the Mountain triple chair, which sat up a flight of steep steps from the parking lot, with the at-grade Sunrise six-pack. It was the kind of big-time lift upgrade that transforms the experience of an entire ski area for everyone, whether they use the new lift or not, by pulling skiers toward a huge pod of underutilized terrain and away from longtime alpha lifts Fourrunner and the Mansfield Gondola.On Fourrunner as a vert machineStowe's Fourruner high-speed quad is one of the most incredible lifts in American skiing, a lightspeed-fast base-to-summit, 2,040-vertical-foot monster with direct access to some of the best terrain west of A-Basin.The highest vert total in my 54-day 2024-25 ski season came (largely) courtesy of this lift - and I only skied five-and-a-half hours:On Stowe-Smuggs proximity and the proposed gondola and a long drive in winterAdventurous skiers can skin or hike across the top of Stowe's Spruce Peak and ski down into the Smugglers' Notch ski area. An official ski trail once connected them, and Smuggs proposed a gondola connector a couple of years back. If Vail were to purchase sprawling Smuggs, a Canyons-Park City mega-connection – while improbable given local environmental lobbies -could instantly transform Stowe into one of the largest ski areas in the East.On Jay Peak's big snowmaking upgradesI referenced big offseason snowmaking upgrades for water-challenged (but natural-snow blessed), Jay Peak. I was referring to this:This season brings an over $1.5M snowmaking upgrade that's less about muscle and more about brains. We've added 49 brand new HKD Low E air-water snowmaking guns—32 on Queen's Highway and 17 on Perry Merrill. These aren't your drag-'em-out, hook-'em-up, hope-it's-cold-enough kind of guns. They're fixed in place for the season and far more efficient, using much less compressed air than the ones they replace. Translation: better snow, less energy.On Perry Merrill, things get even slicker. We've installed HKD Klik automated hydrants that come with built-in weather stations. The second temps hit 28 degrees wetbulb, these hydrants kick on automatically and adjust the flow as the mercury drops. No waiting, no guesswork, no scrambling the crew. The end result? Those key connecting trails between Tramside and Stateside get covered faster, which means you can ski from one side to the other—or straight back to your condo—without having to hop on a shuttle with your boots still buckled. …It's all part of a bigger 10-year snowmaking plan we're rolling out—more automation, better efficiency, and ultimately, better snow for you to ski and ride on.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

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Pierre Turgeon, 2023 Hockey Hall of Fame inductee and one of only 48 players in NHL history to score 500 goals, joins Neil and Vic for an intimate Hall of Fame Edition conversation. From representing Canada in the Little League World Series alongside Stefan Matteau to scoring 132 points in his best NHL season, Turgeon reflects on his remarkable 19-year career. He shares memories of the Dale Hunter hit, the emotional closing of the Montreal Forum, playing alongside legends, and the personal tragedy that changed his perspective on life and gratitude.IN THIS EPISODE:[00:00] - Pierre Turgeon joins as the latest Hockey Hall of Fame Edition guest, one of 48 players with 500+ career goals.[01:00] - The quirky connection: playing for the Granby Bisons in junior hockey, then getting drafted by the Buffalo Bisons (Sabres).[02:00] - Early comfort in Buffalo: Jacques Cloutier as a fellow French-speaker helping ease the transition to the NHL.[03:00] - The incredible 1985-86 junior season: 114 points as a 16-year-old despite the team having four different head coaches.[04:00] - The meditation of hockey: being in the moment on the ice where nothing else matters - pure presence in the bubble.[05:00] - Little League World Series glory: representing Canada with Stefan Matteau, both 11-year-old pitchers alternating, finishing fourth.[06:00] - Playing at 5'11" as an 11-year-old, pitching in front of 25,000 fans, and the hero's welcome at the airport back home.[08:00] - Life in Colorado and Florida: visiting three kids and grandkids in Denver, spending time in Vail, embracing the Rockies and sports culture.[09:00] - The Dale Hunter hit in 1993 playoffs: scoring the series-clinching goal against Washington, the controversial blind-side hit, and Hunter's later apology.[10:00] - Al Arbor's leadership magic: making the Islanders believe they could beat Pittsburgh in 1993, winning Game 7 on David Volek's overtime goal.[11:00] - Dressing for Game 7 with one shoulder, ready to play overtime despite the injury, learning from Arbor's wisdom.[12:00] - Junior hockey connections: playing with Stefan Richer and Stephan Quintal, now skating together in Florida.[14:00] - The hilarious Stefan Richer story: "Can't tell" his name at a Boston diner leading to confused locals with heavy accents.[15:00] - Clark Gillies' impact: the intimidating beard in Buffalo, later becoming a great friend and storyteller on Long Island.[16:00] - Six years with Benoit Hogue: playing together in Buffalo, New York (Islanders), and Dallas - lifelong friendship.[17:00] - The Clint Malarchuk incident, March 22, 1989: witnessing hockey's worst accident, the army medic trainer's quick response saving a life.[19:00] - Hall of Fame journey: first eligible in 2010, inducted in 2023 - the platform to thank people who helped along the way.[22:00] - Playing only 104 games for the Canadiens but being honored with the most memorable moment of his career.[24:00] - March 11, 1996: The closing of the Montreal Forum, the seven-minute standing ovation for Maurice Richard, walking the red carpet.[25:00] - Being the final Canadiens captain to exit the Forum: receiving the torch from Butch Bouchard, Jean Beliveau, and the legends.[26:00] - Family sacrifice: time away from family, the support system, coaching kids' hockey after retiring.[27:00] - The unimaginable tragedy: losing daughter Jenna at 18 in a car accident in 2010, two years stuck in mud, learning to live with loss.[29:00] - Giving back all the highlights: the Hall of Fame, the goals, the captaincy - all of it for one more moment with her.[30:00] - Living in the moment: appreciating birds, branches, trees, mountains, water - finding beauty in small things and embracing gratitude.[31:00] - Golf as connection with nature: competitive but...

Send us a textWhat if the person you fear, avoid, or misunderstand is the person whose story could change you?In this episode, Stellar Award–nominated singer, speaker, and storyteller Doreen Vail explores what happens when we cross the lines that separate us and discover connection in unexpected places.Doreen shares why most of us enter rooms guarded, why authenticity is rare, and what allows someone to finally exhale and be fully themselves. She names the shift that happens when we stop meeting each other as “the other” and start seeing each other as human.You'll hear her reflect on: • How authenticity changes the atmosphere • Why belonging is a universal need • What heals us when we show up honestly • How curiosity dismantles fearThis conversation is warm, honest, and deeply human. It will challenge you to ask:Who have I labeled as “the other,” and what small step could I take toward them today?Listen in. Let your heart stretch.

Adam and Greg are joining us from Comedy Church SLC alongside their local promoter Jessie from Vortexx Events to talk about their upcoming comedy show: "Christmas - A Comedy Show for the Ex-Religious". Hear how they're working together to put on the event at the newly revamped Federal Theatre!   As always, we've got the top Denver news and things to do on our radar this week as well. Follow RGD: YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8u8GmvBi6th6LOOMCuwJKw Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/real_good_denver/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realgooddenver   Do you have a Denver event, cause, opening, or recommendation that you want to share with us? We want to hear from you! Tell us what's good at tom@kitcaster.com. We're opening up early access to a custom Denver job alert program through our newsletter thanks to https://www.jobstreamai.com/. Sign up at realgooddenver.com to be the first to know when it's ready!!   Special Guest Jessie, Adam, and Greg   Christmas -- A Comedy Show for the Ex-Religious   Comedy Church - Salt Lake City   Vortexx Events     News & Events:   Probabilistic Snow Forecast This week Steamboat, Eldora and Vail are the places to be!   fulhouse.io and their Congress Park Townhome Sweepstakes!   Light Haus V6 @ The Marigold   House For The Holidays @ Two Moons   Youth on Record Holiday Party @ Two Moons   City Cast Denver - Denverest Denver Awards @ The Oriental Theatre     Promo   New Year's Eve party from our friends over at Drink Denver     Shout Oust:   https://fulhouse.io/   telescopemapping.com   City Cast Denver   Youth on Record   ​​Music produced by Troy Higgins   Goodboytroy.com  

Ryan Sutter's name is usually connected with a reality TV show, but before the phrase "Trista and Ryan" became a household phrase, Ryan was a Vail firefighter who grew up in Fort Collins, played football at the University of Colorado as a walk on and was drafted by the Baltimore Ravens. His NFL career didn't last very long, in fact on the field it was just a few seconds of a regular season game and jumping around to a few teams. Ryan also played in NFL Europe before calling it quits and becoming a fire fighter in Vail. Then the rest of his story began as a friend volunteered his name to be a contestant on a new show called the Bachelorette. He had no interest in being on a reality TV show, but went to Los Angeles anyway. Turns out he was the last one standing and married Trista in a lavish made-for-TV wedding. Today Ryan is a Denver firefighter, he and Trista are navigating raising two teenagers and are still getting pulled back into reality TV appearances here and there. To learn more about the host Susie Wargin, visit www.SusieWargin.com

“What is your passion? Why are you doing this?” In this episode, Nick speaks with Vincent Wanga about the intersection of creativity, entrepreneurship, and leadership. Vince shares his unique journey through the creative industry, discussing the challenges and advantages of being an insomniac and how it has shaped his work ethic. What to listen for: Insomnia can be both a challenge and a competitive advantage. Leadership requires sacrifice and understanding of employee dynamics. Passion and purpose are essential for sustainable entrepreneurship. Vision is crucial for effective leadership and business success. Scaling a business requires preparation and understanding of resources. Failure is a necessary part of the learning process. Creatives must balance their artistic mindset with business skills. “Everything that I do is passion and purpose-rooted. And that should be your first mission.” When you anchor decisions in passion, you can more naturally stay motivated during the hard parts of the journey Purpose brings clarity, so you waste less time chasing things that don't matter. Leading with what lights you up often creates the most authentic and sustainable success. Passion-driven work tends to attract the right people and opportunities without forcing it. Starting with purpose sets the tone for how you show up. “Creatives have a visionary mindset. So why can’t creatives be those same CEOs? We just lack the business acumen.” Creativity is the foundation of innovation. Many creatives underestimate how transferable their skills are to leadership. Visionary thinkers often make better long-term strategists than traditional operators. When creatives embrace structure and systems, they become unstoppable leaders. About Vincent Wanga Vince is a dynamic international design thought leader, creative keynote speaker, award-winning creative and executive, author of “The Art of Direction,” serial entrepreneur, and experienced brand consultant with an exceptional range of expertise over a distinguished two-decade career. As former vice president and head of creative for one of the fastest-growing technology startups in North America, he oversaw corporate brand strategy and creative during unprecedented company growth from pre-Series A to an over $1 billion “unicorn” valuation. Vince lives in Washington, DC, and Asheville, NC, with his dog, Okello. When he is not working on new business ventures, he passionately travels the world, collecting creative inspiration at the finest boutique hotels rewards points can buy. https://www.vincentwanga.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/vincent-wanga/ Resources: Check out other episodes about creativity and entrepreneurship: Creativity Within Us All With Joe Tertel Post Traumatic Growth, When Trauma Makes You Stronger And More Creative With Christian Ray Flores Interested in starting your own podcast or need help with one you already have? Send Nick an email or schedule a time to discuss your podcast today! https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/contact/ Thank you for listening! Please subscribe on iTunes and give us a 5-Star review! https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-mindset-and-self-mastery-show/id1604262089 Listen to other episodes here: https://themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com/ Watch Clips and highlights: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCk1tCM7KTe3hrq_-UAa6GHA Guest Inquiries right here: podcasts@themindsetandselfmasteryshow.com Your Friends at “The Mindset & Self-Mastery Show” Click Here To View The Episode Transcript Nick McGowan (00:01.507)Hello and welcome to the Mindset and Self Mastery Show. I’m your host, Nick McGowan. Today on the show we have Vince Wanga. Vince, how you doing today? Vincent Wanga (00:11.372)I’m doing all right, Nick. I’m looking forward to our conversation and thanks for having me on. Nick McGowan (00:15.618)Yeah, absolutely. I’m excited, man. I think this is gonna be fun. I know there’s a lot that you’ve been through, a lot that you’ve done. One of the biggest reasons why I wanted to have you on the show was to be able to talk about creativity and how it ties into us as people, but also into the systems that we’re in, like the capitalistic system, our family systems, all those things. I grew up as a creative in a… not a typical creative house, so to say. So it felt a little weird, but that was the system that I was in. And then you get into jobs, you get into your career, and like, how do you do all that stuff? And that was one of the things that really stood out to me about having you on. So I’m gonna stop talking. Why don’t you kick us off? Tell us what you do for a living, and what’s one thing that most people don’t know about you that’s maybe a little odd or bizarre? Vincent Wanga (01:00.142)Well, thank you. I am in a weird place in my career because I’m transitioning. I have been a creative at the highest levels and the lowest levels for 20 years. Started as an intern, worked my way up through the agency world, stints as a freelance independent operator working for clients all over the world to owning my own agency and having that unique experience as a business owner and operator. and all the responsibilities that come with managing employees and being responsible for payroll and profit and loss and the other side of the industry, as well as becoming a senior executive and top 100, well, first 100 employees for a billion dollar tech startup and a crazy transformational journey. So I only preface that to say I’ve done it all in so many different industries. I’ve worked with so many different sectors, in-house, freelance. agency, you name it in the creative sector, I’ve done it. And I think that offers me a lot of perspective and advice that I can offer to people, whether you’re creative or not, particularly in the aspects of leadership, which is something I really focus on at this point in my career. But as I mentioned, I’m in a major transition away from creative and more into my real core ethos, which is entrepreneurship and taking all that creative talent, marketing, business acumen into my own businesses and consulting and other opportunities to really express my creativity in a different way. So it’s a really exciting paradigm for me. As far as something that’s really unique about me, I could wax philosophic on that. But I think the most unique thing is I am an insomniac. I get an inhuman amount of sleep and it has been a very difficult, like physical manifestation in my life because that’s not healthy, but it has been an incredible. competitive advantage in my career, where I’m able to work day and night and create businesses on a weekend and maximize my time. But as I get older, the other side of the coin starts catching up and trying to figure out how to adjust as I move forward is a new paradigm I’m dealing with. But that’s one of many unique things about me. Nick McGowan (03:16.459)Wow, I’m really glad that you consider that a unique thing. that you see that as a… there’s kind of a silver lining that you look at that instead of some people saying like, well I just… I’m struggling with this thing. It sounds like even the personality that you have, like you’ll go, well I am kind of struggling but it is what it is and this is what it is. Then I could do something with it. And it’s funny how as you get older, things will shift and change just across the board. I mean we could have a whole fucking episode just about like the specific changes that happen from your knees and your back and the way you think about things. or whatever you don’t mean I wonder at times with the people that are insomniacs that it’s something that they actually kind of crave and it’s like a mental thing where like I want to keep going and I think about it from this perspective In the human design way I’m a generator and I have to use all of my energy every day So by the end of the day there are times where I’m like I’m totally done. It’s nine o’clock at night I guess I’ll go to sleep because I’m done for the day and like all the energy’s out other times It’s like three or four in the morning and it is what it is But for the people that… Nick McGowan (04:27.617)can hear that and say, well, you’re just trying to hustle and just trying to use all that to get ahead and do the grind and all that stuff. I’m reading between the lines and a little bit I know about you so far, that’s not the case with you. So it’s more of one of those like, I do these things because I’m led to do these things, but I also have a really hard time sleeping. So how do you manage that going through each day and saying like, all right, well, I got whatever amount of sleep and my body needs more, but I also have a lot of mental energy where it’s like you can feel the physical of like, man, I’m just fucking dragging. But my brain’s still going and like that must take a toll on you. I could imagine, you know, you have a week of that. Most people would just be driven insane. So how do you how do you manage that? Vincent Wanga (05:12.344)Yeah, and I think, you know, this reminds me of that. I think it was a New Yorker editorial cartoon that had a building in Manhattan with lights on. And it said these three lights are either a drug dealer, serial killer or creative. Right. We’re the only ones up at 3 a.m. So I don’t think it’s as unique within the creative realm. But I think what makes me unique is the duality that I’m up all night in human hours, but I’m also functional in the morning. Like I’ve stayed up for 72 hours before. Nick McGowan (05:25.854)Yeah. Nick McGowan (05:37.93)Hmm. Vincent Wanga (05:40.718)on deadlines and things that push beyond human norms and are completely unhealthy, but have also, again, like I said, been an advantage historically in my career. think the way my brain is wired, and I think a lot of critics can resonate with this, is I’m my most creative and intellectual at night. I could spend the same amount of time and energy between nine to five on the same thing, and that… You know, error of time, I could achieve better results in an hour at 3am. It’s just the way these ideas flow in my mind. It’s the same mindset for anyone who can’t relate where like CEOs get up early in the morning and take a bike ride or do a run. And then they come back to the office and now they got a new product idea that everybody’s got to scramble to do. It’s the CEO brain, but it just kicks on at the wrong time. but it is, it is a burden, because it’s not healthy. And unfortunately there’s, there’s Nick McGowan (06:30.472)You Vincent Wanga (06:39.982)long-term cognitive effects that happen on that and there’s a diminishing return. But I think the most important point here is that I didn’t want to be this way. This is something that evolved from my artist background where I would the only time I had to myself and peace and quiet to create was at night. It started kind of rewiring my brain and then I went to college long story short got kicked out because of money and found myself with my career over before it even started. So I had to hustle and work twice as hard as everybody else just to get started. I started at a deficit. So I always maximize my time in order to try to achieve the results that I needed to get back into the industry. And then the third thing I think people can resonate with is if you’re an entrepreneur, it’s this paranoia when you go to sleep and you don’t want to wake up with bills. You don’t want to wake up with problems. You just want to stay up and solve everything that you can. you could have $10,000 in your bank account for that week and still feel insecure. And I think that just keeps me up at night constantly hustling and hoping that that hustle prevents the worst case scenario from happening. So it’s just this convolutions of things that are part of my experiences and my mindset. But it has been an advantage up until about now where I’m kind of paying the health effects of it, but it’s helped me become incredibly successful. And I think that’s a unique. perspective for me. Nick McGowan (08:09.086)I love when conversations head this way. I’ll ask that question every single episode. So everybody listens. They’re used to that question being asked. But I love when that question invokes us going down a different path for the conversation. Obviously, we were going to talk about creativity and leadership, and that just jives with us both. But that’s a really important thing, I think, to get into because you had neural pathways that were literally changed. And you created these paths so, so many years ago saying, like, everybody leave me the hell alone. Great, you’re all asleep. Everybody’s left me alone. I get to do the thing I want to do. And then you turn that, especially as an agency, for anybody that’s been in any sort of agency, imagine running around with your hair on fire, 15 other people having their hair on fire, and somebody just yelling at you constantly, and you’re constantly late on things that you’re actually pretty much on time for with your projects. And that’s like a typical Tuesday in most agencies. And that will drive you Vincent Wanga (08:41.592)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (09:08.848)to have more those neural pathways change because then you have to do things at night. Dude, I’ve been in the same spot where it’s like we have this thing coming up, somebody sent this thing back to me and it’s time for me to QA it or just basically give it once through. Seven hours later you have to do a complete re-haul or whatever and from a leader’s perspective you have to love on that person and help them and work through them. You can’t just go and physically slap them in the back of head and go, the fuck? That’s my first question, you know? So as a creative, I’m right there with you. think a lot of us do have that. Nocturnal energy almost to be able to create but I wonder if a lot of that does come from like when you were in middle school or high school like Just everybody leave me alone. Like when your parents tell you like go to your room. You’re like, thank God awesome now Will you all just stay can I lock the door and like just paint or whatever? I want to do and then that turns into the the systems that we’re in that tell us you have to grind you have to hustle and I I just wonder about how many people are still stuck in that because they don’t see the patterns of, well, I’m having a hard time with this. Like, you see that there’s a pattern with you being an insomniac. But how do you actually combat that, work on that, and not drive yourself crazy each and every day, you know? Vincent Wanga (10:31.522)Yeah, I think that’s a challenge. I think there’s a few ways I can approach that question. One, I really loved your point about the sacrifice of leadership. I think a lot of people underestimate that. It’s like the swan analogy, where it’s calm and collected at the top, but your feet are vigorously swimming and kicking. I think people who are employees and check in nine to five and their check clears on Monday when it’s payday. don’t understand the sacrifice sometimes that their leadership have to make to make that happen. And part of that is that paranoia that we deal with every single day. You know, I also think, you know, I’m highly functional introvert. So I love the quiet time that that allows me to think and to process and to execute on. But I also love that quote. I hope I’m not misquoting them. I think it was by Warren Buffett who said it took me 10 years to be an overnight success. There is no skipping the grind, the hustle. Nick McGowan (11:13.436)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (11:25.959)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (11:28.258)the sacrifice, know, your family hates you and you don’t see people enough and your friends are wondering if you’re okay. And that’s what it takes to build business, to build legacy, to build anything. So whether I had this unique deposition to work on godly hours or not, I think people find the will in the way because there’s no shortcuts around that to success. And that’s what you got to do. And if you’ve got a nine to five job, well, guess what? Now you got to work five to nine. and find the time that you need to execute on something. And I think it’s more of an entrepreneur’s brain than a creative’s brain. again, like I said, it’s been advantageous in ways and disadvantageous in others. Nick McGowan (12:07.259)I think they actually tie together though, the creativity and the entrepreneurship. I’ve met, god I can’t even put numbers to the amount of entrepreneurs I’ve met over the course of time, but I could probably say in one hand that the people that weren’t really creative and… Vincent Wanga (12:17.667)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (12:24.125)definitely told me like I am not creative at all. But then when you look at their processes, how they handle situations, all of it is just oozing creativity. They’re just not creative in the medium of painting or graphic design or web or whatever it is, but they’re still being creative in how they handle it. Shit, even leaders that are like, okay, well I know if I yell at you as a creative, you’re not gonna do the work that you need to do and you’re probably gonna hate it here. So how do I talk to you nicely about it? That is a creative approach. approach to it where you’ve been in spots, I’ve been in spots where somebody clearly didn’t take that spot and they just yelled at you about the thing because they’re hurt or they’re upset and they can’t manage themselves and they’re just diving it at you. But there is a lot of creativity that ties into that. And I think there’s a lot of people that talk about being an entrepreneur with really a hobby in a sense and not understanding that basic principles of entrepreneurship is you just have various means of income and you just work on things as a creative. You can sit down and work on things for six hours and you think, shit, I was doing this for two hours, but six hours later, I’ve been standing here, I’ve been working through this thing. And I want to dive deeper into this because I don’t want people to think that you’re saying to them, you just need to grind. No matter what you’re feeling, what you’re doing, just shut up and grind. That’s not the case. But how do you balance that? Because I know people that literally they take that ethos and just say, well, this is who I am. And it’s in a It’s a false way for them instead of being able to say like this is who I am because man I’m just so passionate about this thing that I eat sleep and dream this because this is my purpose in the world instead of saying well the system tells us this and my god I got a mortgage and these mouths to feed and whatever else it’s like you have to shift from that so how do you shift from that? How did you? Vincent Wanga (14:15.714)Man, I think that’s such a good point. I think too many people get enamored with the grind part, right? That’s what they teach you in investment banking. That’s what they teach you in all these other segments. Just grind and the reward will come and they’ll dangle this carrot in front of you that somehow disappears on your journey, right? Entrepreneurship’s very similar. And I’ll just say, this is the hardest shit in the world, like next to raising a child. Like it is incredibly difficult and that’s… Nick McGowan (14:37.446)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (14:42.102)what discourages most people. But I think the point that you made that was really excellent is you first have to have a purpose. What is your passion? Why are you doing this? Never have I thought when I’m in an entrepreneurial pursuit and I’m working, you know, 18 hours a day, did I ever feel burnt out? Isn’t that interesting that I can go to a typical corporate job and after five hours just can’t wait to leave, but I’ll work nonstop on my own thing and never feel burnt out. I have stress maybe related to money or something. but it’s not work stress. And I think that’s because everything that I do is passion and purpose rooted. And that should be your first mission. Don’t do this thing because you think it’s going to make you rich. You know, start that brewery because you love beer, you love the science of beer, and that you realize that by getting into that business, you are now an agriculture. You’re a farmer. You need to know about hops and the process and supply chain and fermentation. And you are a chemist and you got to figure out the right, you know, balance in order to have the best beer in the world. Otherwise, don’t do it. Nick McGowan (15:11.93)Yeah. Nick McGowan (15:21.561)Hmm. Vincent Wanga (15:41.056)So I think people need to understand what’s your passion would start there. The grind is easy if you’re passion and purpose driven and don’t let that kind of blind you. Start with your passion and your purpose. And that’s really helped keep me balanced so that I make sure the most precious commodity I have right now at this age is my time. And I make sure that just like my money, I invested reasonably and responsibly and only things that really bring me value in return. I think my second point is The grind is should be front end, you know, where your typical nine to five and there’s no wrong path is something you progressively invest in. And at the end, around 65 years old, you get your benefit and you get to go, you know, travel and live in Florida and do whatever you want with your life and retirement. Entrepreneurship is different. You literally grind for three years. The first year you’re just getting established. The second year you’re trying to become profitable. That third year, if you make it that far, you might actually thrive and have a business. And unless you’re paying yourself, Like you said, it’s just a hobby. So you have to be serious about this, understand the business fundamentals, but also understand for three years you’re in the suck and you have to work and work hard. And if you’re passionate and purpose driven, it won’t feel like a burden. And then you get your reward where all of a sudden you have enough profit to hire a COO or even a CEO as a founder to run your business and employees and your scaling and it gets easier. So you just have to understand the different philosophies between a nine to five and entrepreneurial pursuit. and make sure you’re passion and purpose driven and that will really help you keep balanced in this kind of crazy lexicon that is working like we do. Nick McGowan (17:17.338)Yeah, especially here in the States. We work much more than other people, but then there are other countries that… It’s the system that they’re in and how they go through it. I think one of things that you pointed out that really stood out to me was how when you take that approach of the passion and the purpose and you’re doing those things, you’re gonna work so much more on that because you’re fired up about it instead of doing whatever reports or whatever BS meetings or whatever you’re doing at nine to five. And you can just keep working on these things. But as you do that, you really start to stretch that muscle. So it’s like you’re able to handle things in year two, year three differently than you could in year one or even year two, let’s say, because everything starts to stack up. So in a very black and white way, for the most part, I think the people that listen to the show are leaders, at least in what they do, if not entrepreneurs, and there are a lot of entrepreneurs that are already in their business. But the people that think about, want to get out of my job, I want to get into a business, if you’ve got to go through that work anyway, and you’re just going to basically jump in a boat and go down that river. Don’t you want to go down the river with the stream instead of trying to fight up it like you’re currently doing in your nine to five? And it’s like, how do you then take that approach and say, all right, well, this is what I want. And there is a difference between passion and purpose. I think we have a seed of purpose that’s within us and there are ways that we get to show our passion with that purpose. But if you can tie that stuff together, you’re almost unstoppable. There’s shit that’s going to happen, but you’re going to get through that. When you talk to different Vincent Wanga (18:34.254)Sure. Right. Nick McGowan (18:58.138)from people about that sort of stuff and tying those two together. What’s the way that you can kind of put that into a vision to be able to show this is where these two pieces kind of can join? Vincent Wanga (19:06.818)Yeah, and I think for me to tell a little story, I was a senior designer art director at an agency in Minneapolis at the time. And I was getting really good insights on the business side of creative from the particular owner I was working with. He was very transparent about those things. So I found out how much he was profiting per employee, particularly me. And that didn’t match up with my salary. Now he’s a business owner. has every right to a profit. That’s not what I’m questioning. What I said is that my value is significantly higher than I thought it was this whole time. I thought it was defined by my salary. And the funny thing about these nine to five jobs, and I’m not knocking them, we all have done it and are having to do it, but they pay you just enough to kill your dreams. You know, I’m sure you’ve heard that before and just enough to be comfortable. And when I realized the potential there, I started taking advantage of that, you know, five to nine time that overnight time. I started, you know, freelancing and getting clients. And when I compared the numbers, I realized if I went full time with my own hustle, I could triple my income and not triple my work hours. So that was the passion part, right? So what that did is it led into my purpose and the purpose was, and I think this is really important is oftentimes when you get into entrepreneurship, Money should never be your motivation. Money is a reward that comes down later. It should be rooted deeper than that. But if you can tie your entrepreneurship with your lifestyle, your ideal lifestyle and outcome, that is the greatest gift in earth. So for example, imagine you’re a snowboarder and you just want to go to Vail and Whistler and, you know, go down the most amazing double black diamond mountains and make that a part of your lifestyle. Imagine starting a business. where you could be in that community and make profit. Now you’re in your ideal lifestyle, your ideal community, and you have a business that helps fund that. And that was kind of my motivation. So I am now independent, tripling my income. I’m working half as much. I’m able to travel the world. And as long as I have wifi, I can continue to make money indefinitely in whatever country I stay in. It was the most incredible lifestyle of my life. And there’s some limits to that we can talk about later, but it gave me this purpose. Vincent Wanga (21:29.1)and passion combined to continue to progress. And I think people just really need to identify not just passion and purpose, but what is that ideal lifestyle that you want this to lead to? What is that outcome? What is that ambition that you have? If you don’t have that goal and you’re just starting out, what are you doing? You’re making trinkets. You’re not getting paid. You have a very expensive hobby that’s probably gonna cost you your family. So you really have to understand at the end of the day, this is a business. You have to have business fundamentals and run it accordingly. And I think you’ll be in a much better place than just going on some wild adventure because you don’t want to wake up at 9 a.m. I promise you, you’ll be disappointed by entrepreneurship if that is the case. Nick McGowan (22:08.812)Yeah, and it’s interesting because that’s like, there are like shades to that almost. You know, like there are times where you call it like we can’t sleep or we have a hard time because we’re thinking we got to pay for this. We got this thing coming in. There’s this thing and I’m sure there’s a left hook that’s going to come out of nowhere and like whatever and you just kind of manage through that stuff. You work through it. But if you are in a better mental spot because of the passion and purpose that you have to do these things, you can actually handle those things instead of just being crippled by it. I’ve thought many different times about how many people got into podcasting during COVID because they were like, what the fuck? I have nobody to talk to. I don’t know what to do right now. I guess I’ll start a podcast or people that became a coach and are like, I guess I’ll become coaches. And if you look at the numbers, they all skyrocketed. then quickly after that just shot down. So many people just couldn’t do it, didn’t want to do it, didn’t have the skills or whatever. And ultimately it wasn’t right for them to be able to do it. Now there are lots of people that stuck with it. I started this in 2014. Vincent Wanga (22:47.256)Mm-hmm. Nick McGowan (23:15.145)So I wasn’t one of those ones that just started it in 20, but I remember thinking that too. Like well now I’m stuck at the house. What am gonna do? And had friends that I talked to and then just came a podcast and whatever else from there. But being able to actually understand like you’re going to start to take those steps and it doesn’t all have to happen at once. So even with the stuff you’re saying like you get to travel, you make money, you do these things. To somebody if they’re listening on the surface they’re gonna go okay cool you’re just another one of those guys who just like pushes this thing and says I live the best life in the world and work. Vincent Wanga (23:22.648)Right. Yep. Nick McGowan (23:45.148)two hours a day and I harvest butterflies and get four billion dollar homes. Like it’s not what we’re saying. But this is a stacked upon process. Like I talked to people at times, I had somebody on recently it was like man you were in like Idaho and Montana and doing this and you travel and it’s like yeah but this has been a work in progress. This isn’t just one of those things like last Tuesday. It’s like you know what fuck everything else and we’re gonna travel we’re gonna do this thing. It’s like you have to build upon those things so you have to take those initial steps. So for somebody trying to figure out right now. I hear what you guys are saying, I want to take these steps and I think I kind of know what I want to do but I’m afraid to do it as a creative saying I’m stuck in this system and I have to pay for things and I’ve built this whole big career and what do I do now? What advice do you give them? Vincent Wanga (24:35.496)well, the first thing is it’s mostly rooted in fear. Release your inhibition of fear because you will fail. You will fail big, you will fail small, you will fail often. I think what actually ironically makes me successful is my lack of fear of failure. I could write a whole thesis on failure and how that’s affected me. But the true reality is it’s been the greatest education of my life. More than a Harvard MBA could teach me going out there doing something really hard and failing or succeeding in that are immense lessons that you can apply to the next thing and you’ll fail a little bit less and apply to the next thing and fail a little bit less. And I just talked about earlier how your job posting a position where you, you don’t want to risk that comfortability to go out there and potentially fail, but you have to understand that’s part of the cycle and learning process that gets you to success. love that Japanese proverb, you know, fall down seven times, get up eight. That’s, that is, it’s a cliche, but it’s so true. You just have to. Nick McGowan (25:29.973)Hey. Vincent Wanga (25:35.192)get out there and fucking do it. And I think the other most important thing is people get into this journey and they’re not prepared for scale. They never think about it. I think they’re too absorbed in the lifestyle part. Like, okay, I get to work from home. I get to take my kids to baseball. This is great. I want to stay in this comfortable zone. If you’re too successful, if you fuck up, you actually have something that scales. Now you need employees. Now you need people to run your business. Nick McGowan (25:52.084)Yeah. Vincent Wanga (26:03.842)Now you need to redo your supply chain. Now things get more expensive. Now you got to pay attention to your margins. Nobody has that ambition. So always enter this with what is that ideal grand scale? If you’re just in this to just, you again, have this hobby mindset, you will fail and failure is okay, but you need to realize you’re building a business. What is the plan for scale? What is the grand ambition? What is the ideal circumstance you want to reach? And then what resources do you need to get there? I think the second most important thing is Choosing your business partner wisely. And I’m emphasizing business partner like it’s almost a requirement. Sure, you can get to a certain level by yourself. You know, there’s that saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. You need a partner. Nobody has expertise in everything. So figure out what your core competencies are. If you can’t, failure will do that for you. Figure out what you do enjoy and then go find a business partner who complements your skills or compensates for the things that you’re not skilled at. And together. that you and that person can build something really immense and double your time. Because I think the biggest dilemma, particularly in entrepreneurship, historically has been, how do you duplicate yourself? You get to a certain point, how do you find somebody else who will work as hard as you, who’s as motivated as you, who’s as passionate about you? And I think in this age of AI, it doesn’t take a founding team of six anymore. You, another competent person, and three AI agents can really get to a place where you can scale effectively and efficiently in three years. So you just have to think about the grand perspective and not treating it as a hobby. And I think that’s half the way to success and release that inhibition of failure. know the stakes get greater as we get older, but imagine, you know, I mentioned Warren Buffett earlier, if he thought that way, imagine if George Washington thought that way, if Martin Luther King thought that way, like anything worth doing is hard. So get over it, get out there and do it and fail. Take those lessons, apply it to the next thing until you succeed. Nick McGowan (28:01.332)I think something to point out with. George Washington, Buffett, anybody else. Like there are times where I bring up purpose and people are like, well, I don’t know if my purpose is supposed to be the next Steve Jobs or something. No, that was his. Let him have his. You do yours. George Washington, Buffett, everybody else had these thoughts of like, this is where I want to get to. This is what I want to do. But it wasn’t like, I’m going to do this because it’s deep in my heart that I’m going to become George Washington or Buffett or whatever else. They had to actually build upon those things. And there are people that just want to have a solo business. There are people that want to have a small business. And by small, I mean, you know, a few handful of employees, maybe they make millions of dollars, but like, it’s a group of a small group of people. There others that want to have a huge bustling business of hundreds of employees and all of that. But I think it’s important for us to actually talk to ourselves about, do you want it? Because you want the ego of purposes of, have all these employees. I have all these things. Look at the boat that I have that I never get into because I have to work and manage all these employees. What’s the actual purpose underneath that? And I think as a creative and the people that are creatives, we can rely on the creativity inside of us because that’ll always nudge us along. It’s sometimes really hard to listen to. I’m sure you’ve experienced some of that going through probably years where you’re like, it’s hard to listen to it. I’m being creative, but I’m not really being creative. You’re getting paid to be a creative, but you’re basically like churning things out or using of stuff and not really creating but everybody’s like well this looks amazing and you’re like I fucking hate it and I hate you and I hate all this stuff so leave me alone. So for people that are in that spot right now and really for the people that are on their path towards self mastery what sort of advice would you give to them? Vincent Wanga (29:47.938)Well, speaking specifically to creatives, I think you can relate. We have a very unique mindset when it comes to certain things. And I think people misdiagnose us that our advantage is somehow attached to our hands and the software and skills. It’s our mentality in the way that we think. For example, the way we solve problems are completely different. What most people would see as an obstacle, we see as a challenge and we use our creativity to get around it. With the systems that we build, the solutions that we build, that’s what we get paid for. So I think that is an invaluable skill when, whether it’s business or your nine to five is remembering that that is your core competency and your greatest value that you bring is your ability to uniquely solve problems. And that’s why we are employed in every single industry in the world and have survived all kinds of efforts to remove us from those industries. And they keep coming back to us because of that skillset. think in addition to that, you just have to really be prepared for change. And we are an adaptable force. Look at all of the journeys that we’ve been through from the digital revolution and the elimination of print to interactive and AI, all of these things we are at the bleeding, cutting edge of. So we are in a natural position to be early adapters, to see and flesh out these new emerging technologies and see if they’re viable or not, and then use them to our advantage in a competitive sense against some of our non-creative peers in order to thrive. it while others are being replaced by it. So I think we need to recognize our power in that context and use that to our advantage. I’ll also add that you look at the highest level of leadership, a CEO, right? They have immense powerful responsibilities, but the number one is to create vision. They create the vision like Steve Jobs saying, I want a thousand songs in your pocket. And then it trickles down to the rest to execute and to figure out how to make that vision a reality. So vision is a creative mindset. creatives have visionary mindset. So why can’t creatives be those same CEOs? We just lack the business acumen. And I think if I was a creative in that position, that’s the first thing I would balance and start studying is what business skills do I lack that can compliment this thing that is very rare, which is that creative mindset that could make me unstoppable in the marketplace. And I am on this mission in my life to help creatives become more entrepreneurial, to think more business minded because the hardest skill we already have. Vincent Wanga (32:15.498)So having that balance that yin and yang between the creativity and conceptual and the analytical and business mindset will really put you in a place where you will be much more successful than if you try to pursue anything with just one mindset or the other. Nick McGowan (32:30.736)Yeah, what a cool way to be able to put that too. It’s like just being resourceful in that sense. You know, if you think from a basic creative perspective, if you’re just sketching, we need paper or something to draw on. You need the pen or pencil or whatever. And then you need the time. You need these pieces to do these things. So any of these things are like, well, what pieces do I need? Even to the fact about the partners, it’s like, what am I lacking here? What am I not a 10 at? And what does somebody else attend at that I could even just Have some help with some people don’t want to take on partners. They want to do the business by themselves I think that’s where coaches mentors come into play to be able to say I’ve been through this and before here’s some suggestions Here’s how you can go about it. Even just that fact of like just reaching out and having some of those conversations There’s somebody that’s out there. There’s some information that’s out there and I I Don’t want everybody to just lean on AI and everybody’s gonna do whatever they’re gonna do, but I do think that atrophies things I use AI at times. I mean fucking everybody does. It’s more so just being pushed on us at this point. But not literally just saying, I’m just going to hand this thing off and not understand how it is. Like you pointed out earlier, if you want to have a brewery, you have to be all these different things. And if all that is too much for you, don’t do it. If you just want to be a money person, then sure, be a money person and never show up. Maybe go and have a beer every once in a while and that’s it. That’s a whole different story though. Like where the fuck did you get that money from? Did you create a business to do that? know, or some Vincent Wanga (34:00.134)Sure. Nick McGowan (34:00.451)somebody handed to you. But being able to point that out and understand the resources of that and then what you’re good, what you’re not good at, I think it’s really good stuff, man. So I appreciate you bringing that up. It’s been a pleasure having you on. Before I let you go, where can people find you and where can they connect with you? Vincent Wanga (34:14.382)No, I really appreciate the conversation. Again, I speak all over the country and internationally. So if I’m in a conference in your area, please feel free to come up to me. And I love meeting new people, especially in different industries. In addition to that, have a website, VincentWongred.com, where you can see some of my other thought leadership across entrepreneurship, creative, design. Leadership is another thing I speak on often. I also have a book called The Art of Direction. personal perspectives on the path to creative leadership. So that is available through Amazon, Walmart, all the major online retailers and for special order at your bookstore. It’s a book about leadership. And I think that’s agnostic of just the creative industry and the unique, soft and hard skills that you need to make that leap that few people are prepared for. So it also very deeply personal and talks a little bit about my experiences and my journey and of course my failures and how that led to my success. And then you can also contact me on LinkedIn and Instagram through my website. Those are the primary ways you can get a hold of me. Nick McGowan (35:20.208)And again, it’s been pleasure having you on Vince. I appreciate your time. Vincent Wanga (35:23.478)Absolutely. Thank you,

What if the secret to building a vibrant culture isn't a big initiative—but one meaningful human connection at a time? In this episode, Nicole welcomes leadership speaker, author, and inclusion strategist Justin Jones-Fosu for a rich conversation on The Inclusive Mindset and the everyday practices that make diversity and belonging come alive in our organizations.Together, Nicole and Justin explore the difference between inclusive and exclusion mindsets, why embracing difference creates stronger cultures, and how curiosity, humility, and intentional connection can reshape how we lead.Justin shares powerful stories—from hugging styles to growth mindsets to dancing in Peru—that beautifully illustrate what inclusion can look like in the real world. You'll learn practical strategies like the Power of Three, 1 Meaningful Connection Per Week, and the Circles of Grace Challenge.Get ready for a vibrant, actionable, heart-expanding conversation that will inspire you to look at diversity, belonging, and everyday leadership through a fresh and hopeful lens.Vibrant Highlights:[00:03:26] – The Hug Metaphor for Approaching DiversityJustin explains why our “hug style” reveals how we engage with diversity—and why leaning in with openness creates more meaningful interactions.[00:17:41] – Growth Mindset vs. Fixed Mindset in Inclusion WorkFrom skiing in Vail to falling off bikes, Justin and Nicole unpack how embracing failure and “not yet” thinking transforms our ability to connect across difference.[00:46:13] – The Peru Dance Circle: A Masterclass in BelongingJustin shares his story about Pantera, the dancer who welcomed him into a circle in Lima—illustrating what genuine invitation and inclusion look like in action.Connect with Justin:Justin's books, including The Inclusive MindsetJustin's website: https://workmeaningful.com/Also mentioned in this episode:Mindset: The New Psychology of Success by Carol Dweck Listen at vibrantculture.com/podcast or wherever you get your podcasts!Book Nicole to help your organization ignite clarity, accountability, and energy through her SHINE™ Coaching Methodology.Visit vibrantculture.comEmail: nicole@vibrantculture.comWatch Nicole's TEDx Talk: https://youtu.be/SMbxA90bfXE

The Democrats of Colorado are divided this week over a brewing scandal around a swanky “retreat” to a luxury hotel in Vail and who paid for it — a so-called dark money group called One Main Street. 9News anchor Kyle Clark joins host Bree Davies and producer Paul Karolyi to talk about how the Dems are navigating a touchy ethics investigation. Plus, we talk through the viral video of a local food inspector pouring bleach on food at a taco stand and, of course, all our wins and fails of the week. Be sure to grab a ticket to our first-ever The Denver-est Denver Awards, presented by our friends at Denver Health! You're cordially invited to attend a fancy holiday party slash formal awards show celebrating the very best of Denver on Dec. 18 at The Oriental Theater. City Cast Denver Neighbors will have received a discount code in the inbox, but everyone can buy tickets now! And we need your help picking the winners, too! Nominate your faves in our six big categories! We also discussed the recent fentanyl and meth busts. Paul talked about the Yates Theater project and the Sonnenalp Hotel in Vail. Kyle discussed Lauren Boebert and speed traps in Kersey. Bree mentioned Purnell Steen (who you can hear on this classic episode of the pod), Christmas lights at Civic Center, and the DOTI advisory committee. What do you think about the Dems' ethics scandal? Text or leave us a voicemail with your name and neighborhood, and you might hear it on the show: 720-500-5418 For even more news from around the city, subscribe to our morning newsletter Hey Denver at denver.citycast.fm. Watch clips from the show on YouTube: youtube.com/@citycastdenver or Instagram @citycastdenver Chat with other listeners on reddit: r/CityCastDenver Support City Cast Denver by becoming a member: membership.citycast.fm/Denver Learn more about the sponsors of this November 20th episode: Simply Eloped Denver Botanic Gardens Denver Health Looking to advertise on City Cast Denver? Check out our options for podcast and newsletter ads at citycast.fm/advertise

In this episode, Nicole and Sarah sit down with Rhonda Swenson, founder and creative director of Krimson Klover, a women's outdoor lifestyle brand known for its vintage-inspired illustrated base layers and bold, colorful knitwear. Rhonda shares her journey from Texas ski slopes to building a successful Boulder-based company, emphasizing her commitment to slow fashion, ethical manufacturing, and sustainable practices. With a 15-person team (plus up to eight dogs in the office!), she's built a brand that takes 18-24 months to bring products to market, working with renowned international artists and maintaining 20-year relationships with factory partners.The conversation covers Rhonda's entrepreneurial path—from flight attendant to ski industry rep to serial founder—and her philosophy on work-life balance, with no one working more than 40 hours per week. As an avid backcountry skier who calls Vail her home mountain, Rhonda embodies the outdoor lifestyle her brand represents. She shares practical advice for ski moms building their wardrobes, highlighting the bestselling Switchback jacket and the versatile Carving Skirt. For aspiring entrepreneurs, her message is clear: "Go for it. What have you got to lose?" You can find Krimson Klover at www.KrimsonKlover.com, on Instagram @krimsonklover, and in ski shops nationwide.Memorable QuotesOn entrepreneurship: "I always just say, go for it. What have you got to lose? You'll have regret if you don't go for it. I think fear drives people's hesitation to jump in and do something new."On failure: "Failure wasn't an option for me. I had to pick myself up and keep on going. I've made a lot of mistakes along the way, but you learn from them."On work-life balanceParticipating destinations include:

Today, we're joined by Robin Braun, VP of AI business development for hybrid cloud at HPE, and Luke Norris, co-founder and CEO of Kamiwaza, to discuss how AI systems can be used to automate complex workflows and unlock value from legacy enterprise data. Robin and Luke detail high-impact use cases from HPE and Kamiwaza's collaboration on an “Agentic Smart City” project for Vail, Colorado, including remediation and automation of website accessibility for 508 compliance, digitization and understanding of deed restrictions, and combining contextual information with camera feeds for fire detection and risk assessment. Additionally, we discuss the role of private cloud infrastructure in overcoming challenges like cost, data privacy, and compliance. Robin and Luke also share their lessons learned, including the importance of fresh data, and the value of a "mud puddle by mud puddle" approach in achieving practical AI wins. The complete show notes for this episode can be found at https://twimlai.com/go/755.

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

Jake and Brad get the surprise of their life in a hot tub, Timon talks about the former fan art he used to make, and the boys recap their trip to Vail, CO. Check out Gospel and Glue and get 40% off with code GRKC! https://www.gospelandglue.com/ Check out Good Ranchers and use code GRKC http://bit.ly/3KV86YU Check out Main Street Roasters and use code GRKC at check out for a 10% discount! https://mainstreetroasters.com Ghostrunners merch: https://bit.ly/399MXFu Become a Patron and get exclusive content from Jake & Brad: https://bit.ly/2XJ1h3y Follow us on Instagram: http://bit.ly/33WAq4P Leave us a voice memo and ask a question: https://anchor.fm/jake-triplett/message Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices