The multi-national trip started in Denver on January 18, when 46 ski area owners and operators from nine different countries (Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Greece and Jugoslavia) began a 10-day tour of western ski areas. The trip was organized by Motor in Schnee (a European equivalent of SAM) and Rolba of Zurich, a ski area equipment supplier. Thiokol supplied coordinating help in the U.S.
The trip, which was designed to introduce the group to U.S. management techniques and ski area design, was mostly business, (European tax collectors look at junkets with an even beadier eye than ours do) but the participants managed to fit in a fair amount of skiing. (Kent Hoopingarner of Snowbird, showing them around, shook his head and marveled, “These guys really ski a mountain. They never stop!)
The group was uniformly favorably impressed with what they saw. The western host areas went out of their way to be helpful and welcoming, and our very best foot was forward when it came to the glorious weather and superb snow conditions.
The participants were perhaps most impressed with the friendliness and apparent motivation of ski area employees they encountered. “You just couldn’t get an Austrian lift attendant to be friendly with the customers and smile as yours do,” one area owner from near Salzburg commented. “Is this just western hospitality, or do you have it all over?” a Swiss manager wanted to know.
Another point that impressed everyone was the planning that goes into our ski resorts. “In Europe,” a Swiss ski area owned said, “we are more likely to expand and build new lifts without taking into account all the elements that you study. We make emotional decisions to build lifts. So, in Zermatt, a new high-capacity lift delivers thousands of skiers to the Sunegga region which doesn’t begin to have the facilities to handle them.”
The Europeans were particularly impressed also with the candor of the management people they met. All their questions were answered, even those involving marketing facts, figures and strategy. “You Americans are extraordinary,” an Italian volunteered; “I would never give out this sort of information about my area. I was even embarrassed when the question was asked!”
From a technical point of view, the consensus was that our grooming was excellent, but that they had tougher terrain to groom. (“Only Snowbird looked like the Austrian Alps; the others looked more like the French Alps.”) Everyone, however, was amazed at the number of hours we routinely put on a grooming vehicle in a winter—on an average over three times as many as the Europeans do.
Several in the group expressed surprise that there was not more TV monitoring of lift operations for manpower conservation. Our code restrictions in this connection did not seem to make sense to them.
The first stop on the tour was Winter Park where Dave Shelton gave a presentation on early grooming techniques and the use of snow-making equipment. A good deal of interest was shown in Winter Park’s snowmaking program. The group was surprised at the short pay-back period on an expensive system. This is obviously an area where American technology and “know-how” can be of value to Europeans.
From Winter Park the group headed for Vail. A full day of activities began with Herb Eaton, Joe Macey and Phil Deters outlining Vail’s trail grooming operations, skier safety program and snowmaking procedures. At the close of the ski day, Vail’s grooming team demonstrated their skills on the trails of Lions Head. Over coctails that evening, Dave Mott and Dean Kirkling discussed the new Beaver Creek Ski Area pointing out the numerous government agencies involved in the development process. The comment was made that this problem is not unique to the U.S. Although it takes a shorter time to establish a new ski area in Europe, there are still many bureaucratic departments to satisfy.
Perhaps the shocker of the trip was meeting Stacy Standley, Mayor of Aspen, whose informal and “mod” demeanor didn’t fit at all with the European perception of what a Herr Burgermeister should be. Stacy, together with Joe Porter of Design Workshop, lectured the group on the economics of operating a ski area and on ski area planning. Stacey’s experience of the interaction between ski areas and local government was particularly interesting to the group.
Before leaving Colorado the group visited Steamboat, where vehicle maintenance and slope grooming were highlighted. Bob Werner arranged a wine and cheese party in the maintenance shop which coincided with a discussion on vehicle service procedures. This helpful mix of instruction and conviviality continued through dinner, when Gary Kline had his well-trained crew groom the ski slope in full view of the dining room windows.
On arrival in Utah, Jay Price welcomed the group to the United States on behalf of the N.S.A.A. Leon Fitzerald presented Snowbird’s avalanche control procedures and Bill Moss defined his methods for grooming steep terrain. The next day, for a change of pace, the visitors toured the Wasatch Division of Thiokol Corporation where they saw some of the preparations for the upcoming space shuttle program.
The final day of the tour took the group to the Sierras, where skiing and gambling were the order of the day at Squaw and Heavenly Valley and South Lake Tahoe. No heavy gains or losses were reported at the tables!
At the end of the trip participants were asked to rate the operations they had seen on the basis of a comparison with the “average” European ski area. (The questionnaire was, perhaps, a little tilted in our favor because the areas they visited here could hardly be called “average” U.S. ski areas!) Nonetheless, the results are revealing. Our food quality, maybe predictably, scored lowest, and employee behaviour scored highest.
But the best summary of impressions came from a young, bright Jugoslav: “Speaking as a competitor, I’m just glad your resorts are six thousand miles away from my market!”
