by RENEE PATRICK Cascade Business News Feature Writer
The conflict between Mt. Bachelor’s decision to cut spring skiing by three days a week, and the pass holders who saw the move as the final straw for a company that does not have their best interests in mind, came to an open forum setting on Wednesday night at the Riverhouse. After sitting through the two-hour exchange, many of the issues seemed to revolve around respect and communication.
Respect
Many local skiers and snow boarders attending the meeting said they do not feel respected by Mt. Bachelor and Utah-based owner Powdr Corp. For a company that asks upwards of a grand for a season’s pass, people wanted to know where the money is going especially as this season has seen many problems with lifts opening on time or not at all, parking lots not plowed in time for opening, delayed storm recovery efforts and recently the removal of Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday ski days during the spring season.
In the primarily calm and open exchange, locals explained their frustrations. The Mt. Bachelor management team listened and explained the only way out of their financial hole from the low attendance during this year’s holiday season would be to cut back on days of operation. After looking at their options, management decided cutting back on early week operations would be the best recourse as attendance on those days was historically the lowest and would have the least amount of impact.
However, the low impact management was referring to was focused on tourists, not local pass holders. Seniors and workers in the service industry (who traditionally have Mondays and Tuesdays off) spoke of their love of mid-week days at the mountain and their resentment at seeing them go. The first comment of the evening came from a lawyer questioning the legality of cutting back days of operation based on the contract he signed for a season’s pass. While that may or may not be a valid argument based on the language of the contract, it represented some of the dissatisfaction with the mountain’s decision.
Communication
In our days of instant communication and media forces like Facebook that can mobilize a population in a matter of hours or days, the responsibility of a business to communicate effectively to their customer base has never been more important. Responding to customer concerns and problems and knowing your customer base is extremely important as we have seen in recent mobilizing forces enabled by social media.
Mt. Bachelor holding the open forum was a positive outcome from the public outcry, however many feel this came too little too late. Personal anecdotes from the evening included lack of response to emails or letters or written complaints. Confusion on policies including RV camping and frustration over handicap parking continually covered with berms of snow painted a picture of pass holders trying to communicate with Mt. Bachelor, and Mt. Bachelor not responding effectively or at all.
Growing frustrations with how Powdr Corp has operated the mountain since their hostile takeover of the mountain in 2001 has led to a Facebook group called Community Buyout of Mt. Bachelor. An explanation of the formation reads, “The Community Buyout of Mt Bachelor has been formed to create a discussion forum and efficient communication link between the members of the Central Oregon community that would be interested in seeing Mt Bachelor become a community owned, financially viable, not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to providing a significantly better experience to local and non-local guests. By eliminating the profit motive of a corporate owner (Powdr Corporation), Mt Bachelor can be liberated to revise its operations for the benefit of its patrons and the Central Oregon community as a whole.”
How efforts to change some of Mt. Bachelor’s operations and even the creation of a locally owned ski mountain have yet to formally mobilize, there is passion among local pass holders. One of the final statements of the night sums it up, “In Bend we like to keep it local. Lets keep Mt. Bachelor local!”
