Podcasts about Vail Resorts

Play Episode Listen Later May 18, 2025 76:55

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication (and my full-time job). To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoJoe Hession, CEO of Snow Partners, which owns Mountain Creek, Big Snow American Dream, SnowCloud, and Terrain Based LearningRecorded onMay 2, 2025About Snow PartnersSnow Partners owns and operates Mountain Creek, New Jersey and Big Snow American Dream, the nation's only indoor ski center. The company also developed SnowCloud resort management software and has rolled out its Terrain Based Learning system at more than 80 ski areas worldwide. They do some other things that I don't really understand (there's a reason that I write about skiing and not particle physics), that you can read about on their website.About Mountain CreekLocated in: Vernon Township, New JerseyClosest neighboring public ski areas: Mount Peter (:24); Big Snow American Dream (:50); Campgaw (:51) Pass affiliations: Snow Triple Play, up to two anytime daysBase elevation: 440 feetSummit elevation: 1,480 feetVertical drop: 1,040 feetSkiable Acres: 167Average annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 46Lift count: 9 (1 Cabriolet, 2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Mountain Creek's lift fleet)About Big Snow American DreamLocated in: East Rutherford, New JerseyClosest neighboring public ski areas: Campgaw (:35); Mountain Creek (:50); Mount Peter (:50)Pass affiliations: Snow Triple Play, up to two anytime daysVertical drop: 160 feet Skiable Acres: 4Trail count: 4 (2 green, 1 blue, 1 black)Lift count: 4 (1 quad, 1 poma, 2 carpets - view Lift Blog's of inventory of Big Snow American Dream's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI read this earlier today:The internet is full of smart people writing beautiful prose about how bad everything is, how it all sucks, how it's embarrassing to like anything, how anything that appears good is, in fact, secretly bad. I find this confusing and tragic, like watching Olympic high-jumpers catapult themselves into a pit of tarantulas.That blurb was one of 28 “slightly rude notes on writing” offered in Adam Mastroianni's Experimental History newsletter. And I thought, “Man this dude must follow #SkiTwitter.” Or Instabook. Of Flexpost. Or whatever. Because online ski content, both short- and long-form, is, while occasionally joyous and evocative, disproportionately geared toward the skiing-is-fucked-and-this-is-why worldview. The passes suck. The traffic sucks. The skiers suck. The prices suck. The parking sucks. The Duopoly sucks. Everyone's a Jerry, chewing up my pow line with their GoPro selfie sticks hoisted high and their Ikon Passes dangling from their zippers. Skiing is corporate and soulless and tourist obsessed and doomed anyway because of climate change. Don't tell me you're having a good time doing this very fun thing. People like you are the reason skiing's soul now shops at Wal-Mart. Go back to Texas and drink a big jug of oil, you Jerry!It's all so… f*****g dumb. U.S. skiing just wrapped its second-best season of attendance. The big passes, while imperfect, are mostly a force for good, supercharging on-hill infrastructure investment, spreading skiers across geographies, stabilizing a once-storm-dependent industry, and lowering the per-day price of skiing for the most avid among us to 1940s levels. Snowmaking has proven an effective bulwark against shifting weather patterns. Lift-served skiing is not a dying pastime, financially or spiritually or ecologically. Yes, modern skiing has problems: expensive food (pack a lunch); mountain-town housing shortages (stop NIMBY-ing everything); traffic (yay car culture); peak-day crowds (don't go then); exploding insurance, labor, utilities, and infrastructure costs (I have no answers). But in most respects, this is a healthy, thriving, constantly evolving industry, and a more competitive one than the Duopoly Bros would admit.Snow Partners proves this. Because what the hell is Snow Partners? It's some company sewn together by a dude who used to park cars at Mountain Creek. Ten years ago this wasn't a thing, and now it's this wacky little conglomerate that owns a bespoke resort tech platform and North America's only snowdome and the impossible, ridiculous Mountain Creek. And they're going to build a bunch more snowdomes that stamp new skiers out by the millions and maybe – I don't know but maybe – become the most important company in the history of lift-served skiing in the process.Could such an outfit possibly have materialized were the industry so corrupted as the Brobot Pundit Bros declare it? Vail is big. Alterra is big. But the two companies combined control just 53 of America's 501 active ski areas. Big ski areas, yes. Big shadows. But neither created: Indy Pass, Power Pass, Woodward Parks, Terrain Based Learning, Mountain Collective, RFID, free skiing for kids, California Mountain Resort Company, or $99 season passes. Neither saved Holiday Mountain or Hatley Pointe or Norway Mountain or Timberline West Virigina from the scrapheap, or transformed a failing Black Mountain into a co-op. Neither has proven they can successfully run a ski area in Indiana (sorry Vail #SickBurn #SellPaoliPeaks #Please).Skiing, at this moment, is a glorious mix of ideas and energy. I realize it makes me uncool to think so, but I signed off on those aspirations the moment I drove the minivan off the Chrysler lot (topped it off with a roofbox, too, Pimp). Anyhow, the entire point of this newsletter is to track down the people propelling change in a sport that most likely predates the written word and ask them why they're doing these novel things to make an already cool and awesome thing even more cool and awesome. And no one, right now, is doing more cool and awesome things in skiing than Snow Partners.**That's not exactly true. Mountain Capital Partners, Alterra, Ikon Pass, Deer Valley, Entabeni Systems, Jon Schaefer, the Perfect Clan, Boyne Resorts, Big Sky, Mt. Bohemia, Powdr, Vail Resorts, Midwest Family Ski Resorts, and a whole bunch more entities/individuals/coalitions are also contributing massively to skiing's rapid-fire rewiring in the maw of the robot takeover digital industrial revolution. But, hey, when you're in the midst of transforming an entire snow-based industry from a headquarters in freaking New Jersey, you get a hyperbolic bump in the file card description.What we talked aboutThe Snow Triple Play; potential partners; “there's this massive piece of the market that's like ‘I don't even understand what you're talking about'” with big day ticket prices and low-priced season passes; why Mountain Creek sells its Triple Play all season long and why the Snow Triple Play won't work that way (at least at first); M.A.X. Pass and why Mountain Creek declined to join successor passes; an argument for Vail, Alterra and other large ski companies to participate on the Snow Triple Play; comparing skiing to hotels, airlines, and Disney World; “the next five years are going to be the most interesting and disruptive time in the ski industry because of technology”; “we don't compete with anybody”; Liftopia's potential, errors, failure, and legacy; skiing on Groupon; considering Breckenridge as an independent ski area; what a “premium” ski area on the Snow Triple Play would be; why megapasses are “selling people a product that will never be used the way it's sold to them”; why people in NYC feel like going to Mountain Creek, an hour over the George Washington Bridge, is “going to Alaska”; why Snow Triple Play will “never” add a fourth day; sticker shock for Big Snow newbs who emerge from the Dome wanting more; SnowCloud and the tech and the guest journey from parking lot to lifts; why Mountain Creek stopped mailing season passes; Bluetooth Low Energy “is certainly the future of passes”; “100 percent we're getting more Big Snows” – but let's justify the $175 million investment first; Big Snow has a “terrible” design; “I don't see why every city shouldn't have a Big Snow” and which markets Snow Partners is talking to; why Mountain Creek didn't get the mega-lift Hession teased on this pod three years ago and when we could see one; “I really believe that the Vernon base of Mountain Creek needs an updated chair”; the impact of automated snowmaking at Mountain Creek; and a huge residential project incoming at Mountain Creek.What I got wrong* I said that Hession wasn't involved in Mountain Creek in the M.A.X. Pass era, but he was an Intrawest employee at the time, and was Mountain Creek's GM until 2012.* I hedged on whether Boyne's Explorer multi-day pass started at two or three days. Skiers can purchase the pass in three- to six-day increments.Why now was a good time for this interviewOkay, so I'll admit that when Snow Partners summarized the Snow Triple Play for me, I wasn't like “Holy crap, three days (total) at up to three different ski areas on a single ski pass? Do you think they have room for another head on Mount Rushmore?” This multi-day pass is a straightforward product that builds off a smart idea (the Mountain Creek Triple Play), that has been a smash hit at the Jersey Snow Jungle since at least 2008. But Snow Triple Play doesn't rank alongside Epic, Ikon, Indy, or Mountain Collective as a seasonlong basher. This is another frequency product in a market already flush with them.So why did I dedicate an entire podcast and two articles (so far) to dissecting this product, which Hession makes pretty clear has no ambitions to grow into some Indy/Ikon/Epic competitor? Because it is the first product to tie Big Snow to the wider ski world. And Big Snow only works if it is step one and there is an obvious step two. Right now, that step two is hard, even in a region ripe with ski areas. The logistics are confounding, the one-off cost hard to justify. Lift tickets, gear rentals, getting your ass to the bump and back, food, maybe a lesson. The Snow Triple Play doesn't solve all of these problems, but it does narrow an impossible choice down to a manageable one by presenting skiers with a go-here-next menu. If Snow Partners can build a compelling (or at least logical) Northeast network and then scale it across the country as the company opens more Big Snows in more cities, then this simple pass could evolve into an effective toolkit for building new skiers.OK, so why not just join Indy or Mountain Collective, or forge some sort of newb-to-novice agreement with Epic or Ikon? That would give Snow Partners the stepladder, without the administrative hassle of owning a ski pass. But that brings us to another roadblock in Ski Revolution 2025: no one wants to share partners. So Hession is trying to flip the narrative. Rather than locking Big Snow into one confederacy or the other, he wants the warring armies to lash their fleets along Snow Partners Pier. Big Snow is just the bullet factory, or the gas station, or the cornfield – the thing that all the armies need but can't supply themselves. You want new skiers? We got ‘em. They're ready. They just need a map to your doorstep. And we're happy to draw you one.Podcast NotesOn the Snow Triple PlayThe basics: three total days, max of two used at any one partner ski area, no blackouts at Big Snow or Mountain Creek, possible blackouts at partner resorts, which are TBD.The pass, which won't be on sale until Labor Day, is fully summarized here:And I speculate on potential partners here:On the M.A.X. PassFor its short, barely noted existence, the M.A.X. Pass was kind of an amazing hack, granting skiers five days each at an impressive blend of regional and destination ski areas:Much of this roster migrated over to Ikon, but in taking their pass' name too literally, the Alterra folks left off some really compelling regional ski areas that could have established a hub-and-spoke network out of the gate. Lutsen and Granite Peak owner Charles Skinner told me on the podcast a few years back that Ikon never offered his ski areas membership (they joined Indy in 2020), cutting out two of the Midwest's best mountains. The omissions of Mountain Creek, Wachusett, and the New York trio of Belleayre, Whiteface, and Gore ceded huge swaths of the dense and monied Northeast to competitors who saw value in smaller, high-end operations that are day-trip magnets for city folks who also want that week at Deer Valley (no other pass signed any of these mountains, but Vail and Indy both assembled better networks of day-drivers and destinations).On my 2022 interview with HessionOn LiftopiaLiftopia's website is still live, but I'm not sure how many ski areas participate in this Expedia-for-lift-tickets. Six years ago, I thought Liftopia was the next bargain evolution of lift-served skiing. I even hosted founder Evan Reece on one of my first 10 podcasts. The whole thing fell apart when Covid hit. An overview here:On various other day-pass productsI covered this in my initial article, but here's how the Snow Triple Play stacks up against other three-day multi-resort products:On Mountain Creek not mailing passesI don't know anything about tech, but I know, from a skier's point of view, when something works well and when it doesn't. Snow Cloud's tech is incredible in at least one customer-facing respect: when you show up at a ski area, a rep standing in a conspicuous place is waiting with an iPhone, with which they scan a QR code on your phone, and presto-magico: they hand you your ski pass. No lines or waiting. One sentimental casualty of this on-site efficiency was the mailed ski pass, an autumn token of coming winter to be plucked gingerly from the mailbox. And this is fine and makes sense, in the same way that tearing down chairlifts constructed of brontosaurus bones and mastodon hides makes sense, but I must admit that I miss these annual mailings in the same way that I miss paper event tickets and ski magazines. My favorite ski mailing ever, in fact, was not Ikon's glossy fold-out complete with a 1,000-piece 3D jigsaw puzzle of the Wild Blue Gondola and name-a-snowflake-after-your-dog kit, but this simple pamphlet dropped into the envelope with my 2018-19 Mountain Creek season pass:Just f*****g beautiful, Man. That hung on my office wall for years. On the CabrioletThis is just such a wackadoodle ski lift:Onetime Mountain Creek owner Intrawest built similar lifts at Winter Park and Tremblant, but as transit lifts from the parking lot. This one at Mountain Creek is the only one that I'm aware of that's used as an open-air gondola. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

The Voice of Lake Tahoe | Julie Brown Davis | E62

Mind the Track

Play Episode Listen Later May 14, 2025 98:58

In an age where local journalism is struggling to survive, Lake Tahoe is fortunate to have Julie Brown Davis, a West Shore native and staff writer for SFGATE who exclusively covers Lake Tahoe. As the daughter of ski bums who moved to Tahoe in the 1970s, Julie grew up skiing Homewood and Alpine Meadows, worked her first journalism gig at the Sierra Sun and eventually became managing editor of Powder Magazine. After a handful of years as a freelancer, Julie has returned to her journalism roots as a staff reporter, and she isn't afraid to take on the big, controversial stories. On Episode 62 the boys chat with Julie about stories including infamous bears, the crush of tourists amidst the changing face of Tahoe, the role of TRPA, the negative effects of the season ski pass from mega resorts, recent federal staffing cuts and the potential impacts it will have on Tahoe tourism, the effect AI has on journalism and why corn is the new pow. 2:15 – Happy Mother's Day!8:00 – Introducing Julie Brown Davis – professional journalist who works as the SFGATE Tahoe editor.13:00 – Trail Whisperer and his former life as a freelance writer for Chevron.14:20 – What kind of gasoline should you put in your vehicle?19:00 - The problem with bears in Lake Tahoe and all the bear stories Julie has reported on.29:20 – Julie's youth growing up on the West Shore of Lake Tahoe in Tahoma.35:42 – Julie's path to getting into writing as a profession and her first job at the Sierra Sun and Tahoe World, later writing for Moonshine Ink and going to UC Berkeley for graduate school.41:45 – Going from an unpaid intern to managing editor at Powder Magazine and Transworld.46:46 – What print magazines and newspapers do you subscribe to?52:14 – Being a full-time employee for SFGATE as the Lake Tahoe region beat reporter.57:28 – Is there a sustainable future for recreation, traffic control and parking in Lake Tahoe?1:00:20 – Is the cheap season pass from IKON and Vail Resorts good for mountain communities?1:06:55 – What is a better model for digital media – paywall or free content that's ad driven?1:11:15 – Julie's story about the history of Graeagle, California and the West family who owned Vikingsholm in Emerald Bay.1:15:30 – Doing a story about the wolf pack situation in Plumas and Sierra County.1:19:31 – Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to make reporting quicker and easier, but it isn't developed enough to replace good journalists.1:22:20 – Reporting on federal staffing cuts to the U.S. Forest Service and the negative impact it will have on the summer tourism season in Lake Tahoe.1:28:05 – Road construction, new bridges, new bike paths, tons of traffic and the TRPA transportation plan.1:31:00 – Lightning round questions for Julie.1:16:30 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?

How Connected Are You? The Mindset and Mastery of Networking with Nancie McDonnell Ruder

One Woman Today

Play Episode Listen Later May 7, 2025 59:23

Networking is an integral part of our lives, both professional and personal. I welcome back Nancie McDonnell Ruder, an extraordinary business woman from the Warrior community, to discuss the skills of networking and connecting with others. We discuss how we can cultivate the best mindset and what tactical tips, inspiration and perspectives can we learn that will help us to connect and network better. Nancie McDonnell Ruder is an executive coach, leadership advisor and marketing consultant with decades of experience in marketing strategy, training, branding, and consumer research. She has a strong track record of driving accelerated growth for organizations by aligning their marketing strategies closely with customer expectations and preferences. Nancie began her professional career with the Leo Burnett Company in Chicago, Illinois, where she served clients such as Procter & Gamble, Eli Lilly and The Gap, and spearheaded global new business efforts, resulting in 14 cross market new business wins. Since launching Noetic Consultants in 2002, Nancie has provided strategic guidance to clients large and small, including: 7-Eleven, Discovery Channel, Georgetown University, NIKE, Vail Resorts, Samsung Electronics, SC Johnson, Mayo Clinic, and the Walt Disney Company. She is the creator of the Noetic Brand Health Diagnostic™ and the Noetic Art & Science Assessment™. In addition to her consulting work, Nancie is a respected author and sought-after speaker in the marketing and leadership space. Her engaging presentations draw from her extensive experience, providing actionable takeaways that help organizations and individuals thrive in today's competitive business landscape.(3:42) Why did we decide to partner and discuss networking? (6:05) The word “networking”, how do we define it? (12:40) How can we integrate networking into our personal and professional lives? (14:37) Why networking matters? What are some of the barriers we experience related to networking? (18:32) What are some of the fears we experience when we don't exercise our “networking muscles” regularly? (20:55) Nancie discusses the many ways we can use networking in our lives. (23:05) We talk about the concept of “Give and Take” from Adam Grant. (28:30) We discuss concepts of “helping others to succeed first”, how we are “you're only as good as your network” and “you can't get there alone and you don't want to”. (32:20) Thinking of interactions with others as an “ask, offer and acknowledge”. (35:54) Where can someone begin on the path to successful networking? How can we learn good habits from the beginning? (45:08) Tactical things you can do before networking with others. (48:26) Do's and Don'ts when networking (55:25) Let's wrap up the highlights of our conversation around being connected and networking. (56:47) We ask the community to take away an important point from our conversation.Connect with Nancie McDonnell Ruder https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancieatnoetic/ https://noetic.io/ Subscribe: Warriors At Work Podcasts Website: https://jeaniecoomber.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/986666321719033/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jeanie_coomber/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeanie_coomber LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanie-coomber-90973b4/ YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbMZ2HyNNyPoeCSqKClBC_w

Winston Binch - Chief Brand & Experience Officer - GALE

Adpodcast

Play Episode Listen Later May 6, 2025 66:52

Winston is the Chief Brand & Experience Officer at GALE, leading the creative, production, and experience design team. In 2024, GALE was named Campaign UK US Advertising Agency of the Year. He works with with companies like the National Basketball Association (NBA), Delta Air Lines, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Cotopaxi, MilkPEP, Pella, Santander, Bain & Company, Fogo de Chão, and others. Over the past twenty years, he's helped leading global brands craft their narratives and create innovative campaigns and experiences that harness the marketing potential of the digital and social age. His diverse client portfolio includes Domino's, Michaels Stores, American Express, Target, Burger King, Nike, Vail Resorts, Taco Bell, Pandora, AB InBev, and Volkswagen Group. Before GALE, he was a brand consultant and Chief Digital Officer of Deutsch North America.

61: How Canned Wine Brand Archer Roose Scaled to 100K Cases with Marian Leitner-Waldman - Business of Drinks

Business of Drinks

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 23, 2025 68:26

While much of the wine industry is flat or declining, Archer Roose is bucking the trend in a big way. The canned wine brand, founded by Marian Leitner-Waldman, has more than tripled production since 2021, surpassed 100,000 9-liter case equivalents, and is on track to double again in 2025. With its distinct format, irreverent branding, and placement in non-traditional channels like JetBlue, Dave & Buster's, Vail Resorts, and Regal Cinemas, Archer Roose is proving that smart strategy and sharp storytelling can rewrite the wine sales playbook.In this episode, Marian shares how she built Archer Roose into one of the most innovative and fast-growing wine brands in the U.S. — a company that's not only thriving but helping reshape how, where, and why consumers enjoy wine today.Listen for these insights:How Marian built a premium wine brand that's grown every year since launch and now sells 70,000 cases annually on JetBlue aloneWhy partnering with beer distributors was the key to breaking into non-traditional channels like ski resorts, arcades, and movie theatersThe technical innovations that enabled Archer Roose to achieve a 2-year shelf life in cans, thanks to R&D with Cornell UniversityWhy Archer Roose focuses on 7 tightly curated SKUs and builds winemaker partnerships for each varietal and regionHow celebrity co-owner Elizabeth Banks became Chief Creative Officer and helped the brand go viral — while also keeping the focus on the end consumerHow controlled pours, waste reduction, and high-margin glass sales have made Archer Roose a profit-driving partner for on-premise operatorsWhy Marian structured her sales team like a tech company, with dedicated roles for business development, key accounts, and regional wholesale managementHow the brand uses humor and performance marketing to build mindshare across DTC, retail, and on-premise accountsLast Call: This week, we talk about seasonal selling. Are limited time offers or holiday promotions — like margaritas for Cinco de Mayo or Negroni Week in summer — good, bad, or indifferent? Caroline, Scott, and Erica share their perspectives.Don't miss our next episode, dropping on 4/30.For the latest updates, follow us:Business of Drinks:LinkedInInstagram @bizofdrinksErica Duecy, co-host: Erica Duecy is founder and co-host of Business of Drinks and one of the drinks industry's most accomplished digital and content strategists. She runs the consultancy and advisory arm of Business of Drinks and has built publishing and marketing programs for Drizly, VinePair, SevenFifty, and other hospitality and drinks tech companies.LinkedInInstagram @ericaduecyScott Rosenbaum, co-host: Scott Rosenbaum is co-host of Business of Drinks and a veteran strategist and analyst with deep experience building drinks portfolios. He currently serves as Head of Search at Distill Ventures. He was formerly the Vice President of T. Edward Wines & Spirits, a New York-based importer and distributor.LinkedInCaroline Lamb, contributor: Caroline is a producer and on-air contributor at Business of Drinks and a key account sales and marketing specialist at AHD Vintners, a Michigan-based importer and distributor.LinkedInInstagram @borkalineSPONSOR: SWIG Partners is exclusively offering $100 off their supplier-distributor matchmaking fee when you mention the Business of Drinks podcast, or inquire via this link: ⁠https://www.swigpartners.com/businessofdrinksIf you enjoyed today's conversation, follow Business of Drinks wherever you're listening, and don't forget to rate and review us. Your support helps us reach new listeners passionate about the drinks industry. Thank you!

new york head business michigan vice president search spirits mayo drinks cinco buster chief creative officer dtc jetblue scaled elizabeth banks waldman skus drizly regal cinemas leitner roose managementhow vail resorts vinepair wine brand canned wine negroni week sevenfifty scott rosenbaum distill ventures

Podcast #204: Hunter Mountain VP/GM Trent Poole

Nutritional Revolution Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Apr 22, 2025 74:23

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoTrent Poole, Vice President and General Manager of Hunter Mountain, New YorkRecorded onMarch 19, 2025About Hunter MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail ResortsLocated in: Hunter, New YorkYear founded: 1959Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass – unlimited access* Epic Northeast Value Pass – unlimited access with holiday blackouts* Epic Northeast Midweek Pass – unlimited access with holiday and midweek blackouts* Epic Day Pass – All Resorts, 32 Resorts tiersClosest neighboring ski areas: Windham (:16), Belleayre (:35), Plattekill (:49)Base elevation: 1,600 feetSummit elevation: 3,200 feetVertical drop: 1,600 feetSkiable acres: 320Average annual snowfall: 120 inchesTrail count: 67 (25% beginner, 30% intermediate, 45% advanced)Lift count: 13 (3 six-packs, 1 high-speed quad, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 1 platter, 3 carpets)Why I interviewed himSki areas are like political issues. We all feel as though we need to have an opinion on them. This tends to be less a considered position than an adjective. Tariffs are _______. Killington is _______. It's a bullet to shoot when needed. Most of us aren't very good shots.Hunter tends to draw a particularly colorful basket of adjectives: crowded, crazy, frantic, dangerous, icy, frozen, confusing, wild. Hunter, to the weekend visitor, appears to be teetering at all times on the brink of collapse. So many skiers on the lifts, so many skiers in the liftlines, so many skiers on the trails, so many skiers in the parking lots, so many skiers in the lodge pounding shots and pints. Whether Hunter is a ski area with a bar attached or a bar with a ski area attached is debatable. The lodge stretches on and on and up and down in disorienting and disconnected wings, a Winchester Mansion of the mountains, stapled together over eons to foil the alien hordes (New Yorkers). The trails run in a splintered, counterintuitive maze, an impossible puzzle for the uninitiated. Lifts fly all over, 13 total, of all makes and sizes and vintage, but often it feels as though there is only one lift and that lift is the Kaatskill Flyer, an overwhelmed top-to-bottom six-pack that replaced an overwhelmed top-to-bottom high-speed quad on a line that feels as though it would be overwhelmed with a high-speed 85-pack. It is, in other words, exactly the kind of ski area you would expect to find two hours north of a 20-million-person megacity world famous for its blunt, abrasive, and bare-knuckled residents.That description of Hunter is accurate enough, but incomplete. Yes, skiing there can feel like riding a swinging wrecking ball through a tenement building. And I would probably suggest that as a family activity before I would recommend Hunter on, say, MLK Saturday. But Hunter is also a glorious hunk of ski history, a last-man-standing of the once-skiing-flush Catskills, a nature-bending prototype of a ski mountain built in a place that lacks both consistent natural snow and fall lines to ski on. It may be a corporate cog now, but the Hunter hammered into the mountains over nearly six decades was the dream and domain of the Slutsky family, many of whom still work for the ski area. And Hunter, on a midweek, when all those fast lifts are 10 times more capacity than you need, can be a dream. Fast up, fast down. And once you learn the trail network, the place unfolds like a picnic blanket: easy, comfortable, versatile, filled with delicious options (if occasionally covered with ants).There's no one good way to describe Hunter Mountain. It's different every day. All ski areas are different every day, but Hunter is, arguably, more more different along the spectrum of its extremes than just about any other ski area anywhere. You won't get it on your first visit. You will show up on the wrong day, at the wrong time, in the wrong parking lot, and the whole thing will feel like playing lasertag with hyenas. Alien hyenas. Who will for some reason all be wearing Jets jerseys. But if you push through for that second visit, you'll start to get it. Maybe. I promise. And you'll understand why one-adjective Hunter Mountain descriptions are about as useful as the average citizen's take on NATO.What we talked aboutSixty-five years of Hunter; a nice cold winter at last; big snowmaking upgrades; snowmaking on Annapurna and Westway; the Otis and Broadway lift upgrades; Broadway ripple effects on the F and Kaatskill Flyer lifts; supervising the installation of seven new lifts at three Vail Resorts over a two-year period; better liftline management; moving away from lettered lift names; what Otis means for H lift; whether the Hunter East mountaintop Poma could ever spin again; how much of Otis is re-used from the old Broadway lift; ski Ohio; landing at Vail Resorts pre-Epic Pass and watching the pass materialize and grow; taking over for a GM who had worked at Hunter for 44 years; understanding and appreciating Hunter madness; Hunter locals mixed with Vail Resorts; Hunter North and the potential for an additional base area; disappearing trailmap glades; expansion potential; a better ski connection to Hunter East; and Epic Local as Hunter's season pass.Questions I wish I'd askedI'd wanted to ask Poole about the legacy of the Slutzky family, given their founding role at Hunter. We just didn't have time. New York Ski Blog has a nice historical overview.I actually did ask Poole about D lift, the onetime triple-now-double parallel to Kaatskill Flyer, but we cut that segment in edit. A summary: the lift didn't run at all this past season, and Poole told me that, “we're keeping our options open,” when I asked him if D lift was a good candidate to be removed at some near-future point.Why now was a good time for this interviewThe better question is probably why I waited five-and-a-half years to feature the leader of the most prominent ski area in New York City's orbit on the podcast. Hunter was, after all, the first mountain I hit after moving to the city in 2002. But who does and does not appear on the podcast is grounded in timing more than anything. Vail announced its acquisition of Hunter parent company Peak Resorts just a couple of months before I launched The Storm, in 2019. No one, including me, really likes doing podcast interviews during transitions, which can be filled with optimism and energy, but also uncertainty and instability. The Covid asteroid then transformed what should have been a one-year transition period into more like a three-year transition period, which was followed by a leadership change at Hunter.But we're finally here. And, as it turns out, this was a pretty good time to arrive. Part of the perpetual Hunter mess tied back to the problem I alluded to above: the six-pack-Kaatskill-Flyer-as-alpha-lift muted the impact of the lesser contraptions around it. By dropping a second superlift right next door, Vail appears to have finally solved the problem of the Flyer's ever-exploding liftline.That's one part of the story, and the most obvious. But the snowmaking upgrades on key trails signal Hunter's intent to reclaim its trophy as Snow God of the New York Thruway. And the shuffling of lifts on Hunter East reconfigured the ski area's novice terrain into a more logical progression (true green-circle skiers, however, will be better off at nearby Belleayre, where the Lightning Quad serves an incredible pod of long and winding beginner runs).These 2024 improvements build on considerable upgrades from the Peak and Slutzky eras, including the 2018 Hunter North expansion and the massive learning center at Hunter East. If Hunter is to remain a cheap and accessible Epic Pass fishing net to funnel New Yorkers north to Stowe and west to Park City, even as neighboring Windham tilts ever more restrictive and expensive, then Vail is going to have to be creative and aggressive in how the mountain manages all those skiers. These upgrades are a promising start.Why you should ski Hunter MountainThink of a thing that is a version of a familiar thing but hits you like a completely different thing altogether. Like pine trees and palm trees are both trees, but when I first encountered the latter at age 19, they didn't feel like trees at all, but like someone's dream of a tree who'd had one described to them but had never actually seen one. Or horses and dolphins: both animals, right? But one you can ride like a little vehicle, and the other supposedly breathes air but lives beneath the sea plotting our extinction in a secret indecipherable language. Or New York-style pizza versus Domino's, which, as Midwest stock, I prefer, but which my locally born wife can only describe as “not pizza.”This is something like the experience you will have at Hunter Mountain if you show up knowing a good lot about ski areas, but not much about this ski area. Because if I had to make a list of ski areas similar to Hunter, it would include “that Gwar concert I attended at Harpos in Detroit when I was 18” and “a high-tide rescue scene in a lifeguard movie.” And then I would run out of ideas. Because there is no ski area anywhere remotely like Hunter Mountain.I mean that as spectacle, as a way to witness New York City's id manifest into corporeal form. Your Hunter Mountain Bingo card will include “Guy straightlining Racer's Edge with unzipped Starter jacket and backward baseball cap” and “Dude rocking short-sleeves in 15-degree weather.” The vibe is atomic and combustible, slightly intimidating but also riotously fun, like some snowy Woodstock:And then there's the skiing. I have never skied terrain like Hunter's. The trails swoop and dive and wheel around endless curves, as though carved into the Tower of Babel, an amazing amount of terrain slammed into an area that looks and feels constrained, like a bound haybale that, twine cut, explodes across your yard. Trails crisscross and split and dig around blind corners. None of it feels logical, but it all comes together somehow. Before the advent of Google Maps, I could not plot an accurate mental picture of how Hunter East, West, North, and whatever the hell they call the front part sat in relation to one another and formed a coherent single entity.I don't always like being at Hunter. And yet I've skied there more than I've skied just about anywhere. And not just because it's close. It's certainly not cheap, and the road in from the Thruway is a real pain in the ass. But they reliably spin the lifts from November to April, and fast lifts on respectable vert can add up quick. And the upside of crazy? Everyone is welcome.Podcast NotesOn Hunter's lift upgradesHunter orchestrated a massive offseason lift upgrade last year, moving the old Broadway (B) lift over to Hunter East, where the mountain demolished a 1968 Hall Double named “E,” and planted its third six-pack on a longer Broadway line. Check the old lines versus the new ones:On six-packs in New York StateNew York is home to more ski areas than any other state, but only eight of them run high-speed lifts, and only three host six-packs: Holiday Valley has one, Windham, next door to Hunter, has another, and Hunter owns the other three.On five new lifts at Jack Frost Big BoulderPart of Vail Resorts' massive 2022 lift upgrades was to replace eight old chairlifts at Jack Frost and Big Boulder with five modern fixed-grip quads.At Jack Frost, Paradise replaced the E and F doubles; Tobyhanna replaced the B and C triples; and Pocono replaced the E and F doubles:Over at Big Boulder, the Merry Widow I and II double-doubles made way for the Harmony quad. Vail also demolished the parallel Black Forest double, which had not run in a number of years. Blue Heron replaced an area once served by the Little Boulder double and Edelweiss Triple – check the side-by-side with Big Boulder's 2008 trailmap:Standing up so many lifts in such a short time is rare, but we do have other examples:* In 1998, Intrawest tore down up to a dozen legacy lifts and replaced them with five new ones: two high-speed quads, two fixed-grip quads, and the Cabriolet bucket lift (basically a standing gondola). A full discussion on that here.* American Skiing Company installed at least four chairlifts at Sugarbush in the summer of 1995, including the Slide Brook Express, a two-mile-long lift connection between its two mountains. More here.* Powder Mountain installed four chairlifts last summer.* Deer Valley built five chairlifts last summer, including a bubble six-pack, and is constructing eight more lifts this year.On Mad River Mountain, OhioMad River is about as prototypical a Midwest ski area as you can imagine: 300 vertical feet, 144 acres, 36 inches of average annual snowfall, and an amazing (for that size) nine ski lifts shooting all over the place:On Vail Resorts' acquisition timelineHunter is one of 17 U.S. ski areas that Vail purchased as part of its 2019 acquisition of Peak Resorts.On Hunter's 2018 expansionWhen Peak opened the Hunter West expansion for the 2018-19 ski season, a number of new glades appeared on the map:Most of those glades disappeared from the map. Why? We discuss.On Epic Pass accessHunter sits on the same unlimited Epic Local Pass tier as Okemo, Mount Snow, Breckenridge, Keystone, Crested Butte, and Stevens Pass. Here's an Epic Pass overview:You can also ski Hunter on the uber-cheap 32 Resorts version of the Epic Day Pass: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

Canadian Inflation Heats Up and Google Makes a $32B Deal

The Canadian Investor

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 20, 2025 44:14

In this episode of the Canadian Investor Podcast, we talk about Canada’s February CPI print that came in much hotter than expected at 2.6% year over year. We also discuss the Bank of Canada’s latest rate cut and how rising inflation will likely make their next interest rate decision even more difficult. We also dive into Google’s massive $32B acquisition of Wiz, the fastest-growing software company in history, and whether the deal will pass regulatory hurdles. Plus, we analyze earnings from Adobe, Vail Resorts, and Bird Construction, including why Adobe's AI investments aren’t exciting investors and whether Bird's recent stock dip presents an opportunity. Tickets of stocks/ETFs discussed: GOOG, ADBE, MTN, BDT Check out our portfolio by going to Jointci.com Our Website Canadian Investor Podcast Network Twitter: @cdn_investing Simon’s twitter: @Fiat_Iceberg Braden’s twitter: @BradoCapital Dan’s Twitter: @stocktrades_ca Want to learn more about Real Estate Investing? Check out the Canadian Real Estate Investor Podcast! Apple Podcast - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Spotify - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Web player - The Canadian Real Estate Investor Asset Allocation ETFs | BMO Global Asset Management Sign up for Finchat.io for free to get easy access to global stock coverage and powerful AI investing tools. Register for EQ Bank, the seamless digital banking experience with better rates and no nonsense.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Episode 130 with Triathlete-Turned-Cyclist Kyleigh Spearing

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 11, 2025 49:18

Send us a textIn this episode we talk with Kyleigh Spearing about:The nutrition evolution from 1-2 hour triathlons to endurance gravel eventsNutrition strategies that leave her feeling like she can perform at top levelHydration and sodium; when is it too much?Kyleigh Spearing is a triathlete turned cyclist, with - as she calls it - a side hustle in the world of finance. As a graduate of Cornell University and the University of Notre Dame, she is a professional cyclist focusing on gravel and road racing. Kyleigh got her start in triathlon after years of competitive swimming, but after one season of road racing, she also tackled Unbound 200, and decided to make a move to gravel this year. She is a member of the Colnagoa and PAS Racing Teams, and is looking forward to a busy racing season in 2025, including lining up for Unbound. In addition to her athletic pursuits, she's also a senior FP&A analyst at Vail Resorts.Please note that this podcast is created strictly for educational purposes and should never be used for medical diagnosis and treatment.Connect w/ Kyleigh: IG: www.instagram.com/kykylovestriEkoSystemsCoaching: www.ekosystemcoaching.comMentioned:Beta-Alanine: https://amzn.to/4iHyTp7Super Beet: https://amzn.to/4hrJIKUMaurten Sodium Bi-Carb: Available on The Feed https://thefeed.com/teams/nutritional-revolutionMarshall Mesa: https://bouldercolorado.gov/trailhead/marshall-mesaLittle Tibet in Boulder, Colorado: https://www.littletibetrestaurant.com/MORE NR New customers save 10% off all products on our website with the code NEWPOD10 If you would like to work with our practitioners, click here: https://nutritional-revolution.com/work-with-us/ Save 20% on all supplements at our trusted online source: https://us.fullscript.com/welcome/kchannell Join Nutritional Revolution's The Feed Club to get $20 off right away with an additional $20 Feed credit drop every 90 days.: https://thefeed.com/teams/nutritional-revolution If you're interested in sponsoring Nutritional Revolution Podcast, shoot us an email at nutritionalrev@gmail.com.

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Redfin is “Under Contract”

Motley Fool Money

Play Episode Listen Later Mar 10, 2025 31:02

Deals are back! Rocket Companies sees a fixer upper with Redfin and ServiceNow steps into the agentic AI era with Moveworks. (00:21) Tim Beyers and Dylan Lewis discuss: - Rocket Company's plans to own even more of the homebuying process with its all-stock purchase of Redfin. - ServiceNow's step into agentic AI and Salesforce's turf with its $2.8B purchase of Moveworks. (17:03) Vail Resorts kicked off the winter season with some rough conditions despite having snowy slopes. Motley Fool analyst Anthony Schiavone joins Mary Long to check in on the ski resort owner before the company's quarterly report after the bell today. Companies discussed: RDFN, RKT, NOW, MTN Host: Dylan Lewis Guests: Tim Beyers, Anthony Schiavone, Mary Long Engineers: Tim Sparks, Dan Boyd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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February 24, 2025: Vail Resorts grapples with changing market, labor, and expansion; Debating tipped wages

Colorado Matters

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 24, 2025 28:50

Bumps for the ski industry. Or moguls as it were. Vail Resorts says for the first time, it sold fewer Epic passes than the year prior. Yet Vail's rapid expansion continues, as we'll hear from a Wall Street Journal travel reporter. Then, passionate testimony at the state legislature over what to pay people who get tips. And survivors, descendants and family of people incarcerated at Camp Amache in Colorado denounce denounce the Alien Enemies Act.

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Out of Office – E3 – Kings and Queens of Corbets, Last Skier Standing, and More Vail News

Out of Bounds Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 19, 2025 21:19

Out of Office – E3 – Kings and Queens of Corbets, Last Skier Standing, and More Vail News This week was quite the week for ski industry news. From skimo to freestyle, skiing and snowboarding saw athletes from around the world compete at the highest level. Meanwhile, Vail Resorts continues [...] The post Out of Office – E3 – Kings and Queens of Corbets, Last Skier Standing, and More Vail News appeared first on Out Of Collective.

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The Snowballing Problems at Vail Resorts

The Journal.

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 5, 2025 20:14

Vail Resorts is the king of the mountain. But recently, the ski company has been facing issues with overcrowding and labor disputes. WSJ travel reporter Allison Pohle on how Vail Resorts might be a victim of its own success. Further Reading: - Vail Resorts Has an Epic Problem - Vail Resorts Shareholder Calls for Overhaul, Ouster of Executives Including CEO Further Listening: - How Target Got Off Target - A Surprise Turkey and 200 Lemons: Everyday Stories From the Pandemic Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Out of Office – E2 – X Games, FWT, Colby Stevenson, Las Skier Standing, and Vail Resorts

Out of Bounds Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Feb 4, 2025 22:08

Out of Office – E2 – X Games, FWT, Colby Stevenson, Las Skier Standing, and Vail Resorts In episode 2 of Out of Office we dive into the ski industry news of this past week hitting on topics like the X Games results and opinions, Freeride World Tour Val Thorens [...] The post Out of Office – E2 – X Games, FWT, Colby Stevenson, Las Skier Standing, and Vail Resorts appeared first on Out Of Collective.

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235: Big Sky, Montana & advice on US Multipasses (inc Epic, Ikon, Indy & Mountain Collective)

The Ski Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 31, 2025 44:15

We find out about Big Sky Resort in Montana and look into the multipass options in the States, including the Epic, Ikon, Indy and Mountain Collective passes. We also have our regular snow reports, your feedback, Team GB news and equipment expert Al Morgan reports from the SIGB Ski Test in La Clusaz. Host Iain Martin was joined by Nancy Shiel, Head of Ski Patrol at Big Sky Resort in Montana, and Stuart Winchester, host of the Storm Skiing Podcast. Intersport Ski Hire Discount Code If you want to help The Ski Podcast and save yourself some money this winter…just use the code ‘SKIPODCAST' when you book your ski hire at intersportrent.com. That applies to any ski hire booked in their massive network across France, Austria and Switzerland. You'll get a guaranteed additional discount, or simply take this link for your discount to be automatically applied. SHOW NOTES Tim Hudson from Inspired Italy is in the Dolomites (5:45) Alex Armand from Tip Top Ski Coaching is in Les 2 Alpes (7:00) Alex Irwin from 150 Days of Winter is in Courchevel (7:30) Mia Brookes finished 3rd at the X Games Slopestyle in Aspen (9:15) Jasmin Taylor now has three wins this season in the Telemark World Cup (9:30) Laurie Taylor tied with Dave Ryding for 15th at Kitzbuhel (9:40) Freddy and Zak Carrick Smith will be taking part in the European Youth Olympics (9:45) Ski kit expert Al Morgan was out at the SIGB Ski Test in La Clusaz (10:20) Listen to our equipment episodes or watch them on YouTube (12:45) Nancy has been working on the ski patrol at Big Sky for over 20 years (13:15) Watch the Big Sky Ski Patrol in action (15:00) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f896Bsukqi0 “Big Sky is titanic, sprawling, impossible” (16:15) Big Sky is in south-west Montana (16:45) You can visit Yellowstone National Park in winter from Big Sky (17:30) The resort has 5850 acres of skiable terrain and has 400 inches annual of snowfall (18:45) The Lone Peak Tram is a standout lift (20:00) Peter Landsman in Episode 181 described it one of the lifts you must ride (20:15) Stuart is host of the Storm Skiing Podcast (24:00) “Everyone's searching for skiing's soul. I'm trying to find its brains” (24:15) The Epic Pass started in 2008 (28:00) The issue of overcrowding in US ski resorts (32:00) The Ikon Pass has introduced ‘reservations' to limit overcrowding (33:00) The Indy Pass is “the coolest thing going” (34:15) Glencoe and The Snow Centre in the UK are both on the Indy Pass (37:30) Will there be mergers between the multipasses? (37:45) Find out about the Mountain Collective Pass (38:30) Epic Pass sales were down 2% for the 24/25 winter (39:00) Vail Resorts had to deal with a ski patrol strike in Park City in December (39:15) Vail Resorts have acquired Andermatt and Crans Montana in Europe (41:00) If you visit Big Sky, you need to try Uncle Dan's Cookies (41:30) You can follow The Ski Podcast on WhatsApp (44:00) Feedback (42:00) I enjoy all feedback about the show, I'm always interested to hear what you think, so please do contact me on social @theskipodcast or by email theskipodcast@gmail.com Charlie Owen: "I enjoyed your interview with Mark Smith – the Man in Seat61" Charlie Henry Mack: "Episode 232 was great" Marcus: "I just wanted to drop you a note to say that I have started listening to the podcast on my drive into work and it's great! Brilliant to have such a good UK-based ski podcast." There are now 247 episodes of The Ski Podcast. If you've enjoyed this episode, why not to go theskipodcast.com and take a look around the tags and categories – there is so much in there and you're bound to find something of interest. If you like the podcast, there are three things you can do to help: 1) Follow us. Just take a look for that button and press it now 2) Give us a review or just leave a comment on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 3) Book your ski hire with Intersport Rent using the code ‘SKIPODCAST' or take this link You can follow Iain @skipedia and the podcast @theskipodcast or WhatsApp

Local News Hour | January 28, 2025

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Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 49:06

Latest Utah Avalanche Center forecast, Park City's pedestrian-only Main Street will end Tuesday, Utah leaders welcome Sundance with "Train Dreams" screening, Summit County Manager Shayne Scott previews the agenda for Wednesday's county council meeting, Vail Resorts shareholder calls for ouster of CEO, CFO and Rob Katz, the latest Utah Legislative Report with KUER reporter Saige Miller, Park City Library Spanish Services Librarian Flor Santa Maria provides an update on Spanish language programs offered by the library and Wasatch County school board to announce new high school name, mascot.

Down 16.86%

The Peak Daily

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 28, 2025 25:19

A possible breakthrough in China could put an end to the AI stock rally that one U.S. analyst called “one of the greatest spending binges in human history.” Vail Resorts, the owner of ski resorts including Whistler Blackcomb, is veering off-piste. Plus an interview with Cisco and the Wiikwemkoong Unceded Territory.

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Vail Resorts' tough winter

The Hustle Daily Show

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 22, 2025 15:20

Snow is falling across the country but so is people's confidence in Vail Resorts. The ski industry giant has faced a decline in lift ticket sales and worker strikes, as more skiers ditch the mountains for the backcountry. Join our hosts Mark Dent and Rob Litterst as they take you through our most interesting stories of the day. Get our Side Hustle Ideas Database: https://clickhubspot.com/thds Follow us on social media: TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thehustle.co Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thehustledaily/ Thank You For Listening to The Hustle Daily Show. Don't forget to hit Subscribe or Follow us on Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode! If you want this news delivered to your inbox, join millions of others and sign up for The Hustle Daily newsletter, here: https://thehustle.co/email/ Plus! Your engagement matters to us. If you are a fan of the show, be sure to leave us a 5-Star Review on Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-hustle-daily-show/id1606449047 (and share your favorite episodes with your friends, clients, and colleagues).

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Local News Hour | January 21, 2025

local news newshour vail resorts sean higgins kuer

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 21, 2025 50:16

Latest Utah Avalanche Center forecast, expert says Vail Resorts needs to improve communication, Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau previews this week's county council meeting, KUER reporter Sean Higgins has the latest Utah Legislative Report, Recycle Utah Director Carolyn Wawra and Jim Bedell have a monthly update on recycling efforts.

Mountain Money | January 20, 2025

KPCW Mountain Money

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 20, 2025 45:58

Professor Justene Hill Edwards looks at the history of wealth gaps and Black inequity in the United States. Then, Professor Paul Argenti, who specializes in corporate communications, talks about the way that Vail Resorts handled communication before, during and after the recent ski patrol strike.

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#168 – Solidarity on the Mountain w/ Park City Ski Patrol Union

Brigham Young Money

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 17, 2025 38:41

So this is the new year. And I know a lot of things don't feel any different. And honestly, a lot of things have gotten worse. But not with this episode. No chance. In this one, Kyle and Greg interview Joe and Tate from the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association, a union of ski patrollers that work at Park City Mountain Resort that was able to successfully pressure Vail Resorts (the corporation) into coming to the table to negotiate a new contract. We catch up with the two of them to discuss what got them into ski patrolling, the contract dispute they've been in with Vail for a year, and what it's like to go on strike during one of the biggest weeks of the year for the company and the resort. This saga with the PC Ski Patrollers and Vail has shown the benefit of unions and the power of solidarity. Things we love to see! PC Ski Patrol Union on IG Their union is part of United Mountain Workers and if you work at a ski resort and are interested in unionizing, go here: https://www.unitedmountainworkers.org

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61. Whitepaper 10: Vail Resorts

Historias x Whitepaper

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 16, 2025 51:48

Karla y René platican sobre Jarritos y Native, Airbnb en México, el crecimiento de Burlington, la sucesión en Berkshire Hathaway, y la popularidad de Skechers. En el deep dive, detallan cómo es el modelo de negocio de Vail Resorts (y cómo los clientes mexicanos tienen un impacto en esta empresa).notas del episodio04:17 - Airbnb en México07:25 - Burlington11:30 - el hijo de Warren Buffett15:56 - popularidad de Skechers22:42 - deep diverecomendacionesThe Daily: A Movement to Fight Misinformation... With MisinformationPrueba Whitepaper 30 días gratis

Podcast #195: United Mountain Workers President Max Magill

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2025 77:43

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and to support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.WhoMax Magill, President of United Mountain Workers and ski patroller at Park City Mountain Resort, UtahRecorded onJanuary 11, 2025About United Mountain WorkersUnited Mountain Workers (UMW) is a labor union representing 16 distinct employee groups across more than a dozen U.S. ski resorts:UMW is organized under Communication Workers of America, which represents more than 700,000 workers across media, healthcare, manufacturing, and other sectors.Why I interviewed himIn case you missed it (New York Times):Ski patrollers at Park City Mountain in Utah triumphantly returned to the slopes on Thursday, after ending a nearly two-week strike over union wages and benefits. The strike hobbled the largest U.S. ski resort during a busy holiday period and sparked online fury about deepening economic inequality in rural mountain areas.Late Wednesday, the Park City Professional Ski Patrollers Association ratified a contract with Vail Resorts, which owns Park City and more than 40 other ski areas, that raises the starting pay of ski patrollers and other mountain safety workers $2 an hour, to $23. The most experienced patrollers will receive an average increase of $7.75 per hour. The agreement also expands parental leave policies for the workers, and provides “industry-leading educational opportunities,” according to the union. …Accusing Vail Resorts of unfair labor practices, the Ski Patrollers Association, which represents 204 ski patrollers and mountain safety personnel, went on strike on Dec. 27. The strike received national attention as a fight between the haves and have-nots — a global corporation valued at nearly $10 billion against the vital workers who aid and protect skiers on its properties.With few ski patrollers to open trails, respond to accidents and perform avalanche mitigation, only about one fourth of Park City Mountain's terrain was open during the strike.Irate skiers and snowboarders at Park City soon pilloried Vail, taking to social media and national news organizations to denounce lengthy lift lines and contrast the high salaries of Vail leadership and expensive ticket prices with the relatively low pay of resort workers.This is a big deal, and it's probably just getting started.What we talked aboutBack to work; support in unexpected corners; I hear tell of flying pizzas and donuts and I want in on this magical world; a brief timeline of contract negotiations; what Vail Resorts offered and why the union said no; “we had no choice but to play our final and most powerful card, knowing that our strike would cause massive disruption”; deconstructing the vast Vail management machine; what UMW won in the new contract; “the raises we won are life-changing for a ton of our members, including me”; a rapidly changing Utah; how the patrollers' union was challenged when Vail merged Park City and Canyons; “a malicious union-busting campaign is the best way to organize workers”; organizing a union in a “right to work” state; the amazing complexity of Park City Mountain Resort; the complexities of importing patrollers from one resort to another; skier volumes at Park City over time; the pluses and minuses of more skiers; “this movement will continue to grow”; the patrol union vote at A-Basin (it passed); could the various patrol unions combine?; whether ski industry unions could spread to other worker groups and regions; “all workers, ski industry or not, deserve respect”; and Vail's big 2022 pay raises.Questions I wish I'd askedI was surprised to hear Magill describe new patrol uniforms as “pretty substandard.” With every lift op rocking a Helly jacket, I figured the squad up top would get primo stuff. Why don't they?What I got wrongReal-world facts for numbers that I roughly guessed at mid-talk:* Park City population: 8,254 (I said “a little over 8,000”)* 2024-25 Epic Pass sales: approximately 2.3 million (I said “2 million”)* Early-bird price of a 2024-25 Epic Local Pass: $739 (I said “seven-thirty-something”)* Size of Park City Mountain Resort: 7,300 acres, 350 trails (I actually got these right, but tagged them with a “or whatever they are” on the pod)* On the number of active U.S. ski areas: 509, by my own count (I said “500-some,” but it changes almost weekly, so I hedged)On words being hard* I kept saying “exasperate” when I meant to say “exacerbate,” a word that my idiot brain cannot pronounce. But I know the difference so please stop sending me that email.* I said that “most” U.S. ski areas were in the Midwest and East, when I meant to say that the “majority” were. This is true. Only 189 of the 509 active U.S. ski areas (37%) sit in the 11 western ski states.On things changing fastMagill and I discussed the pending unionization vote among Arapahoe Basin patrollers. Shortly after our conversation concluded, he informed me that they had officially voted to organize.On sourcingI cited the AP (Associated Press), as my source for some summary points from the Park City patrollers' contract with Vail Resorts. Most of what I cited actually came from High Country News.Corrected mid-flow* Contract negotiations began in March (not May, as I suggested) of 2024* Patrollers at the then-independent Canyons ski area established the union that now represents all of Park City Mountain Resort in 2001, not 2002. Vail purchased Canyons in 2013 and Park City in 2014, and combined the side-by-side ski areas into one with the Quicksilver Gondola in 2015.On skier visit numbersI noted that ski resorts operating on Forest Service lands had successfully lobbied against requirements to report annual skier visit numbers. That probably seemed irrelevant in the case of Park City Mountain Resort, which does not operate on Forest Service land, but I was trying to get to the larger point that Vail Resorts is secretive with its resort-by-resort skier visits.Podcast NotesOn Right to WorkMany states have passed “right to work” laws, meaning that employees are not compelled to join a labor union, even if one represents their workplace. From the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation:Nuances exist from state to state. Magill notes in our conversation that Colorado is a right-to-work state, but the Colorado Sun describes the state as a “modified right-to-work state”:But the Labor Peace Act is a law that unions find to be a challenge.Enacted in 1943, the state law was seen as a compromise between unions and business owners. That's why Colorado is considered a modified right-to-work state, which means that new hires don't have to join a union if one exists, though they can if they want to. But if a union wins its Labor Peace Act election, then union membership is required.The Peace Act rules require three-quarters of eligible workers to participate in a second vote, if they already successfully voted in an NLRB election. Without it, the union has less bite since it doesn't represent all eligible workers and cannot collect dues from those who don't join. The NLRB's vote needs just a simple majority.On Park City Mountain ResortYeah it's freaking huge:On the “Knowledge”I compared the master patroller's understanding of gigantic, rollicking Park City - with its 350 trails, 7,300 acres, and dozens of lifts - to the “Knowledge,” an exam that requires would-be London taxi drivers to memorize every cobblestone in the city to earn their license. Per The New York Times:McCabe had spent the last three years of his life thinking about London's roads and landmarks, and how to navigate between them. In the process, he had logged more than 50,000 miles on motorbike and on foot, the equivalent of two circumnavigations of the Earth, nearly all within inner London's dozen boroughs and the City of London financial district. He was studying to be a London taxi driver, devoting himself full-time to the challenge that would earn him a cabbie's “green badge” and put him behind the wheel of one of the city's famous boxy black taxis.Actually, “challenge” isn't quite the word for the trial a London cabbie endures to gain his qualification. It has been called the hardest test, of any kind, in the world. Its rigors have been likened to those required to earn a degree in law or medicine. It is without question a unique intellectual, psychological and physical ordeal, demanding unnumbered thousands of hours of immersive study, as would-be cabbies undertake the task of committing to memory the entirety of London, and demonstrating that mastery through a progressively more difficult sequence of oral examinations — a process which, on average, takes four years to complete, and for some, much longer than that. The guidebook issued to prospective cabbies by London Taxi and Private Hire (LTPH), which oversees the test, summarizes the task like this:To achieve the required standard to be licensed as an “All London” taxi driver you will need a thorough knowledge, primarily, of the area within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. You will need to know: all the streets; housing estates; parks and open spaces; government offices and departments; financial and commercial centres; diplomatic premises; town halls; registry offices; hospitals; places of worship; sports stadiums and leisure centres; airline offices; stations; hotels; clubs; theatres; cinemas; museums; art galleries; schools; colleges and universities; police stations and headquarters buildings; civil, criminal and coroner's courts; prisons; and places of interest to tourists. In fact, anywhere a taxi passenger might ask to be taken.If anything, this description understates the case. The six-mile radius from Charing Cross, the putative center-point of London marked by an equestrian statue of King Charles I, takes in some 25,000 streets. London cabbies need to know all of those streets, and how to drive them — the direction they run, which are one-way, which are dead ends, where to enter and exit traffic circles, and so on. But cabbies also need to know everything on the streets. Examiners may ask a would-be cabbie to identify the location of any restaurant in London. Any pub, any shop, any landmark, no matter how small or obscure — all are fair game. Test-takers have been asked to name the whereabouts of flower stands, of laundromats, of commemorative plaques. One taxi driver told me that he was asked the location of a statue, just a foot tall, depicting two mice sharing a piece of cheese. It's on the facade of a building in Philpot Lane, on the corner of Eastcheap, not far from London Bridge.Surely hyperbole, I thought, upon reading this 2014 article. But when I stepped into a London black cab some years later and gave the driver my address, he said “Quite good Old Fellow”* and piloted his gigantic car from the train station down an impossible tangle of narrow streets and dropped us at the doorstep of the very building I'd requested. It appears that the robots have yet to kill this requirement.*He probably didn't actually say this, but I jolly well wish he had.On Vail's 2022 pay raisesOn different skillsets and jobsI think I came off as a bit of an a-hole at the end when I was asking about Vail paying unskilled jobs like ticket-checker and lift attendant $20 an hour while setting the minimum for more skilled jobs like ski patrol at $21. Look, I know all jobs have nuances and challenges and ways to do them well and ways to do them poorly. I've done all sorts of “unskilled” jobs, from bagging groceries to pushing shopping carts to stocking shelves to waiting tables. I know the work can be challenging, tiring, and thankless, and I believe good workers should be paid good wages. If you're loading a fixed-grip double chair on a beginner run for eight hours in four-degree weather, well, you're awesome. But it does take more training and a larger skillset to step onto a big-mountain patrol than to manage a big-mountain liftline, and I believe the compensation for the more rigorous role ought to reflect that skills gap.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

Dispatches from Canada, Eh. | E54

Mind the Track

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2025 130:22

Two weeks into his Powder Highway road trip, PowBot calls in from Revelstoke, British Columbia to chat about life on the road in the new van, the differences between the U.S. and Canada when it comes to snow and ski culture, hiring a ski guide in Whistler to go big in the Blackcomb backcountry and interviewing “Trailhead Tim” Gibson, who PowBot met at the trailhead and suddenly became his backcountry partner in bagging the Aussie Couloir in Joffre Lakes Provincial Park. Also, the boys Dope or Derp snow stake cams, backcountry skiing solo, the magnetic Snow Strip product and reggae music. 3:00 – Catching up with PowBot on his road trip to the Powder Highway of Canada, calling from the Revelstoke Rec Center parking lot.8:30 – Trail Whisperer in Downieville.10:00 – Avalanche Canada is saying “it's time to consider getting into bigger terrain” – it's GO TIME in the alpine! Favorable clear high pressure weather all week.13:00 – Pow Bot's road trip so far – Mount Bachelor, Stevens Pass, Whistler, Duffey Lakes.18:45 – Vail Resorts is having a PR nightmare. Youtube Peak Rankings financial breakdown of Vail Resorts. Park City Mountain Resort Ski Patrol is on strike and Vail wouldn't give them a $2/hr pay raise.21:40 – PowBot arrives in Whistler/Blackcomb and stays at Riverside RV park. PowBot hires a ski guide from Altus Mountain Guides, Tim Ross, to take him touring off the Blackcomb glaciers.25:00 – How does Canada differ from United States when it comes to skiing culture?28:35 – What is Pow Bot's boondock overnight parking plan?29:30 – Parking and skiing at Joffre Lakes area, a Canadian Provincial Park. PowBot helped unstuck the local plow truck driver, Danny, a backcountry skier who plows the lots for skiers.33:00 – PowBot meets Trailhead Tim and skis the Aussie Couloir with him.37:55 – How do you know when you meet a stranger that they will be a good ski partner?39:35 – Dope or Derp? Skiing solo. PowBot skied the Seven Steps to Paradise on Rogers Pass by himself and it was the dopest tour of his life.49:24 – In order to ski parts of Rogers Pass you have to take a backcountry travel test.52:45 – New iPhones have a text to satellite feature, eliminating the need to have something like a Spot or Garmin InReach.54:45 – Dope or Derp? The Snowstrip - A magnetic rack that goes on the side of your vehicle so your skis/board doesn't fall and hit the ground.57:55 – Dope or Derp? Reggae Music – Tom's been listening to a bunch of reggae. Stick Figure, Arise Roots, John Brown's Body and 10 Foot Ganja Plant. David Lee Scales and Chaz Smith of The Grit podcast think reggae is derp. Bob Marley is The Legend for a reason.1:04:55 – ON A MUSICAL NOTE – Ross – listener recommending Tycho and Khruangbin.1:09:20 – Dope or Derp? – a listener Derek wants to know what's up with snow stake cams.1:16:25 – Last Saturday, tail end of the holiday, one of the busiest days of skiing in Tahoe ever due to the snow stake cam.1:20:25 – The sleeper pow days are the best days – the snow stake cam isn't always accurate.1:21:40 – PowBot recorded a conversation with Trailhead Tim after their adventure on Aussie Couloir and the concept of “risk shaming”.1:30:50 – A conversation with Tim Gibson at Joffre Lakes Provincial Park – living van life and skiing in Canada.1:36:20 – Quitting the corporate life, retiring and living the ski bum van life full time.1:40:45 – Partnering up with Tim to ski Joffre Peak and Aussie Couloir.1:48:24 – Moved to Chile in 2004 and got into backcountry skiing, fully self-taught through trial and error. Close calls with cornices, glaciers and crevasses.1:54:00 – The American ski culture of not reporting avalanche accidents, opposite from Canada. The concept of “risk shaming” and how risky behavior is frowned upon in skiing in the US.1:59:00 – Living in Seattle and skiing in Washington state – Mount Rainier, North Cascades, Snoqualmie Pass.2:07:00 – What does Mind the Track mean to you?

Local News Hour | January 13, 2025

vice president park city local news newshour vail resorts

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 13, 2025 48:45

Latest Utah Avalanche Center forecast, attorney bringing Vail Resorts class action lawsuit expects "long procedural fight," Summit County Health Department Director Phil Bondurant talks about a surge in winter viruses, Youth Sports Alliance Executive Director Emily Fisher and Programs Director Heather Sims discuss the success of local athletes, Park City students help develop interactive, critical thinking-based history games and Park City Education Foundation President and CEO Ingrid Whitley and Vice President of Advancement Jen Billow provide an update on programs offered by the foundation.

Carving a New Path: Dana Kent on Ski Industry Safety and Career Pivots

Ski Moms Fun Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 11, 2025 49:41

In this episode, Nicole and Sarah host Dana Kent, a long time ski industry professional turned executive coach. Dana shares her career journey from growing up skiing in Vermont to her work in the ski industry and her path to become an executive coach. Dana discusses her 20+ year career with Vail Resorts, focusing on health and safety, and explains the importance of human connection in promoting safety culture at ski resorts. Dana offers insights on lift operations, ski patrol, and guest responsibility. She talks about transitioning back to Vermont and pivoting to executive coaching, emphasizing her focus on supporting women in male-dominated outdoor industries. Dana describes her coaching approach and who can benefit from working with her, sharing thoughts on work-life balance and enjoying outdoor activities post-career change. A key quote from the episode: "The human to human connection is the most important thing. We become almost agents of behavioral change."Keep up with the Latest from Dana:Website: https://www.danakentcoaching.comDana's Blog: https://www.danakentcoaching.com/blogShop the Diamant Weekend Warrior Bag at www.diamantskiing.com and use code SKIMOMS to save 20%Invest in your season with this TSA Approved carry-on boot bag, it's a game changer and built to last. Start planning your trip here visitulstercountyny.comThe Ski Moms are so excited to be partnering with Ulster County this year. Located in New York State, Ulster County is tucked into the Hudson Valley and offers families a chance to get out in nature all year long. Visit Ski Haus in Woburn, Framingham, or Salem, NH, or go to skihaus.com. Ready for your next adventure? Download the Vrbo app or check out Vrbo.com for trusted, family-friendly getaways and plan a stay everyone will love! Support the showKeep up with the Latest from the Ski Moms!Website: www.theskimoms.coSki Moms Discount Page: https://www.theskimoms.co/discountsSki Moms Ski Rental HomesJoin the 13,000+ Ski Moms Facebook GroupInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theskimoms/ Send us an email and let us know what guests and topics you'd like to hear next! Sarah@skimomsfun.comNicole@skimomsfun.com

Skiers Sue Vail, Immigration Crackdown, New SLC Trash Day

City Cast Salt Lake

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 37:19

The Park City ski patrol strike is finally over, so what's in their contract? Executive producer Emily Means and host Ali Vallarta discuss the union's wins and Vail's losses. Plus, a slew of immigration bills just dropped, hut-to-hut hiking, and an important public notice. Resources and references: Skiers file class action lawsuit against Vail Resorts over Park City strike [KPCW] New SLC garbage collection schedule starts Feb. 3, 2025 The Western Uinta Hut System This year we're giving $1,500 worth of gift cards to one lucky winner for the chance to enjoy some of the best SLC eats in every month of 2025. Follow the steps on this Instagram post to enter to win a year's worth of City Cast Salt Lake's favorite restaurants. Become a member of City Cast Salt Lake today! It's the best way to support our work and help make sure we're around for years to come. Get all the details and sign up at membership.citycast.fm. Subscribe to Hey Salt Lake, our daily morning newsletter. You can also find us on Instagram @CityCastSLC. 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: The Shop Central Wasatch Symposium Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance Elizabeth Academy Live Crude - Get $25 off your facial by mentioning this ad. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

executives immigration crackdown park city vail slc skiers vail resorts trash day

Class-action lawsuit filed against Vail Resorts over effects of worker striker

effects worker striker filed class action lawsuits vail resorts

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 9:53

Hosts: Erin Rider and Leah Murray A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Vail Resorts over its handling of and communication about the recent ski patrol strike and its effects on visitors to Park City Mountain Ski Resort. The lawsuit alleges that Vail Resorts “intentionally and willfully deceived hundreds of thousands of consumers.” Inside Sources discussed what the lawsuit is asking for.

Inside Sources Full Show January 10th, 2025: Trump's 'unconditional discharge,' The evolving Republican Party, Free speech vs. censorship

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 81:12

Hosts: Erin Rider and Leah Murray Long-term effects of Pres.-elect Trump’s ‘unconditional discharge’ sentencing No fine, no jail time, and no real penalties – it's the result of President-elect Donald Trump’s sentencing for his 34 felony counts in his New York ‘hush money’ trial. While the President-elect might not face any huge penalties, he is officially a convicted felon. What happens now? Where do we – as a country – go from here? Inside Sources host Erin Rider and Leah Murray dig into it. TikTok argues before SCOTUS to stay in the United States Will TikTok’s claims of “free speech” be enough to sway the United States Supreme Court to block the impending ban? The federal government claims TikTok needs to go for national security reasons. While we wait for a decision from the courts, Inside Sources shares some hot opinions. Listen to hear Leah Murray say government should back off and Erin Rider say national security has to take priority. The changing face of the Republican Party Political parties are constantly changing their platforms and views – that's not new. But the Republican Party is changing in a fascinating way, becoming more and more the party of the working class. We saw it in the 2024 election as Trump courted union leaders, and now we’re seeing it more. The hosts discuss the balance the GOP is seeking between worker rights and employer rights. Utah’s economic outlook in 2025 What does Utah’s economic outlook look like for 2025? And how might public policy influence it? This morning, host Leah Murray got some answers and ideas when she attended the Utah Economic Outlook and Public Policy Summit. She explains to co-host Erin Rider how legislative and business leaders plan to strengthen Utah’s economy this year and into the future. Class-action lawsuit filed against Vail Resorts over effects of worker striker A class-action lawsuit has been filed against Vail Resorts over its handling of and communication about the recent ski patrol strike and its effects on visitors to Park City Mountain Ski Resort. The lawsuit alleges that Vail Resorts “intentionally and willfully deceived hundreds of thousands of consumers.” Inside Sources discussed what the lawsuit is asking for. On the Hill 2025: Previewing legislation on unlicensed drivers Our preview of bills for the upcoming 2025 Legislative General Session continues with an in-depth look at a bill that addresses unlicensed drivers on Utah roads. This bill was introduced as part of a broader public safety set of bills earlier this week. Bill sponsor State Representative Matt MacPherson joins Inside Sources live in the studio to explain how his bill would help Utah drivers. Humanity among the ‘President’s Club’ One thing that usually brings together members of the President’s Club – current and former presidents – is a death of one of their own. The living presidents attended President Jimmy Carter’s funeral yesterday, and the interactions were much warmer than some expected. Erin Rider has run for office before and offers an interesting perspective on the humanity of presidents and former candidates for office. Free speech and the 1st Amendment vs. Censorship Social media platforms have come under fire over the years over claims of censorship. Now, Meta says it will get rid of their ‘fact-checking’ program due to concerns about mistakes leading to censorship. Free speech is important, but whose responsibility is it to ensure that what’s on social media is accurate and nondamaging?

Local News Hour | January 10, 2025

local news east village mida newshour mike reilly vail resorts

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 10, 2025 51:09

Latest Utah Avalanche Center forecast, MIDA touts military benefits at East Village hotel grand opening, Park City Ski Patrol Union business manager Quinn Graves and patroller Mike Reilly talk about their new contract with Vail Resorts, Park City Councilmember Ryan Dickey has a recap of Thursday night's council meeting and attorney Dan Tarpey talks about the Vail Resorts class action lawsuit.

Wednesday, January 8

Aspen Public Radio Newscast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 8, 2025 10:22

On today's newscast: The Department of Transportation has awarded a $2 million grant to Pitkin County to improve public transit at the Aspen-Pitkin County Airport; lawmakers return to the State Capitol today for this year's legislative session; and the Park City Mountain ski patrol union has reached a tentative agreement to end its strike at the Vail Resorts-owned resort in Utah. Tune in to these stories and more.

utah transportation state capitol vail resorts

Podcast #194: Worcester Telegram & Gazette Snowsports Columnist Shaun Sutner

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025 87:11

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Dec. 31. It dropped for free subscribers on Jan. 7. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoShaun Sutner, snowsports columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Telegram.comRecorded onNovember 25, 2024About Shaun SutnerSutner is a skier, writer, and journalist based in Worcester, Massachusetts. He's written a snowsports column for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from Thanksgiving to April for the past several decades. You can follow Shaun on social media to stay locked into his work:Read his recent columns:* On Wildcat, Attitash, and Vail Resorts* Everyone needs a bootfitter* Indy Pass is still kicking assWhy I interviewed himJournalism sounds easy. Go there, talk to people, write about it. It's not easy. The quest for truth is like the Hobbit's quest for the ring: long, circuitous, filled with monsters who want to eat you. Some truth is easy: Wachusett has four chairlifts. Beyond the objective, complications arise: Wachusett's decision to replace its summit quad with a six-pack in 2025 is… what, exactly? Visionary, shortsighted, foolish, clever, pedestrian? Does it prioritize passholders or marketing or profit over experience? Is it necessary? Is it wise? Is it prudent? Is it an answer to locals' frustrations or a compounding factor in it?The journalist's job is to machete through this jungle and sculpt a version of reality that all parties will recognize and that none of them will be entirely happy with. Because people are complex and so is the world, and assembling the truth is less like snapping together a thousand-piece puzzle and more like the A-Team examining a trashheap and saying “OK boys, let's build a helicopter.”Sutner is good at this, as may be expected of someone who's spent decades on his beat. He understands that anecdote is not absolute. He knows how to pull together broad narratives (“New England's outdated lift fleet” of the 2010s), and to acknowledge when they change (“New England operators aggressively modernize lifts” in the 2020s). He is empathetic to locals and operators alike, without being deferential to either. He knows that the best stories are 90 percent what the writer leaves out, and 10 percent identifying the essential bits to frame the larger whole. And he lives the beat, aggressively, joyously, immersively.We need more Sutners, but we are probably getting fewer. As journalism figures out what it is in the 21st century, it is deciding that it is less about community-based entities employing beat-specific writers and more about feeding mastheads to private equity funds that drag the carcass down to entrails and then feed them to the hounds. Thousands of American communities now have no local news organization, let alone one with the resources to hire writers solely devoted to something as niche as skiing. Filling the information void is Angry Ski Bro, firing off 50 dozen monthly Facebook posts about Vail's abominable greed being distilled in a broken snowgun at Wildcat.I started The Storm as an antidote to this global complaint box. And I believe that the future of journalism includes writers tapping Substack and similar platforms to freelance the truth. But I still believe that the traditional news organization – meaning physical newspapers that have evolved into digital-analogue hybrids – can find a sustainable business model that tells a community's essential stories. Sutner, and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, deserve credit for showing us how to do this.What we talked aboutSki South America; how to ski 60 days while working full time; Worcester's legendary Strand's ski shop; Powdr's sale of Killington and Pico and how the new owners can keep from ruining it; how to make Pico more relevant; is this the start of New England ski area deconsolidation?; Smuggs; Black Mountain, New Hampshire's co-op quest; taking stock of New England consolidation; Vail Resorts' New England GM shuffle; New England's chairlift renaissance; what is New England's new most-hated lift?; why New England needs more surface lifts; a new sixer coming to Wachusett; the legacy of Wachusett's David Crowley; why Wachusett works; and what we lose with consolidation.What we got wrongOn whatever that city is calledI probably still can't pronounce “Worcester.” Just congratulate yourself if you can, and keep moving.On South American skiingI said in our conversation that there were “40 or so ski areas” in South America. I've not taken my magnifying glass to the region as I have with Real America, but I made this quick-hitter chart earlier this year that counted just 26 on the continent, all of them in Chile and Argentina:This map on skiresort.info counts 45 South American ski areas, including a sporadically operating area in Bolivia and one indoor and one artificial-turf area in Brazil. Someday I'll do a cross-check with my list, but that day is not today.On which county Killington lives inNeither of us knew which county Killington is in, but he suggested Windham County. The correct answer is Rutland County.On The Man owning our ski centersWhen discussing state-owned ski areas, Sutner didn't remember that New Hampshire owns Cannon and Vail-operated Sunapee, and I didn't remember to remind him.On Black Mountain, New HampshireWe recorded this prior to Black outlining its plans for a transition to co-op ownership. Mountain leadership has since released more details:On Mad River Glen's snowmaking hard stopI noted that Mad River Glen only makes snow up to “2,000-whatever feet.” The actual number, as proclaimed by some past assemblage of the MRG co-op, is 2,200 feet. Though perhaps raising that by a couple hundred feet would have spared them from spending a fat stack to build a double-chair midstation this year.On Vail's GM shuffleWhen we recorded this conversation, Vail-owned Wildcat, Mount Snow, and Crotched had general manager vacancies. The company has since filled all three (click through on the links above).On Sugarloaf's T-barIn our discussion on surface lifts, Sutner references a T-bar to Sugarloaf's summit. The Bateau T-bar does land quite high on the mountain, but it stops short of the summit and snowfields.On Waterville Valley's T-barsWaterville's T-bar game is way ahead of most New England ski areas. Two of them serve lower-mountain race or race-training trails, and one serves the mountain's top 400 vertical feet, replacing the windhold-prone chairlifts that once ran to the summit. While two of the T-bars run parallel to terrain parks, serving them does not appear to be the lifts' direct purpose, as we debated on the podcast.On Vail's high-speed “T-bars”I mixed up my lift types when describing the high-speed surface lifts that Vail runs at its Midwest mountains. They are ropetows, not T-bars. Here they go at Afton Alps, Minnesota:Afton Alps, Minnesota. Video by Stuart Winchester.On Wachusett upgradesSutner noted that Wachusett's coming summit six-pack would be its first big infrastructure upgrade in 20 years, but the mountain installed the 299-vertical-foot Monadnock Express quad in 2011.On Berkshire East's T-Bar ExpressSutner said that last year was Berkshire East's second season running its T-Bar Express high-speed quad, but the lift first spun for the 2023-24 ski season. The current, 2024-25 season is the lift's second.On Sutner's ski daysWe recorded this a while ago, and Sutner had clocked eight ski days before Thanksgiving. As of Dec. 30, he'd hit 21 days, well along to his 60-day goal.Podcast NotesOn Cerro CatedralI'm somewhat obsessed with this 3,773-vertical-foot, 1,500-acre Argentinian monster:On Shaun's Worcester Living articleSutner wrote up his Argentinian ski adventure for Worcester Living magazine. The story starts on page 20.On Powdr's sale of Killington and PicoIn case you missed it:On New England consolidationNew England's 100-ish ski areas are largely independently owned and operated. These 25 are run by an entity that operates at least two ski areas:On Intrawest and American Skiing CompanyIt's impossible to discuss the history of New England ski area consolidation without acknowledging the now-dead Intrawest and American Skiing Company. On Vail's management shuffleI wrote about this recently:I launched The Storm in October 2019, when Vail owned 34 North American ski areas. To the best of my knowledge, just three of those ski areas' general manager-level leaders remain where they were on that date: Vail Mountain VP/COO Beth Howard, Okemo VP/GM Bruce Schmidt, and Boston Mills-Brandywine GM Jake Campbell. Compare this to Boyne, where nine of 10 mountain leaders either remain in their 2019 roles, or have since ascended to them after working at the resort for decades, often replacing legends retiring after long careers. Alterra and Powdr have demonstrated similar stability. Meanwhile, Vail's seven New England Resorts enter this winter with just two mountains – Okemo and Attitash – under the same general manager that ran them in the spring.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 90/100 in 2024, and number 590 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. 2024 will continue until the 100-article threshold is achieved, regardless of what that pesky calendar says. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Local News Hour | January 7, 2025

local news newshour california supreme court vail resorts

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 7, 2025 47:31

Latest Utah Avalanche Center forecast, Park City Mountain holiday crowds thin in second week of ski patrol strike, Wasatch County Manager Dustin Grabau previews this week's county council meeting, Vail Resorts petitions California Supreme Court in class-action labor lawsuit, Mountain Trails Foundation Executive Director Lora Anthony discusses the late start to the winter trails season and trail management and director of Summit Land Conservancy Cheryl Fox discusses open space issues.

Twist News: Fusion, Rural Investment, and Applied AI | E2068

This Week in Startups

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2025 69:07

This Week in Startups is brought to you by… PrizePicks. TWiST listeners, download the app today and use code TWIST to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Go to: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TWIST PrizePicks - Run your game. Lemon.io. TWiST listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist Vanta. TWiST listeners automate your SOC2 and get $1,000 off at http://www.vanta.com/twist Today's show: Jason and Alex cover Sam Altman's fusion proclamation and the age of abundance we're approaching, rural investment and subsidies with austerity on the horizon, and applied AI. * Timestamps: (0:00) Jason and Alex kick off the show. (1:33) The new interactive live show docket (4:34) The Vail Resorts Epic Pass controversy (10:16) PrizePicks. TWiST listeners, download the app today and use code TWIST to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Go to: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TWIST PrizePicks - Run your game. (12:10) Critique of Vail Resorts' management and stock performance (14:39) Sam Altman's interview on fusion energy (18:03) US oil production, energy innovation, and the importance of risk-taking (20:54) Lemon.io. TWiST listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist (23:07) Ro Khanna on rural business subsidies (29:59) Vanta. TWiST listeners automate your SOC2 and get $1,000 off at http://www.vanta.com/twist (31:29) Debating government subsidies and the impact on rural living (35:10) Government debt and austerity measures (39:47) Chinese hacking into US infrastructure and cybersecurity concerns (47:10) China's economic challenges and the importance of domestic production (55:10) SF Smashburger spot review and handling online criticism (1:02:21) Security precautions for public figures and the decline of empathy online * Subscribe to the TWiST500 newsletter: https://ticker.thisweekinstartups.com Check out the TWIST500: https://www.twist500.com Subscribe to This Week in Startups on Apple: https://rb.gy/v19fcp * Follow Alex: X: https://x.com/alex LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexwilhelm * Follow Jason: X: https://twitter.com/Jason LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncalacanis * Check out the following articles and companies mentioned in the episode: U.S. State-by-State AI Regulation UPS Service Centers Close in Rural America Salt Typhoon Hack (via Washington Post) Density.io Deep Sentinel * Thank you to our partners: (10:16) PrizePicks. TWiST listeners, download the app today and use code TWIST to get $50 instantly after you play your first $5 lineup! Go to: https://prizepicks.onelink.me/LME0/TWIST PrizePicks - Run your game. (20:54) Lemon.io. TWiST listeners get 15% off your first 4 weeks of developer time at https://Lemon.io/twist (29:59) Vanta. TWiST listeners automate your SOC2 and get $1,000 off at http://www.vanta.com/twist * Great TWIST interviews: Will Guidara, Eoghan McCabe, Steve Huffman, Brian Chesky, Bob Moesta, Aaron Levie, Sophia Amoruso, Reid Hoffman, Frank Slootman, Billy McFarland * Check out Jason's suite of newsletters: https://substack.com/@calacanis * Follow TWiST: Twitter: https://twitter.com/TWiStartups YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/thisweekin Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisweekinstartups TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thisweekinstartups Substack: https://twistartups.substack.com * Subscribe to the Founder University Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@founderuniversity1916

Ski patrollers across the country watching Vail Resorts negotiations

The Daily Sun-Up

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2025 19:14

https://coloradosun.com/2025/01/03/utah-ski-patroller-strike/ Today – Sun outdoors reporter Jason Blevins breaks down what Park City ski patroller strike means for Vail Resorts and for Colorado ski patrollers who have unionized. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

colorado watching sun negotiation park city vail resorts jason blevins

Park City Ski Patrol strike enters 10th day

strike park city vail resorts ski patrol taylor morgan

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2025 11:01

Hosts: Erin Rider and Taylor Morgan Park City Mountain ski patrols are entering their tenth day of striking as they demand a $2 an hour raise. The strike has contributed to long lines at the ski resort and has led to national outcry for and against the owner of Park City Mountain, Vail Resorts. Inside Sources hosts Taylor Morgan and Erin Rider share updates on the strike.

Inside Sources Full Show January 6th, 2025: Presidential election results certified, Legislation on border security, New elected officials take oaths of office

Aspen Public Radio Newscast

Play Episode Listen Later Jan 6, 2025 85:14

Hosts: Erin Rider and Taylor Morgan Presidential election results certified without any issue It’s officially official: Donald Trump will be the next President of the United States. Earlier today, the electoral college voted to certify the results of the presidential election. The mood was solemn at the Capitol for a few reasons; not least of which is the memory of the insurrection four years ago. We discuss the calm and cordial atmosphere of the vote today, and how Vice President Kamala Harris did as she oversaw the vote finalizing her presidential loss. $200+ Million set aside to provide tax cuts for Utahns The upcoming Legislative General Session begins in about two weeks, and it could result in some large tax cuts for Utahns. The exact details are still unknown at this time, but the cuts come as Governor Cox has pushed to eliminate the state income tax on Social Security benefits. The Inside Sources hosts discuss the support the plan seems to have on Utah’s Capitol Hill. On the Hill 2025: Previewing legislation on public safety, border security Today, several members of the Utah State Legislature outlined pieces of legislation to improve public safety and address impacts of illegal immigration at the United States’ Southern Border. These bills, which will be discussed and voted upon during the General Legislative Session, deal with things like fentanyl, organized crime, property rights, and English language learners. State Rep. Karianne Lisonbee joins Inside Sources to describe some of these bills. Gov. Cox calls for removal of ICE director in Salt Lake City According to an investigation from our partners at the Deseret News, Governor Spencer Cox sent a letter to the incoming Trump administration asking for the immediate removal of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director in Salt Lake City. Why? We discuss some of the reasons outlined in the letter, and how the Governor has also asked for more funding to remove migrants. New Elected Officials: Ross Romero, new Salt Lake County Council Member Several new members joined the Salt Lake County Council this morning, taking their oaths of office in a ceremony held at the Mid-Valley Performing Arts Center in Taylorsville. We’re joined in the studio by new Salt Lake County Council Member for District 4, Ross Romero. He outlines some of the things he wants to prioritize during his first term. Park City Ski Patrol strike enters 10th day Park City Mountain ski patrols are entering their tenth day of striking as they demand a $2 an hour raise. The strike has contributed to long lines at the ski resort and has led to national outcry for and against the owner of Park City Mountain, Vail Resorts. Inside Sources hosts Taylor Morgan and Erin Rider share updates on the strike. New Elected Officials: Natalie Pinkney, new Salt Lake County Council Member Also joining the Salt Lake County Council as an At-Large Member is Natalie Pinkney. She also took the oath of office today and says she wants to celebrate diversity while still addressing important issues like homelessness and public safety. She joins Inside Sources in the studio to talk about her priorities for her first term. Tips to avoid the ‘winter blues’ Today was a rather gray, dreary day here in Salt Lake City. It got us thinking about the ‘winter blues’ -- a kind of slump or sadness many people feel once the holidays end. The Inside Sources hosts share some tips for listeners who need a little pick-me-up during the cold winter months.

Friday, December 20

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 20, 2024 9:48

On today's newscast: Colorado Parks and Wildlife is promoting non-lethal wolf management strategies with the launch of a new range rider program this spring; Congress is sending a large outdoor recreation package to President Joe Biden's desk; and the union representing ski patrollers at Park City, Utah, and ownership group Vail Resorts have agreed to mediation to resolve a contract dispute. Tune into these stories and more.

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Exploring two sides to Colorado ski industry

The Daily Sun-Up

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 16, 2024 21:00

https://coloradosun.com/2024/12/13/vail-resorts-pass-sales/ Today – Sun outdoors reporter Jason Blevins looks into the tale of two ski groups — the grassroots effort to revive Cuchara ski area while Vail Resorts reports nearly $1 billion in accessible money thanks to preseason pass sales. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Podcast #192: Mount Sunapee GM (and former Crotched GM) Susan Donnelly

BizNinja Entrepreneur Radio

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 76:10

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 29. It dropped for free subscribers on Dec. 6. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoSusan Donnelly, General Manager of Mount Sunapee (and former General Manager of Crotched Mountain)Recorded onNovember 4, 2024About CrotchedClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Vail Resorts, which also owns:Located in: Francetown, New HampshireYear founded: 1963 (as Crotched East); 1969 (as Onset, then Onset Bobcat, then Crotched West, now present-day Crotched); entire complex closed in 1990; West re-opened by Peak Resorts in 2003 as Crotched MountainPass affiliations:* Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Epic Pass: unlimited access* Northeast Midweek Epic Pass: midweek access, including holidaysClosest neighboring public ski areas: Pats Peak (:34), Granite Gorge (:39), Arrowhead (:41), McIntyre (:50), Mount Sunapee (:51)Base elevation: 1,050 feetSummit elevation: 2,066 feetVertical drop: 1,016Skiable Acres: 100Average annual snowfall: 65 inchesTrail count: 25 (28% beginner, 40% intermediate, 32% advanced)Lift count: 5 (1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 1 triple, 1 double, 1 surface lift – view Lift Blog's inventory of Crotched's lift fleet)History: Read New England Ski History's overview of Crotched MountainAbout Mount SunapeeClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: The State of New Hampshire; operated by Vail Resorts, which also operates resorts detailed in the chart above.Located in: Newbury, New HampshireYear founded: 1948Pass affiliations:* Epic Pass, Epic Local Pass, Northeast Value Epic Pass: unlimited access* Northeast Midweek Epic Pass: midweek access, including holidaysClosest neighboring public ski areas: Pats Peak (:28), Whaleback (:29), Arrowhead (:29), Ragged (:38), Veterans Memorial (:42), Ascutney (:45), Crotched (:48), Quechee (:50), Granite Gorge (:51), McIntyre (:53)Base elevation: 1,233 feetSummit elevation: 2,743 feetVertical drop: 1,510 feetSkiable Acres: 233 acresAverage annual snowfall: 130 inchesTrail count: 67 (29% beginner, 47% intermediate, 24% advanced)Lift count: 8 (2 high-speed quads, 1 fixed-grip quad, 2 triples, 3 conveyors – view Lift Blog's inventory of Mount Sunapee's lift fleet.)History: Read New England Ski History's overview of Mount SunapeeWhy I interviewed herIt's hard to be small in New England and it's hard to be south in New England. There are 35 New England ski areas with vertical drops greater than 1,100 feet, and Crotched is not one of them. There are 44 New England ski areas that average more than 100 inches of snow per winter, and Crotched is not one of those either. Crotched does have a thousand vertical feet and a high-speed lift and a new baselodge and a snowmaking control room worthy of a nuclear submarine. Which is a pretty good starter kit for a successful ski area. But it's not enough in New England.To succeed as a ski area in New England, you need a Thing. The most common Things are to be really really nice or really really gritty. Stratton or Mad River. Okemo or Magic. Sunday River or Black Mountain of Maine. The pitch is either “you'll think you're at Deer Valley” or “you'll descend the hill on ice skates and you'll like it.” But Crotched's built-along-a-state-highway normalness precludes arrogance, and its mellow terrain lacks the attitude for even modest braggadocio. It's not a small ski area, but it's not big enough to be a mid-sized one, either. The terrain is fine, but it's not the kind of place you need to ski on purpose, or more than once. It's a fine local, but not much else, making Crotched precisely the kind of mountain that you would have expected to be smothered by the numerous larger and better ski areas around it before it could live to see the internet. And that's exactly what happened. Crotched, lacking a clear Thing, went bust in 1990.The ski area, undersized and average, should have melted back into the forest by now. But in 2002, then-budding Peak Resorts crept out of its weird Lower Midwest manmade snowhole on a reverse Lewis & Clark Expedition to explore the strange and murky East. And as they hacked away the brambles around Crotched's boarded-up baselodge, they saw not a big pile of mediocrity, but a portal into the gold-plated New England market. And they said “this could work if we can just find a Thing.” And that Thing was night-skiing with attitude, built on top of $10 million in renovations that included a built-from-scratch snowmaking system.The air above the American mountains is filled with such wild notions. “We're going to save Mt. Goatpath. It's going to be bigger than Vail and deeper than Alta and higher than Telluride.” And everyone around them is saying, “You know this is, like, f*****g Connecticut, right?” But if practical concerns killed all bad ideas, then no one would keep reptiles as pets. Everyone else is happy with cats or dogs, sentient mammals of kindred disposition with humans, but this idiot needs a 12-foot-long boa constrictor that he keeps in a 6x3 fishtank. It helps him get chicks or something. It's his thing. And damned if it doesn't work.What we talked aboutTransitioning from smaller, Vail-owned Crotched to larger, state-owned but Vail-operated Sunapee; “weather-proofing” Sunapee; Crotched and Sunapee – so close but so different; reflecting on the Okemo days under Triple Peaks ownership; longtime Okemo head Bruce Schmidt; reacting to Vail's 2018 purchase of Triple Peaks; living through change; the upside of acquisitions; integrating Peak Resorts; skiing's boys' club; Vail Resorts' culture of women's advancement; why Covid uniquely challenged Crotched among Vail's New England properties; reviving Midnight Madness; Crotched's historic downsizing; whether the lost half of Crotched could ever be re-developed; why Crotched 2.0 is more durable than the version that shut down in 1990; Crotched's baller snowmaking system; southern New Hampshire's wild weather; thoughts on future Crotched infrastructure; and considering a beginner trail from Crotched's summit.Why now was a good time for this interviewAs we swing toward the middle of the 2020s, it's pretty lame to continue complaining about operational malfunctions in the so-called Covid season of 2020-21, but I'm going to do it anyway.Some ski areas did a good job operating that season. For example, Pats Peak. Pats Peak was open seven days per week that winter. Pats Peak offered night skiing on all the days it usually offers night skiing. Pats Peak made the Ross Ice Shelf jealous with its snowmaking firepower. Pats Peak acted like a snosportskiing operation that had operated a snosportskiing operation in previous winters. Pats Peak did a good job.Other ski areas did a bad job operating that season. For example, Crotched. Crotched was open whenever it decided to be open, which was not very often. Crotched, one of the great night-skiing centers in New England, offered almost no night skiing. Crotched's snowmaking looked like what happens when you accidentally keep the garden hose running during an overnight freeze. Crotched did a bad job.This is a useful comparison, because these two ski areas sit just 21 miles and 30 minutes apart. They are dealing with the same crappy weather and the same low-altitude draw. They are both obscured by the shadows of far larger ski areas scraping the skies just to the north. They are both small and unserious places, where the skiing is somewhat beside the point. Kids go there to pole-click one another's skis off of moving chairlifts. College kids go there to alternate two laps with two rounds at the bar. Adults go there to shoo the kids onto the chairlifts and burn down happy hour. No one shows up in either parking lot expecting Jackson Hole.But Crotched Mountain is owned by Vail Resorts. Pats Peak is owned by the same family of good-old boys who built the original baselodge from logs sawed straight off the mountain in 1962. Vail Resorts has the resources to send a container full of sawdust to the moon just to see what happens when it's opened. Most of Pats Peaks' chairlifts came used from other ski areas. These two are not drawing from the same oil tap.And yet, one of them delivered a good product during Covid, and the other did not. And the ones who did are not the ones that their respective pools of resources would suggest. And so the people who skied Pats Peak that year were like “Yeah that was pretty good considering everything else kind of sucks right now.” And the people who skied Crotched that season were like “Well that sucked even worse than everything else does right now, and that's saying something.”And that's the mess that Donnelly inherited when she took the GM job at Crotched in 2021. And it took a while, but she fixed it. And that's harder than it should be when your parent company can deploy sawdust rockets on a whim.What I got wrong* I said that Colorado has 35 active ski areas. The correct number is 34, or 33 if we exclude Hesperus, which did not operate last winter, and is not scheduled to reactivate anytime soon.* I said that Bruce Schmidt was the “president and general manager” of Okemo. His title is “Vice President and General Manager.” Sorry about that, Bruce.* I said that Okemo's season pass was “closing in on $2,000” when Vail came along. According to New England Ski History, Okemo's top season pass price hit $1,375 for the 2017-18 ski season, the last before Vail purchased the resort. This appears to be a big cut from the 2016-17 season, when the top price was $1,619. My best guess is that Okemo dropped their pass prices after Vail purchased Stowe, lowering that mountain's pass price from $2,313 for the 2016-17 ski season to just $899 (an Epic Pass) the next.* I said that 80 percent-plus of my podcasts featured interviews with men. I examined the inventory, and found that of the 210 podcasts I've published (192 Storm Skiing Podcasts, 12 Covid pods, 6 Live pods), only 33, or 15.7 percent, included a female guest. Only 23 of those (11 percent), featured a woman as the only guest. And three of those podcasts were with one person: former NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak. So either my representation sucks, or the ski industry's representation sucks, but probably it's both.Why you should ski CrotchedUpper New England doesn't have a lot of night skiing, and the night skiing it does have is mostly underwhelming. Most of the large resorts – Killington, Sugarbush, Smuggs, Stowe, Sugarloaf, Waterville, Cannon, Stratton, Mount Snow, Okemo, Attitash, Wildcat, etc. – have no night skiing at all. A few of the big names – Bretton Woods, Sunday River, Cranmore – provide a nominal after-dark offering, a lift and a handful of trails. The bulk of the night skiing in New Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine involves surface lifts at community-run bumps with the vertical drop of a Slip N' Slide.But a few exceptions tower into the frosty darkness: Pleasant Mountain, Maine; Pats Peak, New Hampshire; and Bolton Valley, Vermont all deliver big vertical drops, multiple chairlifts, and a spiderweb of trails for night skiers. Boyne-owned Pleasant, with 1,300 vertical feet served by a high-speed quad, is the most extensive of these, but the second-most expansive night-skiing operation in New England lives at Crotched.Parked less than an hour from New Hampshire's four largest cities – Manchester, Nashua, Concord, and Derry – Crotched is the rare northern New England ski area that can sustain an after-hours business (New Hampshire, Maine, and Vermont are ranked numbers 41, 42, and 49 among U.S. states by population, respectively, with a three-state total of just 3.5 million residents). With four chairlifts spinning, every trail lit, Park Brahs on patrol, first-timers lined up at the rental shop, Bomber Bro straightlining Pluto's Plunge in his unzipped Celtics jacket, the parking lots jammed, and the scritch-scratch of edges on ice shuddering across the night, it's an amazing scene, a lantern of New England Yeah Dawg zest floating in the winter night.No, Crotched night skiing isn't what it used to be, when Peak Resorts kept the joint bumping until 3 a.m. And the real jammer, Midnight Madness, hits just a half dozen days per winter. But it's still a uniquely New England scene, a skiing spectacle that can double as a night-cap after a day shredding Cannon or Waterville or Mount Snow.Podcast NotesOn my recent Sunapee podI tend to schedule these interviews several months in advance, and sometimes things change. One of the things that changed between when I scheduled this conversation and when we recorded it was Donnelly's job. She moved from Crotched, which I had never spotlighted on the podcast, to Sunapee, which I just featured a few months ago. Which means, Sunapee Nation, that we don't really talk much about Mount Sunapee on this podcast that has Mount Sunapee in the headline. But pretty much everything I talked about in June with former Sunapee GM Peter Disch (who's now VP of Mountain Ops at Vail's Heavenly), is still relevant:On historic CrotchedCrotched was once a much larger resort forged from two onetime independent side-by-side ski areas. The whole history of it is a bit labyrinthian and involves bad decisions, low snow years, and unpaid taxes (read the full tale at New England Ski History), but the upshot was this interconnected animal, shown here at its 1988-ish peak:The whole Crotched complex dropped dead around 1990, and would have likely stayed that way forever had Missouri-based Peak Resorts not gotten the insane idea to dig a lost New England ski area up from the graveyard. Somewhat improbably, they succeeded, and the contemporary Crotched (minus the summit quad, which came later), opened in 2003. The current ski area sits on what was formerly known as “Crotched West,” and before that “Bobcat,” and before that (or perhaps at the same time), “Onset.” Trails on the original Crotched Mountain, at Crotched East (left on the trailmap above), are still faintly visible from above (on the right below, between the “Crotched Mountain” and “St. John Enterprise” dots):On Triple Peaks and OkemoTriple Peaks was the umbrella company that owned Okemo, Vermont; Mount Sunapee, New Hampshire; and Crested Butte, Colorado. The owners, the Mueller family, sold the whole outfit to Vail Resorts in 2018. Longtime Okemo GM Bruce Schmidt laid out the whole history on the podcast earlier this year:On Crotched's lift fleetPeak got creative building Crotched's lift fleet. The West double, a Hall installed by Jesus himself in 400 B.C., had sat in the woods through Crotched's entire 13-year closure and was somehow reactivated for the revival. The Rover triple and the Valley and Summit quads came from a short-lived 1,000-vertical-foot Virginia ski area called Cherokee.What really nailed Crotched back to the floor, however, was the 2012 acquisition of a used high-speed quad from bankrupt Ascutney, Vermont.Peak flagrantly dubbed this lift the “Crotched Rocket,” a name that Vail seems to have backed away from (the lift is simply “Rocket” on current trailmaps).Fortunately, Ascutney lived on as a surface-lifts-only community bump even after its beheading. You can still skin and ski the top trails if you're one of those people who likes to make skiing harder than it needs to be:On Peak ResortsPeak Resorts started in, of all places, Missouri. The company slowly acquired small-but-busy suburban ski areas, and was on its way to Baller status when Vail purchased the whole operation in 2019. Here's a loose acquisition timeline:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 81/100 in 2024, and number 581 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Epic & Ikon: Price Discrimination in the Ski Industry & the US Economy (+ Bird Flu Booms!)

Centered From Reality

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 6, 2024 33:43

In this episode, Alex starts by giving an update on the Bird Flu (H5N1) outbreak. The USDA is now calling for all dairy to be tested. Alex discusses what is going on and wonders how close we are to a pandemic. For the rest of the episode, Alex re-airs a popular episode he did on skiing and price discrimination in the industry. The episode remains evergreen and relevant. After boom or bust seasons based on snowpack, large corporations like Vail Resorts ended up learning that they could charge different prices to different customers and make record profits. This led to overselling the Epic Pass (at a decent price), while also rising the average cost of day tickets. In a good season, this can lead to chaos and overcrowding (but profits), and in bad seasons, the passholders still feel obligated to ski. Basically, the ski industry has been able to increase output and demand (which is difficult in economics). Alex argues that this is why skiing feels less accessible than ever before but also more accessible at the same time. At the same time, price discrimination seems to be a new trend in the US economy and shows how the ski industry, the airline industry, and restaurants can make profits.

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How has Vail's acquisition of Vermont ski areas impacted locals?

Brave Little State

Play Episode Listen Later Dec 5, 2024 24:12

It's been seven years since Colorado-based Vail Resorts bought the ski resort at Stowe. Almost immediately, Vail cut the cost of a season pass there in half. But cheaper skiing hasn't deterred people from lampooning Vail online or displaying angry bumper stickers in ski town parking lots — spotlighting a tension over the soul of Vermont ski culture and ski towns. In this episode, we look into what's changed since Vail's entry here, from chairlift upgrades to stress on the housing market. Plus, a general sense of transformation that's harder to pinpoint. Check out the web version of this episode for photos from our reporting and a full episode transcript. And to learn more about a new exhibit on Vermont's lost ski areas, check out the Vermont Ski & Snowboard Museum in Stowe.Thanks to Nathan Evans for the great question.This episode was reported by Sabine Poux. It was produced and edited by Josh Crane and Burgess Brown. Digital support from Sophie Stephens. Angela Evancie is Brave Little State's Executive Producer. Our theme music is by Ty Gibbons; other music by Blue Dot Sessions. Special thanks to Laura Nakasaka, Abagael Giles, Nina Keck, Robert Parrish, , Jason Blevins, Tom Gianola, Lindsay DesLauriers and Izzy Mitchell.As always, our journalism is better when you're a part of it:Ask a question about VermontSign up for the BLS newsletterSay hi on Instagram and Reddit @bravestatevtDrop us an email: hello@bravelittlestate.orgMake a gift to support people-powered journalismTell your friends about the show!Brave Little State is a production of Vermont Public and a proud member of the NPR Network.

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Wine Not? How Archer Roose is Uncorking Innovation with Marian Leitner

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 25, 2024 35:02

In this episode of BizNinja Entrepreneur Radio, Tyler Jorgenson sits down with Marian Leitner-Waldman, co-founder of Archer Roose Wines. Marian shares her unconventional journey from working in finance to building a successful wine company that aims to disrupt the traditional wine industry. Archer Roose was born from her desire to create high-quality wine in an approachable, sustainable format like cans, a concept inspired by her love for storytelling and connection. Marian's entrepreneurial spirit and dedication to sustainability are evident as she discusses the challenges of innovating in an industry that is traditionally resistant to change, especially for women.Marian delves into the early struggles Archer Roose faced, from gaining trust among winemakers to finding product-market fit. The company took four years to launch its first product and spent significant time understanding consumer preferences. By focusing on transparency and a fun, non-intimidating brand, Archer Roose was able to introduce canned wine as a viable alternative to bottles, particularly targeting consumers who desire moderation and control over their consumption. The conversation highlights Marian's vision of making wine accessible and enjoyable for everyone, while also addressing larger environmental concerns.Toward the end, Marian shares her exciting journey of partnering with actress and businesswoman Elizabeth Banks, who became a co-owner of Archer Roose. Marian emphasizes the importance of maintaining product quality, investing in research, and ensuring that the wine inside the can is as good as the brand's marketing. Archer Roose is now expanding its presence in major retailers like Target and Sprouts, as well as being served at Regal Cinemas and Vail Resorts, continuing to push the boundaries of the wine industry.For more about Archer Roose Wines, visit ArcherRoose.com and explore their collection of sustainable wines that are both environmentally conscious and perfect for the modern lifestyle.

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Podcast #191: Stratton Mountain President & COO Matt Jones

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 20, 2024 82:00

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 13. It dropped for free subscribers on Nov. 20. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoMatt Jones, President and Chief Operating Officer of Stratton Mountain, VermontRecorded onNovember 11, 2024About Stratton MountainClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Alterra Mountain Company, which also owns:Located in: Winhall, VermontYear founded: 1962Pass affiliations:* Ikon Pass: Unlimited* Ikon Base Pass: Unlimited, holiday blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Bromley (:18), Magic (:24), Mount Snow (:28), Hermitage Club (:33), Okemo (:40), Brattleboro (:52)Base elevation: 1,872 feetSummit elevation: 3,875 feetVertical drop: 2,003 feetSkiable Acres: 670Average annual snowfall: 180 inchesTrail count: 99 (40% novice, 35% intermediate, 16% advanced, 9% expert)Lift count: 14 (1 ten-passenger gondola, 4 six-packs, 1 high-speed quad, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple, 1 double, 4 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Stratton's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himI don't know for sure how many skier visits Stratton pulls each winter, or where the ski area ranks among New England mountains for busyness. Historical data suggests a floor around 400,000 visits, likely good for fifth in the region, behind Killington, Okemo, Sunday River, and Mount Snow. But the exact numbers don't really matter, because the number of skiers that ski at Stratton each winter is many manys. And the number of skiers who have strong opinions about Stratton is that exact same number.Those numbers make Stratton more important than it should be. This is not the best ski area in Vermont. It's not even Alterra's best ski area in Vermont. Jay, MRG, Killington, Smuggs, Stowe, and sister resort Sugarbush are objectively better mountains than Stratton from a terrain point of view (they also get a lot more snow). But this may be one of the most crucial mountains in Alterra's portfolio, a doorway to the big-money East, a brand name for skiers across the region. Stratton is the only ski area that advertises in the New York City Subway, and has for years.But Stratton's been under a bit of stress. The lift system is aging. The gondola is terrible. Stratton was one of those ski areas that was so far ahead of the modernization curve – the mountain had four six-packs by 2001 – that it's now in the position of having to update all of that expensive stuff all at once. And as meaningful updates have lagged, Stratton's biggest New England competitors are running superlifts up the incline at a historic pace, while Alterra lobs hundreds of millions at its western megaresorts. Locals feel shafted, picketing an absentee landlord that they view as negligent. Meanwhile, the crowds pile up, as unlimited Ikon Pass access has holstered the mountain in hundreds of thousands of skiers' wintertime battle belts.If that all sounds a little dramatic, it only reflects the messages in my inbox. I think Alterra has been cc'd on at least some of those emails, because the company is tossing $20 million at Stratton this season, a sum that Jones tells us is just the beginning of massive long-term investment meant to reinforce the mountain's self-image as a destination on its own.What we talked aboutStratton's $20 million offseason; Act 250 masterplanning versus U.S. Forest Service masterplanning; huge snowmaking upgrades and aspirations; what $8 million gets you in employee housing these days; big upgrades for the Ursa and American Express six-packs; a case for rebuilding lifts rather than doing a tear-down and replace; a Tamarack lift upgrade; when Alterra's investment firehose could shift east; leaving Tahoe for Vermont; what can be done about that gondola?; the Kidderbrook lift; parking; RFID; Ikon Pass access levels; and $200 to ski Stratton.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewHow pissed do you think the Punisher was when Disney announced that Ant Man would be the 12th installment in Marvel's cinematic universe? I imagine him seated in his lair, polishing his grenades. “F*****g Ant Man?” He throws a grenade into one of his armored Jeeps, which disintegrates in a supernova of steel parts, tires, and smoke. “Ant Man. Are you f*****g serious with this? I waited through eleven movies. Eleven. Iron Man got three. Thor and Captain f*****g America got two apiece. The Hulk. Two Avengers movies. Something called ‘Guardians of the Galaxy,' about a raccoon and a talking tree that save the goddamn universe or some s**t. And it was my turn, Man. My. Turn. Do these idiots not know that I had three individual comic lines published concurrently in the 1990s? Do they not know that I'm ranked as the ninth-greatest Marvel superhero of all time on this nerd list? Do you know where Ant Man is ranked on that list? Huh? Well, I'll tell you: number 131, behind Rocket Raccoon, U-Go Girl, and Spider Man 2099, whatever the hell any of those are.” The vigilante then loads his rocket launcher and several machine guns into a second armored Jeep, and sets off in search of jaywalkers to murder.Anyway I imagine that's how Stratton felt as it watched the rest of Alterra's cinematic universe release one blockbuster after another. “Oh, OK, so Steamboat not only gets a second gondola, but they get a 600-acre terrain expansion served by their eighth high-speed quad? And it wasn't enough to connect the two sides of Palisades Tahoe with a gondola, but you threw in a brand-new six-pack? And they're tripling the size of Deer Valley. Tripling. 3,700 acres of new terrain and 16 new lifts and a new base village to go with it. That's equal to five-and-a-half Strattons. And Winter Park gets a new six-pack, and Big Bear gets a new six-pack, and Mammoth gets two. Do you have any idea how much these things cost? And I can't even get a gondola that can withstand wind gusts over three miles per hour? Even goddamn Snowshoe – Snowshoe – got a new lift before I did. I didn't even think West Virginia was actually a real place. I swear if these f*****s announce a new June Mountain out-of-base lift before I get my bling, things are gonna get Epic around here.”Well, it's finally Stratton's turn, with $20 million in upgrades inbound. Alterra wasn't exactly mining the depths of locals' dreams to decide where to deploy the cash – snowmaking, employee housing, lift overhauls – and a gondola replacement isn't coming anytime soon, but they're pretty smart investments when you dig into them. Which we do.Questions I wish I'd askedAmong the items that I would have liked to have discussed given more time: the Appalachian Trail's path across the top of Stratton Mountain, Stratton as birthplace of modern snowboarding, and the Stratton Mountain School.What I got wrong* I said that Epic Pass access had remained mostly unchanged for the past decade, which is not quite right. When Vail first added Stowe to the Epic Local Pass for the 2017-18 season, they slotted the resort into the bucket of 10 days shared with Vail, Beaver Creek, and Whistler. At some point, Stowe received its own basket of 10 days, apart from the western resorts.* I said that Sunday River's Jordan eight-pack was wind-resistant “because of the weight.” While that is one factor, the lift's ability to run in high winds relies on a more complex set of anti-sway technology, none of which I really understand, but that Sunday River GM Brian Heon explained on The Storm earlier this year:Why you should ski StrattonA silent skiing demarcation line runs roughly along US 4 through Vermont. Every ski area along or above this route – Killington, Pico, Sugarbush, Mad River Glen, Stowe, Smuggs – lets trails bump up, maintains large glade networks, and generally provides you with balanced, diverse terrain. Everything below that line – Okemo, Bromley, Mount Snow – generally don't do any of these things, or offer them sporadically, and in the most shrunken form possible. There are some exceptions on both sides. Saskadena Six, a bump just north of US 4, operates more like the Southies. Magic, in the south, better mirrors the MRG/Sugarbush model. And then there's Stratton.Good luck finding bumps at Stratton. Maybe you'll stumble onto the remains of a short competition course here or there, but, generally, this is a groom-it-all-every-day kind of ski area. Which would typically make it a token stop on my annual rounds. But Stratton has one great strength that has long made it a quasi-home mountain for me: glades.The glade network is expansive and well-maintained. The lines are interesting and, in places, challenging. You wouldn't know this from the trailmap, which portrays the tree-skiing areas as little islands lodged onto Stratton's hulk. But there are lots of them, and they are plenty long. On a typical pow day, I'll park at Sun Bowl and ski all the glades from Test Pilot over to West Pilot and back. It takes all day and I barely touch a groomer.And the glades are open more often than you'd think. While northern Vermont is the undisputed New England snow king, with everything from Killington north counting 250-plus inches in an average winter, the so-called Golden Triangle of Stratton, Bromley, and Magic sits in a nice little micro-snow-pocket. And Stratton, the skyscraping tallest peak in that region of the state, devours a whole bunch (180 inches on average) to fill in those glades.And if you are Groomer Greg, you're in luck: Stratton has 99 of them. And the grooming is excellent. Just start early, because they get scraped off by the NYC hordes who camp out there every weekend. The obsessive grooming does make this a good family spot, and the long green trail from the top down to the base is one of the best long beginner runs anywhere.Podcast NotesOn Act 250This is the 20th Vermont-focused Storm Skiing Podcast, and I think we've referenced Act 250 in all of them. If you're unfamiliar with this law, it is, according to the official state website:…Vermont's land use and development law, enacted in 1970 at a time when Vermont was undergoing significant development pressure. The law provides a public, quasi-judicial process for reviewing and managing the environmental, social and fiscal consequences of major subdivisions and developments in Vermont. It assures that larger developments complement Vermont's unique landscape, economy and community needs. One of the strengths of Act 250 is the access it provides to neighbors and other interested parties to participate in the development review process. Applicants often work with neighbors, municipalities, state agencies and other interested groups to address concerns raised by a proposed development, resolving issues and mitigating impacts before a permit application is filed.On Stratton's masterplanStratton is currently updating its masterplan. It will retain some elements of this 2013 version. Some elements of this – most notably a new Snow Bowl lift in 2018 – have been completed:One curious element of this masterplan is the proposed lift up the Kidderbrook trail – around 2007, Stratton removed a relatively new (installed 1989) Poma fixed-grip quad from that location. Here it is on the far left-hand side of the 2005 trailmap:On Stratton's ownership historyStratton's history mirrors that of many large New England ski areas: independent founders run the ski area for decades; founders fall into financial peril and need private equity/banking rescue; bank sells to a giant out-of-state conglomerate; which then sells to another giant out-of-state conglomerate; which eventually turns into something else. In Stratton's case, Robert Wright/Frank Snyder -> Moore and Munger -> Japanese company Victoria USA -> Intrawest -> Alterra swallows the carcass of Intrawest. You can read all about it on New England Ski History.Here was Intrawest's roster, if you're curious:On Alterra's building bingeSince its 2018 founding, Alterra has invested aggressively in its properties: a 2.4-mile-long, $65 million gondola connecting Alpine Meadows to the Olympic side of Palisades Tahoe; $200 million in the massive Mahogany Ridge expansion and a three-mile-long gondola at Steamboat; and an untold fortune on Deer Valley's transformation into what will be the fourth-largest ski area in the United States. Plus new lifts all over the place, new snowmaking all over the place, new lodges all over the place. Well, all over the place except for at Stratton, until now.On Boyne and Vail's investments in New EnglandAmplifying Stratton Nation's pain is the fact that Alterra's two big New England competitors – Vail Resorts and Boyne Resorts – have built a combined 16 new lifts in the region over the past five years, including eight-place chairs at Loon and Sunday River (Boyne), and six-packs at Stowe, Okemo, and Mount Snow (Vail). They've also replaced highly problematic legacy chairs at Attitash (Vail) and Pleasant Mountain (Boyne). Boyne has also expanded terrain at Loon, Sunday River, and, most notably – by 400 acres – Sugarloaf. And it's worth noting that independents Waterville Valley and Killington have also dropped new sixers in recent years (Killington will build another next year). Meanwhile, Alterra's first chairlift just landed this summer, at Sugarbush, which is getting a fixed-grip quad to replace the Heaven's Gate triple.On gondola wind holdsJust in case you want to blame windholds on some nefarious corporate meddling, here's a video I took of Kirkwood's Cornice Express spinning in 50-mile-per-hour winds when Jones was running the resort last year. Every lift has its own distinct profile that determines how it manages wind.On shifting Ikon Pass accessWhen Alterra launched the Ikon Pass in 2018, the company limited Base Pass holders to five days at Stratton, with holiday blackouts. Ahead of the 2020-21 season, the company updated Base Pass access to unlimited days with those same holiday blackouts. Alterra and its partners have made several such changes in Ikon's seven years. I've made this nifty chart that tracks them all (if you missed the memo, Solitude just upgraded Ikon Base pass access to eliminate holiday blackouts):On historic Stratton lift ticket pricesAgain, New England Ski History has done a nice job documenting Stratton's year-to-year peak lift ticket rates:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 76/100 in 2024, and number 576 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

united states america president new york city disney man olympic games magic marvel east spider man epic captain act iron man gate new england thor base west virginia vermont historical lift eleven guardians of the galaxy hulk chief operating officer ant man solitude punisher american express jeep locals pico mammoths appalachian trail tahoe whistler vail rfid applicants stratton loon forest service steamboats matt jones big bear jeeps stowe kirkwood bromley new york city subway ikon rocket raccoon golden triangle tripling beaver creek test pilot sun bowl boyne poma sugarloaf brattleboro vail resorts killington tamarack deer valley mrg snow bowl himi alterra sunday river palisades tahoe epic pass waterville valley stratton mountain mount snow okemo alterra mountain company intrawest mad river glen

Podcast #190: Giants Ridge, Minnesota GM Fred Seymour

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 19, 2024 54:02

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 12. It dropped for free subscribers on Nov. 19. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoFred Seymour, General Manager of Giants Ridge, MinnesotaRecorded onOctober 28, 2024About Giants RidgeClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board, a State of Minnesota economic development agencyLocated in: Biwabik, MinnesotaYear founded: 1958/59Closest neighboring ski areas: Mt. Itasca (1:14), Cloquet Ski Club (1:11), Chester Bowl (1:13), Spirit Mountain (1:18), Mont du Lac (1:27)Base elevation: 1,472 feetSummit elevation: 1,972 feetVertical drop: 500 feetSkiable Acres: 202Average annual snowfall: 62 inchesTrail count: 35 (33% beginners, 50% “confident skiers”; 17% expert)Lift count: 7 (1 high-speed quad, 1 fixed-grip quad, 1 triple, 2 doubles, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Giants Ridge's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himSometimes a thing surprises me. Like I think New York City is a giant honking mess and then I walk 60 blocks through Manhattan and say “actually I can see this.” Or I decide that I hate country music because it's lame in my adolescent rock-and-roll world, but once it goes mainstream I'm like okay actually this is catchy. Or I think I hate cottage cheese until I try it around age 19 and I realize it's my favorite thing ever.All of these things surprised me because I assumed they were something different from what they actually were. And so, in the same way, Giants Ridge surprised me. I did not expect to dislike the place, but I did not expect to be blown away by it, either. I drove up thinking I'd have a nice little downhill rush and drove away thinking that if all ski areas were like this ski area there would be a lot more skiers in the world.I could, here, repeat all the things I recently wrote about Crystal, another model Midwest ski area. But I wrote plenty on Giants Ridge's many virtues below, and there's a lot more in the podcast. For now, I'll just say that this is as solid a ski operation as you'll find anywhere, and one that's worth learning more about.What we talked aboutRope splicing day for one of Giants Ridge's classic lifts; a massive snowmaking upgrade; when all the water comes out of the sky after winter's done; the slowest Midwest ski season on record; how Giants Ridge skied into April in spite of the warm winter; learning to ski with an assist from Sears (the store); skiing Colorado before I-70; the amazing Hyland Hills, Minnesota; why Seymour didn't go all Colorad-Bro on Midwest skiing – “skiing is special in different places”; some founder's history of the high-speed ropetow; where Giants Ridge will install its first new high-speed ropetow; the virtues of high-speed tows; Hidden Valley, Missouri and working for Peak Resorts; reaction to Vail purchasing Peak Resorts in 2019; the government agency that owns Giants Ridge; the story of the ski area's founding and purpose; how and why the ski area is so well-funded; how the ski area funded its latest giant capital project; where Giants Ridge envisions planting a second detachable chairlift; potential for far greater lodging capacity; expansion potential; where to hunt glades at Giants Ridge; the mountain's trail-naming theme; why the ski area's grooming is so good; why Giants Ridge offers fourth-graders unlimited access on the Minnesota Ski Areas Association Passport, rather than the standard two days; and why Giants Ridge left the Indy Pass after just one year. Why I thought that now was a good time for this interview Lazy non-ski journalists often pull out some version of this stat to prove that lift-served skiing is a dying industry: America once had more than 700 ski areas, but that number has plummeted to fewer than 500, according to the NSAA (and 505 according to The Storm Skiing Journal). The culprit, they immediately conclude, is climate change, because what else could it possibly be?The truth is less sinister. Most of these lost ski areas were killed by the same thing that ended the horse and buggy and the landline and the butter churn: capitalism. The simpler story of ski area shrinkage is this: a post-World War II building boom flooded the market with ski areas, many of which were built in questionable locations (like Georgia and Arkansas). As some ski areas modernized, especially with snowmaking, their competitors that failed to do so, um, failed. That great weed-out reached its height from the mid-70s to the mid-90s. The number of active U.S. ski areas has remained more or less stable for the past 20 years.I fear, however, that we are on the edge of the next great weed-out. If the last one targeted ski areas that failed to invest in snowmaking, this next one will bullseye ski areas that fail to invest in technology. Consumers live in their Pet Rectangles. Ski areas need to meet them there or they may as well not exist. Swipe, tap, bink is the dance of modern commerce. Cash-only, on-site only – the default for centuries – now just annoys people.Technology does not just mean computer stuff, however. It also means energy-efficient, automated snowmaking to cut down on utilities and labor. It means grooming your hill like Sun Valley even if you are not in fact Sun Valley. It means modern (not necessarily high-speed) chairlifts with safety bars. And in some cases it means rediscovering old technology that can be re-applied in a modern context – high-speed ropetows, for example, are dirt cheap, move more skiers per hour than a high-speed eight-person chairlift, and are the perfect complement to terrain parks and the skiers who want to lap them 100 times in an afternoon.Unfortunately, a lot of that technology is very expensive. The majority of ski areas are themselves worth less than the cost of a brand-new high-speed quad. Those Riblets and Halls are holding together for now, but they won't last forever. So what to do?I don't know, and Giants Ridge is, I'll admit, a curious example to use here. The ski area benefits from enormous state-sponsored subsidies. But through this arrangement, Giants Ridge acts as a best-case-scenario case study in how a small ski area can fortify itself against a technological revolution, a changing climate, and a social media-saturated consumer base in search of something novel and fun. Not all small ski areas will be able to do all of the things that Giants Ridge does, but most of them can achieve some version of some of them. Third-party companies like Entabeni and White Peaks can tug small ski areas into the digital sphere. A modern chairlift doesn't have to mean a new chairlift. The one state subsidy that private ski areas have occasionally been able to access is one to purchase energy-efficient snowguns. Inexpensive high-speed ropetows (Giants Ridge is installing its first this year), should be serving almost every terrain park in the country.The Midwest suffered its worst winter on record last ski season. Many ski areas shut down in February or early March. Had a skier been plucked from the Rockies and dropped onto the summit of Giants Ridge, however, they would not have suspected this regional catastrophe. I visited on March 10 – wall-to-wall snow, every trail open, not even a bare patch. The ski area stayed open until April 7. The future holds plenty of challenges for skiing. Giants Ridge is working on answers.Questions I wish I'd askedThe largess on display at Giants Ridge introduces the same set of issues that frustrate private ski area owners in New York, who have to compete directly against three ski areas (Whiteface, Gore, Belleayre) that have benefitted from hundreds of millions of dollars in state investment. The dynamic is a bit different here, as the money funnels to Giants Ridge via mining companies who support the ski area en lieu of paying certain taxes. But the result is the same: ski areas that have to pay for capital upgrades out of their profits versus a ski area that gets capital upgrades essentially for free. The massive snowmaking system that Giants Ridge is installing this year is, in Seymour's words, “on the taxpayer.”While we discuss these funding mechanisms and the history of Giants Ridge as economic-development machine, we don't explore how this impacts private, competing ski areas. I avoided this for the same reason that I wouldn't ask a football coach why the taxpayers ought to have funded his team's $500 million stadium – that wasn't his choice, and he just works there. His job, like the job of any ski area manager, is to do the best he can with the resources he's given.But I'll acknowledge that this setup grates on a lot of private operators in the region. That's a fight worth talking about, but with the appropriate officials, and in a different context, and with the time it takes to tell the story properly.What I got wrong* When discussing the rope-splicing project underway at Giants Ridge on the day of our conversation, I referred to “the chair you're replacing the ‘ropetow' on.” I meant the “haulrope.”* I said I visited Giants Ridge, “in mid-February, or maybe it was early March.” I skied Giants Ridge on March 10 of this year.Why you should ski Giants RidgeThis is one of the nicest ski areas I've ever skied. Full stop. No asterisk. The slopes are immaculate. The lodge is spotless. The pitch is excellent. The runs are varied. Giants Ridge has a high-speed quad and RFID gates and a paved parking lot. If you need a helper, there are helpers everywhere. Gorgeous views from the top. That may just sound like any other modern ski area, but this is a) the Midwest, where “modern” means the lifts don't run on diesel fuel, and, b) rural rural Minnesota, which is like regular rural Minnesota, but a lot farther away. To drive out of the range of cell service into the far reaches of a forest within which Google Maps labels human settlements of which no traces can be found, and at the end of this road find not just a ski area but a ski area that looks like it was built yesterday is a rather remarkable experience.I'm not saying cancel your trip to Whistler. I am saying that this is worth driving to if you're anywhere within driving range (which for a Midwesterner is roughly 90 hours). Giants Ridge is not sprawling like Lutsen or thrilling like Bohemia or snowy like Powderhorn. There are no Granite Peak six-packs or Highlands bubble lifts. But for what it has and what it is, Giants Ridge is as close to a perfect ski area as any I've ever encountered.It's not a perfect ski area, of course. None of them are. If I have to nitpick: the hill still runs three old chairlifts with no safety bars; it lacks even a token mogul run; there are no marked glades; loading the Helsinki chair can require an annoying uphill shuffle. And there are signs all over the place referring to something called “golf.” All fixable issues, none considerations for skipping the joint. If you want skiing featuring the best technology of 1984, the Midwest still has plenty of that. If you prefer to ski in 2024, check this place out.Podcast NotesOn the Midwest's weakest winter on recordI ran through this on the article accompanying the recent Norway Mountain podcast, but it's worth reposting what I wrote here:Skier visits were down in every region of the United States last winter, but they all but collapsed in the Midwest, with a 26.7 percent plunge, according to the annual Kottke Demographic Report. Michigan alone was down nearly a half million skier visits. Check out these numbers:For comparison, overall skier numbers dropped just six percent in the Northeast, and five percent in the Rockies.On Hyland HillsHyland Hills is a 180-vertical-foot volcano, packing 180,000 skier visits into its tiny footprint every winter. The ski area is a model of why small municipal hills should be oriented around terrain parks.The bump is perhaps the birthplace of the high-speed ropetow, which can move up to 4,000 (some estimates claim as many as 8,200), skiers per hour. You can see the tows working in this video:Midwest Skiers tells the full high-speed ropetow story:On the Three Rivers Park DistrictThe Three Rivers Park District manages 27,000 acres of parkland across the seven-county Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area, including Hyland Hills and Elm Creek, an even smaller, beginner-focused hill on the north side of town:On Hidden Valley, MissouriAn odd fact of American skiing is that Missouri is home to two ski areas, both of which are owned by Vail Resorts. Seymour worked for a time at Hidden Valley, seated a few miles outside of St. Louis. The stats: 320 vertical feet on 65 acres, with 19 inches of snowfall in an average winter.On Peak ResortsHidden Valley was the OG resort in Peak Resorts' once-sprawling portfolio. After growing to 19 ski areas scattered from New Hampshire to Missouri, Peak sold its entire operation to Vail Resorts in 2019.On expansion potential into the Superior National ForestSeymour explains that there's “not a whole lot of potential” to expand the ski area into the Superior National Forest, which Giants Ridge backs into. That may sound odd to folks in the West, where the majority of ski areas operate on Forest Service leases. There's little precedent for such arrangements in the Midwest, however, and Lutsen's plans to expand into the same forest slammed into the Pinecone Police last year. As I wrote in my podcast episode with Lutsen GM Jim Vick:Over the summer, Lutsen withdrew the plan, and Superior National Forest Supervisor Thomas Hall recommended a “no action” alternative, citing “irreversible damage” to mature white cedar and sugar maple stands, displacement of backcountry skiers, negative impacts to the 300-mile-long Superior hiking trail, objections from Native American communities, and water-quality concerns. Lutsen had until Oct. 10 to file an objection to the decision, and they did.The expansion would have developed 500-ish acres. Superior National Forest covers 3.9 million acres. Million. With an “M.”On the Minnesota state 4th-grade ski passportLike many state ski associations, the Minnesota Ski Areas Association offers fourth-graders a $39.99 “passport” good for at least two lift tickets to each of the state's ski areas. While many ski areas stick to the two-day offering and black out many peak periods, Afton Alps, Chester Bowl, Detroit Mountain, Giants Ridge, Mount Ski Gull, and Wild Mountain offer unlimited redemptions (Ski Gull blacks out the Christmas holidays).The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 75/100 in 2024, and number 575 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Podcast #189: Copper Mountain President & GM Dustin Lyman

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 18, 2024 87:08

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 11. It dropped for free subscribers on Nov. 18. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoDustin Lyman, President and General Manager of Copper Mountain, ColoradoRecorded onOctober 21, 2024About Copper MountainOwned by: Powdr, which also owns:Located in: Frisco, ColoradoYear founded: 1972Pass affiliations: Ikon Pass and Ikon Base Pass: unlimited access, no blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Frisco Adventure Park (:15), Keystone (:19), Vail Mountain (:21), Breckenridge (:23), Loveland (:23), Arapahoe Basin (:30), Beaver Creek (:32), Ski Cooper (:34) – travel times vary considerably depending upon time of day, time of year, and apocalypse level on I-70Base elevation: 9,738 feetSummit elevation: 12,441 feetVertical drop: 2,703 feetSkiable Acres: 2,538Average annual snowfall: 305 inchesTrail count: 178Lift count: 25 (1 6/8-passenger chondola, 3 high-speed six-packs, 3 high-speed quads, 5 triples, 4 doubles, 2 platters, 1 T-bar, 6 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Copper Mountain's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himImagine if, rather than finding an appropriate mountain upon which to build ski area, we just identified the best possible location for a ski area and built a mountain there. You would want to find a reliable snow pocket, preferably at elevation. You would want a location close to a major highway, with no access road drama. There should be a large population base nearby. Then you would build a hill with a great variety of green, blue, and black runs, and bunch them together in little ability-based kingdoms. The ski area would be big but not too big. It would be tall but not too tall. It would snow often, but rarely too much. It would challenge you without trying to kill you. You may include some pastoral touches, like tree islands to break up the interstate-wide groomers. You'd want to groom a lot but not too much. You'd want some hella good terrain parks. You'd want to end up with something pretty similar to Copper Mountain.Because Copper is what we end up with when we lop off all the tryhard marketing meth that attempts to make ski resorts more than what they are. Copper is not Gladiator on skis, you against the notorious Batshit Chutes. But Copper is not one big groomer, either. Copper is not fur shawls in the hotel lobby. But Copper is also not duct tape around a pants leg. Copper does not serve passenger pigeon eggs in its mountaintop eateries. But Copper is also not frozen burritos and a plastic sleeve of powdered donuts. Copper is not angry, or haughty, or cloying, or righteous, or overwrought. Copper does not call you “Sir.” Copper fixes your refrigerator without having to come back with another part. Copper, quietly and without a lot of hassle, just works.What we talked aboutThe new Timberline six-pack chairlift; why Copper upgraded T-Rex before the mountain's much older lifts; how much better a 2024 detachable lift is from a 1994 detachable lift; why Copper didn't sell the lift to another ski area; that one summer that Copper installed two gargantuan frontside lifts; why new chairlift installations are so challenging; Leitner-Poma; the challenges of installing mid-mountain versus base-area lifts; installing American Eagle, American Flyer, and Three Bears; how Copper quietly offered skiing for 12 consecutive months from October 2023 to September 2024, despite an official May closing date; whether year-round skiing will become an official Copper activity; why Copper builds its halfpipe entirely from snow each season rather than constructing an earthwork base; The Athlete's Mountain; why Copper continues to build bigger and more advanced terrain parks even as many big mountains back out of the space; Woodward parks; how many crew members and snowcats Copper devotes to maintaining its enormous terrain park network; why the Union Creek high-speed quad became Woodward Express; why Copper doesn't compete with Keystone and A-Basin as first-to-open for the skiing public; Copper's World Cup ambitions; how to get a job running a ski resort when you've never worked at a ski resort; why it's so important for a ski area manager to ski every day; counting ski days; mad love for ski areas; potential candidates for lift replacements; how to get a ski trail named after you; retrofitting old lifts with safety bars; expansion opportunities; $99 Thursday lift tickets and whether that program could expand to additional weekdays; Copper's amazing season pass benefit; why Copper Mountain access is unlimited with no blackouts on the Ikon and Ikon Base passes; and why Copper continues to sell its own season pass that doesn't cost much less than the Ikon Base Pass. Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewCopper is a curious bloke. Copper sits within 30 minutes of four Vail Resorts, one of the toughest draws in North American skiing. So Copper is an unlimited-access member of Alterra's Ikon Pass even though Copper is not owned by Alterra. Copper also sells its own season pass that only costs $60 less than an Ikon Base Pass. Copper sells $99 lift tickets on Thursdays, but $264 walk-up lift tickets if you show up on certain Wednesdays or Fridays. Copper sits atop I-70, observing the antlines of inbound vehicles and saying “I'm flattered.” Copper greets its guests with a halfpipe that could launch an intercontinental ballistic missile. Copper just offered year-round skiing and didn't bother bragging about it until the whole thing was over. Copper lets you cut the line. Copper has quietly become some ninjitsu November training ground for the global ski-race community. Copper is parked in the middle of the most important ski county in the most important ski state in America.If anything is happening in skiing, Copper is dealing with it: expensive lift tickets, cheap season passes, easy access that may be a little too easy, ferocious competition in every direction. Because of its naturally divided terrain, ordered black to green as you sweep west across the mountain, Copper is often referred to as a nearly perfect ski area. And it is. But because of where it is and what it's chosen to become, the resort also happens to be the perfect thermometer for taking skiing's temperature. How we doing up there past 10,000? What's your story? What makes you special? Why should I drive past Keystone to ski here? Why shouldn't I just keep driving 20 minutes to Vail instead? Why, I'm asking, do you even exist?What I got wrongI said that certain old chairlifts had not yet been retrofit with safety bars; Lyman clarified that Copper had in fact updated the carriers on all of those lifts.Why you should ski Copper MountainHere are some things I remember about skiing Copper Mountain in 1995:* Riding a high-speed quad. Probably American Flyer but I can't say for sure. Four of us on the lift. My buddy Andy and two middle-aged fellows of indeterminant provenance. “My cat sleeps 22 hours a day and can catch a bird out of the air,” one says to the other. And I've never been able to stop thinking about the truth of that and how it's possible.* My room at the Foxpine Inn came with an underground parking space, which I declined to use until a New Year's snowstorm buried my poor little four-cylinder Ford Probe beneath an igloo. Rather than clean the car off, I leaned my head out the window and drove down the ramp to my parking spot below. Then all the snow melted. Easiest snow removal job ever.* Near the terminus of the long-gone B lift, a double chair displaced by Super Bee, a lightly treed knoll stood above the trails. I watched, awestruck, as a skier materialized from the forest depths above and trenched the newfallen snow and blasted down the fall-line with superhero poise and ease.* My first attempted powder turn, three minutes later, ended in a yardsale. This was in the flat just off of the lift unload. That ended up being a very long run.Modern Copper is more polished, better-lifted, more expensive, better known than the version I encountered on my first western ski trip 29 years ago. There's more ski terrain and a little pedestrian base village. I'm not certain that two eighteen-year-olds could still afford a room at the base of the chairlifts (Foxpine rates are not listed online). But what struck me on a return visit last winter, as much as the six-packs and the terrain parks and the base village that used to be a parking lot was how much Copper, despite all that investment, had retained a coziness that still makes it feel more like a ski area than a ski resort.Some of this humility, I suppose, is anchored in the mountain's profile. Copper doesn't have Breck's big exposed peaks or Vail's endless bowls or Beaver Creek's Grey Poupon trim. Copper doesn't give you cookies or promise you The Experience of a Lifetime. The mountain's core lifts are fast and modern, but Copper runs nearly as many fixed-grip chairs (9) as Vail (3), Beaver Creek (3), and Keystone (4), combined (10). But it works. Rather wonderfully, really. Go see for yourself.Podcast NotesOn Copper's masterplanCopper's most recent comprehensive Forest Service masterplan dates to 2011. A 2015 addendum focused mostly on summer activities. Here's an overview of what the 2011 plan imagined:A 2021 addendum added a new trail, which we discuss on the pod:On Copper Mountain's halfpipeI mean this thing is just so damn extra:On Summit County ski areas by sizeThe four Summit County ski areas compare favorably to one another, stats-wise. I'm going to go ahead and throw Loveland in there as an honorary member, since it's like two feet from Summit County:On the Slopes AppBeing Stats Tracker Bro, I am a loyalist to the Slopes app, which recently updated their static map with a zoomable version:Slopes is also handy in real-time, when I want to ensure that I've hit every trail on a mountain. Here's my map from Giants Ridge, Minnesota last winter (the big unskied trails in the middle were closed for racing):On SilvertonWhile I would expect Elvis to rise from the dead before we see another Breckenridge-style megaresort built in Colorado, developers have had some luck creating low-impact, low-infrastructure ski areas. The now-defunct Bluebird Backcountry, near Steamboat, operated with no lifts on private land. Silverton, in the state's southwest corner, operates out of a small parcel of private land and runs one double chair, which in turn opens up huge swaths of land under permit from the Bureau of Land Management. Any future big-mountain western developments will likely hinge on some version of a Silverton/Bluebird model. Here's Silverton's trailmap:And here's Bluebird's:On expansions Colorado ski areas have had great success expanding existing operations in recent years. Since 2012, nine large expansions have added more than 3,000 acres of high-quality terrain to the state's ski resorts. That's the equivalent of opening another Breckenridge, without all the outrage.On Snowbird's Freeloader PassCopper's adult season pass includes a free season pass for one child up to 15 years old. Sister resort Snowbird one-upped them last year by rolling out the same benefit and raising the age to 18. Lyman and I discuss Snowbird's move, and whether it will inspire a similar deal at Copper.On Copper's unlimited Ikon Pass accessOne of the strangest alliances in all of Megapass-dom is Copper's status as a stowaway unlimited Ikon Pass partner. Alterra has transformed the Ikon Pass into a season pass for all of its owned mountains except for Deer Valley and Arapahoe Basin, but it's also a de facto season pass for Powdr-owned Copper and Eldora. To confuse things further, Copper sells its own season pass that isn't much less expensive than an Ikon Base Pass. We discuss this whole dynamic on the pod, but here's where Alterra-owned mountains sit with Ikon Pass access, with Eldora and Copper slotted in for comparison:On Powdr owning Eldora “at least for now”Park City-based Powdr has owned Eldora, just under two hours northeast of Copper, since 2016. In August, the company announced that it had sold its Killington and Pico resorts to a group of local Vermont investors, and would soon put Eldora – along with Mt. Bachelor, Oregon and Silver Star, B.C. – up for sale as well.The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 74/100 in 2024, and number 574 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Podcast #188: Crystal Mountain, Michigan CEO John Melcher

Play Episode Listen Later Nov 17, 2024 72:06

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Nov. 10. It dropped for free subscribers on Nov. 17. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoJohn Melcher, CEO of Crystal Mountain, MichiganRecorded onOctober 14, 2024About Crystal Mountain, MichiganClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: The Petritz FamilyLocated in: Thompsonville, MichiganYear founded: 1956Pass affiliations: Indy Pass & Indy+ Pass: 2 days, no blackoutsReciprocal partners: 1 day each at Caberfae and Mount Bohemia, with blackoutsClosest neighboring ski areas: Caberfae (:37), Hickory Hills (:45), Mt. Holiday (:50), Missaukee Mountain (:52), Homestead (:51)Base elevation: 757 feetSummit elevation: 1,132 feetVertical drop: 375 feetSkiable Acres: 103Average annual snowfall: 132 inchesTrail count: 59 (30% black diamond, 48% blue square, 22% green circle) + 7 glades + 3 terrain parksLift count: 8 (1 high-speed quad, 3 fixed-grip quads, 2 triples, 2 carpets – view Lift Blog's inventory of Crystal Mountain's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himThe biggest knock on Midwest skiing is that the top of the hill is not far enough away from the bottom of the hill, and this is generally true. Two or three or four hundred vertical feet is not a lot of vertical feet. It is enough to hold little pockets of trees or jumps or a racer's pitch that begs for a speed check. But no matter how fun the terrain, too soon the lift maze materializes and it's another slow roll up to more skiing.A little imagination helps here. Six turns in a snowy Michigan glade feel the same as six turns in Blue Sky Basin trees (minus the physiological altitude strain). And the skillset transfers well. I learned to ski bumps on a 200-vertical-foot section of Boyne Mountain and now I can ski bumps anywhere. But losing yourself in a 3,000-vertical-foot Rocky Mountain descent is not the same thing as saying “Man I can almost see it” as you try to will a 300-footer into something grander. We all know this.Not everything about the lift-served skiing experience shrinks down with the same effect, is my point here. With the skiing itself, scale matters. But the descent is only part of the whole thing. The lift maze matters, and the uphill matters, and the parking matters, and the location of the lift ticket pick-up matters, and the availability of 4 p.m. beers matters, and the arrangement base lodge seating matters. And when all of these things are knotted together into a ski day that is more fun than stressful, it is because you are in the presence of one thing that scales down in any context: excellence.The National Ski Areas Association splits ski areas into four size categories, calculated by “vertical transportation feet per hour.” In other words: how many skiers your lifts can push uphill in an ideal hour. This is a useful metric for many reasons, but I'd like to see a more qualitative measurement, one based not just on size, but on consistent quality of experience.I spend most of my winter bouncing across America, swinging into ski areas of all sizes and varieties. Excellence lives in unexpected places. One-hundred-and-sixty-vertical-foot Boyce Park, Pennsylvania blows thick slabs of snow with modern snowguns, grooms it well, and seems to double-staff every post with local teenagers. Elk Mountain, on the other side of Pennsylvania, generally stitches together a better experience than its better-known neighbors just south, in the Poconos. Royal Mountain, a 550-vertical-foot, weekends-only locals' bump in New York's southern Adirondacks, alternates statuesque grooming with zippy glades across its skis-bigger-than-it-is face.These ski areas, by combining great order and reliable conditions with few people, are delightful. But perhaps more impressive are ski areas that deliver consistent excellence while processing enormous numbers of visitors. Here you have places like Pats Peak, New Hampshire; Wachusett, Massachusetts; Holiday Valley, New York; and Mt. Rose, Nevada. These are not major tourist destinations, but they run with the welcoming efficiency of an Aspen or a Deer Valley. A good and ordered ski day, almost no matter what.Crystal Mountain, Michigan is one of these ski areas. Everything about the ski experience is well-considered. Expansion, upgrades, and refinement of existing facilities have been constant for decades. The village blends with the hill. The lifts are where the lifts should be. The trail network is interesting and thoughtfully designed. The parks are great. The grooming is great. The glades are plentiful. The prices are reasonable. And, most important of all, despite being busy at all times, Crystal Mountain is tamed by order. This is excellence, that thing that all ski areas should aspire to, whatever else they lack.What we talked aboutWhat's new for Crystal skiers in 2024; snowmaking; where Crystal draws its snowmaking water; Peek'n Peak, New York; why Crystal is a good business in addition to being a good ski area; four-seasons business; skiing as Mother; what makes a great team (and why Crystal has one); switching into skiing mid-career; making trails versus clearcutting the ski slope; ownership decided via coinflip; Midwest destination skiing's biggest obstacle; will Crystal remain independent?; room to expand; additional glading opportunities; why many of Crystal's trails are named after people; considering the future of Crystal's lift fleet; why Crystal built a high-speed lift that rises just 314 vertical feet; why the ghost of the Cheers lift lives on as part of Crystal's trailmap; where Crystal has considered adding a lift to the existing terrain; that confusing trailmap; a walkable village; changes inbound at the base of Loki; pushing back parking; more carpets for beginners; Crystal's myriad bargain lift ticket options; the Indy Pass; why Crystal dropped Indy Pass blackouts; the Mt. Bohemia-Crystal relationship; Caberfae; Indy's ultimatum to drop Ski Cooper reciprocals or leave the pass; and why Crystal joined Freedom Pass last year and left for this coming winter. Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewThe Storm's mission is to serve all of American lift-served skiing. That means telling the stories of ski areas in every part of the country. I do this not because I have to, but because I want to. This newsletter would probably work just fine if it focused always and only on the great ski centers of the American West. That is, after all, the only part of U.S. ski country that outsiders travel to and that locals never leave. The biggest and best skiing is out there, at the top of our country, high and snowy and with a low chance of rain.But I live in the East and I grew up in the Midwest. Both regions are cluttered with ski areas. Hundreds of them, each distinct, each its own little frozen kingdom, each singular in atmosphere and arrangement and orientation toward the world. Most remain family-owned, and retain the improvisational quirk synonymous with such a designation. But more interesting is that these ski areas remain tethered to their past in a way that many of the larger western destination resorts, run by executives cycled in via corporate development programs, never will be again.I want to tell these stories. I'm aware that my national audience has a limited tolerance for profiles of Midwest ski centers they will never ski. But they seem to be okay with about a half-dozen per year, which is about enough to remind the wider ski community that this relatively flat but cold and hardy region is home to one of the world's great ski cultures. The Midwest is where night-skiing rules, where blue-collar families still ski, where hunting clothes double as ski clothes, where everything is a little less serious and a little more fun.There's no particular big development or project that threw the spotlight on Crystal here. I've been trying to arrange this interview for years. Because this is a very good ski area and a very well-run ski area, even if it is not a very large ski area in the grand landscape of American ski areas. It is one of the finest ski areas in the Midwest, and one worthy of our attention.What I got wrong* I said that “I forget if it's seven or nine different tree areas” at Crystal. The number of glades labeled on the trailmap is seven.* I said Crystal had been part of Indy Pass “since the beginning or near the beginning.” The mountain joined the pass in May, 2020, ahead of the 2020-21 ski season, Indy's second.Why you should ski Crystal Mountain, MichiganCrystal's Loki pod rises above the parking lots, 255 vertical feet, eight trails down, steep on the front, gentler toward the back. These days I would ski each of the eight in turn and proceed next door to the Clipper lift. But I was 17 and just learning to ski and to me at the time that meant bombing as fast as possible without falling. For this, Wipeout was the perfect trail, a sweeping crescent through the trees, empty even on that busy day, steep but only for a bit, just enough to ignite a long sweeping tuck back to the chairs. We lapped this run for hours. Speed and adrenaline through the falling snow. The cold didn't bother us and the dozens of alternate runs striped over successive hills didn't tempt us. We'd found what we'd wanted and what we'd wanted is this.I packed that day in the mental suitcase that holds my ski memories and I've carried it around for decades. Skiing bigger mountains hasn't tarnished it. Becoming a better skier hasn't diminished it. Tuck and bomb, all day long. Something so pure and simple in it, a thing that bundles those Loki laps together with Cottonwoods pow days and Colorado bump towers and California trees. Indelible. Part of what I think of when I think about skiing and part of who I am when I consider myself as a skier.I don't know for sure what Crystal Mountain, Michigan can give you. I can't promise transformation of the impressionable teenage sort. I can't promise big terrain or long runs because those don't have them. I'm not going to pitch Crystal as a singular pilgrimage of the sort that draws western Brobots to Bohemia. This is a regional ski area that is most attractive to skiers who live in Michigan or the northern portions of the states to its immediate south. Read: it is a ski area that the vast majority of you will never experience. And the best endorsement I can make of Crystal is that I think that's too bad, because I think you would really like it, even if I can't exactly explain why.Podcast NotesOn Peek'n PeakThe most difficult American ski area name to spell is not “Summit at Snoqualmie” or “Granlibakken” or “Pomerelle” or “Sipapu” or “Skaneateles” or “Bottineau Winter Park” or “Trollhaugen,” all of which I memorized during the early days of The Storm. The most counterintuitive, frustrating, and frankly stupid ski area name in all the land is “Peek'n Peak,” New York, which repeats the same word spelled two different ways for no goddamn reason. And then there's the apostrophe-“n,” lodged in there like a bar of soap crammed between the tomato and lettuce in your hamburger, a thing that cannot possibly justify or explain its existence. Five years into this project, I can't get the ski area's name correct without looking it up.Anyway, it is a nice little ski area, broad and varied and well-lifted, lodged in a consistent little Lake Erie snowbelt. They don't show glades on the trailmap, but most of the trees are skiable when filled in. The bump claims 400 vertical feet; my Slopes app says 347. Either way, this little Indy Pass hill, where Melcher learned to ski, is a nice little stopover:On Crystal's masterplanCrystal's masterplan leaves room for potential future ski development – we discuss where, specifically, in the podcast. The ski area is kind of lost in the sprawl of Crystal's masterplan, so I've added the lift names for context:On Sugar Loaf, MichiganMichigan, like most ski states, has lost more ski areas than it's kept. The most frustrating of these loses was Sugar Loaf, a 500-footer parked in the northwest corner of the Lower Peninsula, outside of Traverse City. Sunday afternoon lift tickets were like $12 and my high school buddies and I would drive up through snowstorms and ski until the lifts closed and drive home. The place went bust around 2000, but the lifts were still standing until some moron ripped them out five years ago with fantasies of rebuilding the place as some sort of boutique “experience.” Then he ran away and now it's just a lonely, empty hill.On Michigan being “littered with lost ski areas”Michigan is home to the second-most active or semi-active ski areas of any state in the country, with 44 (New York checks in around 50). Still, the Midwest Lost Ski Areas project counts more than 200 lost ski areas in the state.On Crystal's backside evolution and confusing trailmapBy building pod after pod off the backside of the mountain, Crystal has nearly doubled in size since I first skied there in the mid-90s. The Ridge appeared around 2000; North Face came online in 2003; and Backyard materialized in 2015. These additions give Crystal a sprawling, adventurous feel on par with The Highlands or Nub's Nob. But the trailmap, while aesthetically pleasant, is one of the worst I've seen, as it's very unclear how the three pods link to one another, and in turn to the front of the mountain:This is a fixable problem, as I outlined in my last podcast, with Vista Map founder Gary Milliken, who untangled similarly confusing trailmaps for Mt. Spokane, Washington and Lookout Pass, Idaho over the past couple of years. Here's Lookout Pass' old and new maps side-by-side:And here's Mt. Spokane:Crystal – if you'd like an introduction to Gary, I'm happy to make that happen.On resort consolidation in the MidwestThe Midwest has not been sheltered from the consolidation wave that's rolled over much of the West and New England over the past few decades. Of the region's 123 active ski areas, 25 are owned by entities that operate two or more ski areas: Vail Resorts owns 10; Wisconsin Resorts, five; Midwest Family Ski Resorts, four; the Schmitz Brothers, three; Boyne, two; and the Perfect Family, which also owns Timberline in West Virginia, one. But 98 of the region's ski areas remain independently owned and operated. While a couple dozen of those are tiny municipal ropetow bumps with inconsistent operations and little or no snowmaking, most of those that run at least one chairlift are family-owned ski areas that, last winter notwithstanding, are doing very well on a formula of reasonable prices + a focus on kids and night-skiing. Here's the present landscape of Midwest skiing:On the consolidation of Crystal's lift fleetCrystal once ran five frontside chairlifts:Today, the mountain has consolidated that to just five, despite a substantively unchanged trail footprint. While Crystal stopped running the Cheers lift around 2016, its shadowy outline still appears along the Cheers To Lou run.Crystal is way out ahead of the rest of the Midwest, which built most of its ski areas in the age of cheap fixed-grip lifts and never bothered to replace them. The king of these dinosaurs may be Afton Alps, Minnesota, with 15 Hall chairlifts (it was, until recently, 17) lined up along the ridge, the newest of them dating to 1979:It's kind of funny that Vail owns this anachronism, which, despite its comic-book layout, is actually a really fun little ski area.On Crystal's many discounted lift ticket optionsWhile Crystal is as high-end as any resort you'll find in Michigan, the ski area still offers numerous loveably kitschy discounts of the sort that every ski area in the country once sold:Browse these and more on their website.On Indy Pass' dispute with Ski CooperLast year, Indy Pass accused Ski Cooper of building a reciprocal resort network that turned the ski area's discount season pass into a de facto national ski pass that competed directly with Indy. Indy then told its partners to ditch Cooper or leave Indy. Crystal was one of those resorts, and found a workaround by joining the Freedom Pass, which maintained the three Cooper days for their passholders without technically violating Indy Pass' mandate. You can read the full story here:On Bohemia and CaberfaeCrystal left Freedom Pass for this winter, but has retained reciprocal deals with Mount Bohemia and Caberfae. I've hosted leaders of both ski areas on the podcast, and they are two of my favorite episodes:The Storm explores the world of lift-served skiing year-round. Join us.The Storm publishes year-round, and guarantees 100 articles per year. This is article 73/100 in 2024, and number 573 since launching on Oct. 13, 2019. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Turning Setbacks into Opportunities: A Journey of Resilience and Reinvention

The ReLaunch Podcast

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 23, 2024 39:12

This week we dive into the inspiring journey of John Register, a former Olympic athlete and military officer candidate whose life was transformed by a devastating injury. John's story of resilience shows how he turned a major setback into a powerful source of inspiration, guided by his faith and the unwavering support of his wife. His journey is a testament to the power of redefining identity and embracing new paths when faced with adversity, offering hope and motivation for anyone navigating life's challenges.We also explore the importance of commitment, connections, and seizing opportunities in both personal and professional growth. Through insightful stories and practical strategies, John highlights how meaningful relationships and self-initiated action can open doors to new possibilities. With his philosophy of “Go Forth, Inspire Your World,” John shares how to create a positive impact, encouraging us all to live, love, and relaunch with purpose, leaving a lasting legacy in our own lives and communities.Key Takeaways:Transform Adversity into Opportunity: Learn how to redefine life's setbacks as chances for growth and empowerment.Cultivate Meaningful Connections: Discover the power of nurturing relationships and personal connections in achieving personal and professional growth.Embrace New Beginnings with Courage: Understand the significance of committing to new paths without looking back.Stewardship and Influence: Explore how acting with purpose and intention in your personal and professional spheres can lead to a lasting impact.Overcome Identity Challenges: Gain insights into how to navigate changes in identity and embrace your new normal with grace.About Our Guest:John Register, a National Speakers Association Hall of Fame inductee, ignites change through his "Amputate to Elevate" model. Trusted by leaders like Vail Resorts and Deloitte, his storytelling provides actionable strategies, inspiring audiences to transform setbacks into growth. Book John for a keynote that drives real impact.https://johnregister.com/Sign up for John's Elevate Life Newsletter at https://johnregister.beehiiv.com/Connect with Hilary:FacebookLinkedInInstagramYoutubeStart Your ReLaunch Journey Today: https://therelaunchco.comInterested in being a guest on the ReLaunch Podcast or booking Hilary as a guest? Email UsFind Us on Your Favorite Podcast App - Subscribe Now

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Podcast #183: Fernie Alpine Resort General Manager Andy Cohen

Play Episode Listen Later Oct 18, 2024 73:50

This podcast hit paid subscribers' inboxes on Oct. 11. It dropped for free subscribers on Oct. 18. To receive future episodes as soon as they're live, and to support independent ski journalism, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription. You can also subscribe to the free tier below:WhoAndy Cohen, General Manager of Fernie Alpine Resort, British ColumbiaRecorded onSeptember 3, 2024About FernieClick here for a mountain stats overviewOwned by: Resorts of the Canadian Rockies, which also owns:Located in: Fernie, British ColumbiaPass affiliations:* Epic Pass: 7 days, shared with Kicking Horse, Kimberley, Nakiska, Stoneham, and Mont-Sainte Anne* RCR Rockies Season Pass: unlimited access, along with Kicking Horse, Kimberley, and NakiskaClosest neighboring ski areas: Fairmont Hot Springs (1:15), Kimberley (1:27), Panorama (1:45) – travel times vary considerably given time of year and weather conditionsBase elevation: 3,450 feet/1,052 metersSummit elevation: 7,000 feet/2,134 metersVertical drop: 3,550 feet/1,082 metersSkiable Acres: 2,500+Average annual snowfall: 360 inches/914 Canadian inches (also called centimeters)Trail count: 145 named runs plus five alpine bowls and tree skiing (4% extreme, 21% expert, 32% advanced, 30% intermediate, 13% novice)Lift count: 10 (2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 3 triples, 1 T-bar, 1 Poma, 1 conveyor - view Lift Blog's inventory of Fernie's lift fleet)Why I interviewed himOne of the most irritating dwellers of the #SkiInternet is Shoosh Emoji Bro. This Digital Daniel Boone, having boldly piloted his Subaru beyond the civilized bounds of Interstate 70, considers all outlying mountains to be his personal domain. So empowered, he patrols the digital sphere, dropping shoosh emojis on any poster that dares to mention Lost Trail or White Pass or Baker or Wolf Creek. Like an overzealous pamphleteer, he slings his brand haphazardly, toward any mountain kingdom he deems worthy of his forcefield. Shoosh Emoji Bro once Shoosh Emoji-ed me over a post about Alta.

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Podcast #182: National Ski Areas Association President & CEO Kelly Pawlak