Letter from the GM- A Massive Direction Change

I struggle to write these letters. I can’t spell to save my life and trying to sit still long enough to compile my thoughts and ideas into a few hundred words makes my brain hurt every time. I far prefer to communicate through actions, not words. This one letter from the GM is almost 1,500 words. Lots to unpack.  

With still a significant amount of the season still in front of us, Black Mountain has already surpassed last year’s total revenue. More importantly to me, more people have skied here as of today than over the entirety of last season. While records going back 90 years are imperfect, it is hard to believe this has been anything other than Black Mountain’s best season ever.  

Sure, it has been a good snow year, but something magical happened that had little to do with snowfall and everything to do with a new “vibe” that has been created here. This vibe did not fall out of the sky, it was built on top of deeply positive experiences and memories that were made over the last 91 years. Black Mountain is New Hampshire's oldest ski area for a reason, and the happiness here spans generations. It almost disappeared. Sometimes you don’t know what you have until it is gone.

Prior to getting involved, I had never been to Black Mountain. In October 2024, when I made the decision to purchase the ski area, move here, and become the GM, it was more than just saving Black Mountain. When I was 16, the small ski area that I grew up at closed and that experience allowed me to relate to the loss of a unique place like Black Mountain, and keeping it open was just solution to a singular problem. The main problem being that the independently owned ski areas, that provide affordable outdoor recreation to so many, are on a death slide. Black Mountain’s peril was just a micro example of a macro problem.

I have come to think of the term “vibe” as slang for the word “culture”. Culture is not something that you can buy. You must build culture, and you cannot build it yourself. The vibe and culture at Black Mountain is remarkable because of the people who contribute their time and money to the cause that this little mountain has become. The idea behind a Co-Op ownership structure was to align passionate participation with ownership. It quickly became clear to me that different levels of participation were needed, and over the last year I tackled the problem by creating the Black Mountain Community Corporation comprised of Class A, Class B, and Class C shares.

Class A shares were priced at $250,000 and B Shares at $25,000 with corresponding governance and equity. A and B shares transacted under Regulation D, while we applied for a Regulation A exemption for the C shares priced at $5,000. All 15 Class A were sold and funded quickly. Over a 1/3 of B shares were sold with no public offer under Reg D. We have over 2,600 people looking to purchase what would be 2000 Class C shares under the future Reg A. These first shareholders are a remarkable group of people that deeply believe in what we were trying to build at Black Mountain and beyond. The model is solid.

It has always been my dream to make a living in skiing. Growing up in the East, the idea of living and skiing in the big mountains out West was a dream that I made a reality by working hard over the last 20 years. I have built a company whose relentless sole goal is to keep skiing independent and affordable. Our headquarters in Colorado is the home of an incredible group of people who work tirelessly for Entabeni Systems and the Indy Pass to that end. To make the Black Mountain project work, many of them picked up their lives and moved to Jackson, New Hampshire. In many ways putting their personal lives on hold to help solve the macro problem skiing is facing. It was a crazy idea to split the company in half, move back East to a ski area none of us had ever been to. Needless to say we all miss Colorado and the life we built there.

Professionally, Entabeni has excelled from being on the front lines every day. While our facility in a quaint Colorado town was darn close to idyllic, the code we write, the hardware we construct, and the team we have built during our time at Black Mountain has been extraordinary. These short feedback and iteration loops could only be accomplished from the third floor of the Black Mountain base lodge. The upside for Indy Pass has been equally profound. Black Mountain has given me a significantly better understanding as to how to positively shape this irreplaceable product for partners and consumers alike. I have always believed in spending 90% of my time and effort understanding a problem and 10% actually fixing the problem. Black Mountain forced that way of thinking to a level I never thought possible.

Personally, while I came here to address the challenges facing skiing, Black Mountain required me to address my own challenges. December 10, 2024 was the first day we opened the lifts after the purchase.  All morning, I was pacing up the base lodge looking out the windows and hoping to see that first group of cars park. Did we get the pricing right? Would people spend their money here? Was this entire thing just too crazy of an idea, and had I made a really bad decision financially?  As cars came in and filled the first row I relaxed enough to go out and personally thank each one of them with “Thanks for Being Here”. That simple phrase started me down the path of understanding and embracing that we were not in fact competing only for people’s money. More importantly, we are competing for people’s time. Black Mountain has taught me to be a less transactional human in every area of my life. It has shown me that community matters more than big mountains and western snow quality. This community and its resulting culture is what got me through the hardest moments of this project, and it is what has made it very hard for me to leave. In many ways Black Mountain saved me. 

All of my experiences over the last 18 months have allowed me to truly reconcile why I made the abrupt decision to purchase Black Mountain in the first place. I now have clarity on what I want my life to be like, and the difference I hope to make through Entabeni and Indy Pass for skiing and outdoor recreation. It has shown me that I need to make a long-term life decision to buy Black Mountain, now for a second time.

Accordingly, Entabeni Systems and Indy Ski Pass will exit our Colorado headquarters. We will move all operations to New Hampshire and the Mount Washington Valley. We will be the long-term custodian and again 100% owner of Black Mountain. I am grateful that every single shareholder not only consented, but also allowed me to purchase back their stock at par to their original purchase price. This direction change is only possible because of their trust and belief that the best path forward for a sustainable and vibrant Black Mountain is under the stewardship of Entabeni, Indy Pass and myself.

Black Mountain will become a laboratory and incubator where we will aggressively try to solve some of the biggest challenges facing independent ski areas. Aging infrastructure, rising costs, and big money competition demand critical thinking and fresh solutions.  Our world class team will permanently relocate, building their own lives in the Mount Washington Valley. I look forward to building my life and a family in this incredible place I will now call home.  

The ski area will remain open, public, and on the same non-stop charge to be the best that it can be. We will carefully balance operating a small ski area while innovating and supporting many others. Micro and Macro. Over the past 18 months a line has been drawn at Black Mountain by people who have demanded that Black be saved. That it remain open and vibrant. Under my direction we will do everything we can to hold that line. This mountain and everything that it stands for will indefinitely be a place where the sport and culture of skiing does not just survive. It will thrive.  

Thanks for being here.

Erik Mogensen

President and General Manager

Black Mountain Community Corporation