Tomorrow

You’re invited to attend a special forum presented By Fernie Alpine Resort, Tourism Fernie, North American Snowsports Association, Fernie Getaways, Fernie Lodging Company and Lizard Creek Lodge at Park Place Lodge, Fireside Room, tomorrow, Thursday January, 23 at 5 – 8 p.m.

The agenda: Grey Issues in a White Mountain World.

Join visiting journalists from the North American Snowsports Association, a specially assembled group of panelists, and the good citizens of Fernie. We’re not going to solve all of the problems in the resort world, but we’re going to try! We’ll tackle three contentious topics with the assistance of long-time industry observers and those with true ‘skin in the game’ when it comes to the mountain lifestyle. Suggested time for each topic: 45 – 60 minutes. The moderator: Matt Mosteller.

Topic: Ah, The Good Old Days Panelists: Andy Cohen, Steven Threndyle, Jerry Hoffman and Peter Schroeder – Was skiing ‘more fun’ back in the ‘hot dog era’ of the 1970s? Do today’s skiers respect yesterday’s heritage? Does the demographic effect of aging baby boomers (and their knee replacement surgery) mean that the sport’s best days are behind it?

Topic: OK, guys, who’s paying for all of this? A Discussion on sponsorship, filmmakers, photographers and the future of media panelists: Krista Turcasso, Mike McPhee, and Steven Threndyle. When it came to ski movies in the early 1980s, there was ‘Miller Time,’ and that was about it. Until Greg Stump turned his camera on a burly mohawked skier out of Lake Tahoe called Glen Plake, Warren Miller movies were wholesome, corny, and rather uncool entertainment. The skiers, unless they were aligned with a ski school or otherwise in ‘the industry’ were unpaid. Stump’s movies, and fat endorsement contracts for the hundreds of skiers who followed – created a ‘new breed’ of professional skier.

One of the first places to embrace this new reality of ‘the sponsored skier’ and ‘media coverage’ was Island Lake Lodge, whose presence in the industry is felt even today. (Island Lake hosted the Sherpas Cinema crew for one of the most stunning All.I.Can. segments from 2011). Is there a future in being not only a professional skier, but photographer and videographer?

Well, So Much for Real Estate: Has the Second Home Market Vaporized & What Does That Mean for Our Sport? Panelists: Mike Delich, Andy Cohen and Steven Threndyle. Whether you’re a dirt-bag dishwasher or a McMansion dwelling second-home owner, we all need a place to live. The resort economy, however, is terribly cyclic: this year’s speculative boom will surely end in tears for overleveraged, credit un-worthy folks who can’t live ‘the mountain lifestyle’ within their means.

The Columbia Valley has seen several high profile foreclosures and sales in the past two decades – including this esteemed resort – and you definitely need some resilience in order to ‘make it’ in a resort town. Is there demand for future development based on current visitor trends, is the resort “sold out” at peak times, and is there an ‘investor play’ in owning resort properties? How have these cycles affected the townsfolk?

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