The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast

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 breakdo...

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. 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 eleva...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com to add multiple users on one account at a per-subscriber enterprise rate. Who Taylor Middleton, President and Chief Operating Officer of Big Sky Resort , Montana Recorded on April 4, 2022 About Big Sky Click here for a mountain stats overview Owned by: Boyne Resort...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com to add multiple users on one account at a per-subscriber enterprise rate. Who Nick Mir, co-owner and general manager of Snow Ridge , New York Recorded on March 29, 2022 About Snow Ridge Click here for a mountain stats overview Money quote: If you want western powde...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com to add multiple users on one account at a per-subscriber enterprise rate. Who Nadia Guerriero, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Beaver Creek , Colorado Recorded on March 25, 2022 About Beaver Creek Click here for a mountain stats overview * Owned by: V...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com to add multiple users on one account at a per-subscriber enterprise rate. Who Travis Seeholzer, Third-Generation Owner and Mountain Operations Manager of Beaver Mountain , Utah Recorded on March 21, 2022 About Beaver Mountain Click here for a mountain stats overvie...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Prices increase and a partial paywall activates on March 14. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com or reply to this email to add multiple users on one account. The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who...

To support independent ski journalism, please consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Prices increase and a partial paywall activates on March 14. Organizations can email skiing@substack.com or reply to this email to add multiple users on one account. The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Rick Schmitz, Co-Owner of Nordic Mountain , Little Switzerland , and The Rock Snowpark , Wisconsin Recorded on February 7, 2022 Why I interviewed him Because no one cares about small ski areas. At least that’s the conclusion you can come to if, like me, you...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Mike Chumbler, President and General Manager of The Highlands at Harbor Springs (formerly Boyne Highlands), Michigan Recorded on January 24, 2022 Why I interviewed him Despite the widespread skier habit of using “ski area,” “mountain,” and “ski resort” inte...

Who Scott Turlington, President of Tamarack Resort , Idaho Recorded on January 24, 2022 Why I interviewed him Because this was almost one of the great busts of American skiing. After its improbable ribbon-cutting in 2004 – the first major U.S. ski resort to open since Beaver Creek in 1980 – Tamarack fell apart. Torched by the Great Recession and an over-emphasis on real estate, the ski area was sh...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Support The Storm by shopping at our partners: Patagonia  | Helly Hansen | Rossignol  | Salomon  | Utah Skis  | Berg’s Ski and Snowboard Shop | Peter Glenn  | Kemper Snowboards | Gravity Coalition | Darn Tough | Skier's Peak | Hagan Ski Mountaineering | Mooseja...

Who Rob Katz, Vail Resorts Executive Chairperson of the Board Recorded on January 24, 2022 Why I interviewed him As I wrote last month : Rob Katz changed skiing. Under his leadership, Vail demystified the season pass, transforming it from a rarified token for locals to an accessible and affordable product for casual skiers. An industry reliant for decades on bubble-prone real estate development ha...

Who Jeff Kohnstamm, President and Area Operator of Timberline Lodge, Oregon Recorded on January 11, 2022 Why I interviewed him Because the big, family-owned ski area is increasingly an anachronism, a thing unlikely and surprising and kind of amazing. Ski areas are so expensive, so complicated, so capital intensive, and so all-consuming that it’s a rare individual who can command the whole enterpri...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Spot and Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on Mountain Gazette subscriptions and merch. Who David Cronheim, President of the Shareholders Corporation for Hickory Ski Center , New York Recorded on January 5, 2022 Why I interviewed him Because these places… gone. Once-spectacular ski areas towering out of the wilderness, lifts and t...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Leah Muirhead MacDonald, CEO of Inter-Mtn. Enterprises Inc . Recorded on December 20, 2021 Why I interviewed her We take it all for granted: the enormous volume of fixtures, signage, and furniture that attends our lift-served ski day. Everyone notices the lifts, of...

Who Roger Arsenault, Chairman of the Board of Directors, and Deanna Kersey, Marketing Manager, Black Mountain of Maine Recorded on December 13, 2021 Why I interviewed them There may be no ski area in America that better tells its story through trailmaps than Black Mountain of Maine. The humble 470-foot bump, T-bar climbing up the incline, circa 1980: It didn’t look much different 22 years later: B...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions. Who Rob Perlman, President and Chief Operating Officer of Steamboat Resort , and Regional Chief Operating Officer for Alterra Mountain Company’s Central Region Recorded on Dec. 6, 2021 Why I interviewed him Because there aren’t many like this: big, snowy, sprawling, accessible, p...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Jeff Crowley, President of Wachusett Mountain , Massachusetts Recorded on November 29, 2021 Why I interviewed him When the Crowleys showed up at “Mt. Wachusett Ski Area” in 1969, the place looked like any of the hundred-plus rinky-dink operations dotting the state a...

Who Shaun Sutner, snowsports columnist for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and Telegram.com Recorded on November 22, 2021 Why I interviewed him Because for skiing to thrive, it needs ski media to help tell its story. And I mean actual reporting-based journalism. Yes, it needs the hype – the cliff drops, the pow shots, the flippidy-doodle park brahs, this: But it also needs writers who can tell th...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Bill Stritzler, Owner of Smugglers’ Notch , Vermont Recorded on November 16, 2021 Why I interviewed him No matter who owned it, Smugglers’ Notch would be a notable ski area. It’s big, snowy, tough, and storied. As New England as Plymouth Rock. The terrain is varied,...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Mary Kate Buckley, President of Jackson Hole Mountain Resort Recorded on November 15, 2021 Why I interviewed her In a nation machine-stamped with endless copies of Burger Kings and Sunoco stations and cut-out-of-a-cornfield housing developments, very few things trul...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Nick Fredericks, President, CEO, and part-owner of Shawnee Mountain , Pennsylvania Recorded on November 9, 2021 Why I interviewed him Because little Shawnee, hanging off the edge of the temperamental Poconos, is feisty enough to stand among its larger neighbors and...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Tim Baker, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Vail Resorts’ Eastern Region. His territory includes Wildcat, Attitash, Mount Sunapee, and Crotched in New Hampshire; Stowe, Okemo, and Mount Snow in Vermont; Hunter Mountain in New York; Jack Frost, Big Bould...

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored by Mountain Gazette  - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch. Who Dan Torsell, President and General Manager of Ski Cooper , Colorado Recorded on October 18, 2021 Why I interviewed him We’ve all seen the signs, westbound on I-70. Ski Cooper this way. Copper Mountain that way. And many of us have probably thought some version of “t...