Top Five Fridays: June 16, 2023
Lead Image: After years of building momentum, both the FIS and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team have made recent announcements that look to bring para athletes onto the same stage as able bodied athletes. More on the news from the U.S. Ski Team below! Image: U.S. Para Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team on Facebook
#1: As Support for Para Athletes Continues to Grow, the U.S. Para Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team and U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team Have Officially Merged:
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the June 16, 2023 edition! This week, we’ve got an excellent round up of summer ski news, complete with fascinating highlights of a unique ski area, an incredibly influential mentor, and news of a ski resort hitting the auction block. Before we dive into any of those stories though, we want to start this week by sharing an article from the Colorado Sun that covers a story that broke a few weeks ago, but that we haven’t had a chance to give proper attention to. Just over three weeks ago, on May 23rd, the U.S. Para Alpine Ski and Snowboard Team officially joined the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team (USST). It’s a move that’s been a long time coming, and one that finally puts alpine Paralympians back on the same team as alpine Olympians for the first time since 2010. In this week’s report from the Colorado Sun, we learn more about the environment which made this move possible, as well as what it means for alpine para athletes.
First, let’s start with the landscape of winter para sports. If you’re a regular reader of ours, you saw our coverage last week of the rise in adaptive skiing. Right in tandem with that development has been a rise in overall support for para sports. In the Colorado Sun piece, one of the first signs the tide was changing came back in 2018, when Toyota launched its “Start Your Impossible” ad campaign, which ran during the 2018 Winter Olympics and featured winter paralympic athletes achieving their dreams. As a result of that campaign, public interest, awareness, and support for paralympic athletes grew immensely, to the point where athletes now jokingly say, “Here we go again. I’m someone’s inspiration.” More importantly though, beyond the wealth of inspiration, real changes began happening. In 2020, the Olympics officially began awarding paralympians the same prize money as their olympic counterparts. In 2021, Toyota put their money where their advertising was, and created a $5 million fund to support paralympic athletes. Most recently, the FIS’s five year strategic plan listed the inclusion of parasports under the FIS umbrella as one of its key areas of growth. If you caught that highlight, then you know the FIS is serious about raising global visibility of winter sports, and including parasports on the same level as able bodied sports is huge for the future of these athletes.
Ultimately, that’s the underlying takeaway from this recent move from the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team. For the first time in over a decade, para athletes are back on the same playing field as their able bodied counterparts. In the article from the Colorado Sun, we learn of a few very specific, concrete reasons why this is such a big deal. Specifically, it provides access to the same training facilities for all athletes. With their inclusion into the USST, para athletes can now freely make use of the team’s 85,000 square foot training facility. They can also take advantage of international agreements which allows the USST to use other teams’ training facilities while they’re abroad. Similarly, it also allows para athletes to take part in USST training camps, such as a recent snowboardcross team training camp in Mammoth, where paralympian Evan Strong joined in for the first time ever. The value of this experience is perhaps best summed up by the three time gold medalist himself, who’s quoted as saying. “I know it’s good for me to train with people faster than me. And who’s faster than me? The able-bodied boardercross team.” Ultimately our takeaway here is similar to a point we made last week: the world of sports is finally starting to recognize the abilities of para athletes, and winter sports in particular are starting to show up for them in huge ways. It’s a movement we’re very much here for. To learn more about this story, check in with the Colorado Sun.
#2: Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort is a Case Study in How to Successfully Run a Moderately Sized Ski Area:
Next up this week is a story coming out of East Oregon that we’re looking at as something of a case study for how small and mid-size ski areas can thrive, even without the glitz and glam that multipasses offer. The headline itself is simple: Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort has submitted an updated master plan, the highlight of which is an expansion of their mountain biking trail network. We’re treating the lede here as a bit of a trojan horse though, as the real story for us is that of a ski area that’s found itself thriving by embracing the types of amenities its guests are seeking. Let’s jump right in.
First things first, let’s touch on where this story starts. As a lessee of National Forest land, Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort is required to occasionally submit a master plan indicating how they plan to use the land it’s leasing. With the last master plan having been submitted back in 1998, they were due for an update, bringing about the items we’ll be discussing. In the newly submitted master plan, Anthony Lakes lays out a number of ideas for ways that it can “‘enhance the current offerings at Anthony Lakes’ based on visitor interest.” In submitting the plan, president of the Anthony Lakes Outdoor Recreation Association, Peter Johnson, made sure to point out that the details within the plan aren’t a list of definite action items, but rather a list of ideas they have that they would like to bring to fruition, should they secure necessary grants to make them happen. In other words, while we’re used to hearing of master plans being grandiose visions chock full of contentious development plans, Anthony Lakes is taking a, “we think our guests would like these amenities, if we can find funding for them,” approach to master planning. Honestly, it’s refreshing to see a ski area take a reasonable, guest-centric approach to development.
In addition to the approach to the plan, the other half of this story that we love are the ideas within it. Despite its modest 900’ of vertical elevation, Anthony Lakes boasts the highest base area in Oregon, meaning the ski area receives significant snowfall. As such, they’re known for their powder skiing, something that they actively embrace. In addition to the traditional lift serve experience, Anthony Lakes also offers cat skiing, giving guests access to the backside of the ski area. For those interested, the ski area also has two winter yurts available for rent, with a third one included in the updated master plan. Beyond elevation based skiing, Anthony Lakes also offers an extensive Nordic skiing trail network. In the summer months, Anthony Lakes continues to thrive, with a popular network of mountain biking trails, an expansion of which is the highlight of the updated master plan. For those looking for less adrenaline inducing recreation, Anthony Lakes also offers hiking, camping, or summer yurt rentals. In other words, there’s something there for everyone.
What all of this amounts to is a ski area that’s redefining what a “ski area” can be for its local community. Rather than being just a business that operates for a portion of the year, mostly focused on running a chairlift, Anthony Lakes is creating a four season destination where the mountain itself is the playground that hosts all types of recreation. Hiking, biking, camping, nordic skiing, backcountry skiing- the list goes on. The result of course is a thriving business. While the article from the East Oregonian doesn’t provide any summer statistics, it does provide one figure that we think sums things up quite well: over the last three years, Anthony Lakes has averaged 32,000 skier visits per winter. The average across the ten years prior to that? 24,509. For being a modest ski area that’s not particularly close to anything, that increase in visitation is incredible, and proof that the ski area’s customer-first approach to operations is paying off in a big way. To learn more about this story, check out the full writeup from the East Oregonian.
#3: Burke Mountain Resort Receives First Purchase Offer, Likely Triggering an Auction:
A summertime view of Burke’s hotel and conference center, a building which was constructed amidst the questionable use of EB-5 funds. Image: Burke Mountain on Facebook
In other moderate size ski area news this week, we caught a reasonably exciting update from another locally loved ski area just to our north: Burke Mountain. Those of you in New England are likely familiar with the recent trials and tribulations of both Burke Mountain and Jay Peak, and we’ve covered the saga quite extensively over the years as it’s unfolded. For those of you unaware though, here’s the long and short of it: back in April 2016, two former owners of Jay Peak and Burke Mountain were arrested on fraud charges related to the misuse of EB-5 funds. As a result, the two resorts were seized by the government and put under federal receivership. One man, Michael Goldberg, was tasked with continuing to operate the two ski areas while seeking new buyers for both, ultimately with the goal of earning back as much revenue for defrauded investors as possible.
For several years, Goldberg focused on optimizing operations at the resorts in an effort to return them to profitability. The reason for this was simple: to attract a high offer, the two ski areas would have to be sound businesses in the aftermath of the scandal. Finally, after proving to be a stable and viable business, Pacific Group Resorts (PGR) made an offer to buy Jay Peak late last summer. Being the shrewd businessman that he is, Michael Goldberg didn’t accept the offer outright though. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to see if there were any other interested buyers out there, using the initial offer price as what’s called a “stalking horse bid.” What this meant was that if another qualified buyer came forward within a designated period of time (two weeks in this case), it would trigger an auction in which any qualified buyer could place a bid within the following two weeks. Ultimately, that’s exactly what happened, and PGR’s initial bid of $58 million became $76 million by the time all was said and done.
This week, Burke Mountain received a purchase offer which is being treated as its own stalking horse bid. This time around, we don’t know who the potential buyer is, or how much was offered, only that an offer exists which means the sale of Burke Mountain is likely imminent. When this scenario played out at Jay Peak, it took just about a month for an initial offer to become a final purchase. This time, it looks as though the process might take a bit longer as Goldberg expects to request a stalking horse bid scenario within the next month. As the final chapter in a saga that rocked Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, we’ll be sure to keep you posted on this story as we learn more. In the meantime, if anyone has any guesses as to who this new buyer might be, feel free to talk about it in the comments below!
#4: SkiRacing.com’s Interview with Eileen Shiffrin Continues, Ultimately Imparting Several Nuggets of Wisdom Upon Us:
A young Mikaela Shiffrin, back in her Vail Ski Club days. Looking back, it’s easy to see the determination in her eyes, even from an early age. Image: SkiRacing.com
Finally, this week marks the third consecutive week in which our final highlight focuses on someone who’s played a vital role to arguably the greatest ski racer of all time: Mikaela Shiffrin. Two weeks ago, we highlighted Shiffrin’s new coach, Karin Harjo, and last week we shared part one of a highlight featuring Mikaela’s mom and longtime coach, Eileen Shiffrin. In that highlight, we focused on Eileen’s upbringing, how she met her husband and Mikaela’s father, Jeff, and how the two of them developed a deep love and understanding for ski racing well before Mikaela came along. This week, we’re exploring the second half of the story from SkiRacing.com, where we start to learn more about Mikaela’s early years, and how Eileen and Jeff played absolutely instrumental roles in shaping who Mikaela has become.
While last week’s highlight was certainly interesting as we got to learn more about the Shiffin family’s pre-Mikeala foundation, this week’s article was downright fascinating. Much longer than last week’s article, this piece dropped gem after gem, with Eileen sharing insights Mikaela’s youth, Eileen and Jeff’s parenting styles, and even Eileen’s approaches to coaching. Take for instance the story of Mikeala’s first ever race team: the Ski and Snowboard Club Vail’s U8 team, which was started by Eileen Shiffrin and Ski Racing Media’s owner, Dan Leever. Under this now esteemed team of coaches was Mikaela, Dan’s son Alex who spent time on the U.S. Ski Team, as well as Katharine Irwin, who also spent time on the U.S. Team. In addition to them, Paralympian silver medalist Thomas Walsh and Olympic bronze medalist Jimmie Heuga’s son, Winston, were also on the team. In other words, before she was even eight years old, Mikaela was already surrounded by elite talent- even if each of their stories were still very much in the making.
Beyond this cool story, we’re also treated to a number of interesting perspectives in regards to how Eileen nurtured Mikaela’s competitive drive. Participation in multiple sports, developing just the right amount of grit, and focusing on the mental side of competition were all par for the course throughout Mikaela’s upbringing. Furthermore, if none of these personal stories don’t interest you, the article also packs in some drills for developing skills in young skiers, as well as technical insights specific to ski racing. From anecdotes to technical ski instructions, this article has it all, and we highly recommend giving it a read.