Open Letter from Mammoth CEO Rusty Gregory re: this terrible season

[RichieCski]

http://forums.mammothmountain.com/vi...p?f=14&t=12472

As much shit as this guy takes, this is extremely refreshing and reassuring to see moving forward for the rest of this season. I've skied a lot of places, East and West, never seen a front office guy reach out like this to their employees first as well as customers. Kudos.

[thudder]

I like it that he appears to be looking out for his employees: "We are going to keep our seasonal employees and year-round employees. If hours of work get too thin for some, we will feed each of them every night to make it possible for them to stay in town."

A pretty decent (and likely smart) gesture.

[rideit]

I pity the foo who needs to call him and 'Get Set Straight!'!

[RichieCski]

^^ for sure, that part did make me lawl a bit

[mmmthmtskier]

He's banking on low snow in CO and UT and skiers are going to ski and MMSA might be the only game in the Western US.
This letter is to his employees and not for their customer base. Not to be cynical, but I've seen these kinds of letters before from my own employer.
If there is follow through, however, RG will be beloved by his staff for sure. I guess this also will help the town in a sense.

I guess it was a good year to not renew my MVP Club pass...

[AltaAndy]

pretty cool letter, most big bosses never think to thank the front line employees like that. will be interesting to see if they follow through or if it's just cheap talk.

[Eastside]

Fact is low snow years with good snowmaking usually means great skiing experiences for the holiday vacation skiers. I could not begin to imagine but there may actually be more money to be made this year at a place like Mammoth than last year. I can't imagine the amount of money spent on managing the massive amounts of snow coupled with excessive chair closures throughout the season due to storm closures. The majority of skiers just don't even buy tickets on the days it pukes.

The ski business is pretty slow from the end of the Xmas holidays to Spring break. Considering Mammoth can literally go from nothing open/no snow to 100% open in one storm, laying off/losing employees during the dog days of winter would be really bad considering the skiers will come in March and April and you need bodies to serve them. Mammoth just does not have the massive population base of the Tahoe area to pick up employees when needed-gotta keep em in town.

With regard to the fact there is literally no snow in the Sierra, I am more wondering what that will do to the water situation than when and if I will ever break out my sled or get any powder turns.

[gimpy]

heh. yeah, unless we get the "miracle march" n beyond the drought and fire season are gonna be for real next summer

[astralboy15]

Seasons are changing, it will now snow from March to September.....I guess no one got the memo? But following through with his plan will be the best business decisions he'll ever make.

[hutash]

It was a good thing for Rusty to do, but it is not without precedent, as Dave McCoy did this and more several times. I am glad to see Mammoth acting a bit less corporate and more of the big family it was for so many years.

I know Rusty tries to maintain the atmosphere that Dave created, but I am sure it is difficult in this corporate world of bean counters and shareholder meetings.

Good onya Rusty.

For the majority of guests at Mammoth they will see little difference this year from last, other then a few less groomed runs. Face it, the majority of Mammoth tourists ski groomers, and the groomers are in very good shape right now. Not as much as normal, but the Canyon and Main Lodge areas have to be close to 80-90% open. For those of us who ski anything but the groomers, there is zero percent skiable, not even a few hike to turns.