Blog: Generation Recreation
Return the Powder to the People
By Michael Pearlman, 11-14-08
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There was once an era when world-class ski resorts opened with a goal of delivering a quality experience intended to attract the public to a growing sport. Pioneers like Paul McCollister, Pete Seibert and Dave McCoy founded mountains in Wyoming, Colorado or California with outstanding terrain first. The amenities came later.
How things have changed. Today’s ski industry is centered around making money off land instead of making turns in powder. The Yellowstone Club debacle currently playing out in bankruptcy court is one example, as is bankrupt Tamarack Resort in Idaho. The mountain is merely a commodity, an expensive amenity to be exploited for financial interests that have nothing to do with outdoor recreation.
Tim Blixseth’s grand real estate investment scheme (I have a problem describing the Yellowstone Club as a ski area) was born in the late 1990s. When the land exchange that allowed the Yellowstone Club to move forward was approved, I was just out of college and pursuing an advanced degree in powder skiing in Jackson Hole. While many of my peers were cashing in on the dot- com boom or heading off to law school, I was happily entrenched in the working class, just another ski bum waiter with a bachelors degree.
My fellow unwashed season pass-holders who waited patiently in the tram line each day reveled in the perceived nobility of neither having, nor needing, financial security. Freedom was spending the day in the mountains, whether it was hiking the backcountry or riding the lift. Even through the tunnel vision of our pursuits, it was impossible not to notice the changes happening in front of our eyes. Ritzy hotels began sprouting up in Teton Village, season passes got pricier and more tourists were hiring guides and charging to the front of the lift line.
Around 1998, I began hearing about a private ski area being constructed next door to Big Sky. A billionaire had secured some land through a land swap and was cutting trails and selling memberships. It would cost more than a million dollars just to join, if you were lucky enough to be invited. You’d build your house, hire your help and they’d lock the gates and keep the riffraff out.
I eventually learned that the Yellowstone Club had so few skiers that sensors were installed so lift operators would know when someone was actually riding a chair. Powder lasted for days and they had a run named EBITDA, which I learned stands for “earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization.’’ The employees were apparently treated well, but good luck trying to get an invitation to visit. For the masses, it was a mirage of a ski area, even though you could look down into it from Big Sky.
Fast-forward a decade and we now know that Blixseth’s fantasy was never a functional business model. The Yellowstone Club’s checking account has $40,000 in the bank, a $600,000 monthly payroll and more employees than members. They couldn’t sell enough memberships to run the place before the global financial crisis hit. A spectacular mountain where the owners can’t afford to operate the lifts overlooks a bankrupt development. Those who bought in and built their McMansions have learned that their dream enclave was being propped up with smoke and mirrors. They’re members of an exclusive club that no one wants to belong to.
The Yellowstone Club was never about skiing. The ski area was merely the carrot dangled in front of buyers to sell them land and the exclusivity that comes with deep pockets. You’ve got a lift mechanic who isn’t getting a paycheck, a cook with kids and no health insurance and subcontractors who’re probably never going to get paid what they’re owed.
I’ve got a proposal for the judge who’s handling the Chapter 11 reorganization of the Yellowstone Club. Return that public land to the taxpayers who were locked out while the owners hoodwinked everyone. Require the Yellowstone Club to start selling lift tickets to the public and give the former employees and everyone who’s owed money free season passes. Every dollar earned in lift-ticket sales should be set aside in a fund to make sure the employees and contractors get paid for their work. If the lifts don’t run, open the resort up to backcountry skiing enthusiasts willing to earn their turns on the empty slopes. I hear there’s some pretty good terrain up there and it looks like some current employees are going to have extra time on their hands this winter.
Great blog! You articulated the thoughts I've been having for about ten years now. Keep the good work, and your tips as you approach the top terminal, up!
Comment By stevie, 11-15-08Dont forget Moonlight. I get my powder to the people at your least favorite place. Tamarack. mostly I park in the front row,have the lifts all to myself, never cross tracks you know the stuff you dream about but disappeared 20 plus years ago.
I know it aint no JH but the sidecountry can deliver, but no one will ever say it because no one has been here, Its the experience that has long since vanished most every where else. I know it was founded on the wrong princples but its here 20 miles from my door and sombody should ride there. The best part about it is there is no uber rad extreme trustfunders to see/ listen to. Ya know like JH brah
EXTREME! brah , I could probably blow most of the haters doors off but thats not the point. The point is fun and if I have fun riding Tamarack riding off the many features logs,rocks,trees, it aint JH though brah so youd better not come out and find out if I'm right because most are rad and dont ski shitty mountains brah,likeJH or nothing else if there aint a 50 footer for you to drop you aint riding brah !
Judging by those 70's style powder 8's in the picture if can tell you get your powder 8 on before the 50 footer.
CB,JH,BB,BS.......if you aint getting EXTREME! you aint riding look at my powder 8's ...............
What are you 50?
Wont be seeing ya brah , you be getting EXTREME! Powder 8's/JH/JH/JH/JH!!!! and you can laugh at me all you want , All I can say is MOST FUN WINS brah!!!!!!
I agree wholeheartedly... "The Yellowstone Club debacle currently playing out in bankruptcy court is one example, as is bankrupt Tamarack Resort in Idaho. The mountain is merely a commodity, an expensive amenity to be exploited for financial interests that have nothing to do with outdoor recreation."
Notably absent from all of this is The Club at Spanish Peaks. Wonder what the story is there?
I don't have much sympathy for the Club or its creditors. They gave it a go, it didn't work, now they get to take the loss. I suppose their employees might learn something as well to consider in future employment decisions.
The idea of skiing for its own sake pretty much began seriously dying when Big Sky began hiring Vietnamese nonskier lifties sometime in the early 1980s. Other resorts saw the same trends, positioned against lots of seasonal employees who wanted to make a year-around go of being in a ski town. That requires full-time year-round work, but the only such work in purpose-built ski places is, youbetcha, construction and real estate. There are only a few ski hills that provide major skiing pleasure near pre-existing communities that are actually viable with or without a ski resort.
Knowing what I know now, only a handful are worth being around for the long run. Bridger Bowl is one, Schweitzer another, and I refuse to name mine although you folks are welcome to guess.
Up next, the Bitterroot Resort Lolo, MT.
Replace Blixseth with Maclay, same results. Except add in a "no snow" situation for a proposed ski slope.
http://www.skibitterrootresort.com/newsroom/
Nice to read your stuff again Michael! The "what now" question is going to be very real over the next 5 - 10 years, both with ski areas and golf courses. The weed control guys will be getting the business where the builders have been!
Comment By Chaos Tamer, 11-17-08Since the Yellowstone Club "home owners" include very few actual skiers by number or ski days used, conserve their value by assigning their homeowner association/membership dues to restoring the mountain. Tear out the lifts, replant trees, reseed natural grasses, let the wildlife back into the land.
There is already more than enough ski terrain bulldozed into te formerly pristine Lone Mountain (thank you Chet Huntley and his real estate developer partners) to fill all of the legitimate "lift assisted" skier demand.
Couldn't agree more! Some of the best times of my life were when I was a minor ski bum and played guitar in bars to buy a cheap B Bowl pass. The "smoke and mirrors" YC debacle is almost an alpine miniature for the whole recent sub-prime crisis. I'm also sick of the hyper-wealthy pumping up the cost of any place authentic or appealing the minute they "discover" it. At least old wealth was stodgy and discreet! I've watched that happen time and time again in Mexico, Europe and elsewhere. Here in the overrun Hamptons, which still has good saltwater fishing and beautiful old homes, us "old-timers" are being taxed out of the properties we were born onto by their value having multiplied 100 times (yes, sometimes a hundred-fold!)in 40 years just because neighboring hedge-funders built ever huger mcmansions. Right now the taxes remain onerous though the values have plummeted. That's more air than I intended to catch at my age...
Comment By Californiamontanacan, 11-22-08Greg LeMond needs to fire his life coach.
-CAMT-
Greg has 39 million reasons to thank his life coach.
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