STEAMBOAT SPRINGS — Former Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. top executive Chris Diamond could not have imagined in late 2016, when “Ski Inc.,” his first book about the ski industry was released, that he would be back at it again so soon.
But that was before the ski resort version of “Game of Thrones” broke out in spring 2017 and changed the landscape of American skiing, perhaps forever. The competition between the houses of Epic and Ikon was suddenly on.
“The ski industry as we have known it, no longer exists,” he writes in the new book. “And this happened with a speed that is simply stunning.”
Diamond is referring to the previous dominance of Vail Resorts’ multiresort Epic ski pass and the decision by the Crown Family, owners of three ski resorts in and around Aspen, to partner with KSL, owner of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows in the Sierras of California, to form a new alliance and fight back with a new multiresort company,
Diamond, whose 44-year career as a ski executive stretched from Vermont to Colorado before he retired from his gig in Steamboat in January 2015, couldn’t remain on the sidelines any more than a ski bum could pass on 2 feet of powder.
And now, he is ready to release his follow-up to the first book, entitled “Ski Inc. 2020.” For skiers who are struggling to process the amount of rapid change that has overtaken ski resorts, the author’s contacts in the industry and his own savvy make it a compelling read.
Aspen surprised the ski industry by acquiring the remains of the fallen Intrawest empire in 2017, including heavyweights Steamboat Resort and Winter Park in Colorado. Two days later they scored another coup, acquiring Mammoth Mountain, another significant California resort. Then, another heavyweight, ritzy Deer Valley, was added to Ikon, and the acquisitions battle only grew from there.
The new alliance ultimately settled on calling itself Alterra, and the change they brought to the winter resort landscape took Diamond’s breath away.
“Incredibly, Alterra, in a handful of months, managed to put together a viable competitor to Vail, something that would have been unconceivable just a year earlier,” Diamond said.
What was not immediately appreciated or understood was how wildly popular the multiresort passes would be, Diamond continues.
Diamond praised Robert A. Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts, for his acumen in the first book and interviewed him at the Vail Resorts corporate headquarters in Broomfield for his latest book.
This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.
Katz, Diamond observes, was not the first ski executive to recognize the appeal of value passes. However, he concludes, it was Katz who was the first to grasp the potential of the passes and to build a company’s entire growth strategy around it.
Tom Ross retired from the Steamboat Pilot & Today in 2018 after 36 years in the newspaper business. He continues to write a regular column for the paper.