Top Five Fridays: May 30, 2025
The future is looking bright at Black Mountain as more progress was made this week in the ski area’s journey to become a co-op. Image: Black Mountain on Facebook
#1: After a Tumultuous Tenure, Lynch is Out and Katz is Back as Vails Resorts CEO:
He’s back folks. This week, Vail Resorts announced that Rob Katz will be returning to his previous role of CEO. Image: Vail Resorts
Hello, and welcome to Top Five Fridays, the May 30, 2025 edition! Man oh man do we have some ski news for you this week. In addition to coverage from Switzerland, where a landslide has buried a small mountain village, from Wyoming, where the U.S.’s only summer-only ski resort has just opened, and from New Hampshire, where progress is being made towards transitioning Black Mountain to a co-op, we also have coverage of what might just be the story of the year: Rob Katz is back as Vail’s CEO.
As you can imagine, there’s a lot to unpack with this story, so in the interest of maintaining some semblance of brevity here, we’re going to let other outlets do most of the heavy lifting by sharing plenty of links throughout our coverage. Keeping that in mind, let’s start by taking a look at the barebones facts of this story.
On Tuesday, May 27th, Vail Resorts announced via a press release that current Executive Chairperson and former Vail Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz has been reappointed to the position of CEO. In doing so, Katz is replacing Kirsten Lynch who’d taken over from him back in November of 2021. Despite Lynch’s rough tenure and the optics of Katz returning to “save the day,” all parties indicate that the decision is mutual, with Katz heaping praise upon Lynch in his letter to employees. Those, by and large, are the facts of this week’s story.
Now, let’s talk a bit about the timing and the decision itself. If you follow ski news, it shouldn’t come as a surprise to hear that Vail’s been going through some turmoil in recent years. During Lynch’s nearly 4 years at the helm, Vail found itself facing problem after problem. In the post-covid multipass era, Epic Pass resorts became the poster children for overcrowding. In Lynch’s first year as CEO, there was a seemingly endless amount of media depicting endless liftlines - so much so that there was even an Instagram account created dedicated to share the images. From there, things only continued to escalate. In the town of Vail and in Keystone, the company faced legal disputes centered around their development of protected land. In Park City, Vail faced not one, but two contentious battles with the ski patrol union. The second of those battles was just this past winter and became a PR nightmare for the resort. Amidst all of this, Vail’s stock price plummeted, despite the company itself continuing to modestly increase its revenue.
While we don’t know what ultimately led to the decision to replace Lynch with Katz as the CEO of the company, it’s hard to imagine that it wasn’t at least in part triggered by a letter sent to Vail in January from investment group Late Apex. In that letter, Late Apex shared a list of complaints, followed by a list of solutions. Amongst their demands, was the ousting of not only Kirsten Lynch from her role as CEO, but also the removal of Rob Katz from the roll of Executive Chairman, and Angela Korch from her role as CFO. While this week’s news isn’t exactly what Late Apex was demanding, it’s hard not to connect the dots and realize that it very likely played at least some part in the decision.
So, what happens next? We don’t exactly know yet. Less than one week into his second tenure as CEO, Rob Katz hasn’t shared any sweeping master plans or visions for Vail. Rather, he’s simply said that his goal is to align all of the company’s stakeholders as best as possible. Put more plainly, that simply means turning things around in a way that makes guests, employees, and shareholders happy. In other words, Katz is hoping he can create a better balance between parties that don’t always share the same interests.
Before wrapping this story up, there is one piece to this puzzle that we haven’t seen covered very much, but one that we believe could be significant. In his letter to employees, Katz said, “As for me personally, I have changed quite a bit. My own life experiences, both personal and professional, give me a different perspective and insight than I had three and a half years ago.” In regards to what he could be alluding to, it’s worth noting that his late wife, Elana Amsterdam, began experiencing significant health issues right around the time he resigned from CEO. Keeping their privacy in mind, we’ll simply say these two things: by all accounts, Elana was an amazing person. Between her work in the health and wellness space, as well as with the Katz Amsterdam Foundation which she used alongside Rob Katz to support access to mental health care, her positive influence on the world is easy to see. The other thing we’d like to point out is that stepping down from CEO to support his wife during a very difficult time undoubtedly changed Katz’s worldviews. While we’ll have to wait to see how this new outlook translates to the world of CEO, we’re optimistic that it will result in positive change.
That’s it for now, but it goes without saying that we’ll be back with more as we learn more about either this decision or about new endeavors being undertaken now that Katz is back at the helm. For more on this, click any one of the links above, or check out the coverage from Colorado Sun.
#2: In Switzerland, Global Warming Has Led to the Collapse of a Glacier, Triggering a Landslide and Burying the Village of Blatten:
Our next highlight this week technically isn’t ski news, but it’s both wild enough and geographically close enough to ski areas that it demands sharing. That news is this: in Switzerland, the small mountain village of Blatten has been almost entirely wiped out in a landslide. That event occurred on Wednesday and was triggered when the Birch Glacier collapsed due the accumulation of approximately 4 million cubic yards of rock and debris on top of it. Now, all that debris, glacier ice, and a significant amount of what used to be the mountainside, lies in a pile that stretches nearly a mile long and several yards thick. Beneath it is what used to be the 300 person village of Blatten. Beside it is a continuously growing lake, resulting from the landslide’s blockage of the Lonza River. In other words, the result of this natural disaster is utter devastation and a permanently altered landscape. For the people who called Blatten home, odds are low that their village will ever recover.
If there’s one silver lining to this story, it’s that local authorities saw this coming and were able to evacuate the village ahead of time. Thanks to the work of scientists who’ve been monitoring the Birch Glacier, signs of danger began showing up just over two weeks ago as there was an increase in the volume of rocks falling on top of the glacier due to the melting permafrost. Noting that increase in activity, as well as the fact that more weight on top of the glacier was likely to cause further movement, local authorities ordered the evacuation of Blatten last week. As such, nearly all of the 300 residents were able to evacuate safely, with only one resident being currently unaccounted for.
Looking ahead, experts are now facing two issues as a result of this situation. The first is in the immediate future, as the continued flooding of the region led to concerns that more villages downvalley from Blatten might have to be evacuated. Fortunately, it sounds as though authorities are hopeful that won’t be the case as there’s a dam in neighboring Ferden that can be used to retain and manage the floodwaters. While valley residents aren’t in the clear quite yet, the outlook has improved dramatically since Wednesday.
The other concern that lingers is the root cause of all this: climate change. As we mentioned, this slide was triggered by the massive amount of rock and dirt being deposited on top of the glacier, ultimately adding a significant amount of weight and causing it to collapse. That depositing has been occurring as the result of the permafrost layer melting due to, you guessed it, climate change. Keeping that in mind, the fear should be pretty apparent: there’s a chance that this extremely rare occurrence is something that could happen more frequently as the Alps react to a warming world. As such, we’re reminded yet again that climate change won’t be victimless. For more on this week’s story, check out the report from NPR.
#3: North America’s Only Summer-Only Ski Area, Beartooth Basin, is Open for the 2025 Season!
Despite being a 7 year old video, this edit does a great job of summing up the vibe and terrain that can be found at Beartooth Basin.
Ok, the first two topics this week were pretty weighty. We get that, so we’re going to shift gears a little bit here and share a highlight that’s much, much lighter. That highlight is the news that Wyoming’s Beartooth Basin has officially opened for the season! If that sentence confuses you, we understand - it’s a confusing concept if you’re not familiar with this unique ski area. Situated way up on Beartooth Pass, just south of the Montana border, Beartooth Basin is North America’s only summer-only ski area. Usually, anyways. Some years, like last year, snow conditions deteriorate too rapidly for the resort to open. Other years, like in 2023, the area is able to operate only briefly. Keeping the “never guaranteed” operating style of Beartooth Basin in mind, it’s with great pleasure that we share the news that this unique resort is officially open for business.
On Wednesday of this week, Beartooth fired up the ole Poma lift, officially kicking off their 2025 season. Based on media shared via their socials, both conditions and coverage are looking spectacular heading into the season. As always, the longevity of their operations are quite dependent on weather, but their current plans are to operate through July 6th. With the closure of Whistler’s glacier for summer skiing this year, that leaves North Americans with just two options for snow: Mt. Hood, and Beartooth Basin. While Mt. Hood has the more modern experience, it’s arguable that Beartooth has the more memorable one as its unique location, operation style, and capacity limited by the selling of just 100 lift tickets per day all make it stand out. If this sounds like something you’d enjoy, the time to act is now as a number of days have already been sold out. While this is in no way a paid advertisement for the ski area, we’ll also mention that you can claim your daily ticket for just $50.00 over on their website.
#4: The Black Mountain, NH Co-Op Transition is Underway as Indy Pass Owner Erik Mogensen Becomes the Ski Area’s Official Owner:
Finally, we’re ending this week’s highlight reel with a quick update from Black Mountain in New Hampshire. If you’re a regular reader of Top Five Fridays, you likely know most of the backstory here as the mountain has had quite an interesting few years. If you’re not up to date on this story, here’s our lightening fast recap:
Back in the fall of 2023, Black Mountain unexpectedly announced that they would be unable to open for the 2023/2024 season. Then, a week later, Indy Pass owner Erik Mogensen came to the rescue, announcing that he would be dedicating the necessary resources to allow the mountain to operate. At the time, it wasn’t a purchase of the resort, but rather pledged financial support. A year later though, Mogensen’s Indy Pass did buy the ski area, ensuring that it would remain open indefinitely. When that purchase was made however, Mogensen was quick to announce his intentions to convert the ski area to a co-op as quickly as possible.
This week, we learned that the technical side of that previously reported transaction was completed last Friday, paving the way for the mountain to become a co-op this fall. According to a report from NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com, a series of transactions were completed late last week, ultimately resulting in the official transfer of ownership of a significant portion of the mountain from the trust of former owner John Fichera to the Black Mountain Community Corporation - an LLC owned by Erik Mogensen.
Now, we’re not business lawyers, so we don’t fully understand how the transition from an LLC to a co-op happens, but what we do know is that Erik Mogensen now officially owns the mountain. We also know that the price of the acquisition was $2.6 million, which is exactly how much Mogensen said the purchase of the resort would cost the co-op. That amount, plus an additional $1 million for the infrastructure that Entabeni Systems has installed at the resort, as well as $1.4 million for future operating expenses ultimately make up the $5 million that the co-op will need to raise to officially assume ownership of the resort. As such, it appears as though one of the last major hurdles has just been cleared to begin setting up the second transfer of ownership, from Mogensen to the co-op.
If you’re feeling a bit confused by all of this, don’t worry, we get it. To help clarify what this week’s news ultimately boils down to, here’s the simplified version as we understand it: the transfer of ownership of Black Mountain from its longtime owners to Erik Mogensen has officially been completed. Now, Mogensen will be able to carry out his plans to sell the resort to the co-op in the late fall or early winter, at which point he will have completed his mission of rescuing the ski area and selling it back to the locals. When that news comes our way, you can be sure we’ll share it here. Until then, check out the latest news from NewEnglandSkiIndustry.com.