“Character can’t be manufactured. It grows out
of the people who frequent and live at your resort.”
– Rick Kahl. 2008
I’m going off again about
dysfunctional ski towns and broken social contracts and skewed cultural
imperatives when Rick Kahl finally interrupts.
“Aren’t you supposed to be asking
me
questions?” A friend and colleague since the
early 1990s, the 56-year-old editor of Ski Area Management Magazine has known
me long enough not to get sidetracked by my rhetoric. He smiles. Tries to
soften the blow. “Sorry — I mean, but wasn’t that supposed to be the
point of our conversation today…”
Touché
. So I try to shut my yap. After all, the guy
has just returned from the National Ski Area Association’s annual meeting in
San Francisco. And I know the shrewd-eyed Kahl will have insightful things to
say about the gathering of North America’s 500+ ski and snowboard areas.
Besides, a lifelong student of the game (he was top man at SKIING for many
years prior to his gig at SAM), Kahl always manages to reduce what appear to be
complex questions into simple, digestible issues. As long as I let him talk, of
course. For the soft-spoken Boulder resident isn’t the kind to compete for
airtime.
“So tell me then: what’s
your take on the state of the modern ski town?” I ask. And then: “Are you
optimistic about the future?
Kahl smiles. “Well since
you asked… First of all, I agree with you that ski towns are undergoing
profound changes right now. And I also agree that not all these changes are
positive ones.” He takes a deep breath. Continues. “You see, I believe that the
mountains are the overwhelming, dominant feature of mountain-town life. They
are the source of a town's character. Would Aspen ever have come into existence
if it were at the base of a mountain like Buttermilk instead of Ajax? Or at,
say, Keystone? No. It was the mountain that defined the town. Ditto Sun Valley,
Whistler, lots of places…”
But times change, says
Kahl. Ski towns aren’t quite so isolated from the mainstream as they once were.
“Today, people don't have to decide to live in the mountains or in the city.
More and more of them can live in both. And yes, some of these newcomers do
indeed consider the mountain as just another amenity.”
As in — better than
a new espresso machine but not as good as a full-service spa?
Don’t get bitchy, he
says. It doesn’t suit you.
Essentially, explains
Kahl, people are now importing their urban sensibilities to their chosen
mountain settings. “And I don't think that’s going to change any time soon,” he
adds. “These people appreciate the mountains almost as much as you do. They
don't experience the mountains in the same way, but that doesn't mean they are
any less committed to their mountain lifestyle. They have their own priorities,
and the mountains are one of them. They will keep on coming.”
And they’ll continue to
make an impact on ski town life. “Of course,” he says, “many mountain towns
have become so urbanized that it has begun to erode the original attraction of
the place. In some spots, there's not much of the original culture left, and
sometimes, that's a real loss. But is their new culture less worthy than the
original? That's a very hard question to answer. It seems to suit them fine.”
But Kahl doesn’t back
away from the question.
Au contraire.
He has very strong views on the subject. “My own answer is that the
growth has been mismanaged and misguided. We should have been able to
incorporate this influx of visitors to the mountain without displacing the
culture.”
He stops speaking. Mulls
over exactly what he wants to say next. “The continent’s big destination
resorts — from Aspen to Whistler, from Snowbird to Squaw — have all
focused their efforts on the high end to the exclusion of everyone else,
including the locals and ski bums who initially gave the resorts their
character. And that’s caused all sorts of disconnects.”
In other words, he says,
“it's OK to encourage wealthy folks to visit the mountains, and for resorts to
cater to them. But was it necessary to squeeze out everyone else to do so? I
don't think so, especially since it chased away some of the very people who
gave resorts cachet in the first place. Not to mention the people who allow the
resorts to operate…”
Sound familiar?
What I like most about
Kahl, is that he’s not afraid to question his own bias. And he doesn’t
disappoint here. “But that sort of criticism is way too easy to make,” he says.
“Life is never ideal, and anyway, it's far too late to ask for a do-over.
What's done is done. Where can we go from here to salvage the best possible
future? That's the question that interests me.” He laughs. “And I don't have a
clue what the answer is…”
He does have a few
suggestions however. “People are most themselves when they’re in the
mountains,” he says. “And Whistlerites know that more than anybody. When it’s
just you and the mountains — there’s no room for anything else. It’s just
too powerful a connection. And because of that connection, you can’t help but
be more yourself. To me, that’s one of the attractions of the sport.” It’s the
magic of sliding on snow in wintertime; the adventure of doing something
totally different than what you are used to in your everyday existence. “That’s
why I think our future is assured.”
He continues. “Whether a
guy is sleeping in a $50/night dorm room or basking in a $10 million slopeside
mansion, the experience on the mountain is what matters.” And forget about all
the other stuff, he says. “The more direct the experience with the mountain,
the better,” he believes. And that, adds Kahl, is particularly true for the new
wave of consumers coming through the pipe…
“We have a huge
opportunity right now,” Kahl explains. “There’s a whole new generation of kids
out there getting established in their careers and starting their own families
and looking for meaningful activities that they can share with their kids and
spouses and significant others.” He sighs. “But we’re not doing a great job
capturing their attention…”
He reminds me, by the
way, that current research reveals that there are over 220 different activities
that people say they do in their leisure time. Over 220…
“The competition for
leisure-time dollars is fierce,” he says. “And it’s particularly fierce when it
comes to capturing the hearts and minds of this particular group.”
But don’t be fooled. The
members of Generation Next are not at all like their Boomer elders. “In some
ways,” he says only semi-facetiously, “the best thing that could happen to the
ski business right now is for a major economic slowdown to occur.” Excuse me? He
laughs. “Because then maybe it would stop developers from continuing to create
resorts that cater mostly to the needs of Baby Boomers….”
As it stands, Kahl
doesn’t see how the current mountain resort model is sustainable. “The Boomers
are going to be gone in 10-15 years,” he says. “After that it will be all about
Gen X and their kids. But in the meantime are we making it attractive for them
to get involved?”
Not so much, he
concludes. “We have to do a whole lot more to accommodate young families,” he
says. For one, he explains, things have gotten out-of-hand expensive. “We have
to figure out how to make it reasonable for young parents to embrace the
considerable investment — both in time and energy — that it takes
to get involved in skiing and riding.” He takes another long breath. “And you
know, I’m just not sure that this new generation is willing to spend $200/day
on daycare at the mountain…”
But cost is not the only
challenge. “Current research is very clear on this,” he says. “The Gen X’ers
are interested in having as little between them and their experiences as
possible. They’re looking for a more direct, more organic — simpler even
— relationship with the mountain. They don’t want to be ‘protected’ from
the environment. They want to see and feel it in their faces.”
A return to past values?
“Exactly,” he says. Unfortunately, current big-resort destination trends are
moving in the opposite direction. And that’s very troubling to Kahl. “Our
window of opportunity is not huge,” he says. “If we can’t hook this group in
over the next four or five years, we’ve pretty much lost them for life.”
So much for the first
question. Should I assume he’s not very optimistic for the future then? Kahl
doesn’t say anything for a while. Finally he grins. “As long as we can successfully
convey all the great things about this sport to the next generation, we’ll be
fine,” he says. “And if all those fancy high-priced condos fall out of favour,
they will make sweet employee housing.”
