At SlopeStrategics, we specialize in delivering innovative solutions that drive growth and future viability for ski areas and the mountain resort industry. Let us help you achieve peak performance – Because no one reaches the summit alone.
Master Planning
Tailor-made for the small ski area in need of a plan to guide growth and progress into the future.
We understand you, we’ve been there. We know the financial challenges, the regulatory red tape, the community nuances, and the feeling of, “Where do I start?” It’s tough being a small ski area, or even a mid-size resort, in the current financial and industry climates. But you cannot sit back and “just maintain.” Stagnation is death in business, and that is true for ski areas, too. You are small, but you are mighty; you are the Little Engine That Could. We’re the fire for your firebox – and you can afford it.
The Process
Step 1: Discussion
Tell us about your needs. What are you looking for? A plan to guide your physical growth? A plan to be accepted by a regulating authority? Both? Something different?
Step 2:
Discovery
We'll assess your current situation: facilities, infrastructure, mountain stats, land usage, comfortable carrying capacities, financial situation, laws and regulations specific to your area, and other important factors.
Step 3: Envisioning
Tell us about your vision for the area over the next 5 to 10 to 20 years. It's fine if that vision is fuzzy, we'll help you bring it into focus. Whether it's big, small, realistic, or outlandish, we'll sift through the sand to bring clarity.
Step 4:
Iterative Design
We'll work with you as a partner to bring about designs for the future of the area that directly reflect the vision you intend to create, with confidence in your ability to generate that reality.
Step 5:
Final Product
After working with you to get the details just right, we'll put the vision in a document, a Master Plan, that holistically lays out the road from concept to existence.
Step 6:
Execution
You get to work building your future with a map from start to finish in your hands.
Need help as you build that future? We can assist there, too. See our consulting abilities.
Consulting
Analysis, recommendations, and problem solving to help your operation achieve peak performance.
There’s no shortage of unique problems to solve in the ski industry. Operating a ski area to generate profitable margins is often difficult enough on its own, let alone attempting to sit back, analyze, and find ways to optimize. We’re here to help by providing objective analyses based on over 75 years of combined experience successfully creating solutions to overcome ski area operations challenges. We’ll comb through the details, leaving no stone unturned, to find ways to drive revenue and cost savings, enhance the guest experience, and optimize process efficiency. And if outside the box, unique ideas are needed to solve a puzzle, we’ll help you create them.
How We Can Help
Strategy Development
We create a detailed roadmap department by department to drive operational viability for years to come, as well as capital investment strategies to match.
FP&A
We provide insight into industry standard KPIs and make recommendations on achieving them, and help you create best-in-class reporting and dashboards to keep your finger on the pulse of your operations in real time enabling proactive decisions.
Guest Journey
We assess the guest experience from pre-arrival communications through aprés ski and exiting the parking lot to uncover experiential pain points and introduce enhancements to increase overall guest satisfaction and retention.
Operations Analysis
We conduct thorough investigations into mountain ops and guest ops departments to discover process efficiencies and outside the box solutions that will increase revenue, reduce costs, and enhance the guest experience.
HR & Workforce
We evaluate your team’s structure along with current hiring, onboarding, training, and scheduling processes to reveal areas of opportunity for greater efficiency, untapped wells of potential, and labor ROI.
Mountain Access
We examine your ticketing and pass structures and propose adjustments to the models, finding the intersection of comfortable carrying capacity and yield per visit, to maximize revenue and timely cashflow while maintaining exceptional guest experience.
Risk & Safety
We perform an audit of your physical environment and current safety practices, including worker’s comp and incident investigation, to uncover areas of exposure, then work with you to craft solutions that mitigate the risks.
Tech Solutions
We analyze your current tech stack and make recommendations to enhance your operation, as well as provide unique concepts and ideas leveraging technology to solve your complex problems.
Construction Plans
We craft plans to guide the construction of specific projects within your master plan to ensure all steps are sequenced properly and that timelines match the expectation of your operation.
Case Studies
Tech Solutions - WiFi with no power
We worked with two separate resorts to create unique tech solutions to solve for internet connectivity at remote lift terminals that did not have a power source nor a wired internet connection. With goals of streaming cameras for lift safety, ticket and pass scanning capabilities, remote access to data for lift maintenance, and guest WiFi network, we tailored our solutions at each resort to achieve max potential for each goal.
Operations Analysis - Parking reimagined
Using geospatial data and CAD, we redesigned the parking pattern and traffic flow of a ski area to maximize the parkable space and increase capacity per acre by more than 20%. We then worked with the team to create a new standard operating procedure so that the results could be reproduced at the same exceptional level day in and day out during the season.
Risk & Safety - A comprehensive program
We collaborated with a ski area to create a holistic risk management program, beginning with job hazard analyses and a company-wide risk register, classifying and prioritizing hazards throughout the organization, along with mitigation guidance. Next came recommendations for a best-in-class worker’s comp program and a revamped incident investigation process; all leading to a reduced GL insurance premium and a sub-1.0 emod.
Operations Analysis - Chairlift loading efficiency
Using Six Sigma methodology, we worked to enhance the loading efficiency of a primary out-of-base lift to ensure the achievement of max per hour capacity as well as the reduction of loading incidents. A combination of new staff procedures, line speed, and maze configuration led to a reduction in loading-related incidents by nearly 40% and an efficiency of over 5.6 Sigma.
Guest Journey - Base area reconfiguration
We advised two separate resort operators in the design of a new guest flow and use of space to maximize revenue per square foot. A combination of CAD, SketchUp, a new proprietary CCC calculation, and guest feedback allowed us to design and open new restaurants, reconfigure retail space to increase sales per square foot and dwell time, derive greater efficiency and collaboration from office space, increase rental capacity and margin per rental.