As new majority shareholder, Netflix co-founder promises to keep parts of the mountain public but wants more amenities and homeowners for ‘artisanal’ resort.
The ski area was founded in 1972 by Alvin Cobabe, whose father began acquiring the land for sheep grazing during the turn of the century. In 2013, a group of four tech entrepreneurs called the Summit Group teamed with investor Greg Mauro to purchase the resort for $40 million. They had grand plans to transform it into a utopian community and permanent base for their Summit Series conferences.
“It’s been seven years of lots of great people coming in saying, ‘I can do this better. Let’s fresh start, roll up sleeves, let’s do this. Let’s get really excited about it,’” Winston said. “And then, after a year of figuring out there hasn’t been a cohesive alignment on how to get things done, people get burned out and kind of move on.”For starters, Hastings already has the capital.
Under Hastings, getting onto the mountain probably won’t get any easier. He said Powder will continue to cap day tickets at 1,500 per day and season passes at an undisclosed amount.chance to jump the season-pass line last spring “We’re not on passes. We’re counter-positioned or anti-pass,” Hastings said, “because that’s the crowd path.”
Powder Mountain General Manager Kevin Mitchell, shows the spot for the new chairlift at Powder Mountain Ski resort, on Monday, Aug. 28, 2023.This season, the beginner area near the Sundown lift and lodge will get a face-lift. Most noticeable might be the demolition of the Snow Sports Shop in favor of a. In addition to the ski school, the new sports shop will house ski rentals and a retail shop.
An estimated 91% of ski areas in the U.S. have snow-making, but Powder Mountain has long resisted with the party line being that the resort gets so much natural snow that the human made stuff isn’t needed. Rumors also floated around that the resort did not have the water rights that would allow it to blow snow. Winston said neither of those things are true.