Headlined “Hanging in the Balance,” the story by BBR Editor Kevin Max quotes former lift maintenance manager as saying she quit in disgust in January because management wouldn’t let her do her job right and “she didn’t want the responsibility of the potential disaster unfolding at Mt. Bachelor.”
“I can’t work for a company that won’t take their guests and employees’ safety seriously,” the manager is quoted as saying. “Not only that, they have been breaking the law on a regular basis -bypassing safety that shouldn’t have been while operating to the public, not doing the proper maintenance – but they’ve been doing it knowingly. Any time I brought it up, they would just point the finger at me and tell me that I was just trying to cause trouble.”
According to the story, the manager kept daily logs of “safety bypasses” on every lift, and the logs “show that the Northwest and Summit lifts, in particular, were running more on hope than health.”
BBR says Matt Janney, Mt. B’s former manager – who was fired in May – did not return phone calls and e-mails asking for comment on the story, and neither did Powdr Corp, the owner of the resort, or MountainGuard, its insurance company. “Mt. Bachelor insisted it needed more time than the six days given to answer the author’s questions, yet Mt. Bachelor did not answer them after more than three weeks,” Max writes.
Mt. Bachelor has plenty to say on its website, though.
In its “letter of response” it rips the story’s “unfair and unsubstantiated accusations,” claims that it “contains a plethora of blanket statements, assumptions, hyperbole, misleading and even incorrect statements” and accuses Max of practicing “tabloid journalism.”
Bachelor claims it “provided answers to [Max’s] pertinent questions, despite unrealistic and artificial deadlines” and goes on to allege that “throughout his investigation there have been numerous examples of unprofessional, often profane behavior directed toward the current and former employees of Mt Bachelor, POWDR, and our business partners and colleagues.”
After going through a rebuttal of some of the points in the BBR story, Bachelor asserts that “the mountain is committed to a proactive and aggressive position with regard to lift maintenance, and … guest safety is the resort’s top priority,” concluding: “It is our hope that readers of Bend Business Review will take this story for what it is – a sensationalized story from a journalist with a personal agenda and nothing more.”
HOOOO-ah!
The Eye has a strong suspicion we haven’t heard the last of this from either side.
This article appears in Jun 19-25, 2008.
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Great title and great article. There needs to be more ex-employees telling it like it is. Mt. B. is a disaster! Kudos to those who step up and try to ensure public safety. I am appalled by the e-mail response by Jon Cumming. What a shallow response, really disgusting.
BBR is a great magazine and Kevin Max a great journalist. Kevin is not some dude from the National Enquirer that came to Bend to write garbage cause he could not find a real job. He came from the New York TImes, one of the best newspapers in the world and knows how to do his research. Too bad Mt. B. wants to slam him as it makes them more guilty. Mt. B sent out a letter to all pass holders and essentially “slammed” Kevin and BBR and tried to discredit him and the employee that came forward with the real dirt. This employee in my opinion is a super hero for putting her integrity ahead of a paycheck. Not many who would have done the same. I speaks volumes about the lack of integrity of Matt, Dan and Dave the three former presidents. They all KNEW this was the state of affairs with the lifts. However they were more concerned with fat paychecks.
So why write an article at all on Mt. Bachelor? In a way Kevin has wasted his time as the weak and those with no morals or ethics will continue to spend their money up there and Powdr will continue to run the ski area as they have in the past, now with a “new president” which they did a “nationwide search” for….LOL very funny but we are not that stupid.
I believe every word the manger has been quoted and the living proof is all of us who spend hours sitting on chairs and being forced to hike out of NW when it broke down due to fear of a major lift disaster ( as that was the real story). Mt. B’s attorney team has covered up major accidents for the last five years and refused to pay out a dine to those who have lost time from work due to their shoddy maintenance or lack of maintenance.
Instead of Mt. B. sending out a hate mail letter to all the pass holders, why not dispute the claims in BBR and prove to us with logs and records of how well the lifts have been maintained? Why? Because there has been no budget for maintenance at Mt. B. Sources have revealed that Matt had a budget this year to maintain and fix the lifts, yet spend no money on them……reason he got fired? I would venture to guess that this was the case along with being highly incompetent and having been hated in this community for years in addition to trying to micromanage everyone trying to do their jobs to the point of futility as everything had to be done “Matt’s way or the highway”.
Mt. B managers seem to be missing the point. If the ski area had been managed correctly years ago, when Powdr took over and people were treated like guests instead of sheep then there would be no reason for Kevin Max to write at all. No one would be complaining and instead be loyal to the area like the great ski areas in the USA. The current management and former management have been too focused on cutting corners and more interseted in making money. Nothing wrong with turning a profit, but at the expense of our safety then it becomes an issue open for massive scrutinization and open to questions..
If Mt. B. had a ski area across the street from it, it would have been bankrupted years ago.
My choice and that of my family are not to spend a single penny at the ski area and wait about four to five years before going back up there. When they can have an open house and prove, yes PROVE they have maintained the lifts and they have been signed off on by people from the lift manufacturers…then and only then will I ride the lifts again. However they are not willing to do this as they cannot prove a thing. So instead they attack Kevin Max as a “sensationalist” and attempt to discredit him. If they could spend this much energy on slamming Mr. Max, then why are they not focusing that same energy on fixing the issues that we all KNOW FOR A FACT are real and not made up fiction?
The recent facist email sent to all pass holders was just the cherry on the cake. For John Cummins to have written a letter like this to pass holders probably backfired on him. I read this rotten letter and finalized my decision to not buy a season pass for the next three years. Kevin Max speaks the truth for the people who have had enough.
If Mt. Bachelor were run like Park City or Aspen or Vail, then there would be no complaints and no reason for a journalist to write on topics like Mt. Bachelor as I am sure there are more interesting topics to cover. Like this last post, until MT.Bachelor can prove as in show all of us customers records of maintenance and prove to us via people from Doppelmayr that the lifts are safe, then no reason to sit on a chair that is broken down as I would rather hike for my turns.
Lets all have fun skiing this winter and enjoy the sport, something that Powdr Corp has lost along the way with putting profits before skier experience.
Hoodoo and Willamette Pass are not that far from us as well as other areas like Anthony Lakes and Mt. Hood Meadows. For a family of four, buying four passes for 400 bucks a peice and paying for gas is less than buying four at 900 a peice and paying to drive to our area. Meadows has night skiing, real ambiance and food that one can digest without getting sick.
the difference in passes is over two thousand dollars and one can buy a lot of fuel for that difference. Surely some more time to drive to Meadows, but out of principal it will give us all some more family time.
I read the email from Mt. Bachelor before I had read the article in BBR and now that I have read it I have to agree with the BBR as the guy who wrote this has no profit motive to write an article like this. It was well written and the woman who came forward is a hero in my opinion. Getting a letter from John Cummins at this point was poor taste and like most of my peers are not going to buy passes at Mt. Bachelor again.
The people in this town need to stop complaining. Go visit another ski area and when you come back youâ ™ll realize how lucky we are to have a resort like Mt. Bachelor.
Ski lifts break down â ” it doesnâ ™t matter where you ski or ride. The article lacks substance and is completely biased. The conditions at Bach donâ ™t always allow the lifts to run perfect but they also create some of the best skiing around. Maxâ ™s article is nothing more than the story of a disgruntled employee trying to get back at her ex employer.
Maybe Kevin Max should move back to New York so he has something to write about. This is the second time heâ ™s stooped to low to slam the local mountain. Business must be pretty lousy for his publications.
Yea.. the best skiing around is true, unfortunatly you can’t rely on Mt. B lift system to get your turns in…
If anyone thinks the lift break down situation is normal, they have not been out of this area or skied anywhere else.
It sounded to me like that was not a disgruntled employee at all.. and what exactly was she trying to get back at? she resigned right?
I think Central Oregon Skiers who buy lift tickets are disgruntled… like me. Kevin Max is a writer, pointing out a messed up buisness in CO, a long time issue.. so what? thats his job.
“Go visit another ski area and when you come back youâ ™ll realize how lucky we are to have a resort like Mt. Bachelor.”
I haven’t been to many ski areas but people who have tell me Mt B is not that outstanding by world or US standards. Advanced skiers in particular say the terrain isn’t challenging enough. Of course there isn’t anything ski area management can do about that.
I have heard from many, MANY frequent local skiers that the grooming at Mt B isn’t as good as it was before Powdr took over and the lift breakdowns are more frequent. Not having skied myself since the takeover, I can’t verify these complaints. But I can’t see what motive those people would have for making things up.
“The chairlift operator had not been informed that the emergency stop button on the chair had been deactivated, according to Forest Service documents.”
am wondering why would anyone jump out an emergency shutdown button, or possibly, circuit? i believe there are certain unmentionable risks to this action.
‘Most of the issues that have occurred have been gearbox issues, not safety-related, Wesseler said. The gearbox is like the transmission of a car for the chairlift, and doesnâ ™t affect the liftâ ™s safety, he said.’
It doesn’t? What if the mainshaft breaks, which they’ve had happen before on Rainbow, I believe?
“There is no such thing as a safety bypass log, and therefore no way for a log that does not exist to be considered a requisite document under federal code and Mt. Bachelorâ ™s special use permit.”
Well, sort of.
ANSI B77.1-2006
3.3.2.5.9 d)- ‘The use of a bypass circuit shall be logged and shall indicate when, who authorized, and for what duration a bypass was used.’
Hay Mt. B Management & employees-
“Better a cruel truth than a comfortable delusion”
local website concerning our mt.
mtbachelor-insider dot com
Like any business in history it boils down to survival of the fittest. We have all been lied to for years about this ski area. The managers were completely useless as human beings and managers, no integrity, no honor and no brains. Lets look at the idea of the silver surfer….who in the world would assume that this would bring in more skiers and boarders? What the F—? Just a prime example of how marketing and management have been so clueless for years. Their focus has been to attract the Seattle and SF crowd as well as Portland and spent thousands of dollars on BS advertising and marketing to an area with solid competition for market share. Us locals have never counted and our former managers made a point of letting us know this with going as far as “blacklisting” skiers who did not agree with DM, DR and MJ.
I am done with the whining and complaining and with no relief in sight I will go ski HooDoo and W. Pass and Meadows as the costs is not that much greater. Out of pure principal I would rather drive to some other area than keep condoning shitty service and dangerous lifts.
The woman who came foward in the media with Kevin Max is a brave woman and told us the truth. Powdr’s attempt to discredit this woman is proof of low class, lack of accountability and downright slanderous. To also know that the US Forest Service was in on this and has been for years is disturbing and I am sending out protest letters to all of the sources provided by Kevin Max in his recent article.
It is sad and downright evil when a ski area focuses on contributing to the problem and skirts the hard issues to attempt to cover it up.
As a season pass holder getting an email from JC at Powdr affirmed not buying a pass for years at this ski area. Low budget, low class and affirms my beliefs.
JC could have sent a letter instead stating ” we apologize to the community for our lack of service and safety and are working hard to overcome these issues to better satisfy the residents of Bend and want to show our gratitude to the local skiers and boarders by proving we have what it takes to run a first class ski area” Instead it was a SLAM on Kevin Max. Hearing Kevin’s side of this story and how he was blatantly ignored by Powdr, Matt Janney, US Forest Service and no records provided to him according to the freedom of information act speaks volumes and his article was rather downplayed and mild compared to what it could have been and scared people like myself from ever wanting to ride a lift at Mt. Bachelor without having my own lift evac gear.
The truth is much worse than Kevin is capable of writing. We have put up with this crap for 2 decades…lets all stop with our whining and just seize to give our money to them. Let them for once compete for our dollars. We are simply not appreciated as customers. They have taken us for granted for years and know it.
To have the proponents of Mt. Bachelor state we have a world class area need to get out more or get out for once and realize that this place is at a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10. Comparing prices with other World Class ski resorts is almost funny but borders on pathetic.
Being someone that only skied 8 days on my pass this year due to fear of the lifts I am insulted and paid a premium to ski at a mediocre ski area and I will not repeat this again in the near future.
Pass prices need to break even at 7 to 9 days of skiing, not at 24 days of skiing. Pass prices need to be at $499.00
If we all band together and not go soft when October comes around we can all dictate the season pass prices for the future. If no one buys a season pass this year, then we , the consumer set the price for a season pass. However most will buckle and go back to bitching about the ski area and continue to give them our money.
If you are like me and sick of this mess, then simply do not respond to them for a couple to three years and the attitude and service will change drastically.
Local skier
Wah Wah Wah.
If you don’t like it, take your lazy juju to the backcountry. Nobody’s holding a gun to your head to make you ride the lift.
All this really makes me appreciate Bill Healy. I grew up in Oregon and had a casual acquaintance/friendship with the srea founder, Mr. Healy. He knew me well enough to pull my pass for skiing out of control once. Truly. I can still hear his infuriated voice calling my name. Back then the area office was on Minnesota street and you could walk right in and talk to the boss, as I had to, to get my pass back.
But Mr. Healy is gone. And the area has completely lost
touch with its customers in his absence. It has broken faith with its public and with the wonderful, enobling sport of alpine skiing. On the rare occasions that I visit Mt. Bachelor, I look at the statue of Mr. Healy in front on one of the lodges. Those who knew Mr. Healy know that it is a very poor likeness. but I don’t think Bill wouldn’t recognize the ski area he founded, either. Because its not about the things that motivated him: love of sport, service to the public, enhancement of our community. It’s just another federal concessionairre now, about nothing more than the bottom line, run by a bunch of greenshade types from (Horrors) California.
Just for the record, Mr. Healy never would have allowed the early closing dates that the area rams down the pass-holders’ throats. He was proud that the U.S. ski team trained here and that commercial ski camps also operated here, through may and deep into June. It hurt the area’s bottom line then too, but they stayed open because they cared about their customers, and about the now-forgotten concept of delivering value. No more. Now its just hype. Nothing underscores the break between the ski area and this community more than the fact that it must import portions of its labor force from third world
countries. This ski area has reversed its former relationship with our community from symbiosis to parasitism. And that is what your ski area is now: A Parasite.
Make no mistake, this is an industry which is under tremendous economic pressure. And it will only get worse. So it should surprise no one that the area looks for ways to cut corners. Perhaps they built more lifts than they can afford. Perhaps the ski area, as currently constituted, is not economically viable. And the thought of the ski area shutting down is a startling one. But One nasty rollback with a bunch of dead people would make us all wish it had gone belly up long ago.
I’m praying it never happens. But if it does, don’t blame Bill.
More employees and pat employees need to surface with facts. This woman was right on and brave. Kudos to her for her unselfish motives and love of the sport. Bachelor is a joke, plain and simple. There are so many more dangers on that hill, much more than lifts. There are just too many inexperienced people given jobs that require knowledge gained only through higher education or specialized training. They con’t do that and unsafe issues are everywhere up there, including their freakin lame terrain parks. As one author said they need to concentrate on safety first, everywhere and everything. Covering up accidents for the past 5 years???? What is that all about?? Why would they do that??? Why don’t they want it safe up there – why????
I have been a pass holder at Mt. B for the last 8 years and can say with great confidence that my guest experience has deteriorated, exponentially.
I would agree with many of the posts in that the letter that showed up in pass holders inbox was very damaging. The defensive posture, taken by the big Utah Corp., speaks volumes to the current state of operations at Mt. B.
I also believe every word written by Kevin. Mt. B currently has a very negative connotation associated with its name; I believe that all brand equity has been lost, at least locally. Over the past several years I have had a group of 7 friends get together in Bend, at my house, and ski Mt. B for a whole week. After two consecutive years of very unsatisfactory visits my friends will no longer come to Bend, or more specifically Mt. B. We now gather at true “world class” resorts. While visiting these “world class” resorts I was taken aback by receiving true customer service and guess what? The only time I sat on a lift was when an inexperienced rider fell at the exit. And another interesting fact is that when one of these Mts opened it was completely opened.
Maybe these torrents of disgruntled customers will underscore Mt. B need to be in good graces of the locals. Clearly this has not been the case for many years.
To Mr. Emerson’s point; Skiing the backcountry is a great and rewarding experience. Having said that when dropping over 9 hundred dollars for a service I expect that service to be available. I truly wish Mr. Healy was around to run this Mt. as it should be.
I choose to move to Bend for its friendly environment and easy access to Mt. B. It may now be Mt. B that causes me to take my family, my recreational, and my professional pursuits elsewhere.
For some perspective: Last year one could buy a full season pass at Breckenridge for $399 and add 10 days at Vail for another $100. To me that is a value added product, Mt. B needs to reconsider their product offering and price it accordingly.
Sad Local Skier
1) The 8% 2007/2008 loss in skier day revenues was due to the rise in gas prices and downturn in the Economy ………………… Not Management.
2) One day the NW Lift is going to breakdown and lives are going to be lost due to exposure and fatigue …………….. build an A-Frame Warming Hut at the bottom of the NW.
3) 2008/2009 SALES WILL SUCK ………… it`s the Economy Stupid
4) NEVER,NEVER will the Citizens of Oregon allow a Golf Course or Condos to be built in the Deschutes National Forest around MTB …….. no matter what Land Swap Powdr Corp thinks is equitable ………. NEVER.
5) Follow the Bogus Basin Tough Times Example ;-0 Sell season passes for $199 …………. every snowrider between San Diego and Seattle will buy a season pass to MTB.
6) Rename DSQ for Sheriff Dan …….. why not?
7) Add enrty Gates into the Bowl ………… one person has already lost their life on that Sheet of Ice and Rock.
8) Add Zip-Lines, Sand Volley Ball, Solar or Thermal Heated Pool, Rock Concerts with fire pits for Summer activities ………. Sell more beer and wine
9) WinterFest 100,000ft. vertical Pro/Am team relay races …… Sell more Teeshirts and raise money for CO Charities.
10)Go BIG or Go Home.
L & R… why is it that skier visits were up every where else in the NW and the US? Is CO they only one affected by gas prices? And the gas price crunch did not hit until well after the season ended.. so that argument does not hold much water.
Small regional ski areas are already having high pass sales because skiers are staying closer to their home mountain.. at least that is what I have read in recent NSAA articles…
As for the rest you are right.. why so apathetic with summer activites when you have so many resorts with vacationers just looking for something to do.. kepp the lifts making money for you and year round staff. Seems fairly simple…. there are many things this Comp. could do to increase their revenue, why dont’ they? Who knows, I guess it is easier to just sell off property (park-n-ride)
They don’t care what you think. They are only focused on the bottom line. Bitch and moan or give great suggestions – plain and simple they don’t care. They are plenty of clueless customers for them to focus on for their revenue stream. I would think that the heaps of snow that came last winter and avalanches on the pass may have had something to do with skiier numbers. Not gas prices.
Point of reference.
Vail Resorts has announced the “EPIC” unlimited season pass. One pass, no black out dates, good at the following Vail Resorts; Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, Beaver Creek, and yes, VAIL.
All for $579!
After seeing Season Passes rise 32% over the past 2 years with growing lift issues, less terrain open and a shortened season I will NO LONGER give my money to Mt. Bachelor.
I laugh when I look at their website:
The Mt. Bachelor Season Pass gives you access to 3,683 acres of skiable terrain (ON THE RARE OCCASION WE DECIDE TO OPEN IT) 7 high speed quads (ON THE RARE OCCASIONS THEY ARE ACTUALLY RUNNING) and 71 runs (ON THE RARE OCCASION WE DECIDE TO OPEN and/or GROOM THEM). As the 5th largest resort for skiable acreage in North America (WHICH IS RARELY OPEN OR ACCESSIBLE), you’ll need the whole season to fully explore all this mountain has to offer! (OUR “SEASONS” ARE BASED UPON WHEN WE’VE MADE THE MOST MONEY SO EVEN IF THERE IS A MONTH OR MORE OF GREAT SKIING AVAILABLE, WE HOLD THE RIGHT TO SHUT DOWN FOR OUR FINANCIAL BENEFIT AND NOT THE SKIERS WHO’VE BEEN FILLING OUR COFFERS)
The poster above made a terrific point.
Here is what a REAL ski corporation looks like! This is real value!
http://www.snow.com/epicpass/info/epic-pass-details.asp