Kelly Pawlak's guest appearances

Kelly Pawlak

The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast

The SnowBrains Podcast

Paul Bunyan

Dan Egan

Tim Smith

Molly Mahar

Jeremy Davis

Steve Wright

Lisa Lynn

Brad Wilson

Tim Baker

Benjamin Alexander

Jeff Thompson

Rob Katz

Guy Lawrence

John Hammond

Greg Fisher

OwlTail

Kelly Pawlak - CEO of the National Ski Areas Association Episode #48 Brought to you by Northern California Toyota Dealers &amp; Vail Mountain My guest today is Kelly Pawlak Kelly has been the CEO of the National Ski Area Association since 2018 Kelly has occupied a variety of executive positions in the ski industry over the past 30-plus years including 12 years as Mount Snow, Vermont's Vice president &amp; General Manager  This episode is brought to you by your Northern California Toyota Dealers: Whether you’re conquering the commute to town or answering the call of some freshly powdered slopes, the new Rav4 Hybrid is there for all your Tahoe adventures. Featuring Electronic On-Demand All-Wheel Drive and a 219 horsepower hybrid engine with a forty-mile per gallon combined rating. It’s made for action. And made for the mountain. Visit  buyatoyota.com/norcal for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe. Hit the trail and discover your next Tahoe adventure in a Toyota Tundra TRD PRO Hybrid. Featuring an available i-FORCE MAX hybrid engine that generates an electrifying 437 horsepower with 583 pounds per foot of torque. The TRD PRO also tows up to 12,000 pounds, so you can take the adventure with you. It’s made for endurance. And made for the mountain. Visit  buyatoyota.com/norcal for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe. Fun family adventures begin at Palisades Tahoe, and the best way to get there is the Sequoia TRD PRO Hybrid. The i-FORCE MAX Twin Turbo V6 Hybrid engine packs a punch with 437 horsepower while still giving you up to an EPA-estimated twenty-two miles per gallon. So you can feel the power without feeling it at the pump. It’s made for adventure. And made for the mountain. Visit buyatoyota.com/norcal for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe.  This episode is brought to you by Vail Mountain: Vail is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this season. That’s sixty years of powder days, back bowl skiing, ice bars, and new experiences. No matter how many times you’ve skied these slopes, this season is all about celebrating then, now, and forever. And as a part of the celebrations, Vail will be hosting the National Brotherhood of Skiers for their annual summit in February. So, go ahead ... plan your next visit to Vail. And help them celebrate what’s shaping up to be a legendary season. Please enjoy! *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please share with friends &amp; family, and please subscribe. Follow SnowBrains: SnowBrains.com Facebook: facebook.com/snowbrains Instagram: instagram.com/snowbrains Twitter: twitter.com/snowbrains *** The SnowBrains Podcast Episode #48 - Kelly Pawlak - CEO of the National Ski Areas Association Recorded on September 28, 2022, in the Park City, UT (Miles Clark) and Colorado (Kely Pawlak). This episode was edited by Jared White Music by Chad Crouch Host, producer, and creator = Miles Clark

Kelly Pawlak - CEO of the National Ski Areas Association Episode #48 Brought to you by <a href="" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Northern California Toyota Dealers</a> &amp; <a href="https://www.vail.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vail Mountain</a> My guest today is Kelly Pawlak Kelly has been the CEO of the National Ski Area Association since 2018 Kelly has occupied a variety of executive positions in the ski industry over the past 30-plus years including 12 years as Mount Snow, Vermont's Vice president &amp; General Manager This episode is brought to you by your <a href="" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Northern California Toyota Dealers</a>: Whether you’re conquering the commute to town or answering the call of some freshly powdered slopes, the new Rav4 Hybrid is there for all your Tahoe adventures. Featuring Electronic On-Demand All-Wheel Drive and a 219 horsepower hybrid engine with a forty-mile per gallon combined rating. It’s made for action. And made for the mountain. Visit  <a href="http://buyatoyota.com/norcal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">buyatoyota.com/norcal</a> for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe. Hit the trail and discover your next Tahoe adventure in a Toyota Tundra TRD PRO Hybrid. Featuring an available i-FORCE MAX hybrid engine that generates an electrifying 437 horsepower with 583 pounds per foot of torque. The TRD PRO also tows up to 12,000 pounds, so you can take the adventure with you. It’s made for endurance. And made for the mountain. Visit  <a href="http://buyatoyota.com/norcal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">buyatoyota.com/norcal</a> for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe. Fun family adventures begin at Palisades Tahoe, and the best way to get there is the Sequoia TRD PRO Hybrid. The i-FORCE MAX Twin Turbo V6 Hybrid engine packs a punch with 437 horsepower while still giving you up to an EPA-estimated twenty-two miles per gallon. So you can feel the power without feeling it at the pump. It’s made for adventure. And made for the mountain. Visit <a href="http://buyatoyota.com/norcal" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">buyatoyota.com/norcal</a> for more details and start your next adventure in a brand new Toyota, the official vehicle of Palisades Tahoe. This episode is brought to you by <a href="https://www.vail.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Vail Mountain</a>: Vail is celebrating its sixtieth anniversary this season. That’s sixty years of powder days, back bowl skiing, ice bars, and new experiences. No matter how many times you’ve skied these slopes, this season is all about celebrating then, now, and forever. And as a part of the celebrations, Vail will be hosting the National Brotherhood of Skiers for their annual summit in February. So, go ahead ... plan your next visit to Vail. And help them celebrate what’s shaping up to be a legendary season. Please enjoy! *** If you enjoyed this podcast, please share with friends &amp; family, and please subscribe. Follow SnowBrains: <a href="http://SnowBrains.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SnowBrains.com</a> Facebook: <a href="http://facebook.com/snowbrains" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">facebook.com/snowbrains</a> Instagram: <a href="http://instagram.com/snowbrains" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">instagram.com/snowbrains</a> Twitter: <a href="http://twitter.com/snowbrains" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">twitter.com/snowbrains</a> *** The SnowBrains Podcast Episode #48 - Kelly Pawlak - CEO of the National Ski Areas Association Recorded on September 28, 2022, in the Park City, UT (Miles Clark) and Colorado (Kely Pawlak). This episode was edited by Jared White Music by Chad Crouch Host, producer, and creator = Miles Clark

Kelly Pawlak - CEO of the National Ski Areas Association

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored in part by:* Mountain Gazette - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch.* Helly Hansen - Listen to the podcast to learn how to get an 18.77 percent discount at the Boston and Burlington, Vermont stores.Who National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) President and CEO Kelly PawlakRecorded onApril 6, 2021Why I interviewed herBecause the NSAA saved our 2020-21 ski season. They did this by creating the Ski Well, Be Well standards, which united hundreds of ski areas and millions of skiers under a shared understanding of what safe, socially distant skiing would look like. They did it by helping individual ski area operators understand which streams of the overlapping and bewildering layers of government aide they qualified for and shepherding them through the application processes. They did it by presenting a compelling alternative to full shutdowns for state-level regulators. And they did it all through tireless coalition-building among all the entities that manage this monster called lift-served skiing, landing on firm but clear operating guidelines that, while imperfect, did what they were designed to do: create consistency and order in a weather-dependent business often defined by chaos and improvisation. Leading the organization and the industry through this was Pawlak. I wanted to understand how the NSAA coordinated and executed the tectonic effort to make sure American lift-served skiing opened and stayed open for a full 2020-21 ski season.  What we talked aboutPutting the challenge of adapting to Covid in historical context; if skiing can handle this, it can handle anything; where do you even begin when Covid nukes your entire industry?; developing and rolling out the Ski Well, Be Well guidelines that helped ski areas operate in the midst of the pandemic; getting every ski area in the country to agree to require masks; the importance of state ski area associations; how the NSAA helped states develop ski area operating guidelines; the complexity of agreeing on how to load chairlifts; why politics didn’t derail 2020-21 ski area operations; when she started to believe Covid-era skiing could work; how the U.S. ski industry got through the season without a single shutdown; why mask-wearing worked both for ski area employees and skiers; Covid operating changes that may become permanent after the pandemic fades; which regions of the country best weathered the pandemic from a business point of view; helping ski areas take advantage of various rounds of federal and state assistance; how many ski areas sat out the 2020-21 season and what those operations had in common; why every ski area felt so much busier than normal; liftlines; the surge in season pass sales; whether pass refund and deferral policies and other consumer-friendly pass attributes like payment plans are here to stay; are the Epic and Ikon Passes good for skiing and small ski areas?; reaction to Vail and Alterra’s statements on diversity; the NSAA’s diversity initiatives; the importance of pipeline programs to diversify skiers and ski industry workers; skiing’s “Jerry” problem; how the declining season pass prices help more people feel like part of the ski community.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewBecause we did it. We had a ski season. Winding toward mid-April, the ski areas that we would expect to be shut are shut and the ones we would expect to be open are open and they are making these decisions on their own, as melt-outs or slowing business stop the lifts. There was nothing inevitable about this. Skiing barely happened in Europe. Canada has weathered successive waves of shutdowns across multiple provinces. Southern Hemisphere skiing was a disaster in 2020. There is no doubt a cultural element to America’s stubbornness here - shutdowns are out of favor, politically. But the fact that skiing stayed open while so many other sorts of gathering - from concerts to sports to movie theaters - remained closed or curtailed is a testament to the efficacy of the NSAA’s Ski Well, Be Well standards. They were good conceptually and they were good practically – I visited 34 ski areas this season, and I only observed one instance of an unmasked mountain employee. I did not see any brazen instances of skier disobedience in mask compliance (I did see plenty of accidental ones). I experienced few issues with lift loading. I found the car-as-a-baselodge concept surprisingly enjoyable. The shift to ecommerce was welcome. Mostly, though, I found a sense of stability and normalcy as pandemic-induced isolation is catalyzing a massive mental health crisis. I didn’t have to hole up inside, away from the world – I was skiing twice a week, out there, adventuring. This seemed like a great time to reflect on these facts with the person perhaps most responsible for making them a reality.Additional reading* All about Ski Well, Be Well* The NSAA maintains some really interesting fact sheets, documenting the number of active U.S. ski areas by year, number of ski areas by state, and much more.COVID-19 &amp; Skiing Podcasts: Author and Industry Veteran Chris Diamond | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak | Berkshire East/Catamount Owner &amp; Goggles for Docs founder Jon Schaefer | Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis Cofounder Jeff Thompson | Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz | Mt. Baldy GM Robby Ellingson | Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory | NSAA Director of Risk &amp; Regulatory Affairs Dave Byrd | Schweitzer Mountain President and CEO Tom Chasse | Ski Vermont President Molly MaharThe Storm Skiing Podcasts: Killington &amp; Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East &amp; Catamount Owner &amp; GM Jon Schaefer | Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports Co-Publisher &amp; Editor Lisa Lynn | Sugarbush President &amp; COO Win Smith | Loon President &amp; GM Jay Scambio | Sunday River President &amp; GM Dana Bullen | Big Snow &amp; Mountain Creek VP of Sales &amp; Marketing Hugh Reynolds | Mad River Glen GM Matt Lillard | Indy Pass Founder Doug Fish | National Brotherhood of Skiers President Henri Rivers | Winter 4 Kids &amp; National Winter Activity Center President &amp; CEO Schone Malliet | Vail Veterans Program President &amp; Founder Cheryl Jensen | Mountain Gazette Owner &amp; Editor Mike Rogge | Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows President &amp; CMO Ron Cohen | Aspiring Olympian Benjamin Alexander | Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Parts One &amp; Two | Cannon GM John DeVivo | Fairbank Group Chairman Brian Fairbank | Jay Peak GM Steve Wright | Sugarbush President &amp; GM John Hammond | Mount Snow GM Tracy Bartels | Saddleback CEO &amp; GM Andy Shepard | Bousquet owners and management | Hermitage Club GM Bill Benneyan | Powder Magazine Editor-in-Chief Sierra Shafer | Gunstock GM Tom Day | Bolton Valley President Lindsay DesLauriers | Windham President Chip Seamans | Sunday River GM Brian Heon | Waterville Valley GM Tim Smith | Granite Peak GM Greg Fisher | Montage Mountain Managing Owner Charles Jefferson | Author and journalist Eric Wilbur | Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory | Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

The Storm Skiing Podcast is sponsored in part by:* Mountain Gazette - Listen to the podcast for discount codes on subscriptions and merch.* Helly Hansen - Listen to the podcast to learn how to get an 18.77 percent discount at the Boston and Burlington, Vermont stores.Who <a href="https://www.nsaa.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Ski Areas Association</a> (NSAA) President and CEO Kelly PawlakRecorded onApril 6, 2021Why I interviewed herBecause the NSAA saved our 2020-21 ski season. They did this by creating the <a href="https://nsaa.org/skiwellbewell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ski Well, Be Well</a> standards, which united hundreds of ski areas and millions of skiers under a shared understanding of what safe, socially distant skiing would look like. They did it by helping individual ski area operators understand which streams of the overlapping and bewildering layers of government aide they qualified for and shepherding them through the application processes. They did it by presenting a compelling alternative to full shutdowns for state-level regulators. And they did it all through tireless coalition-building among all the entities that manage this monster called lift-served skiing, landing on firm but clear operating guidelines that, while imperfect, did what they were designed to do: create consistency and order in a weather-dependent business often defined by chaos and improvisation. Leading the organization and the industry through this was Pawlak. I wanted to understand how the NSAA coordinated and executed the tectonic effort to make sure American lift-served skiing opened and stayed open for a full 2020-21 ski season.  What we talked aboutPutting the challenge of adapting to Covid in historical context; if skiing can handle this, it can handle anything; where do you even begin when Covid nukes your entire industry?; developing and rolling out the Ski Well, Be Well guidelines that helped ski areas operate in the midst of the pandemic; getting every ski area in the country to agree to require masks; the importance of state ski area associations; how the NSAA helped states develop ski area operating guidelines; the complexity of agreeing on how to load chairlifts; why politics didn’t derail 2020-21 ski area operations; when she started to believe Covid-era skiing could work; how the U.S. ski industry got through the season without a single shutdown; why mask-wearing worked both for ski area employees and skiers; Covid operating changes that may become permanent after the pandemic fades; which regions of the country best weathered the pandemic from a business point of view; helping ski areas take advantage of various rounds of federal and state assistance; how many ski areas sat out the 2020-21 season and what those operations had in common; why every ski area felt so much busier than normal; liftlines; the surge in season pass sales; whether pass refund and deferral policies and other consumer-friendly pass attributes like payment plans are here to stay; are the Epic and Ikon Passes good for skiing and small ski areas?; reaction to Vail and Alterra’s statements on diversity; the NSAA’s diversity initiatives; the importance of pipeline programs to diversify skiers and ski industry workers; skiing’s “Jerry” problem; how the declining season pass prices help more people feel like part of the ski community.Why I thought that now was a good time for this interviewBecause we did it. We had a ski season. Winding toward mid-April, the ski areas that we would expect to be shut are shut and the ones we would expect to be open are open and they are making these decisions on their own, as melt-outs or slowing business stop the lifts. There was nothing inevitable about this. Skiing barely happened in Europe. Canada has weathered successive waves of shutdowns across multiple provinces. Southern Hemisphere skiing was a disaster in 2020. There is no doubt a cultural element to America’s stubbornness here - shutdowns are out of favor, politically. But the fact that skiing stayed open while so many other sorts of gathering - from concerts to sports to movie theaters - remained closed or curtailed is a testament to the efficacy of the NSAA’s Ski Well, Be Well standards. They were good conceptually and they were good practically – I visited 34 ski areas this season, and I only observed one instance of an unmasked mountain employee. I did not see any brazen instances of skier disobedience in mask compliance (I did see plenty of accidental ones). I experienced few issues with lift loading. I found the car-as-a-baselodge concept surprisingly enjoyable. The shift to ecommerce was welcome. Mostly, though, I found a sense of stability and normalcy as pandemic-induced isolation is catalyzing a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00175-z" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">massive mental health crisis</a>. I didn’t have to hole up inside, away from the world – I was skiing twice a week, out there, adventuring. This seemed like a great time to reflect on these facts with the person perhaps most responsible for making them a reality.Additional reading* All about <a href="https://nsaa.org/skiwellbewell" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Ski Well, Be Well</a>* The NSAA maintains some really interesting fact sheets, documenting the <a href="https://nsaa.org/webdocs/Media_Public/IndustryStats/ski_areas_per_season_thru_1920.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">number of active U.S. ski areas by year</a>, number of <a href="https://nsaa.org/webdocs/Media_Public/IndustryStats/ski_areas_by_state_thru_1920.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ski areas by state</a>, and <a href="https://www.nsaa.org/NSAA/Industry_Stats/NSAA/Media/Industry_Stats.aspx?hkey=7acdba03-11d0-4eb6-9a32-4a0092457077" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">much more</a>.COVID-19 &amp; Skiing Podcasts: Author and Industry Veteran Chris Diamond | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | NSAA CEO Kelly Pawlak | Berkshire East/Catamount Owner &amp; Goggles for Docs founder Jon Schaefer | Shaggy’s Copper Country Skis Cofounder Jeff Thompson | Doppelmayr USA President Katharina Schmitz | Mt. Baldy GM Robby Ellingson | Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory | NSAA Director of Risk &amp; Regulatory Affairs Dave Byrd | Schweitzer Mountain President and CEO Tom Chasse | Ski Vermont President Molly MaharThe Storm Skiing Podcasts: Killington &amp; Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East &amp; Catamount Owner &amp; GM Jon Schaefer | Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports Co-Publisher &amp; Editor Lisa Lynn | Sugarbush President &amp; COO Win Smith | Loon President &amp; GM Jay Scambio | Sunday River President &amp; GM Dana Bullen | Big Snow &amp; Mountain Creek VP of Sales &amp; Marketing Hugh Reynolds | Mad River Glen GM Matt Lillard | Indy Pass Founder Doug Fish | National Brotherhood of Skiers President Henri Rivers | Winter 4 Kids &amp; National Winter Activity Center President &amp; CEO Schone Malliet | Vail Veterans Program President &amp; Founder Cheryl Jensen | Mountain Gazette Owner &amp; Editor Mike Rogge | Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows President &amp; CMO Ron Cohen | Aspiring Olympian Benjamin Alexander | Sugarloaf GM Karl Strand – Parts One &amp; Two | Cannon GM John DeVivo | Fairbank Group Chairman Brian Fairbank | Jay Peak GM Steve Wright | Sugarbush President &amp; GM John Hammond | Mount Snow GM Tracy Bartels | Saddleback CEO &amp; GM Andy Shepard | Bousquet owners and management | Hermitage Club GM Bill Benneyan | Powder Magazine Editor-in-Chief Sierra Shafer | Gunstock GM Tom Day | Bolton Valley President Lindsay DesLauriers | Windham President Chip Seamans | Sunday River GM Brian Heon | Waterville Valley GM Tim Smith | Granite Peak GM Greg Fisher | Montage Mountain Managing Owner Charles Jefferson | Author and journalist Eric Wilbur | Alterra CEO Rusty Gregory | Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at <a href="https://www.stormskiing.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.stormskiing.com/subscribe</a>

Podcast #43: NSAA President & CEO Kelly Pawlak

Download this episode on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher,TuneIn, and Pocket Casts | Read the full overview at skiing.substack.com.What this is: This is the fourth in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first three: author Chris Diamond, Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher, Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway.Who: Kelly Pawlak, President and CEO of the National Ski Areas AssociationWhy I interviewed her: The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that the president signed into law on March 27 is 880 pages long, meaning that approximately zero people have read the entire thing. While there are plenty of high-level breakdowns itemizing what the act delivers American individuals and businesses, it’s less obvious what this titanic relief bill means for the ski industry and its nearly 1 million employees. As the primary trade group representing U.S. ski areas, the National Ski Areas Association’s mission over the past several weeks has been to raise its hand on behalf of the collective industry and say, “Hey Congress, don’t forget about us.” I wanted to get a sense of exactly what the bill offered ski areas large and small, and to gauge what else the NSAA was prioritizing over what is set to be a very long slog back to skiers riding lifts up mountainsides. Also, the industry seems extremely satisfied with the NSAA at the moment (Steve Wright is the GM of Jay Peak; Christian Knapp, who comments on the thread, is the CMO of Aspen-Snowmass):What we talked about: The factors behind the NSAA’s estimate that U.S. ski areas will lose $2 billion from the COVID-19 shutdown; the ripple effect of cancelling large capital projects; how much U.S. ski areas invest in capital per skier visit; the importance of summer business and what it will mean if that goes away; what’s in the CARES Act for ski areas and their employees and why it may take a while to sort all that out; the risks of being overlooked for relief money as a seasonal business whose season was three-quarters of the way over; how to get attention for the ski industry when the entire economy collapsed, taking just about every industry with it; the different CARES Act aid that small and large ski areas are eligible for; how the NSAA is approaching the next possible round of Congressional stimulus; how to avoid the, “What do you guys need money for, is there even still skiing in March?” trap when jockeying for that cash; the crucial role of ski areas to rural economies; the Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus sounds fun – what is it?; Forest Service land lease fees that 122 U.S. ski areas pay each year could be waived or deferred; the problem with business interruption insurance; is Ski Blandford a bellwether for a wave of independent ski area closings in the COVID aftermath?; echoes of Mount Snow-Haystack in the failure of Butternut subsidizing Blandford; when and why the NSAA cancelled their annual trade show and convention for the first time in 58 years and what they’re doing instead; how the industry is embracing this whole thing as a learning opportunityWhat I got wrong: I said that Vail had cancelled all of its capital spending for the rest of the year, but that is incorrect: they are eliminating up to $85 million in major capital projects such as new chairlifts and terrain expansions, but are not cancelling basic maintenance capital spending. I also stated that the new Hermitage Club ownership group was “a part of the old ownership,” which isn’t exactly right – a group of former club members purchased the mountain at auction for a bit more than $8 million last month.Fact check: Kelly and I ponder the number of U.S. states that have ski areas – there are 37, four of which only have one: Tennessee, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Alabama(!).Recorded on: April 2, 2020The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at skiing.substack.com. Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter.COVID-19 and Skiing Podcasts: Author and Industry Veteran Chris Diamond | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway |The Storm Skiing Podcasts: Killington &amp; Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East &amp; Catamount Owner &amp; GM Jon Schaefer| Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports Co-Publisher &amp; Editor Lisa Lynn| Sugarbush President &amp; COO Win Smith| Loon President &amp; GM Jay Scambio| Sunday River President &amp; GM Dana Bullen| Big Snow &amp; Mountain Creek VP of Sales &amp; Marketing Hugh Reynolds | Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at www.stormskiing.com/subscribe

Download <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-storm-skiing-journal-and-podcast/id1483400860" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">this episode on iTunes</a>, <a href="https://playmusic.app.goo.gl/?ibi=com.google.PlayMusic&amp;isi=691797987&amp;ius=googleplaymusic&amp;apn=com.google.android.music&amp;link=https://play.google.com/music/m/Iuze2i44iypwy7jz77yltpnvgzm?t%3DThe_Storm_Skiing_Journal_and_Podcast%26pcampaignid%3DMKT-na-all-co-pr-mu-pod-16" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Google Podcasts</a>, <a href="https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/substack-2/the-storm-skiing-podcast?refid=stpr" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stitcher</a>,<a href="https://tunein.com/podcasts/Sports--Recreation-Podcasts/The-Storm-Skiing-Podcast-p1257114/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">TuneIn</a>, and Pocket Casts | Read <a href="https://skiing.substack.com/publish/post/144325" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">the full overview</a> at <a href="https://skiing.substack.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">skiing.substack.com</a>.What this is: This is the fourth in a series of short conversations exploring the fallout to the ski industry from the COVID-19-forced closure of nearly every ski area on the continent in March 2020. Click through to listen to the first three: author <a href="https://skiing.substack.com/p/covid-19-and-skiing-podcast-1-author" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Chris Diamond</a>, Boyne Resorts CEO <a href="https://skiing.substack.com/p/covid-19-and-skiing-podcast-2-boyne" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Stephen Kircher</a>, Magic Mountain President <a href="https://skiing.substack.com/p/covid-19-and-skiing-podcast-3-magic" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Geoff Hatheway</a>.Who: Kelly Pawlak, President and CEO of the <a href="https://www.nsaa.org/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">National Ski Areas Association</a>Why I interviewed her: The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act that the president signed into law on March 27 is 880 pages long, meaning that approximately zero people have read the entire thing. While there are plenty of <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/article/coronavirus-stimulus-package-questions-answers.html" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">high-level breakdowns</a> itemizing what the act delivers American individuals and businesses, it’s less obvious what this titanic relief bill means for the ski industry and its nearly 1 million employees. As the primary trade group representing U.S. ski areas, the National Ski Areas Association’s mission over the past several weeks has been to raise its hand on behalf of the collective industry and say, “Hey Congress, don’t forget about us.” I wanted to get a sense of exactly what the bill offered ski areas large and small, and to gauge what else the NSAA was prioritizing over what is set to be a very long slog back to skiers riding lifts up mountainsides. Also, the industry seems extremely satisfied with the NSAA at the moment (Steve Wright is the GM of Jay Peak; Christian Knapp, who comments on the thread, is the CMO of Aspen-Snowmass):What we talked about: The factors behind the NSAA’s estimate that U.S. ski areas will lose $2 billion from the COVID-19 shutdown; the ripple effect of cancelling large capital projects; how much U.S. ski areas invest in capital per skier visit; the importance of summer business and what it will mean if that goes away; what’s in the CARES Act for ski areas and their employees and why it may take a while to sort all that out; the risks of being overlooked for relief money as a seasonal business whose season was three-quarters of the way over; how to get attention for the ski industry when the entire economy collapsed, taking just about every industry with it; the different CARES Act aid that small and large ski areas are eligible for; how the NSAA is approaching the next possible round of Congressional stimulus; how to avoid the, “What do you guys need money for, is there even still skiing in March?” trap when jockeying for that cash; the crucial role of ski areas to rural economies; the Congressional Ski and Snowboard Caucus sounds fun – what is it?; Forest Service land lease fees that 122 U.S. ski areas pay each year could be waived or deferred; the problem with business interruption insurance; is Ski Blandford a bellwether for a wave of independent ski area closings in the COVID aftermath?; echoes of Mount Snow-Haystack in the failure of Butternut subsidizing Blandford; when and why the NSAA cancelled their annual trade show and convention for the first time in 58 years and what they’re doing instead; how the industry is embracing this whole thing as a learning opportunityWhat I got wrong: I said that Vail had cancelled all of its capital spending for the rest of the year, but that is incorrect: they are <a href="http://news.vailresorts.com/corporate/vailresorts/letter-from-vail-resorts-ceo-to-us-employees-on-covid-19-business-impacts.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">eliminating up to $85 million</a> in major capital projects such as new chairlifts and terrain expansions, but are not cancelling basic maintenance capital spending. I also stated that the new Hermitage Club ownership group was “a part of the old ownership,” which isn’t exactly right – a group of former club members <a href="https://www.saminfo.com/headline-news/9525-former-hermitage-club-sold-at-auction" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">purchased the mountain</a> at auction for a bit more than $8 million last month.Fact check: Kelly and I ponder the number of U.S. states that have ski areas – <a href="http://www.nsaa.org/media/367731/ski_areas_by_state_1819.pdf" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">there are 37</a>, four of which only have one: Tennessee, Rhode Island, Maryland, and Alabama(!).Recorded on: April 2, 2020The Storm Skiing Podcast is on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, TuneIn, and Pocket Casts. The Storm Skiing Journal publishes podcasts and other editorial content throughout the ski season. To receive new posts as soon as they are published, sign up for The Storm Skiing Journal Newsletter at <a href="http://skiing.substack.com" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">skiing.substack.com</a>. Follow The Storm Skiing Journal on Facebook and Twitter.COVID-19 and Skiing Podcasts: Author and Industry Veteran Chris Diamond | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway |The Storm Skiing Podcasts: Killington &amp; Pico GM Mike Solimano | Plattekill owners Danielle and Laszlo Vajtay | New England Lost Ski Areas Project Founder Jeremy Davis | Magic Mountain President Geoff Hatheway | Lift Blog Founder Peter Landsman | Boyne Resorts CEO Stephen Kircher | Burke Mountain GM Kevin Mack | Liftopia CEO Evan Reece | Berkshire East &amp; Catamount Owner &amp; GM Jon Schaefer| Vermont Ski + Ride and Vermont Sports Co-Publisher &amp; Editor Lisa Lynn| Sugarbush President &amp; COO Win Smith| Loon President &amp; GM Jay Scambio| Sunday River President &amp; GM Dana Bullen| Big Snow &amp; Mountain Creek VP of Sales &amp; Marketing Hugh Reynolds | Get full access to The Storm Skiing Journal and Podcast at <a href="https://www.stormskiing.com/subscribe?utm_medium=podcast&amp;utm_campaign=CTA_4" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">www.stormskiing.com/subscribe</a>