The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
Stuart Winchester
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Podcast #82: Arapahoe Basin Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/14/22 • 95 min
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Who
Alan Henceroth, Chief Operating Officer of Arapahoe Basin, Colorado
Recorded on
April 12, 2022
About Arapahoe Basin
Click here for a mountain stats overview
Owned by: Dundee Resort Development
Base elevation: 10,520 feet
Summit elevation: 13,050 feet
Vertical drop: 2,530 feet
Skiable Acres: 1,428
Average annual snowfall: 350 inches
Trail count: 147 (24% double-black, 49% black, 20% intermediate, 7% beginner)
Lift count: 9 (2 high-speed quads, 2 fixed-grip quads, 1 triple [to be replaced with a high-speed six-pack this summer], 1 double, 2 carpets, 1 J-tow - view Lift Blog’s inventory of Arapahoe Basin’s lift fleet)
Uphill capacity: 11,300 skiers per hour
Why I interviewed him
The Legend. Ski area taglines are typically rocket fuel for The Storm’s wiseass machine, but this one fits. Hard against the Continental Divide, Arapahoe Basin is the third-highest ski area in America, trailing only Monarch (10,790 feet) and Loveland (10,800) at its base, and Telluride (13,150) and Silverton (13,487), at its peak. Its legacy is 10th Mountain Division resourcefulness, an improbable place rising up and over the treeline, hacked out of the remote 1940s American wilderness. The ski area opens in October. It closes in June. Sometimes later (sometimes much later). In Conglomerate County USA, it is the rowdy independent, owned by Some Company Up In Canada, its extremes laced with ferocious double-blacks. There is no lodging. No phony village. No special rich-guy lanes. Just skiing.
Damn good skiing, fed by 350 inches of average annual snowfall. This is a ski area, not a ski resort. And in approachable Summit County, with its green-blue acres appropriately tilted for destination-wired Texans and New Yorkers, its groves of high-speed super-lifts, its sprawling mountains perfectly divided by ability, we might assume that such a rowdy outfit, five miles past faux-village Keystone, half the size and with six fewer high-speed chairlifts, might wilt from the pressure. But A-Basin has a pull. Sort North America’s ski areas by size, and the bias is clear: just about any western resort under 2,000 acres was left off the Epic, Ikon, and Mountain Collective passes. But when Arapahoe Basin broke up with Vail in 2019, after a 22-year-partnership, Ikon and Mountain Collective were waiting in the driveway with a dozen roses and a ride to prom. Meanwhile, Loveland, just three miles away, 300 acres bigger, and infinitely easier to get to (its address is literally Interstate 70, Dillon, Colorado), continues to be shut out (or they’re just not interested).
Anyone who’s skied there (and everyone has skied there), knows that Summit County is a special place. There’s a reason why it’s ground zero for America’s industrial snowsports machine. Copper, Breck, and Keystone have 79 lifts between them, including 10 six-packs, 16 high-speed quads, and four gondolas or chondolas. Eight and a half thousand acres of Epkonic terrain lurching within easy access of the interstate. And yet, there’s room for something different too. Something special. Something Legendary.
What we talked about
What the A-Basin crew does when Interstate 70 is closed and it’s dumping outside; the mountain’s 10th Mountain Division legacy; the audacity of 1946 A-Basin; what the ski area looked like when Henceroth showed up in 1988; the characters animating the mountain; ski-bumming and working in Summit County in the ‘80s; Arizona Snowbowl; yes a dog-food company used to own the ski area; The Legend’s terrain; recollections of rescues as Ski Patrol Director; the art of avalanche control; A-Basin’s unique position at the top of Summit County and at ground zero of every major issue in U.S. skiing; the hidden drama behind Vail’s purchase of Keystone, Breck, and A-Basin, and why the company had to pick one to sell; why and how A-Basin ended up on the Epic Pass; the historical inflection point that launched the large-scale ski season pass wars; the Epic Pass breaking point; breaking up with Vail – “it was a surprise to everyone”; the upsides of the Epic Pass; Vail’s stingy spring skiing legacy; how and why A-Basin joined the Ikon and Mountain Collecti...
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Podcast #83: The Summit at Snoqualmie President and General Manager Guy Lawrence
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/20/22 • 95 min
To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Upgrading to a paid subscription is the only way to guarantee access to 100% of The Storm’s content.
NOTE: a few minutes ago, I published a comprehensive breakdown of Summit at Snoqualmie’s 2030 plan, which we discuss at length in this podcast. Click here to view that article, which includes detailed breakdowns of the plan, along with diagrams of the new lift alignments at each ski area.
Who
Guy Lawrence, President and General Manager of The Summit at Snoqualmie, Washington
Recorded on
April 18, 2022
About Summit at Snoqualmie
Click here for a mountain stats overview
Owned by: Boyne Resorts
Base elevation | summit elevation | vertical drop:
Alpental: 3,140 feet | 5,420 feet | 2,280 feet
Summit East: 2,610 feet | 3,710 feet | 1,100 feet
Summit Central: 2,840 feet | 3,865 feet | 1,025 feet
Summit West: 3,000 feet | 3,765 feet | 765 feet
Skiable Acres: 1,994 (600 acres of night skiing)
Alpental: 875 (including back bowls)
Summit East: 385 acres
Summit Central: 474 acres
Summit West: 260 acres
Average annual snowfall: 426 inches (varies by area)
Trail count: 150 (11% expert, 42% advanced, 33% intermediate, 14% beginner)
Terrain parks: 2
Lift count: 24 (3 high-speed quads, 4 fixed-grip quads, 3 triples, 9 doubles, 5 surface lifts - view Lift Blog’s inventory of The Summit at Snoqualmie’s lift fleet)
Trail maps:
Why I interviewed him
What is this wild place, four ski areas in one, scattered about the high ground like wintry little islands 50 miles east of the snowless coastal city? 400 inches of snow and no logic to it at all, dumping at 3,000 feet when the rain line is at 4,000, the Cascade Concrete of legend, except when it isn’t. The funny name and the funny trail map, the ski areas nothing like one another, as confusing a thing as there is in American skiing.
Boyne once owned two ski resorts in Washington. There was Crystal, and then there was this. Whatever this was. Maybe a feeder and maybe something else. And oh wait that’s where Alpental is? Why didn’t they just say that? Crystal is gone (it’s still there), but Boyne held onto this. And now we’re getting a real good sense of what this is.
I don’t know if it was the Ikon Pass or the runaway West Coast tech wealth or the Covid-driven outdoor explosion or the spread-the-word crowdsourcing supernova of social media, but suddenly Summit at Snoqualmie is One Of Those Places That We Talk About. Part of the overrun Washington trio that also includes Crystal and Stevens. The rest of the state’s ski areas are too remote to matter, at least for now, at least in that way. But these three have problems. Traffic problems and parking lot problems and liftline problems and terrain-management problems and, sometimes, too-much-snow-all-at-once problems. They’re all handling them different. Crystal has morphed from Ikon bottom-feeder to $1,699 season pass elitist with intricate parking-and-access policies in just two seasons. Stevens is hoping new management and a higher wage can offset the debilitating crowds driven by season passes that cost the same as one month of Netflix.
And Summit is doing what Boyne does: rethinking and rebuilding the resort to adapt to the modern ski experience. Washington State in 2022 is a tough place to make it as a ski resort, and I wanted to talk to the person in charge of Summit to understand exactly how they planned to do that.
What we talked about
The 2021-22 ski season; potential Summit closing dates; the T-bar ride that changed a life; Australia’s sprawling Perisher ski area; the majesty of European skiing; Vail Mountain; Badger Pass; Booth Creek; Summit and Washington in the homey ‘90s; when skier traffic started to explode; the founding of the four Summit at Snoqualmie ski areas and how they came together into the modern resort; why they’re bucketed as one ski area even though Alpental is separated by Interstate 90 and about two dozen cliff bands; why Summit East, Central, and West still have distinct trailmaps even though they are side by s...
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COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #9: Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory – “We’re Continuing to Strengthen Our Offerings”
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
05/05/20 • 60 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the ninth in a series of conversations exploring the ski industry fallout from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first eight: author Chris Diamond, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway, NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak, Berkshire East/Catamount Owner & Goggles for Docs founder Jon Schaefer, Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis Cofounder Jeff Thompson, Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz, Mt. Baldy GM Robby Ellingson
Who: Rusty Gregory, Alterra Mountain Company CEO
Why I interviewed him: Because as skiing has evolved into a megapass-anchored duopoly that has trained consumers to feel entitled to cheap access to as many mountains as possible, the consequences of those large players’ decisions has been amplified considerably. When Vail and Alterra shut down their entire North American networks of nearly 50 ski areas on March 14, the impact reverberated in immediate and wide-ranging ways that would have been difficult to imagine even five years ago. Now, as both step out of the wreckage and try to make good with passholders still fuming about shortened seasons while acknowledging that next season isn’t close to being assured, we are collectively witnessing the kind of real-time business adaptation that normally takes years to occur. How Alterra resets the Ikon Pass now will influence not only how smaller mountains adjust their offerings, but what skiers’ pass expectations will be long after Covid-19 has burned out. Looming over all of this is the possibility that the 2020-21 ski season could be a very dystopian, socially distant affair, with capacity limits and restricted access to just about everything. How Alterra is evolving in the shutdown’s aftermath and preparing for the possibility of a very odd 2020-21 season is one of the most important stories in skiing right now.
Alterra’s Steamboat ski area in February 2020.
What we talked about: How the shutdown progressed and the catalysts behind the ultimate decision to close; how using Crystal Mountain as a laboratory told them social distancing at massive ski areas was unsustainable; the chaos and uncertainty of March 14, which turned out to be shutdown day; the creeping atmosphere of fear in ski towns as the virus spread; the impossible decision of shuttering 15 North American ski resorts in the midst of peak season when hundreds of thousands of skiers are planning on booting up the next day; second-guessing the shutdown decision and how long those doubts lasted; dealing with Angry Ski Bro in the moment; Dude Brah are you really going to shut Squaw when we’re about to get dumped on?; managing thousands of layoffs and furloughs and helping move those who wanted t...
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Podcast #92: Alterra Mountain Company CEO Rusty Gregory
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
06/25/22 • 91 min
To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This podcast hit paid subscribers’ inboxes on June 25. Free subscribers got it on June 28. To receive future pods as soon as they’re live, please consider an upgrade to a paid subscription.
Who
Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra Mountain Company, owner of the Ikon Pass
Recorded on
June 23, 2022
About Alterra Mountain Company
Owned by: KSL Capital and Henry Crown and Company
About the Ikon Pass
Here’s a breakdown of all the ski areas that are party to Alterra’s Ikon Pass:
Why I interviewed him
In its first five years, Alterra has gotten just about everything right – or about as right as any ski company can as it Starfoxes its way through an asteroid belt filled with Covid and empowered workers and shattered supply chains and The Day After Tomorrow weather patterns and an evolving social fabric and the sudden realization by U.S. Americans that there’s such a thing as outside. The company changed the name of one of America’s iconic resorts, managed a near meltdown of its Pacific Northwest anchor, met Covid as well as it could, and continually tweaked Ikon Pass access tiers to avoid overwhelming partner mountains while still offering skiers good value. Oh, and adding Sun Valley, Snowbasin, Chamonix, Dolomiti Superski, Kitzbühel, Schweitzer, Red Mountain, Mt. Bachelor, and Windham to the pass – all since Covid hit.
If it’s all seemed a little improvisational and surprising, that’s because it has been. “I have a great propensity for enjoying chaos and anarchy,” Gregory tells me in the podcast. That explains a lot. In the frantic weeks after Covid zipped North American skiing shut in March 2020, angry skiers demanded concessions for lost spring skiing. Vail released, all at once, an encyclopedic Epic Pass credit plan, which metered discounts based upon number of days skied and introduced an “Epic Coverage” program that secured your investment in the event of everything from a Covid resurgence to the death of a beloved houseplant. Alterra, meanwhile, spun its plan together in four dispatches weeks apart – a renewal discount here, a deferral policy there, an extension six weeks later. “We’re continuing to strengthen our offerings,” Gregory told me on the podcast mid-way through this staggered rollout.
In other words, Dude, just chill. We’ll get it right. Whether they ultimately did or not – with their Covid response or anything else – is a bit subjective. But I think they’ve gotten more right than wrong. There was nothing inevitable about Alterra or the Ikon Pass. Vail launched the Epic Pass in 2008. It took a decade for the industry to come up with an effective response. The Mountain Collective managed to gather all the best indies into a crew, but its reach was limited, with just two days at each partner. M.A.X. Pass, with five days per partner, got closer, but it was short on alpha mountains such as Jackson Hole or Snowbird (it did feature Big Sky,...
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COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #4: NSAA President & CEO Kelly Pawlak – Leading the Response
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/05/20 • 34 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the fourth in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first three: author Chris Diamond, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway.
Who: Kelly Pawlak, President and CEO of the National Ski Areas Association
Why I interviewed her: The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that the president signed into law on March 27 is 880 pages long, meaning that approximately zero people have read the entire thing. While there are plenty of high-level breakdowns itemizing what the act delivers American individuals and businesses, it’s less obvious what this titanic relief bill means for the ski industry and its nearly 1 million employees. As the primary trade group representing U.S. ski areas, the National Ski Areas Association’s mission over the past several weeks has been to raise its hand on behalf of the collective industry and say, “Hey Congress, don’t forget about us.” I wanted to get a sense of exactly what the bill offered ski areas large and small, and to gauge what else the NSAA was prioritizing over what is set to be a very long slog back to skiers riding lifts up mountainsides. Also, the industry seems extremely satisfied with the NSAA at the moment (Steve Wright is the GM of Jay Peak; Christian Knapp, who comments on the thread, is the CMO of Aspen-Snowmass):
What we talked about: The factors behind the NSAA’s estimate that U.S. ski areas will lose $2 billion from the COVID-19 shutdown; the ripple effect of cancelling large capital projects; how much U.S. ski areas invest in capital per skier visit; the importance of summer business and what it will mean if that goes away; what’s in the CARES Act for ski areas and their employees and why it may take a while to sort all that out; the risks of being overlooked for relief money as a seasonal business whose season was three-quarters of the way over; how to get attention for the ski industry when the entire economy collapsed, taking just about every industry with it; the different CARES Act aid that small and large ski areas are eligible for; how the NSAA is approaching the next possible round of Congressional stimulus; how to avoid the, “What do you guys need money for, is there even still skiing in March?” trap when jockeying for that cash; the crucial role of ski areas to rural economies; the Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus sounds fun – what is it?; Forest Service land lease fees that 122 U.S. ski areas pay each year could be waived or deferred; the problem with business interruption insurance; is Ski Blandford a bellwether for a wave of independent ski area closings in the COVID aftermath?; echoes of Mount Snow-Haystack in the failure of Butternut subsidizing Blandford; when and why the NSAA cancelled their annual trade show and convention for the first time in 58 years and what they’re doing instead; how the industry is embracing this whole thing as a learning opportunity
What I got wrong: I said that Vail had cancelled all of its capital spending for the rest of the year, but that is incorrect: they are

COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #3: Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway – “We Exist in a Changed World”
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/03/20 • 44 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the third in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. You can listen to the first two – with author Chris Diamond and Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher – but it’s not like Star Wars or something where you have to see them in a certain order or they won’t make sense, so jump right in here.
Who: Geoff Hatheway, President of Magic Mountain, Vermont
Magic’s workhorse Heron-Poma Red Chair has been hauling skiers up Glebe Mountain for nearly 50 years .
Why I interviewed him: Because Magic, resolutely perched between Mount Snow and Stratton in Southern Vermont, is as unlikely as it is necessary in this multipass futureworld we all live in. That particular geography puts the place in a defensive posture during the best of times, and in some weird way perhaps makes it uniquely adapted to confront an unforeseen crisis such as the COVID-19 shutdown. Geoff’s a thoughtful guy who helped rescue the mountain from insolvency a few years back, and I wanted to see how he had approached the inevitable shutdown, what he’s been doing to stabilize operations, and how he was planning for Magic’s future in a world that just got turned upside-down.
Magic on a misty day.
What we talked about: Life in Vermont during the COVID-19 shutdown; the eeriness of an empty Magic covered in snow; how the mountain’s employees reacted to and are managing the shutdown; inside Magic’s decision to close and why it was inevitable; what finally made them call it a season; what happened once Vail and Alterra closed their nearby mountains; how Magic’s hardcore community responded to the early shutdown; how the Congressional relief package will help the mountain bridge the shutdown but it’s gonna be a pain in the rear to tap everything they’re entitled to; what Geoff would like to see in future relief bills; why spring season pass sales are so vital to summer operations; the Black Chair will rise again; why Magic is going to drop season pass prices and push its early-bird pass deadlines by two months; I think the Freedom Pass is dead; you’ll be able to add an Indy Pass onto your Magic season pass for a very low price; Magic season passholders have not gone Angry Ski Bro and demanded refunds for the truncated season; the mountain’s current uphill travel policy; why unity is the best way through this mess for the country as a whole; now is the time to make those phone calls; the importance of the Friends of Magic Facebook group
Magic in February. The towers for the unfinished Black Chair rise up the mountain in the distance.
The kid babbling in the background: Is mine. He’s now audio-bombed three out of three COVID-19 and skiing podcasts, and I imagine as long as we’re all holed up in the same apartment together 24 hours a day, he will continue to do so.
Recorded on: April 2, 2020
The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at skiing.substack.com . Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter .
COVID-19 and S...

COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #7: Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz – “We Are Used to Making Adjustments”
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/19/20 • 35 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the seventh in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first six: author Chris Diamond, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway, NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak, Berkshire East/Catamount Owner & Goggles for Docs founder Jon Schaefer, and Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis Cofounder Jeff Thompson.
Who: Katharina Schmitz, President of Doppelmayr USA
Why I interviewed her: Because if my spending is your income, then my budget cuts are your revenue cuts, and one of the most significant down-the-chain victims of the Great Ski Shutdown of 2020 is chairlift manufacturers. When a company like Vail says very bluntly that the immediate financial impact of the coronavirus-caused shutdown could be as much as $200 million, they have to make up some of that deficit somewhere. Often, the big-ticket items go first, and nothing in skiing is more big ticket than chairlifts. They are millions of dollars apiece, and they often aren’t absolutely necessary. Thanks to decades of consistent investment, the chairlift infrastructure at most large U.S. resorts is in quite good condition. The Kancamagus Quad at Loon, for example, is only 25 years old, and GM Jay Scambio told me on The Storm Skiing Podcast that it was still in good enough shape that there was a high probability that it would replace the Seven Brothers triple chair when the resort tore the quad out to make room for a new eight-pack this offseason. So when Boyne suddenly lost up to $22 million in end-of-season revenue, the obvious choice was to delay installation of the very expensive (perhaps eight figures expensive, but Boyne won’t say), new Kancamagus 8 and keep the perfectly good Kanc 4 running until it’s feasible to move ahead with the project without interruption. More significant perhaps than short-term cost savings, a delay avoids the risk of tearing out a key old lift and not being able to replace it prior to winter in the event of another work stoppage. Loon would descend into gridlock without some version of the Kanc lift. So I wanted to see how lift manufacturers were managing this sudden slowdown. Aside from the business component here, chairlifts are a central part of the resort skier’s experience, with lifts bound inextricably to the mountains we love and our conception of those places. While ...

Podcast #14: Big Snow and Mountain Creek VP of Marketing & Sales Hugh Reynolds
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
03/03/20 • 62 min
The Storm Skiing Podcast #14 | Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
Who: Hugh Reynolds, Vice President of Marketing & Sales for Snow Operating, owners of Big Snow American Dream and Mountain Creek
Why I interviewed him: Modern New York City and its environs can be a frustrating place to live. There are many reasons for this, but one of the most grating is standing by while a tangle of ineptness swallows every large infrastructure or construction project. Simply building three new subway stations cost $4.5 billion and took a decade. Manhattan’s Essex Crossing mega-development is finally rising on land cleared for development 70 years ago. And across the river in New Jersey, the state still owed $110 million on the old Giants Stadium when they tore it down to build a new one right next door. When the wait-why-is-this-necessary-in-a-region-with-200-outdoor-ski-areas mottled snowshed rose off the turnpike sometime in the mid-aughts and then appeared to be abandoned before it was ever occupied, I figured its fate would be another chapter in the Big Book of Stupid Things Done In the Name of Flushing Money Down the Sewer. This had after all already been tried in Tokyo – another place where it is not exactly difficult to reach outdoor ski options – and it had reportedly cost as much to demolish as to build. When rumors ticked out last year that the New Jersey Snowdome would at long last be occupied, I was surprised and skeptical. But as I read more about it and I began to understand Snow Operating’s vision, my opinion evolved. Founder Joe Hession and his team have immediately established Big Snow American Dream – as the New Jersey Snow Dome is somewhat inelegantly known – as the nation’s premier learn-to-ski center. With its 365-day-a-year operating schedule, affordable all-gear-included ski packages, optimal conditions, and accessible-by-mass-transit location in the heart of the 20 million-person New York City metro area, the center has the potential to introduce more new skiers – and far more diverse skiers – to the sport than every backyard ropetow in the country combined. How Snow Operating transformed an abandoned hunk of aspirational scrap metal into one of the most visited and important ski areas in the country was a story I wanted to hear. Also, I’m a Mountain Creek season pass holder, and I had a lot of questions about the future of that place.
What we talked about:
Big Snow American Dream: attendance and reception; who’s using the facility, both skills- and diversity-wise; Big Snow as the gym of skiing and snowboarding; will the snow dome become a summer training center for pros?; why Snow Operating kept the Snow Dome’s price low and included everything from skis to snow pants to helmet to locker in one package; which outdoor ski areas they are partnering with to encourage folks to keep skiing after their indoor introduction; why Big Snow doesn’t have a season pass; hey, we admit it, the experience can’t compet...

COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #5: Berkshire East/Catamount Owner & Goggles for Docs Founder Jon Schaefer – First to Close, Then A Great Goggle Airlift
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
04/06/20 • 36 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the fifth in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first four: author Chris Diamond, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway, NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak.
Who: Jon Schaefer, Owner and General Manager of Berkshire East and Catamount, Founder of Goggles for Docs
Why I interviewed him: Because Jon has done two incredibly consequential things that helped shift the momentum of the COVID-19 response in tangible ways. First, he turned the lights out on his two Massachusetts ski areas on Thursday, March 12, becoming the first ski area on the continent to close specifically to help stop the virus’ spread. In doing so, he lit a fuse that would soon blow up the entire industry. Second, he willed an errant email from a New York City doctor into a nationwide initiative to transfer goggles from the bottom of 10,000 dusty ski bags to the faces of front-line medical workers, giving them the eye protection that somehow our medical system is not equipped to provide. How and why he did these things is a story that I wanted to hear.
What we talked about: Jon’s thought process leading up to the shutdown; when you take away skiing you’re taking away freedom and the emotional toll of making that decision is significant; how the sacrifice was “an act of honoring” the more vulnerable members of the tight-knit communities that wrap both of those mountains; how those communities reacted to his decision; “crickets” from the industry when he closed; there are some advantages to not being a 6,000-mountain conglomerate, and one of those is the ability to move very quickly in an instance such as the COVID shutdown; he’s already figuring out how to put his employees back to work; when everything goes haywire, the government responds with resources for businesses but you’ve got to dig in to figure out what they are; the vast internet bazaar of government auctions is an overlooked resource in this crisis; could we see temporary farms on the slopes of Berkshire East and Catamount?; the single email that launched Goggles for Docs; how he organized the avalanche of emails that followed; Inntopia steps in to order the chaos with a website; how rapidly the number of listed hospitals in need grew and how that happened; a de facto corporate order emerges from the let’s-do-this pent-up enthusiasm of hundreds of nearly home-bound volunteers; the exponential growth of donations; virtual apres is ongoing to raise awareness and you’re welcome to drop in; “the intensity with which the ski world is attacking this ... is just phenomenal”; your old goggles are gold right now, so get them out of your closet and into a hospital; this thing went global quick; Goggles for Docs is a case study in the power of crowd-sourcing; this gives you something you can do other than sit at home and feel as though there’s nothing you can do; what made him think about shutting the whole thing down and why he didn’t; why he’s not preoccupied with the fact that the healthcare system was sh...

COVID-19 & Skiing Podcast #1: Author and Industry Veteran Chris Diamond - Optimism for the Future
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast
03/27/20 • 33 min
Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.
What this is: This is the first in a series of conversations exploring the ski industry fallout from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. This is not a typical Storm Skiing Podcast, and the format, tone, and focus is intentionally different from those lengthier shows. My goal is to help the skiing community understand why the shutdown was necessary and what it means to our sport in the short and long term.
Who: Chris Diamond, author of Ski Inc. and Ski Inc. 2020, former president of Mount Snow, former head of Steamboat, past director and chairman of Colorado Ski Country USA and the National Ski Areas Association, member of the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame
Why I interviewed him: Diamond’s two books, Ski Inc. and Ski Inc. 2020, positioned him as one of the top experts on the modern North American skiing industry. When examining the fallout from chopping a month of more off the end of the ski season, I think it’s valuable to get a perspective that examines the industry as a whole and does so through a long-term lens. No one was better positioned to do that than Diamond, and he was fortunately available for a conversation.
What we talked about: The atmosphere in Steamboat since the COVID-19 shutdown; how locals are adapting; the new uphill skinning restrictions in Colorado; current industry sentiment; how much it hurts a ski area financially to lose half of March; how much April matters; how fortunate we were that the pandemic didn’t hit a month or two earlier; why this is different from having to close early in a crummy snow year; why season pass sales may be OK; how the industry may respond to keep pass sales at least flat in a tough economic environment; how the COVID shutdown compares to other existential threats to skiing like climate change and attracting more diverse skiers; why this is the most severe shock that the modern ski industry has ever faced; what might happen if next season is cancelled; why there’s still reason for optimism
What I got wrong: I identified Arapahoe Basin Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth as Arapahoe Basin “CMO” Alan “Henceforth.” I regret the error. I also stated that economic data revealed “3 million” new unemployment claims in the United States this week, smashing the previous record of “655,000” in 1982. The correct numbers are 3.3 million new claims this week, beating 1982’s record of 695,000.
Why it sounds like I recorded this on a playground: Because I, like everyone else fortunate enough to have a job that enables them to work remotely, have ported my office into my home at the same moment all children have been untethered from school. My 11-year-old has remote classes to preoccupy her, but the 3-year-old does not, and so he is likely joining the podcast as a background singer for the foreseeable future.
Recorded on: March 26, 2020
The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes , Google Podcasts , Stitcher , TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at skiing.substack.com . Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter .
Check out The Storm Skiing Podcast: Killington & Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East & Catamount Owner & GM Jon Schaefer|
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FAQ
How many episodes does The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast have?
The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast currently has 141 episodes available.
What topics does The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast cover?
The podcast is about Leisure, Podcasts, Sports and Wilderness.
What is the most popular episode on The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast?
The episode title 'Podcast #82: Arapahoe Basin Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth' is the most popular.
What is the average episode length on The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast?
The average episode length on The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast is 77 minutes.
How often are episodes of The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast released?
Episodes of The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast are typically released every 7 days, 2 hours.
When was the first episode of The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast?
The first episode of The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast was released on Oct 13, 2019.
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