Ep.22 - Community - The most important piece of any ski area.

Community. A community is defined as a social group of people who share common characteristics, interests, identities, or geographic locations. Common Characteristics like a garage full of gear for every mountain-related sport, interests like a love for sliding fast down mountains together, identities like the casual nod when goggle tan game recognizes goggle tan game late into the Summer, and geographic locations like anywhere there is slope, snow and people wanting to slide down it.   Skiing at its very core is about community. It was started by communities and welcomes people from all over to come join their community for vacation.  The ski experiences we all love were, at one time, created by and for a passionate group of people with shared interests, and the ski resorts over time that have flourished and been the most successful have been those that lean into supporting, promoting, encouraging, embracing and growing alongside that community. I did a quick search, and the word community came up 168 times in the first 20 episodes of this series. After twenty episodes, we’ve talked about snowmaking, marking, pricing, infrastructure and more,  But when you really start digging into why some ski areas thrive for decades while others struggle, those things aren't usually the differentiators. The differentiator is community. Not the word community that gets tossed into every strategic plan and mission statement. Actual community. The relationship between a ski area and the people who live around it. The people who work there. Raise their kids there. Volunteer there. Argue about the lift line there. And eventually defend that ski area when somebody threatens what makes it special. Today, we're exploring that relationship through the eyes of operators from some of the most successful, unique, and community-minded ski areas we've featured on Selling Snow. We'll hear perspectives ranging from destination resorts to community-owned ski hills, from nonprofit operations to independent family businesses. But together they paint a pretty compelling picture of what community means in the ski industry. Let's go ski an off the trail map run, as we talk community with some of the best in the business.