Who Will Buy Mount Bachelor, Eldora, and Silver Star?

The scrambling of the Ski Matrix continues after POWDR sells Killington and Pico to group of locals.

Over a 30-year period, Park City-based POWDR grew from a spellcheck-busting curiosity into one of the largest ski area operators in North America. At the company’s 2023 height, it ran 11 ski areas flung across the continent, including Killington, the largest ski area in the east; Copper Mountain, which hangs literally and hugely over American skiing’s Main Street, I-70; and Snowbird, which might be the best ski area on the planet.

Then, in April of last year, POWDR suddenly and without explanation sold Lee Canyon, Nevada to rival Mountain Capital Partners (POWDR officials have since told me that Lee Canyon simply made more sense as part of MCP’s geographic footprint, and that POWDR remains “big fans” of the Vegas ski area). Then, yesterday, as first reported by The Storm, the company sold Killington and neighboring Pico to a group of local investors. That sale is likely to be the first of many, as POWDR is hoping to sell off three additional resorts: the sprawling Mount Bachelor, Oregon; beehive-busy Eldora, Colorado; and remote Silver Star, British Columbia.

The company plans to retain Copper, Snowbird, and the Woodward brand, which includes three small ski areas (Woodward Park City, Boreal, and Soda Springs); terrain parks at its owned mountains; and non-ski action-adventure facilities in California and Pennsylvania.

So who will buy Mt. Bachelor, Silver Star, and Eldora? A mass sale is possible. But the scattered ski areas, detached from their mothership, make little sense as a unit to anyone who doesn’t already operate in diverse markets. The three of them could end up with three different owners, and that could be a mix of existing multi-mountain operators and independent groups that none of us are thinking about.

Since breaking the Killington story yesterday, I’ve been talking to the leaders of many of America’s largest ski companies, trying to assess who is interested in what. Which mountains would complement existing portfolios, and which would make sense on their own? What could the implications be for the megapasses that increasingly define the North American winter? And for the culture and vibe of the mountains themselves? Almost no one I spoke with wanted to put their interest on the record, and the company-specific musings below are based largely on analysis and past comments. But broad narratives emerged from these conversations, and they act as a good starting block for what will likely be a very long race.

Here’s a very early look at who could buy what, and how that could impact the ever-shifting North American lift-served ski landscape:

MT. BACHELOR

Everyone I spoke with agreed on one thing: of POWDR’s three available properties, Bachelor is the prize, a potentially portfolio-defining chest-thumper that could draw skiers from all corners, a pilgrimage-level mecca. Think Big Sky for Boyne or Whistler for Vail or Jackson Hole for the Ikon Pass – that one mountain on the roster that every skier just had to get to once (that impact would be muted if already-stacked Alterra, Boyne, or Vail purchased Bachelor, but a mountain of this caliber could change the trajectory of a Mountain Capital Partners or California Mountain Resort Company). Based on my conversations, there doesn’t appear to be any established North American multimountain operator who isn’t interested in Mount Bachelor.

And it’s obvious why. From a pure skiing point of view, Bachelor – huge, snowy, (seemingly) forever-open – exceeds anything in POWDR’s portfolio save the un-exceed-able Snowbird. How many North American ski areas offer 360-degree volcano skiing down a 3,000-plus-foot vertical drop covering 4,000-plus acres? One. And this is it.