Two ski areas bid farewell to longtime chiefs
Last Sunday was the last day at the office for resort bosses Rich Moorhead and Chris Diamond, whose careers spanned the decades in which Colorado established itself as the country’s ski capital.
“It’s a whole different world from the ski business I knew in the ’70s,” said the 68-year-old Diamond, who spent 15 years at the helm of Steamboat ski area and 43 years in the resort business.
It’s a changing of the guard for Colorado’s ski resort industry, a shift mirrored at resorts across the nation as time-tested veterans from the 1970s hand reins to the next generation of leaders.
Moorhead, 61, climbed the ranks of Chaffee County’s Monarch ski area from a chair-bumping lift operator in 1976 to general manager for the past 22 years.
As the resort world leaned toward condo-heavy villages and, more recently, consolidation,
Moorhead’s Monarch thrived as a regional destination drawing families and locals. Monarch has grown — and made money — despite its lack of a base village, hotel or even snowmaking, three supposed requisites for the survival of a ski resort.
Those high-speed lifts, the fancy lodging and the Mother Nature-proofed snow don’t amount to much without the right people, Moorhead said.
“The people in this business are what make it different. Most of us are here because we like skiing. And with that commonality, we have a great time at our jobs,” said Moorhead, a week shy of his final day. “These are my friends as well as my colleagues, really across the industry. There’s not that hard-core competitiveness you see in other industries.”
Among the commonalities shared by the two elder statesmen of Colorado skiing is the relationship between their ski areas and their communities. In an age when resorts and skitown locals clash over expansions and operations, Monarch and Steamboat foster a strong relationship with their locals and business communities in Salida and Steamboat Springs.
That wasn’t the case when Diamond took over management of Steamboat ski area in 1999, two years after American Skiing Co. paid $305 million for the resort and Heavenly in California. American Skiing’s controversial captain, Les Otten, didn’t engender much love from locals. Stickers reading “More snow, Less Otten” multiplied on local bumpers.
“When Chris walked in there, it was not good. Today, Steamboat is truly one of the great brands in U.S. skiing,” said Bill Jensen, the Intrawest chief who retired
“Rich has a great focus on the needs of small areas and group business, and he has helped the industry stay focused on the role that areas like Monarch play overall. Chris is the guy who can steer the way forward when everybody is focused on their own self-interest. He has that gravitas and thoughtful experience. And both of them have a twinkle in their eye.”
Melanie Mills, Colorado Ski Country president
late last year. “Chris came in and used his leadership skills to align the community and the mountain for the overall success of the valley.”
Steamboat sold to Intrawest in 2006 for $265 million a couple of months after the resort operator was acquired by a New York hedge fund for nearly $3 billion in a highly leveraged deal.
Despite the rotation of owners, the Routt County ski area has remained vibrant through industry shifts that include discounted season passes, consolidation and the varying impacts of a changing climate.
Diamond credits his area’s success with its healthy airline program, which secures consistent nonstop flights from eight major U.S. cities that deliver a steady stream of vacationing skiers.
But more so, Diamond said, employees have made Steamboat one of the most successful ski areas in the nation. (Under his tenure, Steamboat has seen its revenue-based payments to the U.S. Forest Service double to more than $1.5 million a year in 2014, meaning the resort takes in twice as much money as it did in the late 1990s.)
“Everybody here is on the same page. We all know how important it is to establish a relationship with your guest,” said Diamond, moments before he anchored a ceremony honoring the season’s top front-line and internal employees.
Monarch, too, has blossomed under Moorhead, who has worked for six owners.
The 800-acre ski area has seen its revenue soar as well, with its revenue-based payments to the Forest Service climbing 30 percent between 2013 and 2014.
“We bought an old jalopy 13 years ago and now have a sleek, fast roadster. All of the upgrades and changes were Rich’s vision,” said Bob Nichols, whose investment team has pumped $8 million of upgrades into the ski area since buying it for $5.1 million in 2002.
Nichols is taking over as manager of PowderMonarch LLC, the ownership group, while six-year director of base operations Randy Stroud is the new general manager of the ski area.
Moorhead is one of Monarch’s owners. Ask about the highlights of his tenure and he notes big expansion plans on the books, his push into the expert hike-to terrain known as Mirkwood, adding one of the state’s top snowcat operations, building a new rental center and revamping his base lodge.
But he often returns to those summers 30 years ago, cutting down trees to clear ski runs.
“Being a part of cutting some of the trails here, every time I go ski there I think about those days,” Moorhead said.
Moorhead’s and Diamond’s impacts spread beyond their own ski hills. They both serve on many boards, including the one that guides Colorado Ski Country, the trade group that somehow herds 21 different — and competitive — resorts in a single direction.
“Rich has a great focus on the needs of small areas and group business, and he has helped the industry stay focused on the role that areas like Monarch play overall,” Colorado Ski Country president Melanie Mills said. “Chris is the guy who can steer the way forward when everybody is focused on their own self-interest. He has that gravitas and thoughtful experience. And both of them have a twinkle in their eye. And they love to get out on the mountain and rip.”
Neither of the lifelong skiers is going far. They’re both sticking around their towns and their hills, doing some consulting, helping out where they can, just not seven days a week.
“I like to say Steamboat is my first home and my vacation home,” Diamond said. “I’m not going anywhere.”