Stuart Winchester Joins “RealSkiers” Podcast With Jackson Hogen

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I’m going to give you something rare today: a short Storm email.

Last week, I joined RealSkiers’ Jackson Hogen, one of the great minds in the consumer-facing ski gear space, on his podcast. We didn’t talk gear, though, as I’m about as qualified to discuss that as I am nuclear fusion. But we did go deep on the matters of multipass hegemony, industry consolidation, and lift-ticket price spirals – and why the negative impact of all of those things may be overblown. We also get into the potential of indoor skiing, the industry’s incredible capital outlays and what they mean for skiers, the fundamental differences between the Epic and Ikon passes, the Little Cottonwoods gondola proposal, and which regions of ski country remain affordable. I also make the (probably) controversial argument that the Ikon Pass was not only good for Jackson Hole, but was probably one of the main reasons that the resort was able to stay independent. Give it a listen:

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One thing I wanted to add: in the section of the podcast in which Hogen and I discuss affordable ski regions, I’d meant to call out the stretch of Interstate 90 from Spokane, Washington, across Idaho to the Montana border, where several large, snowy ski areas continue to offer outstanding value to skiers. Check out these stats (lift ticket rates are for 2022-23; I unfortunately expect Schweitzer’s rates to skyrocket under Alterra):

All five sit within a 100-mile band – tell me this wouldn’t be an awesome mid-winter trip that sits well outside the phalanx of traffic and financial hacksawing that defines much of modern-day skiing:

Hogen also appeared on The Storm Skiing Podcast last year, where we discussed gear stuff and his enlightening book, Snowbird Secrets:

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