PORTLAND, Ore. — Opening day came early to Mt. Bachelor this year, a big change from last year's late start. But that's not the only change coming to the mountain. Mt. Bachelor's owner, Powdr Corp, has put the resort up for sale.
Now, a community-led group hopes to make the resort community-owned.
"When I was two-and-a-half years old I was up there for ski school," said Chris Porter, who helped start the local effort. "Now my son has the opportunity to take snowboard lessons there."
Mt. Bachelor is the largest ski area in Oregon and sixth largest in North America. It's a fixture in the central Oregon community, attracting around half a million visitors annually.
Porter said that they're looking at the entire community of skiing enthusiasts for help.
"A lot of people might live in Seattle or they live in California, but they make the pilgrimage with their families once a year to enjoy this treasure in our own backyard," he said.
While skiers may come from all over to Mt. Bachelor, around 65% of visits are from the local skier community. KGW visited Drake Park in Bend to find out how locals feel about the effort to buy Mt. Bachelor, their local ski hill.
"I think it's fantastic and I really hope it happens," said Taylor, a local resident. "Corporations buying mountains has been terrible for mountains. You see it at Crystal, you see it at some of the other ones. Powdr Corp, we're basically a piggy bank for Powdr Corp from what I understand, so it'd be great to get the mountain back to locals and take care of it. It needs a lot of love. A lot of the lifts are very old."
Portland said the group know they have "a big financial mountain to climb," as costs won't just include the sale price, but also course operation, maintenance and everything else that keeps the mountain running.
Currently, Porter expects the sale price to be above $75 million.
"We know that the current earnings are around $15-$20 million mark, so this is a profitable mountain," he added. "We would like to see those earnings retained here in the community and for the economic development of Oregon."
News of the sale has hit Oregonians from all corners of the state that have connections to the mountain. Newlyweds Stephanie and John Samuel Maulsby, who were visiting Bend on their honeymoon, said they came from Grants Pass and just heard about the sale.
"I can tell you from personal experience, Mt. Ashland ski resort is owned and operated by the community in Ashland, and has been a huge benefit to the community," said John Samuel Maulsby.
He said having a community-owned ski resort nearby has given him opportunities and access he otherwise wouldn't have had.
"Growing up through the Ashland School District, we had an after-school ski program, and it allowed me as a youth, who didn't grow up with a lot of resources, to have access to winter sports," he said.
Residents know it will take some deep pockets to make this sale happen.
"There's a lot of money in this town, there's a LOT of money in this town," said Cameron, a local resident. "And I know businesses are getting involved, so, I'm crossing my fingers. It'd be so awesome!"
Making the sale happen
The Mt. Bachelor Community game plan is to partner smaller skier and community investments with the power of big, local investors.
"We have some muscle behind this and we have people who are passionate," Porter said.
One of those people is ski enthusiast Nicole Hughes, who lives in Portland. Hughes said her family has a small real estate investment company. She said they see opportunities like this as an exciting one for Oregon. So far, she said she's been impressed with the local fundraising efforts in gathering funds to pay lawyers and get the paperwork started. But there's more to be done.
"You're not going to GoFundMe your way to the purchase of Mt Bachelor," she said. "So how do they do it?"
The plan is for accredited investors to come together and put up the initial funding, which is already well underway, she said. Once that's fully in place, the public can buy in through an initial public offering of stock options.
"So imagine if instead of going to buy a season's pass every year, you went and bought 300 shares of ownership in Mt. Bachelor," Hughes said.
But before that can be done, the group needs to secure more investors like Hughes, who believe in sustainable investments.
"I think having a community-owned ski area helps bring some of the environmental impacts of operating a ski area to the local community, so we can work together to develop something that is more in line with the values of Oregonians than if it were owned by investors from outside the state," Hughes said.
Much of Central Oregon's economy revolves around access to outdoor recreation. Porter said the community-led group wants to put the power in the hands and powder at the feet of local people.
"I think a lot of people know what happens when it's a corporate investment that comes in," Porter said. "It's that limited access, it's that $9.50-$10 beer, and it's that decision that's being made outside the community so there's not quite that nimbleness to react to what the community needs."