{"id":800013,"date":"2019-10-02T20:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-10-03T02:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/longtime-steamboat-ski-exec-publishes-2nd-book\/"},"modified":"2019-10-02T20:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-10-03T02:00:00","slug":"longtime-steamboat-ski-exec-publishes-2nd-book","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/longtime-steamboat-ski-exec-publishes-2nd-book\/","title":{"rendered":"Longtime Steamboat ski exec publishes 2nd book"},"content":{"rendered":"
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STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 Former Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. top executive Chris Diamond could not have imagined in late 2016, when \u201cSki Inc.,\u201d his first book about the ski industry was released, that he would be back at it again so soon.<\/p>\n

But that was before the ski resort version of \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ski industry as we have known it, no longer exists,\u201d he writes in the new book. \u201cAnd this happened with a speed that is simply stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diamond is referring to the previous dominance of Vail Resorts\u2019 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,<\/p>\n

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\u2019t remain on the sidelines any more than a ski bum could pass on 2 feet of powder.<\/p>\n

And now, he is ready to release his follow-up to the first book, entitled \u201cSki Inc. 2020.\u201d For skiers who are struggling to process the amount of rapid change that has overtaken ski resorts, the author\u2019s contacts in the industry and his own savvy make it a compelling read.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The new alliance ultimately settled on calling itself Alterra, and the change they brought to the winter resort landscape took Diamond\u2019s breath away.<\/p>\n

\u201cIncredibly, 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,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n

What was not immediately appreciated or understood was how wildly popular the multiresort passes would be, Diamond continues.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

This story is from SteamboatPilot.com.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s entire growth strategy around it.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS \u2014 Former Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. top executive Chris Diamond could not have imagined in late 2016, when \u201cSki Inc.,\u201d 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 \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d broke […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800013","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-24 19:55:07","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800013","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800013"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800013\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800013"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800013"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800013"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}