An Industry Talk with Berkshire East and Catamount Owner Jon Schaefer

The Storm tries this whole video fad

I officially ended my 2020-21 ski season today after Killington announced that they may or may not operate Saturday and Saturday only this coming weekend and close thereafter. So begins my official offseason, and the era of newsletter experimentation.

Last week, Jon Schaefer, owner of Berkshire East and Catamount ski areas and one of the smartest and most forward-thinking operators in the business, invited me to join him for the inaugural Berkshire Sessions Podcast. We talked about growing up on a mountainside, the new lifts coming to both ski areas this summer, how Bousquet saved its season after its new-used summit lift fiasco, and possible expansion of the Summit Pass. He also flipped things around and asked me about the origins of The Storm, my home mountain, growing up in Michigan, and what I thought ski area operators were missing. Among many other things. We talked for a long time. We did it via Zoom. They posted it on YouTube. Welcome to the party:

Schaefer has joined me twice on The Storm Skiing Podcast - once to talk about the Goggles for Docs initiative he launched in the wake of Covid, and another time just to rap about his mountains in general.