MAY 2025 BEAR DEN PARTNERS BUYS BURKE MOUNTAIN, VT, OUT OF RECEIVERSHIP
JULY 2025 TOWN OF NEDERLAND FILES LETTER OF INTENT TO ACQUIRE ELDORA, CO
Black Mountain: A Practical Model?
Black Mountain, N.H., is a prime exam- ple. Indy Pass and Entabeni Systems owner Erik Mogensen stepped in with his time and about $7.5 million to save the 90-year-old ski area from extinction, starting with an operating agreement for 2023-24 and then the acquisition of Black in October 2024. A former ski instructor who proudly admits he was fired by Vail Resorts, Alterra, and Powdr (“I’m not a good employee”), Mogensen is serving as the bridge to a new future. He is now the owner, president, and GM of this small ski area, but on an “interim” basis only. Building the future . In his inaugural season as owner of Black, Mogensen dou- bled snowmaking output and spun the lifts until May 3, recording 36,000 skier visits for its Thursday-to-Monday oper- ations. This past summer, the rebuild shifted into high gear. This included a rebuilt lodge, a 30-percent parking lot expansion, 28,000 feet of new snowmak- ing pipe, and 200 more snow guns. The efforts culminated in Black being the first New Hampshire ski area to open this season—albeit not for daily opera- tions—offering limited terrain to season pass holders on Nov. 15. Mogensen admits that he might have
Will the town of Nederland’s logo join Eldora’s on the ski area’s trail map?
control and sufficient capital are key ele- ments for any successful model.
among other things, repair sidewalks down in Nederland. If this sounds like a big gamble, it is. Because of its self-imposed “silent peri- od” during the underwriting process, Nederland has been unable to answer the biggest questions. How is a strug- gling, indebted town going to fund capi- tal improvements to keep abreast in the hyper-competitive Colorado Front Range market? Can it erect the guardrails to stay out of daily ski area ops? What hap- pens when the next mayor hates skiing? And: Will Nederland set a sterling exam- ple for municipal rather than corporate ownership of ski areas … or an extremely poor precedent? “A few folks have said we’re crazy to do this,” says Nederland Mayor Bill Gib- lin. “I say we’d be crazy not to.” THE REVIVALISTS Killington and Eldora are profitable enter- prises. Elsewhere, acquisition targets are often resorts on the brink, requiring man- agement team overhauls and new ways of doing business. These start with an emphasis on snowmaking upgrades and fixing aging lifts, reconnecting with the community and customers (online and in person), and a pledge to always listen and spend money to get better.
Eldora: Gnat Swallows Giraffe? Eldora’s ownership fate, which could be decided by the time you read this, is a compelling approach but also a roll of the dice. The quest of Nederland, Colo., to buy Powdr’s Eldora is well worth watching (for more, see SAM ’s online special reports). Nederland is a tiny town 20 miles above Boulder, with a $3.2 million budget, 25 employees, no police department, and a checkered history best defined by a reluc- tance to change. Now, it has somehow acquired the superpowers (and a funding tool: municipal revenue bonds) to guide Eldora to four-season success. The town even hopes to leverage the resource to address its own complex issues of employ- ee housing, transportation and childcare. As SAM went to press, Nederland was planning to sell high-interest, high- risk municipal revenue bonds, paid off by resort revenues, not taxpayers. The junk bonds would cover the $115-$120 million purchase, plus, presumably, a $10 million “rainy day” fund and $2 mil- lion annually for maintenance. Once the fluctuating bonds are paid back, the town wants to use resort revenue to,
At Black Mountain (above), interim owner Erik Mogensen is crafting a three-tier ownership model.
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