Industry News
📸: @snowbrains
Yesterday, KSL and Aspen Skiing Co. announced the finalization of their $1.5 billion acquisition of Intrawest and Mammoth Resorts.
As of yesterday, Squaw Valley Ski Holdings (formerly owned by KSL), Intrawest, and Mammoth Resorts are now combined as one company.
All existing pass products that are currently on sale will be honored, including the Rocky Mountain Super Pass +, Mountain Collective and the M.A.X. Pass, but unfortunately it’s too late to offer a special pass for 2017/18 across all 16 resorts. A new pass across all 12 resorts will most likely be available for the 2018/19 season.
This New Company Now Controls:
- 12 four-season mountain resorts
- 6 million million skier visits
- 20,000 skiable acres
- Large amounts of land available for real estate development
- Earth’s leading heli-ski operator, Canadian Mountain Holidays (CMH)
The 12 Ski Resorts They Own:
- Squaw Valley, CA
- Alpine Meadows, CA
- Mammoth Mountain, CA
- Snow Summit, CA
- Bear Mountain, CA
- June Mountain, CA
- Steamboat, CO
- Winter Park, CO
- Stratton Mountain, VT
- Snowshoe Mountain, WV
- Blue Mountain, Ontario
- Mont Tremblant,Quebec
The New Company Is Also Shaking Up Its Leadership Roles:
- Bryan Traficanti of KSL is now interim Chief Executive Officer (they’re currently looking for a CEO for the new company)
- Andy Wirth, President and Chief Executive Officer of Squaw Valley Ski Holdings (SVSH), will become President and Chief Operating Officer of SVSH
- Thomas Marano, Intrawest’s Chief Executive Officer, resigned his position
- Rusty Gregory, Mammoth Mountain’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, is now the Senior Strategic Advisor and is an investor in the new company and will serve on their board
Additional Leadership Roles:
- Mark Brownlie, President and Chief Operating Officer, Mammoth Resorts
- Wade Reeser, General Manager, Big Bear Resort
- Rob Perlman, President and Chief Operating Officer, Steamboat Ski & Resort
- Sky Foulkes, President and Chief Operating Officer, Winter Park Resort
- Patrice Malo, President and Chief Operating Officer, Mont Tremblant Resort
- Dan Skelton, President and Chief Operating Officer, Blue Mountain Ski Resort
- Bill Nupp, President and Chief Operating Officer, Stratton Mountain Resort
- Frank DeBerry, President and Chief Operating Officer, Snowshoe Mountain Resort
- Jeremy Levitt, President and Chief Operating Officer, Canadian Mountain Holidays
- Jeff Denomme, President, Alpine Aerotech
ONCE AGAIN THIS INDUSTRY IS MALE DOMINATED AT THE TOP POSITIONS. DIVERSITY AND EQUALITY IN 2018?
….as an act of good faith, just what benefits will be given to current pass holders???? Even a limited amount of days at sister resorts for the coming season on your current/purchased season pass for 17/18.
I find it hard to believe that “it’s too late to offer a special pass for 2017/18 across all 16 resorts.” In the past we’ve seen Vail buy a resort up and it’s very quickly added to the pass roster (not always, admittedly). Even smaller operators like Peak Resorts bought up resorts and they were added to their passes right away. Seems suspect to me that they can’t figure something out for the passes since this deal has been announced for months now.
Travis, creating a multi-resort pass product takes a lot of time. Vail can quickly add resorts to their Epic Pass program because it is an established product with an information system and point of sale system that can be installed to newly acquired resorts (typically) in the offseason and be ready to roll for winter. This newly formed company doesn’t even have a name yet, so why would you expect them to already have their product suite figured out? Also, when making a multi-resort product, you want your point of sale and information systems backend to be in harmony with the other resorts that accept the product. The Mammoth resorts use Siriusware, Aspen Snowmass and Intrawest properties use RTP – also, they use different RFID media and gating technologies from AXESS and SkiData. My bet, they’re going to be working on standardizing their ticketing and access systems across all the resorts in tandem with the creation of a product suite that competes with Epic. As you can imagine, this isn’t a quick or easy process.
It’s doable. They just don’t want to.
dave = spot on assement
anonymous = clueless
Vail rocks! I wish it were them. We will see.