Along with this season’s deep snow, Colorado’s ski industry is experiencing big changes.
Adam Aron has resigned as chief executive officer at Vail Resorts after a decade in which he improved Vail’s operations and its public image. Stockholders surely are pleased the company grew four-fold since 1996, and Coloradans understand that Aron’s civic leadership was crucial.
In the 1990s, Vail Resorts endured extensive criticism for its huge Category III expansion (now Blue Sky Basin, which opened in 2001) and for arrogantly refusing to communicate its real intentions to local governments affected by its decisions. The company especially locked horns with mainstream conservation groups – an untenable position since many skiers consider themselves environmentalists.
But with Aron at the wheel, Vail Resorts shifted gears. When it expanded its Breckenridge ski area in 2002, it agreed to work with town officials and the U.S. Forest Service. Vail Resorts embraced Front Range skiers by offering ski passes that let customers hit the slopes at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone for 1980s prices. (Anyone who who pays the $81 face value for a Vail lift ticket must be clueless about all the cool deals available today.)
Vail Resorts now supports conservation efforts like Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado and the Colorado Fourteeners Initiative, and helped pay to bring the endangered lynx to southwestern Colorado. The company donates to numerous community groups and participates in a program that helps disabled veterans.
The friendly Aron presented a good public face not just for Vail but for the entire Colorado ski industry.
Meanwhile, in Aspen a clash of cultures is proving that love of snow conquers all. Aspen epitomizes the economic establishment, with real estate prices so high even millionaires can’t afford to live there anymore. Yet in this billionaires’ playground, the X Games – showcase for today’s youthful extreme athletes – ironically have found a comfortable home. The X Games drew 36,000 spectators when they arrived in Aspen in 2002, but in 2005 attracted more than 69,700 and likely will surpass that figure this year. Extreme sports now are big business: TV viewership grew from 270,000 in 2001 to more than 500,000 last year. Now officials have agreed on a contract that will bring this jolt of youth and enthusiasm to Aspen at least through 2020. That’s good news, as the games inject about $15 million into Aspen’s economy.
Still, in the end it’s all about the love of snow and sport.
