Letter From the GM – Paid Parking

We had an incredible run over the MLK weekend. We smashed all revenue and visitation records. Every department and lift was firing on all cylinders. I have never seen anything close to the energy level that this little mountain was operating at. We packed cars in absolutely every possible inch of this place until we ran out of parking.

Throughout Black Mountain’s comeback, I have seen almost zero pricing resistance from our customers. We are completely sold out of season passes and have a waiting list that is growing daily. Day tickets have, and will continue to sell out on our busy weekend and holiday days. This is an extremely purposeful approach to not overselling and ruining the very thing that we fought so hard to save in the first place.

There is obvious logic in needing to be profitable and sustainable. That means that we do need to make money when people are here, especially on our busiest days. Having founded and scaled Entabeni Systems, it should come as no surprise that I religiously obsess over the data we collect through our sales and operations systems. The raw data shows me that we have room to charge more for more products. The revenue from implementing paid parking is significant, and clearly, the demand exceeds the supply. As we quickly move toward a public offering of shares, this newfound revenue is well-timed, and I constantly feel the pressure of making this project a worthwhile investment for those who will own the ski area after my tenure.

At some point, skiing changed. Ski areas became ski resorts, and many of those resorts then became real estate projects. Mass consolidation has continually transformed many of the remaining options from places where people once gathered to celebrate the sport and culture of skiing into profit centers for return-centric corporations.

I firmly believe in capitalism and everything that it represents. One of our best-selling products after lift tickets is Champagne, and we sell a ton of it. Our 750ml bottle of Champagne here is $99. At Sunday River, that exact same bottle is $175. That is 75% more. Sunday River is a fantastic place to ski, with fast lifts and big offerings.

In the end, I think that is what changed. For some reason, everything in skiing had to constantly get bigger, and bigger is not free. Making things bigger led to constant price increases for everything, including parking and Champagne. I think that is a mistake, and one that we all hold some role and responsibility for. It is a mistake that has happened in many other parts of our lives as well.

Just because you can charge more does not mean that you should. Not every lift has to be high speed. Not every ski area needs to be a resort. Existing resorts do not have to depend on ambitious real estate projects with a large upsides and exit stragies. Dare I say that even the Champagne should be affordable?

I am in the last few months of leading Black Mountain as its General Manager. Every day we are assembling the team that will charge this mountain forward on a daily basis when I am gone. Until then, I am hell-bent on making sure this place and the people that work here never confuse profit with success. This little mountain will not take pride in extracting more money at every opportunity, even if it could mostly go unnoticed. Sure, we have a small parking problem, but that small problem should never cause us to make a much bigger mistake.

Pricing will remain reasonable, and parking free.

Thanks for being here.

Erik Mogensen

President and General Manager

Black Mountain Community Corporation