Alterra Mountain Company discusses its support of ski racing

Palisades Tahoe course crew: GEPA Photos

Mark Brownlie is Alterra Mountain Company’s, Chief Operating Officer. Not long ago, he was an alpine coach with the Mammoth Mountain Ski and Snowboard Team. Fortunately for our community, he is directly connected to our sport.

While still coaching, the legendary former CEO Alan “Rusty” Gregory began mentoring Brownlie. Although he has risen through the ranks in management, Brownlie has retained his passion for competitive snow sports. He also appreciates the value local programs add to the ski areas and their communities.

Ski Racing Media sat down with him to gain insight into how Alterra perceives ski racing.

We asked if they had a company policy regarding how Alterra areas interact with the local teams. We learned much more.

Brownlie explains his motivation to support programs:

Alterra has a clear vision statement: We are one company made up of many unique brands, building a global mountain community together. Keeping Stratton unique, Snowshoe special, and Mont-Tremblant Tremblant is essential. We are committed to supporting these brands. We also have the IKON Pass with many participants, and they embrace the individuality of the resorts included in the IKON Pass. When considering the resorts we own, we believe that the resort president and all of their team members are directly responsible for the well-being of our mountain communities.

We have kept that philosophy throughout Covid. I was just at a fundraiser for all the kids’ programs in Mammoth and we raised 2.2 million dollars in one evening. Members of the community just wanted to give back to the club. But the responsibility for the wellbeing of the communities is not something we take lightly.  That’s what makes things fun and what we’re passionate about.  The people living in the Deer Valley community move there because of the mountains, and those are our people. We take pride in and responsibility for the health of our community.

To take it one step further, what is the most fundamental part of our communities? It’s the kids and creating easy access to the mountains. We have a variety of programs, including ski racing and snowboarding. We partner with Share Winter, where we host kids from inner cities at the resorts for a full four days so they can learn to love the sport. But we hope they have a career in the mountains just like us and join the community. So access for kids in our communities is our main priority.  We always say, ‘let the mountain be the coach.’

Dave McCoy (Mammoth Mountain founder) was a ski coach for many years. So we have ski racing in our DNA. Mammoth is not alone in working toward providing opportunities for kids. To name a few, I know Mike Morin at Stratton Mountain, Green Mountain Valley School at Sugarbush and Palisades Tahoe Ski Club all prioritize providing outstanding programs for kids.

Does Alterra a preference for independent teams or teams operated by the resorts?

Our commitment remains the same, whether it is our program, independent academies, or clubs. They’re our people. The challenges are always the same. Hill space, training space, especially during holidays when kids are out of school and we’re swamped. Those challenges are always there and it isn’t easy to find the right balance. But many members of our management teams have kids in the programs and are very supportive. Our management teams often discuss providing more access to non-Alterra programs from the nearby areas. They’re our people and they’re in our community.

But that balance between providing all we can for the programs and living within a budget while providing the best experience for our guests is always there, the balance of training space and turning the lifts on early. There are always additional needs and we get asked to do more. But there are always people at our resorts who are passionate and try to provide as much as possible. How can they get a winch cat on a hill and reverse till the preferred run and water inject the slope?

When asked about the complaints from the public:

We attempt to engage the people on the mountain about the success of the ski and snowboard teams. Years ago, we suggested that rather than putting up closed signs at training slopes, we’d put up signs that say we’re training future Olympians and fully tell their story. It was a turning point because, suddenly, people wanted to support the aspirations of the athletes. Suddenly, their response was supportive. Some of the people who had been frustrated even began asking how they could help.

We talk about ski racing and snowboarding with all of our resort presidents. We focus on this area because they are our most loyal customers. They’re also our generational guests. Granddads bring the grandkids and then the grandkids eventually bring their kids and they’re the most passionate members of our communities. They’re people that share the mountain with us as operators. So we talk about it a lot, but I don’t remember anyone ever saying, oh, my goodness, we shouldn’t be doing this.

Thoughts on hosting World Cups

Now there are three of them: The Palisades Tahoe men’s tech races, the Mont-Tremblant women’s tech events, and our oldest event, the Deer Valley freestyle World Cup.

When we have World Cups, the community theme is the same. It is about investing in our community and having inspirational events for our kids. It is what our resorts want, they want the best in the world to come and race on their hill and they have so much pride.

We’ve talked about the diesel cost, but consider the human capital that went into hosting those races. Think of the Palisade crew. The local team was out there 18, 19 hours a day, side slipping and shoveling and had to create the surface twice during a week.  They provided an extraordinary race surface.

It’s worth it to see our team members shine and the amount of pride they have in hosting an elite event. A leader of the course crew stood in the finish area and watched it on TV. He cried; he was so tired. He busted his butt. But he experienced such a sense of achievement. He was so excited to share that level of an event with all of the kids in the community. That’s super cool.

When asked about the branding value of hosting World Cups

Sharing our world-class venues with the world is essential to us. Being seen helps put Palisades Tahoe on the world map. They produced great racing seen around the globe. To share that with the world and inspire people to visit us is part of our global mountain community vision.

Jared Smith, our CEO, was in Europe with our KSL Chairman Eric Resnick looking at different ski resorts and they pinged me because Blue Mountain was on the TV in St Anton thanks to a parallel giant slalom snowboard race. Eric and Jared were excited because they didn’t even know we were hosting the event.

World Cups are the real deal. We share our amazing resorts with the world by hosting these significant events. It is a big commitment, but it’s a commitment that we’ve been making for years. In the end, it contributes to community wealth. We love showcasing the resorts and inspiring our kids. It’s just part of our brand and we’re proud to be a part of it.

We asked about Alterra’s willingness to help reduce the costs of development events hosted at their resorts

We’re constantly figuring out how to get to “yes” on these development events. We are also figuring out how to have more kids in our community participate in our programs, whether it’s school PE, ski and snowboard teams, or club activities. So, of course, we are always willing to consider everything. We’re always trying to be good partners.

When asked about his advice for the clubs who partner with them at their resorts

Dave McCoy and Rusty Gregory instilled this in me at Mammoth, but the best advice is to remember the mountain is your home. And that comes with a lot of responsibility. It’s best if you display good values and the right level of respect. When you’re at your home resort, please remember that other people are there. We don’t just treat our guests as guests; we treat them as our friends. We want to ask you to invite people to share the same mountain as you and ask you to help foster passion in them and make their experience uniquely gratifying. Again, you should always invest in others to help them become the best version of themselves. By doing that, we become the best version of ourselves.

Eric Resnick, who is the CEO of KSL Capital Partners, the owners of Alterra, had this to add

We are committed to partnering with ski clubs because they are a significant part of the heart of our communities and represent the sport’s heritage. Typically the clubs involve hundreds or even thousands of youth, most of whom live in our local communities. Youth sports are hugely important to any community, and snowsports often fill that role in mountain towns. We give the resorts full autonomy, but they know we support and encourage these programs. We’d be crazy not to.