Johnsville Ski Bowl isn't around anymore. Nor is Marshall Mountain, Yodelin, Pilchuck, Céüse 2000, or Chacaltaya. Heck, Passo Stelvio closed this summer. I even know what that is! At any rate, the Plumas-Eureka Ski Club still runs long-board ski races at Johnsville, in the style of old Sierra mail carriers from the Olden Days, every third Thursday of January, February, and March. The rope tows and pomas and fundraising efforts for a working ski hill were all abandoned in stages by the late 90s.
The story is roughly the same everywhere. Some external force will exacerbate some internal turmoil, and the never-very-profitable small ski hill will fade into obscurity. Or, like Johnsville, needed repairs exceed capital liquidity. Hesperus, in CO, is currently on this path, even though it is owned by a decent-sized capital, um, group of money people. As are Eaglecrest in Juneau, Spout Springs in OR, and to a lesser extent Bluewood in WA. Spout Springs is in owner-operator limbo and has at least one lift that needs major repairs. Bluewood is in court with an importer fighting over the, um, importing of a to-me ill-advised detachable lift. Eaglecrest finally had to give up on their thirteenth-hand gondola, and are staring down a rough economic schedule trying to stay afloat.
ANY excuse. The Dachshund of Time rises again.
There are some places that have survived, or at least are still operating, whether past the point of diminishing returns or not. Soldier Mountain in Idaho, Whitecap in Wisconsin, Mt Ashland in OR, Bogus Basin here in BoyCee, all had financial messes at various different points in their various different histories. Soldier sold, and sold again, and sold again. Right now their on their third or fourth variation in recent memory. Mt A and Bogus successfully converted to 501(c)3 not-for-profits, to various different success levels. Whitecap emerged from bankruptcy this summer, hopefully better and stronger for it. Silver Bell Ranch Nordic Valley Wolf Mountain Nordic Valley, down in Ogden's Hole, UT, is on the struggle bus as well. While they have been in and out of bankruptcy, and are currently out and thriving getting by, they need higher elevation terrain and to repair fully or replace their main out-of-base lift, an old Hall double named Apollo. Coincidentally or not, the very same Mountain Capital Partners who own Hesperus own Nordic. Whaleback, NH is another on the list of folks needing funds yesterday for repairs they differed three days ago. Then there are places like Black Mountain, NH. Ups, downs, in betweens. They're on the Indy Pass, that alleged saviour of small ski hills worldwide, and coincidentally or not, in some sort of ownership trist with the owner of Indy Pass, Erik Mogenson. Also coincidentally, or not, a place similar to BoHo up in the Keweenaw in that their partying can ring up some anger or at least frustration from the locals.
Erik Mogenson. Indy Pass honch, Black Mountain of New Hampshire Owner, Entabeni Systems CEO, all around proof that most philanthropy is self-serving, fighter of any independent ski area who doesn't want to work with him. Smug asshole with a savior complex. Typical tech bro who things cos he has that sweet, sweet startup capital he can do anything.
I feel for the good folks in east-central NH. Black Mountain is a cool spot. Their Saturn is rising. (Or whatever.) They are yet another joint who's been through their share of fiscal topsy-turviness and are on the back side of it, hopefully for good. To come out the other side okay, and even possibly thriving, is a good thing. But it comes with the cost of having to babysit yet another self-professed guru who thinks "independent" is just a code word for "I make all the money".
Mogenson took over Black Mountain in what feels like a shady handoff. The Fichera family had owned the ski area since 1995, when they bought it out of bankruptcy. (Cos, why wouldn't they have?) The Ficheras ran it for almost 30 years before themselves declaring a not-yet-bankrupt inability to operate. Unforeseen circumstances, the usual. Things "beyond our control". Legitimate complaints all around: low snowpack, waning interest, unpredictable weather. A sad end to a storied local hill's success sine wave. They endured a couple years of barely making do, then announced they would not operate during the '23-'24 season. After a few weeks of sadness, a mysterious external partner surfaced, they announced their ability and intent to indeed operate for the '23-'24 season, and the next we heard, the Ficheras were just . . . gone. Erik Mogenson, previous owner of exactly zero ski area experience, was the new boss. His Entabeni Sytstems had previously acquired Indy Pass in a similarly opaque process.
The Black Mountain takeover, however, wasn't supposed to happen. Once the dust had cleared and the mountain got back to the business of operating, Mogenson announced his plan to turn the operation over to a yet-to-be-formed local co-op in the same mold as Mad River Glen, VT. MRG is a going concern with tons of support, slobbering loyalty, and the
dubious distinction of being the only joint east of the Jordanelle to not allow snowboarding. They've somehow convinced the Skiing World Of America that having an allegedly historical--read: all but replaced, with pretty much only vertical steel left of the original installation--single chair and some rocks means you are legit hard, like some G serving 6 consecutives for all the banging he did back in the Aughts. Yes, the Mt Ellen lobe of the Green Mountains looming over the Mad River Valley is rugged, but so is the Mt Mansfield group to the north, and folks round there seem, well, less, I don't know, snobby. (Yes, I know the vacationland snobbery of Stowe, but ability trumps finances in this comparison.)
Mt Ellen itself is burlier than the smaller hunk to the immediate north upon which MRG sits. Locals are certainly entitled to their enthusiasm, and I am at least 87.99% sure I'd share it if I were to live in the wilds outside Waitsfield. I just find it all a little bit much.
Smuggs. Not MRG? Not problem.
Regardless of my own rampant opinionating, the co-op model of MRG is actually something worthy to which one might should aspire. If skiing in this bleak time is to continue to be even as minimally inclusive as it is today, any and all models that lessen the need for profit should be considered and successful models emulated, or even just cravenly copied. Instead, Black Mountain effectively underwent a corporate takeover. Whatever Mogenson's motives and strategies really were, the end result makes a lie of his public stance. While Entabeni/Indy Pass is by no means a behemoth like Vail or Alterra or Boyne or even Mountain Capital Partners, it is still an outside entity controlling a local resource, and by those news reports, doing it in direct conflict with the very locals who are supposedly being served.
In truth, there is no bullet, plata o plomo. The co-op model works for MRG, and outwardly well. Bridger Bowl soldiers on as an interesting couplet of nonprofits where the 501(c)4 ski area itself cannot accept tax-exempt donations, but a fraternal twin 501(c)3 org known as the Bridger Bowl Foundation can and does accept those donations and operates closely with the ski area. Bogus Basin and Mt Ashland are simple 501(c)3s. Giants Ridge, in the Iron Range of NE Minnesota, is an interesting aglomeration of private money from mining (in lieu of to-me unknown taxes) and state funding through the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board. The Big 3 in Upstate NY, Gore, Whiteface, and Bellayre, are run by ORDA, a state-funded org pushing regional development somehow related (or maybe just named after) the Olympics. There's always a bit of chafe where privately owned mountains are concerned, as one would expect when Bogus can build a new Dopplemayr Uni-whatever mostly with donation funds (Chair 3, 2011) or Mt Spokane gets a new Skytrac triple (Chair 6, 2018) or Mt A gets a new Skytrac triple (Lithia, 2024)--this one a donation from the local car dealership grown wild--but this feels more than a little like sour grapes to me. Isn't capitalism supposed to make the cream rise to the top? Then again, if one or two locales are getting a hand up, maybe more should.
Phht. "Then again, if one or two locales are getting a hand up, maybe more should." Have you heard yourself? Real ones know what I'm talking about.*
I don't know the answers, or even most of the questions. I know they say you should never meet your heroes, and I go a step further and avoid having heroes altogether. Except maybe Zoe Muth. Hopefully, as we move along in this curséd timeline, more folks figure this game out. In the meantime, get out there and support some of these (truly) independent hills. Places I've mentioned, even the ones I gripe about, and more. They're everywhere, mainstream media doom aside. Bolton Valley, just down the ridge from Stowe and Smuggs. Family owned, now, again, after years of corporate neglect. The DesLauriers grew up there, and their father, the late Ralph DesLaurier, founded the place back in 1966. By all accounts, it's a family ski area, too, not just in ownership structure. A high base area, for Vermont, anyway, and some older-but-reliable lifts. Classic New England skiing. Chancing the snow level, or hoping the thermocline is to the south. Skiing trees when it's snowing, cruising the long, twisting groomers when it's not.
Or Saddleback, near Rangely, Maine. Another community hill that punches above its weight class, that has come through some hardship and downtime. It's owned by an opaque corporate venture, but for now it remains decidedly independent and resilient. High elevation glades, that mythical chalk some of us dream about while not dreaming about summer slush. Views for weeks when the sun shines. Steep groomers between walls of trees shortened by short growing seasons.
Or Manning Park, in BC. Yet another closure, yet another shadowy ownership swap, but a nice local hill nonetheless. No one is perfect, and running a ski area is expensive. Heck, take a trip out to Bethel, ME, and ski both Black Mountains. Black Mountain of Maine is a 501(c)3, a classic New England operation of glades and winding, cut runs.
Number one, or number six, I don't know, on my list for when people start paying me. Plattekill, Castkills NY. Three syllables.
I harp on this concept all the frikn time. Skiing is more than just huckin yer meat and schralpin. Maybe those are fun. Maybe you need a huge hill cos you schred so hard that Harkin Banks and Donny Pelletier cower behind their sisters when they see you in a bar. Maybe you need a perfectly manicured park cos yer cookin up a secret version of the cork and you just gotta get them laps in. I do not, and neither do most folks. Having grown up at legitimate Big Mountain Mountain Crystal Mountain, having worked two winters at Big Snow Mt Baker, having skied places like Snowbird and Vail and Copper and The Legend Arapahoe, I do truly understand the draw. When you can hide in the steeps off Gad 2 and pretend you're alone, or traverse back from the Steep Gullies and pretend you're alone, or when you know the best lines skiers' left of Brand X and can pretend you're alone, these places can really deliver. You'll notice, though, that you have to pretend. You never are alone, and often not in a good way.
I will never lie and say that, say, Big Powderhorn or Titus or Cataloochie will give you the beans in the way the big boys do. They don't have the vert, the pitch, the condos, the attitude, the snarky marketing, the expensive lifts, the fancy food, the glass-walled trams, the bougie, messy base areas, the contrived ski bars, the bendy angle-stations that have to be re-engineered after a couple seasons, the rich clientele, the posing out-of-towners, any of that. They do have snow, sometimes a lot, sometimes very little, and they have gravity. That, and a little gumption from you, is all that matters.
Does it got one a them Halls? Probly a good place to be. McCauley Mountain, NY.
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Some of my best friends are non-profits, in no particular order: Mt Ashland, Bogus Basin, Mt Spokane, Bridger, Antelope Butte in Wyomin (no G, thanks), Arctic Valley AK, SkiLand up in Fairbanks, Mt Eyak--owner of the oldest operating lift in NA, Cooper not Copper, Hyland Hills, Giants Ridge, Whaleback, you get it. All is not lost.
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Title from Alan Jackson's Little Man. You can argue that AJ is not a songwriter's songwriter, but you might should listen to more of his lesser known stuff.
* Can of Worms Interchange, Duluth MN. Any pics I found of cans of worms were weird and unhelpful.
