Contents show 1 Who is Snowbird owned by? It was an ideal. And it and it led to me dedicating my life to smelling those smells and feeling those feelings. John Cumming:|00:18:28| But he said, oh, right, right, right. And it's just a it's a it is a great story. One time because of cowardice. And he was being very successful from nothing and all that stuff. And tell us a little bit about how you got introduced to the outdoors and developed that passion for skiing. And and I ran into Skip at the Jansport booth and he said, all right, this guy, Jack Gilbert, has agreed to meet with you, show up at the Sierra Designs booth at, what, our eleven o'clock? He thought the rubber tire business was a way a place where we could expand our company through acquisition, which is really the only way to expand by much in the industry in that space, because the real premiere destination resorts were always going to trade. POWDR really is a different company and as good as everybody is in their own unique way, the family aspect that you've been talking about here, John, it really does ring true with POWDR, doesn't it? John Cumming:|00:29:41| And so I showed up again. I've known you for some years and know a lot about your background, the passion that you bring into this. What the soldier had discovered will go down in history as one of the largest producers of silver ore in the Wasatch Mountains. I mean, I climbed with him enough and seen him perform up higher. But I think in recent history of skiing, meaning the last three or four or five years, we're seeing more and more of. And, you know, it means a lot to me, Dad, but. I didn't know the shtick. Tom Kelly:|01:04:21| It really, you know, as I was going to come back to you to close out with this big philosophical question, but you've answered it throughout this. Snowbird's History In the summer of 2001, just months before Utah would play host the 2002 Olympic Winter Games, Mineral Basin received its second high-speed chairlift with the installation of Baldy Express. So but you're right. Tom Kelly:|00:38:14| You know, it's funny because I have heard the story now and I always wondered, and when I did hear the story, I remembered Craig's license plate. I thought I might make a difference. Tom Kelly:|00:11:53| Did you climb Denali? The community has lost this revenue. Personal hobby? Tom Kelly:|01:05:59| And what do they serve as Sbicca? And it's it's still a long night in the dark. That's great idea. Tom Kelly:|00:34:06| So how did this company POWDR come to be? Locals' Knowledge John Cumming:|00:03:33| And the only times that we really had the opportunity to just spend time with my father was when he came into town on Thursday night from New York. And he's like, yeah, I think, yeah, OK. Maybe I consider that. Shit. Like if you if you want to go be an enlightened person, go find a tree, sit under a tree in a diaper, and someday you'll be enlightened, hopefully. All Rights Reserved. He would come to town Thursday night from New York, scoop us up, and take us to our place at Turramurra Lodge at Snowbird. The waist belt of your pack digs into the to the drawstring at your waist and you get bruised and they're heavy and, you know, the sleeves are too long and they don't ventilate. He and dad cooked up a deal where we'd go climb on Mount Rainier. One of the best things about skiing and snowboarding in Utah is the dry powdery snow it gets! Tom Kelly:|01:05:46| Yes, you really do get put on the spot with that. Maybe the medium term. In addition to Utah's famous powder, there . The newSnowbird Power Systemsfacility completed and powered back onin 2021 will cover nearly all of the energy needs of the entire resort. Right? And Skip did what he said, you know, called Jack the next day. And I know that that's very important with with all of your resorts. Tom Kelly:|01:06:07| So, John, you're a very focused businessman, you have a passion for the outdoors, but setting that aside, do you have any hobbies? And Dad said, well, why don't you go do it? Oh, my God, Tom. Getting here is easy; leaving is another story. The POWDR logo behind you, what does it mean? I could tell he was incredulous, but as being a nice man, he said, all right come on back? So I said, screw it, we're going to do this. So we got on the plane at the end of our show. The decisions that people make with their ski dollars, given that it's cheap everywhere, including a kind of a a subjective value of where they want to spend time and who they want to spend time with and who they want to transact with and why where they live and how they raise their family and whatnot. We're going to limit, you know, commentary and or commissary type stuff. And he he you know, we both were playing it cool climber dudes, you know, whatever, both playing it cool with each other. And I look up and my father's got my brother by the wrist and he's dangling over the edge of the corners and just sort of drops him about the last three or four feet. If you're planning a longer visit, both resorts have multi-day packages that can help you save some cash. They sold it to somebody else. Yeah. What was your pathway from climbing geek to entrepreneur? I mean the smell of the pine trees, the snow in the trees, the wind blowing snow. Favorite musician? So one Thanksgiving (early '90s), we were up in Park City, Utah for some reason with my father. I love the guy. Today, Cumming owns Snowbird along with 10 other resorts across the country from Killington to Copper Mountain to Mt. Mar 22, 1998. . Meaning if we had sold Park City and in some other circumstance I'd have done the same thing. Disney on snow? Snowbird's Fast Tracks lanes have come under fire, but Advantage: Snowbird. Locals' Knowledge While working at the Alta Lodge in 1965, Ted Johnson dreamed of a place that would become Snowbird. You know, Rainier's not super high, but heavy loads relatively up. I know that during COVID you had nearly a dozen of your resort communities around the country that all of a sudden your employees are out of work. Kids may be online and that sucks. And I'll just never forget the first time we took him in there, I kind of scootched my way in. But we're able to really bring it to the fore during COVID year, play it forward program and really being able to support the needs of the community despite the business loss that was occurring this spring. We're not afraid of being out in front of that. Tom Kelly:|00:00:40| It will pass. Food + Drink, News Right. Would we have done it? And they agreed to some construct that would allow us to together by Sierra Designs. But at some point along the way, one of the three of us working on the project said, 'why don't we start from scratch?' Today's ski industry is a lot different, isn't it? John Cumming:|01:02:38| Thank you. I found a couple of guys that are old friends that were members of the strong back small, brain club. Tom Kelly:|01:04:51| It will. But there's a run at Snowbird called Great Scott, which is right up by tower four of the tram and it's got a cornice at the top of it that can be, you know, six feet vertical. Resort co-founder Dick Bass announced Monday that majority interest is going to a Wyoming businessman whose family owns a series of Utah ski areas. So dad's in his suit and that stately manner, it's like going into a museum or whatever. Um, fast forward. And that's sort of part of what happened with me is like when he was around, we did these cool things in the mountains and then he'd be gone again working. I mean, I suck at it anymore, but I still use it like it's the most uplifting thing I do in my life and always has been. Averaging more than 500 inches of annual snowfall per year, Snowbird is North America's most accessible alpine resort destination, located just 29 miles from Salt Lake City International Airport. Alta-Bird Pass - Snowbird, Utah Right. Right. This created that homing pigeon instinct for me. But I personally believe that it's our responsibility, as operators, to start with the aperture pretty tight and then open it if there's no problem. He he would work and worked on Wall Street. Simple, no tricky answers. And we talked about it over dinner and for a while afterwards and he and I somehow cooked up the idea to call Gordon Strachan, who knew Nick Badami, whose son Craig had been killed at the World Cup at Park City ski area at the time, and sort of make the suggestion that our family might be interested in investing in what was at the time called Alpine Meadows of Tahoe Inc, a public company, kind of quasi public company that Nick, you know, had I think had aspirations to transfer on to his family. Tom Kelly:|00:26:06| Yeah, now, how did you transition from there into the ski area business and you actually worked in that business for a while too, didn't you? Alterra spokesman Reed Wescott shared plans with The Storm Skiing Journal for a similar, five-stage . Ian Cumming, a co-founder of Park City-based Powdr Corp., is taking ownership. It just it it just made everything suddenly sort of come together. I went to Kent in Connecticut and that was cool, you know, played traditional New England sports, played soccer and hockey and rowed crew and did all that stuff. I was he actually worked he was going to Harvard Business School when I was born. And I was really trying to do something where I could be enterprising, probably. And I wanted to buy Sierra Designs and my old man is wealthy. Our group will review and follow up within 72 hours. John Cumming:|00:38:55| I hope so we talk about it in terms of their being objective value and subjective value and been using that lexicon to make decisions for a long time. We're going to talk in more detail about POWDR, but I think to start things out, start things out here today, John, if you could just give us a quick nickel description of what POWDR is and we'll talk about the formation of it a little bit later. They're hydrophilic, so you'd get wet. I said, well, you know, we get these uniforms every year. I just didn't want to get into summer camps. John Cumming:|00:00:15| You know, I mean, I think as well as anyone, human beings, like predictability and there's been a lack of that in our lives lately. The . But but I believe that people will and already are making decisions to transact with people and communities that they feel valued by. I didn't have any idea what they were saying. So so I believe back to that constructive, objective and subjective. We were raised by basically by a nanny. Hadn't been taken yet. Ian Cumming, a co-founder of Park City-based Powdr Corp., is taking ownership. John Cumming:|00:26:15| Yeah, so there was you know, it was contemporaneous, really, while we were working on Mount Hardwear it was pretty clear that unless I wanted to move to Berkeley, which I thought seriously about doing, that there wasn't really a full time gig for me. In life, what we need is balance. But I always had this, you know, sort of homing pigeon kind of instinct to get back to the mountains. And I was like, done like I mean, it just brings tears to my eyes to this day. But of all the things I've been involved in in my life, the compromise farm is by far the most satisfying. How have you and your family been holding up through the pandemic period? Tom Kelly:|00:19:59| And who were your partners in that? And there's Kristi Terzian. So, then you left Boulder and made Mt. Covert it screwed that up for the short term. We have amazing opportunities with the transformation that has been made with what Vail Resorts has done with that, what Alterra has done, what Boyne has done. Tom Kelly:|00:36:46| Seriously, you thought of that? We went camping a lot, went down the Virgin River. What do you foresee this season with season pass sales going very well? Read More. It was vertical. Always with a camera around his shoulder and a digital recorder in his pocket, Kelly has chronicled stories of Olympic gold medalists to everyday skiers for decades. Most challenging climbing route? Yeah, it was it was at 14 and. It does not pay the rent, but it it does a couple of things that I think are really meaningful to me personally that like they like they're an expression of my values. Yeah, exactly. I want to build the biggest, baddest thing we can see. Does Snowbird have a village? - Free world travel It is at the base of the Alta Ski Resort, which boasts of 500 inches of "the greatest snow on Earth" annually. Ian knew Dick Bass well, my dad, Ian, knew Dick Bass well at the time. Snowbird is a bit bigger, with 2,500 skiable acres, but Alta isn't far behind, measuring in at 2,200 skiable acres. In early July, concrete was taken up the mountain by truck and lift tower installation began. What I provided was almost like a dogmatic belief in what good equipment looked and felt like. But I needed to play that card and it worked out reasonably well. It was quite clear that that wasn't going to work out. Off-mountain improvements at Snowbird have included a full renovation of The Cliff Lodge including the hotel rooms, The Cliff Spa, award-winning Aerie Restaurant and meeting space. Alta Ski Resort Reviews | Alta Utah - Powderhounds Stay slope-side at Snowbird and check out Utah's best ski vacation packages. John Cumming:|01:06:18| I know my vision has been affected by nerve damage, so, I mean, I think it's because I've spent my whole life in the mountains, I love to go offshore and fish like where you can't see the brown part, like way offshore for Marlin. I put any thought into it. You've sort of made a name for yourself in this world. That is, you know, that doesn't serve our purposes of creating what I believe to be a purely conceived of an executed brand strategy. That being said, the two resorts hold considerable differences in their layout and topography. But but I've been at this a long time, you know, almost thirty years I've been doing business. Oh, and by the way, this is my friend Ed Viesturs who already was you know, he wasn't a superstar yet, but I'd climbed enough with him to know that he was going to be. Not only did this expand the skiable terrain in Mineral Basin but it provided a connection with Alta and allowed the two resorts to offer one lift ticket to ski a whopping 4,700 acres of powder-filled terrain. In partnership with top coaches and instructors from Alta's Alf Engen Ski School, our Ski Adventures, camps and clinics are a popular all-inclusive ski trip. I climbed the Grand Teton with him when I was a little kid. One of the largest changes to occur at Snowbird, a resort known for its snow, terrain and access to Salt Lake International Airport, is the focus on guest service. Like merger company doesn't work like the new baby, right? They were - we controlled it. It says, you know, John David, you know, meet your father at 3:00 or whatever. So Gordon Strachan made an introduction and Nick to his, you know, to the credit of his deep character, agreed to meet with me. One of the things that my father had done while he was raising us in the mountains was take us climbing a few times. Contact Us. I was really trying to do something where I could be enterprising. John Cumming:|00:23:46| It was like, holy shit. Sierra Designs was for sale. Got to make sure that we're doing everything we can to leave them better off than we found. Like, I adjust my psyche sliding in the mountains. And all of a sudden I said to myself, it's possible we're going to be able to do it. Alta Lodge | Utah Ski Hotels & Vacation Lodging | Alta Hotels & Ski John Cumming:|00:09:04| So I'm back to the mountains. John Cumming:|01:07:28| Thanks for including me. And he wore all the logos and all the gear. And so I just wanted to I just wanted to make sure that the place that I raised my family, that my wife raised, my family built my business was. An Alta Dreamer. We'd put our long underwear on come out. And of all the things I've been involved with, mountain hardware, which we sold because our partners wanted to harvest and we didn't want to force them to stick around if they were, you know, it just didn't feel like it was consistent with the original aspiration of the brand and the team that we'd created to do it, you know, but having sold it and having built a house with the proceeds and, you know, and and moved on in my life to other things, I can't think of anything else that was more satisfying than that. So I'm like, all right, got it. Of course, we're going to talk in a minute about what you've done. The process lasted until mid-May due to some of the heaviest snowfall of the winter. And so I said this is a way for me to take some action on both of those things which are so important to me. I didn't really meet her until we had completed the transaction. Right. And it's just great to see Gorgoza now, Woodward Park City rising up and see the lights and to see the kids just having a great time out there on snow. Tom Kelly:|01:05:31| Taking it back home, your favorite restaurant dinner, when you and Kristi want to go out for a nice evening. John Cumming:|00:35:13| We were one of those long conference again, I didn't know anything, I was, you know, still skinny climber dude, and Nick had agreed to this surrogacy kind of mentorship, but he was basically running the transaction. Recently completed projectsinclude the renovation to the Snowbird Center by adding guest space and restrooms in 2018 anda new network of bridges to allow for easier access to The Cliff Lodge, Snowbird Center and Lower Village in 2019. John Cumming:|00:54:46| I was really more concerned about the people. I thought, 'what the hell are we doing here.' It's environmental versus progress balance. I've always felt some responsibility to pay it forward to the extent that I could. And so, like I said, I'm not. It's really cool. The "Greatest Snow on Earth" is extremely easy to access, which means you get to spend more time . UDOT releases EIS Record of Decision to improve transportation in Alta is a ski area in the western United States, located in the town of Alta in the Wasatch Mountains of Utah, in Salt Lake County. Snowbird Information: I guided there a few times. And he's like, Really? Tom Kelly:|00:01:16| Yeah, what's the media company? So I called Ed one day and I said, hey, we're starting this thing, will you endorse us? It's like, you know what? Today, Cumming owns Snowbird along with 10 other resorts across the country from Killington to Copper Mountain to Mt. My dad used to say, don't curse the darkness, light a frickin match. He was broke, couldn't finance the climbing aspiration that he had at the time to climb all 14, 8,000 meter peaks without oxygen. If you pay the extra money for a combined Alta Snowbird lift ticket you can score even more terrain. OK, that's awesome. So anybody hearing this should subscribe to OTV, please. Like some random climber kid comes into the to to, you know, Neptune Mountaineering in Colorado or to White Pine Touring here meetsCharlie Sturgis and says, hey, I got this stuff. Thankfully, I didn't know him. We don't want to we don't have any interest in not acknowledging that it's going on and doing the best work that we can to to provide examples for others, you know. Until recently Dick was also an owner of 10% of the Alta Ski Lifts Company, adjacent to Snowbird. And we're going to and we're going to hope that new information demonstrates that that doesn't create any spreading events. And, you know, they have auto float on the blade and on the tiller or whatever. So I show up at the Outdoor Retailer show, skinny, little, emaciated climber dude with raccoon eyes sunburned to talk about acquiring Sierra Designs. It's objective, subjective balance. But the early climbs that he did were fully sponsored by us. She was working as the ski celebrity kind of or one of them at Park City at the time doing women's ski challenge, you know, clinics. He was trying to put a group together by Sierra Designs. That's always been the aspiration. John Cumming:|01:07:17| It used to be powder as I get older groomer's. And so it's objective, subjective balance. You know, I mean, in retrospect, I don't think I'd do that today. John Cumming:|00:01:25| I wish more people subscribed. So when it was time to apply to college, there was Boulder had a rolling admission. Woodward was a long-established brand in action sports but you were reluctant at first? And and so, yeah, to answer your question, we went skiing when we were really young, probably too young to do that. He's such a badass and such a great guy and so dedicated to the craft or whatever. Tom Kelly Tom Kelly:|01:07:09| Can't beat it. Tom Kelly:|01:07:02| Awesome, can't go wrong there, your favorite ski run in Utah. So we eat tomatoes that are shipped around the world, covered in, first of all, they're dyed, covered in wax, put on a ship, transported half the way around the world, burning bunker fuel, creating toxicity in the atmosphere and the seas and providing no nutritional value to the people that eat it on the other end. What was important was to make POWDR survive. So he moved us here. Some good gracious whiskey guys. This was a this moved the dial, folks. People aren't traveling, but people are going to want to be outside. Snowbird owns the land where the Little Cottonwood Canyon gondola So you did really start something there. 9385 S. Snowbird Center Dr. But we did do these great adventures and we climbed the Grand Teton when I was 11 or something. . And so, um, you know, the opportunities that have arisen with cheap passes have been difficult for some of our resorts in the industry to to accommodate. Jobs - Alta Ski Area Snowbird's investment in the future of the resort continues with the forthcoming launch of our newest summer activity installation, theZipWhipper. 3 and Alta Ski Resort is No. I didn't really know what that meant, but I wanted to be successful and outside. So the answer is yes. The history of Little Cottonwood Canyon and the town of Alta dates back to the 19th Century, when a soldier in the U.S. Army first prospected for silver in 1869. Last year, Bass sold a majority interest in Snowbird to the Ian Cumming family, which owns Powdr Corp, operators of Copper Mountain and Killington, among others. John Cumming:|00:47:07| You know, I've always aspired to leave my community a better place than I found it, and I got that from my father and from Nick, and I've always felt some responsibility to pay it forward to the extent that I could. The Utah Department of Transportation's current deliberations over whether . Tom Kelly:|00:31:25| Overnight, you know, in the dark tonight and. And again, I had resisted going, you know, for for, you know, three or four weeks. Just one more thing on on community before we start to wind it down. And but it was also clear he wasn't going to lose any toes or anything doing it. Oh, yeah, yeah. It didn't work. Bachelor. The Peruvian Express Chairlift and Tunnel opened in2006, allowing easier access to Mineral Basin through a 600-foot, one-of-a-kind original (the only ski tunnel in North America). And like I said, I walked in, I took one look at those rapture, those faces, and I was like, if we can figure out how to do a fraction of that on our mountains, in our ski schools, on our and by the way, extrapolate that gymnastics base progression process into what we do in action, sports on the mountain, a fraction of it we win. In early June the top terminal pieces were delivered to Snowbird and then positioned in a staging area outside the Tram Club. We can go skiing on a Wednesday afternoon. Are Alta and Snowbird owned by the same company? Powered by two Caterpillar engines, she has a top speed of 13 knots and a range of 3,800 nautical miles. And so, yeah, so and I'm quite proud to have done it all things being equal, I would have done the same thing. Yeah. And what I'm wearing now, guiding on Mount Rainier two or three times a week or four times a week sucks. Nick was that kind of old school guywhere you dropped the kid in the deep end and then see if he surfaces. You know, I'm tired of being broke and eating ramen three meals a day when I'm not on the mountain, you know. They've got Recaro seats and Blaupunkt stereos or whatever with 12 speakers. Lift Tickets and Season Passes - Alta Ski Area Show up at this place at this time, so I'd start driving a groomer swing shift. I had enough influence to say we're not frikking doing that. The parts were actually delivered to the Alta Ski Area parking lot where they were loaded onto a trailer and hauled, via snowcat, through Alta and over Sugarloaf Pass to Mineral Basin. Copyright Snowbird. But it wasn't a full time job. A U.S. Army soldier first prospected for silver there in 1869. And I met with I actually had, you know, 47 cocktails with a guy named Skip Yowell, who was one of the founders of Jansport with whom I'd climbed Mount Rainier a couple of times. John Cumming:|00:34:12| Well, you know, those those those experiences I had with my family, in contrast to the rest of my life, which at the time was, you know, broken family, absentee parenting raised by nannies kind of thing, really showed me how, you know or I should say enhanced my life to such a degree that I've just never been able to forget it. I believe that they are a very efficient model, maybe not the best, but the most efficient model that I've found to direct funds to a community where the need is most acute. Quick Answer: Who Owns Snowbird Ski Resort - BikeHike But we do. Soon, Bass and Johnson were touring European and American ski areas to get ideas of how to maximize Snowbirds potential. Snowbird has also fostered a reputation for its environmental stewardship, for which it also has been awarded numerous prestigious awards. Unlock all of Little Cottonwood Canyon with unlimited access to Snowbird and Alta. So thankfully, we were in a position, my brother and I, to do some philanthropic stuff to counteract that fact. Tom Kelly:|00:46:32| Hope so, too, John. Snowshoe Mountain Resort is currently owned by Denver, Colo. -based Alterra Mountain Company, which owns 12 other well-known destinations in the United States and Canada, but various owners over the last five decades have each brought their own unique touches to help make Snowshoe what it is today. We were we were we were hanging out in tents for a while, actually. SALT LAKE CITY Ownership of Utah's Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort is changing hands. Tom Kelly:|00:07:39| Yeah, how did you get into climbing? He leaves no stone unturned, addressing the loss of Park City Mountain Resort as well as his own success in managing his life with multiple sclerosis. John Cumming:|00:00:36| That's why I wear it. newsroom@vaildaily.com. I worked in the race department. And Nick and I walk in together and this lawyer corners us and says, look, we need a name for this deal. I think with Craig, I wanted to honor Craig's legacy. Our original Powder Tracks ski week is the best way to learn to ski . John Cumming: Passion for Utah and Outdoors - Ski Utah He was either impressed with the audaciousness of that or the ridiculous, absurd, you know, aspect of that or something. So I'm I'm like I'm in my first semester as a junior.