A disappointing evening

On Monday night, we brave the cold and a returning winter to attend a discussion about the state of the local ski industry, with luminaries like our new Park City Mountain Vice President and COO Deirdra Walsh, Deer Valley Resort President and COO Todd Bennett, as well as Ski Utah’s Nathan Rafferty, and travel industry expert Ralf Garrison.

The Santy Auditorium was almost full and the public was eager to participate in and hear a question and answer session promised at the end of the evening. 

That didn’t quite happened as we were all lectured on how well things are going at Deer Valley and Park City and which of our two resorts was closer to claim the 500 inch, Mother Nature had sent us by no merit or no fault of our own. Acting as an MC, Myles Rademan, from Public Services director at Park City, asked the audience to be “civil”, that is, not ruffle feathers, and wanted the discussion to focus on macro issues, not minor details. 

Ms. Walsh who was given 20 minutes ended up spending the double eloquently talking about herself sucking all the oxygen from her Deer Valley counterpart’s, making presentation quite plain, simple and unimpressive. 

Nathan Rafferty brought us to speed on Ski Utah’s efforts to continue attracting more participants into our sport with some up-to-date and interesting facts, while Ralf Garrison reminesced about the good old days in Crested Butte, rambled with a convoluted message lost on most of the attendees. 

Finally, he used up the remainder of the time testing new buzzwords like “equilibrium” and “Covid refugees”, leaving no time for the constructive discussion that everyone expected but obviously wasn’t the goal of that lecture, and might have tarnished its overall happy message. 

In conclusion, this was a waste of our time, but a reminder that it’s always much easier to pontificate than to listen.