FROM PAIN POINTS
TO PAYOFF
Six ski area case studies show how targeted tech investments moved the needle on operations, risk, and efficiency. BY APRIL DARROW
A t most ski areas, new tech investments start with a frustration: a cumbersome camera system, paper mainte- nance logs that leave gaps, unaccounted food waste, or in- cident reports that fall through the cracks. Ski areas often aren’t out to modernize for modernization’s sake—they are trying to solve specific problems.
In each case featured here, ski area operators iden- tified a pain point, evaluated their options, and made a targeted investment that changed how work gets done— with measurable results. These case studies offer insights into what that process looked like, and what other resorts might take from it.
CRYSTAL MOUNTAIN, WA: AI-ENABLED SECURITY CAMERAS
PAIN POINT: NEW TOOL: STAFF IMPACTED: PAYOFF:
Cumbersome security cameras with slow retrieval and limited visibility Hybrid cloud, AI-enabled camera system IT, security, operations, risk management Faster incident review, reduced theft, improved risk mitigation
in minutes. Crystal opted to standardize on the 30-day storage option, partially because of cost. After 30 days, clips can be pulled and saved to the cloud. “It would take two to three hours to find and extract ten minutes of video ... and you couldn’t easily view history on the camera.” The system offers a host of features, some that Crystal has enabled only on certain cameras, such as one that counts people coming into a day lodge, so staff can gauge volume and be notified when a space is too crowded. A few cameras are also set up on lift lines to assess crowds,
as well as some on the road into the main base area to count incoming cars, most- ly during summer months. “If there are 1,000 cars coming in, but we only sold 600 scenic gondola tickets, we want to know, ‘where’s the miss?’” says Turner. A few cameras scan the main plaza of the mountain between midnight and 4 a.m. and send alerts for motion. “It also detects animals,” says Turner, “which is a feature that we turned off.” Motion detec- tion is set up on cameras in the server room, and Turner gets notified whenever somebody walks in. Turner has found the AI tools to be among the best features. Among other things, they enable Crystal to identify somebody and track that person through
It was painful to pull footage from Crystal Mountain’s old security cam- eras when needed. “It would take two to three hours to find and extract ten minutes of video,” says IT director Perry Turner. “And you couldn’t easily view history on the camera.” To address the issue, Washington’s Crystal Mountain replaced the cum- bersome system with Verkada security cameras, which work on a hybrid cloud model, storing video locally on a device’s internal storage for 30, 60, or 120 days and using the cloud for management, remote access, and AI-powered analyt- ics. The system eliminates the need for separate servers or network video record- ers (NVRs) and allows video to be pulled
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