Alterra Mountain Company, Blue Mountain Resorts’ parent company, says the ski industry is feeling the financial squeeze of pandemic but Alterra remains well-positioned to weather the storm.
“We’ve got a significant amount of money in the bank. We’re going to take care of our people - our guests, employees and the citizen’s in our local resort communities,” said Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra Mountain Company in a recent interview with Yahoo Finance.
“The spirit and mentality of our operating teams are that they quickly adapt to the realities of the day. And, COVID has been quite a challenge, but we are able to do that,” he added.
Alterra Mountain Company operates 14 ski resorts across North America.
Various facilities are located in Colorado, California, Washington, Vermont, Salt Lake City, West Virginia, Utah, as well as two Canadian locations - Tremblant in Quebec and Blue Mountain in Ontario.
Currently, all of the Alterra’s ski resorts are open to the public, except for Blue Mountain.
“We have gotten a lot of support and it is healthy to be outside. But like everything else, we have to do it in a rational way that deals with mitigation of contagion,” he said.
Gregory adds that the resorts that are open to the public are operating with a 220-page operations manual that outlines the required safety procedures that have been approved by the local health care regulators.
“Pass holders are having unfettered access to the hill and we are tightly regulating the number of paid tickets that we sell each day to ensure we don’t become too crowded,” he stated.
Former Blue Mountain staffer Paul Pinchbeck, now the president of the Canadian Ski Council, said the Ontario government’s decision to close ski resorts for the upcoming 28-day shutdown (14 days in northern Ontario) came as a “shock” for the 45 ski resorts in Ontario.
“We respect the gravity of the situation…we believe strongly that we provide a valued service to Ontarians,” Pinchbeck told CollingwoodToday. “We know we can operate safely.”
He pointed out Ontario is the only government prohibiting downhill skiing.
Gregory explained that the number of guests permitted is generally based on the resort’s historical data.
“While Alterra is a fairly new company, each of our resorts has been in business for a long time so we have a lot of history about past visitation. We know the addresses where people come from. We have a good indication about how many are likely to come and we run algorithms against that inventory,” he explained.
Blue Mountain Resort has been closed to the public since Dec. 26 as per the provincial shutdown orders.
Since the closure, many have voiced their concerns around allowing the outdoor sport to continue throughout the pandemic.
The provincial shutdown is expected to last 28-days, until at least Jan. 22.
In a joint news release, the Ontario Ski Resorts Association and the Canadian Ski Council announced the 28-day shutdown will cost the Ontario downhill ski industry $84 million.
Ski enthusiasts and industry members have been actively petitioning the provincial government to allow downhill skiing to be reopened for the remainder of the season.
Ontario’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Heritage, Sport, Tourism and Culture is expected to be meeting with downhill ski operators from the Ontario Snow Resorts Association regarding the closure. A news release from the organization stated they received a commitment from the province that there would be a working group to review the situation.
