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« Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » Mountain High: New Owners, More Acres for California Urban LegendBy  But Mountain High -- a "skateboard park with snow" in Kapuscinski's shorthand -- has raised its profile too high to get lost anywhere anytime soon. Over the past few years, the feisty little playground near Wrightwood, Calif. has become the snowboard-savvy, jibcrowd's beacon of innovation, and also claims to be number one in skier visits in all of California (500,000 average over the past four years.) Smart executives from New England to the Cascades keep an eye peeled for trends that turn up first in Mountain High's array of parks, pipes and slopes. This summer Mountain High entered a new phase when Oaktree Capital Management, Mountain High's owner for the past eight years, sold the resort to the Chicago-based Valor, a private equity firm, and Kapuscinski, who had arrived in 1996 to help put together the deal that brought Oaktree onboard in the first place. Making a deal was a lot easier the second time around, Kapuscinski, who turns 40 this week, told Industry Report. Mountain High's half-million skier visits, cash flow that is "among the best in the industry," and a marketing plan that does not involve "spending thousands of dollars in airline seats" created almost an auction climate, he said. "We had nine groups who seriously submitted bids." What makes this sale different is that Mountain High's attractiveness is based on assets that have nothing to do with vertical feet or with real estate. "It's not an ego buy. It doesn't have a base lodge written up in a magazine. It does have an impressive location and an unprecedented market," explained Kapuscinski, who is now a 13 percent owner and has the title of president and CEO. For "market" read "millions." Mountain High draws its guests from Los Angeles (it's a 90-minute drive from downtown) and Orange County (75 minutes). The clients are young riders (80 percent vs. 20 percent skiers) and multi-hued (45 percent are non-Caucasian.) Its peaks now number three. Last winter, Mountain High purchased the former Ski Sunrise a mile away, thus adding another 70 acres to its existing 220 acres of terrain. Sunrise was rechristened "Mountain High North" for this season, a tubing park was added, and a free shuttle bus links it to Mountain High West and East. Kapuscinski likes to refer to Mountain High's shredders as "first- generation winter enthusiasts" -- young Hispanic, African-American and Asian kids, along with Caucasians, from urban backgrounds. "They see snowboarding as their sport; they don't see it as having color barriers or as being for the rich," he said. "There is no preconceived notion of what you should look like. All this flows very easily with southern California culture of board sports. "Maybe today they don't have a ton of money but at the next level they might. And they're not going to stop when they're 21 or 25," he added. For all the emphasis on fun for the young, Mountain High puts a premium on safety. In October, it received a "Best in Class" award from the National Ski Areas Association for its community outreach program in connection with the Heads Up safety and etiquette initiative. Why the change of ownership this summer? Kapuscinski, who had a small stake under the Oaktree regime, said that as a real estate investment trust (REIT), Oaktree always intended to sell after about 10 years, once it had put in improvements such as lighting for night riding and skiing, snowmaking, and more beginner facilities. But he says his core management team, which includes Hispanic and African-American members, remains the same. He is amused when others ask what his marketing secrets are. The way he describes it, Mountain High simply lives by board-sports culture and location reality. Forget print ads -- the resort spends most of its money on radio and the Internet. Forget traditional skiing promotions -- it is "involved 12 months a year with surfing and skateboard competitions," plus concerts and freestyle events. Forget summer -- "We make more money on a bad Tuesday in the winter than we do all summer." Sponsors? Once again, says Kapuscinski, look to the culture. Wahoo Tacos and Monster Energy Drinks are partners alongside more traditional companies like Toyota. Latest innovation? Making Mountain High North a beginner center, while Mountain High West remains jib and jump heaven and Mountain High East is pitched as offering traditional skiers and riders "a true alpine experience without having to journey far from home." For all his SoCal talk, Kapuscinski himself is an Easterner by birth. "Some people were gym rats; I was a ski area rat," he laughed, noting that friends owned Ascutney, the venerable Vermont ski hill. At 22, he took his first management job at Hunt Hollow, a private ski club in western New York. Kapuscinski says he and Valor are on the lookout for additional acquisitions, since on weekends, the resort typically reaches maximum capacity. "We do 4- to 8-hour tickets and at 9,000, we're sold out," he said. "It would be nice to send people someplace else -- the closer, the better." So don't be shocked if Mountain High makes a bid for another local Southern California snow hill. "It could become a reality in the next year or so," Kapuscinski declared. As for future expansion, he said there are "maybe 10 other areas across the country that I'd want to put our name on, where you could apply our formula -- outside of New York, Boston, Seattle, Portland." « Previous Story | The Industry Report Home Page | Next Story » |
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