AI at Altitude: How Derek Egbert Used Data to Bring Real-Time Intelligence to One of the World's Most Complex Operations

A ski resort on a busy Saturday is one of the most logistically complex operations on the planet: thousands of acres, dozens of lifts, tens of thousands of guests, unpredictable weather, and a staff spread across an entire mountain. For years, operators had to manage all of it on instinct and radio calls. In this episode, we sit down with Derek Egbert, former VP of Operational Insights at Vail Resorts, to talk about what it actually looks like to bring data and AI into a world this complicated. Derek walks us through how Vail moved from reactive ops to real-time decision-making, what surprised him most about the human side of change management on a mountain, and what the rest of the venue and resort industry can learn from ski. If you run a complex physical operation and you're still managing by gut, this one is for you.