Powderhorn owner aims to recapture skiers from other resorts

By Dave Buchanan
Thursday, August 18, 2011

Longtime Colorado ski industry executive Andy Daly and his business partners, Tom, Ken and John Gart, on Aug. 4 purchased Powderhorn Ski Resort and 710 undeveloped acres immediately adjacent to the resort.

Daly began his ski-industry career as a ski patrolman at Aspen Highlands in 1968 and since then has served in various mid- and upper-level management positions, including president of Copper Mountain Resort and Vail Resort.

He served two terms as chairman of the board for Colorado Ski Country USA, and in 2000 he was inducted into the Colorado Ski & Snowboard Museum Hall of Fame.

He still skis 60 days a year, although last winter he suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee, and his recuperation from surgery entailed missing a few days.

Daly, 65, lives in Vail and runs a real estate development investment company, Gore Peaks Investments LLC. He and his wife, Lucinda, whom he met while at Aspen, have been married for 37 years.

The Daily Sentinel caught up with Daly recently when he was in Grand Junction.

Some questions and answers have been edited for brevity.

DS: What attracted you to Powderhorn?

Daly: After a few friends in Grand Junction called me and made me aware of the resort, I started talking to local business and government officials, and they confirmed what I had seen by hiking the mountain: It’s a great ski mountain. I then contacted (former Powderhorn owner) Steve Bailey, whom I’ve known for many years, and the more I learned, the more I liked about the resort.

 

DS: What particularly stood out about Powderhorn?

Daly: It’s got a good mix of what I call great commercial terrain, in terms of lots of good intermediate terrain, some challenging terrain and some good beginner terrain. And reading the reports from the Colorado Tramway Board told me these guys really took care of their lifts; they are in great shape.

 

DS: What is your business plan for Powderhorn?

Daly: When we looked at the demographics of this community (prior to buying the resort), we found that it’s a very active community. People here love to hike, ski, hunt, ride bikes, you name it. A lot of them are skiing, but not at Powderhorn. They are driving past us to get to Vail, Beaver Creek, Crested Butte, Telluride, Aspen. We feel that if we enhance the skiing experience with improved snowmaking and a better lift system, more of those skiers will come back to Powderhorn.

When we looked at comparable resorts, it told us that if we nurture this resort over the next five years, I would expect to see (Powderhorn averaging) 100,000 skier-visit days.

 

DS: Does “better lift system” mean Powderhorn may get a high-speed lift?

Daly: My goal is to improve the riding time, and we’re going through that evaluation right now. It remains to be seen depending on how many additional skiers we can recapture, and if we’re successful at that, we’re certainly going to consider high-speed technology.

 

DS: Any immediate plans, say, prior to opening day in mid-December?

Daly: The biggest thing right now is just getting the (operation) permit transferred through the Forest Service. Everything else is pretty well taken care of. We don’t have a whole lot of time for exploring alternatives to the Take Four lift but potentially may add a midway loading for those skiers wanting to ski the upper half of the mountain, enhance the snowmaking at the bottom of the mountain, and we’re also looking at putting in a tubing hill.

 

DS: What would a high-speed lift cost?

Daly: About $4 million to replace the entire lift. Everybody likes to say we got a great deal on the resort, and I agree, but you have to look at the overall costs of really doing all the deferred maintenance and all the additional improvements that will allow us to be viable in the long term. And reading the Tramway reports tells us of the commitment the other owners had in their upkeep and in the safety of their guests. The main lift system is in excellent condition.

 

DS: All these things cost money. Are we going to see an increase in ticket prices?

Daly: We’re really trying to provide great value, and this year our season passes will be below where they were last year. We’re still talking about single-day tickets. One of our objectives is to get people to come back and try the area, and our commitment is we are going to run the resort in as efficient a manner as possible and pass those savings on to our guests.

 

DS: What about the current employees and what sort of management team will be in place?

Daly: Steve Bailey attracted a cadre of great people working for him, and I hope most of them will decide to stay with us. We talked to the employees (Aug. 10) and told them we want to keep the current team. The resort is a major employer, especially in Mesa and that part of the county, and it would be tragic to lose that many people.

 

DS: You didn’t purchase the Wildewood Inn. Is not owning any housing at the area a hindrance?

Daly: Not really. The new owners are really excited about the resort, and I think it’s great to have someone else up there with skin in the game. We’re going to develop a symbiotic relationship with them, but Powderhorn is a day resort, and from a local perspective we have a tremendous resource in Grand Junction. We are going to work with the Grand Junction lodging and business community to see if we can’t grow destination traffic for people who are more price sensitive. It’s a niche Powderhorn really can fill.

 

DS: What about the 700 acres at the base of the resort?

Daly: When I say long term, I’m looking eight to 10 years out. By creating a solid foundation of a well-run and efficiently managed ski resort, we can add value to the 710 acres to where it may have the potential for a small resort community or a regional resort. But that’s the long-term vision, and we’ve only been here (two weeks).

 

DS: Will we be seeing you at Powderhorn?

Daly: I’ll be pretty active at least in the early tenure, but we’re searching for a general manager who will run the resort on a day-to-day basis. We want him or her to live in the Grand Valley and be a part of the community. Whatever community I’ve been involved with, I’ve tried to make that a better community to live in, and this has been true in Summit County, Boulder (when he ran Eldora Ski Area), and now it’s true in Vail. I just think that each person has the obligation to give back to their community, so I will be involved for sure, and I will make sure our general manager is very actively involved.