POWDR Sells Bachelor, Eldora, Silver Star & Killington – What’s Next?

If you haven’t heard, there’s a BIG shake-up in the ski industry happening this fall. POWDR Corp, one of the major ski conglomerates in North America owning ten ski resorts, isn’t selling one or two ski resorts but FOUR in their portfolio! What does this mean to these communities and the ski industry as a whole?

Not the First Time

For every Alterra and Vail mega pass, there are a host of other ones that have gone the way of the Dodo bird. Names such as Booth Creek, American Skiing Company, and Intrawest come to mind. And for POWDR, this isn’t their first time selling ski resorts either. Just last year, they sold Lee Canyon to Mountain Capital Partners. And in 2007 sold Alpine Meadows in Tahoe to JMA Ventures. From what it sounds like, they’re transitioning their business to be more year-round attractions.

Killington… Going Indy?

After more than four decades, the Beast of the East is going Independent. Being the most popular ski area east of the Rockies, you would’ve expected a big corporation to swoop in and offer a BIG pay day. Instead, POWDR Corp is selling to longtime Killington homeowners and passholders Phill Gross and Michael Ferri. While neither has direct ski area management, both have owned a home in the area since the 80s telling you that they care what happens to Killington in the future. They also intend to retain all staff, including longtime Killington and Pico President and General Manager Mike Solimano.

What About the Rest?

For the remaining ski areas on the list, POWDR will put them up for sale over the coming weeks. The one that really stands out in our minds is Mt. Bachelor. We’ve been visiting this mountain for spring skiing for almost two decades since it hosts some of the best corn on the planet alongside Mammoth. We have A LOT of friends that live in Bend and every one of them hasn’t been happy with the shortening of the ski season to Memorial Day, even though in most years they have enough to go into June or even later.

Is This the Canary in the Coal Mine?

While the consolidation of ski resorts will most likely continue, the selling of MULTIPLE ski areas might be a harbinger of things to come. The Indy Pass continues to be the fastest growing multi-resort pass. On the other side of the spectrum, Vail’s stock is at a 4-year low. To please shareholders, a lot of times companies sell some of their more unprofitable divisions to help their bottom line. Is this something that they’ll do? Who knows but it’ll be interesting this fall to see it all unfold.