Snow sports: Next generation keeps Wachusett Mountain Ski Area thriving

The last time I checked in with Chris Stimpson in this column he was a University of Vermont student on a barnstorming van tour of Western ski areas with a band of fellow collegiate free skiers.

Stimpson, now 28, is the new media spokesman and public relations manager for Wachusett Mountain Ski Area as of this season, and also serves as the ski area’s terrain park manager. He’s part of a group of third-generation Crowley family members who occupy key roles at the thriving family business founded by their grandfather, Ralph Crowley, in 1969.

Stimpson’s cousin David Crowley Jr. is the operations manager, and cousin Courtney Crowley is the new head of group sales.

Stimpson is the son of Carolyn Crowley Stimpson, vice president of mountain services and president of the MTNside Ski and Ride shop, and John Stimpson of Princeton. Courtney is the daughter of Wachusett president Jeff Crowley, and David Jr. is the son of former general manager David Crowley.

Generational shift

What this generational shift in the making means for Wachusett customers is that the independent ski area is in solid, experienced family hands for the future and is not likely to ever be sold off to a big corporate chain.

(By the way, while this fall has been somewhat warmer than usual, Wachusett and ski areas up north have been making snow this week and the prospects look pretty good for a November opening at the Princeton ski hub sometime this weekend or before.)

Meanwhile, the steady progression of third-generation Crowleys also is already being reflected in subtle other ways, such as a fun edginess and even more emphasis on video in Wachusett’s social media personality and a decided focus on the ski area’s terrain park, a magnet for the young crowd that will be the lifeblood of Wachusett’s business in the decades to come.

Colorado big mountain veteran

Chris Stimpson came back to Wachusett last year after three seasons at Telluride, the gnarly Colorado resort and mountain town.

During his time at Telluride, Stimpson — who came up as a junior in Wachusett’s Extreme Team freestyle program —honed the terrain park skills that made him one of the top college free-skiers in the country and produced a stream of remarkable videos and photos of him throwing impossible tricks in the park.

While he was at Telluride he also learned the ski business, working in snowmaking, the terrain park, pass sales, accounting and marketing.

“It was sort of a self-designed internship to get a holistic view of the resort,” Stimpson said.

I talked with Stimpson about what’s in store for skiers and riders this season at the ski area, and about what COVID-19 era changes are staying and which are gone.

Converting beginners

One big theme this year is that Wachusett is making a concerted effort to again win the National Ski Area Association’s “Conversion Cup” award, which recognizes the ski area that’s been most successful in converting first-time skiers and riders from absolute ski school beginners to lift pass-buying customers and presumably lifelong enthusiasts. Wachusett last won the distinction in 2016.

While it’s a ski area insider thing in some ways, it’s critical that smaller feeder areas such as Wachusett continue to excel with their instructional programs. Wachusett’s Ski and Ride School is in super capable hands under director Thom Norton. It offers a slew of affordable programs for all ages, many of which come with cheap ticket and rental deals.

One COVID season-inspired change that returns for this season is outdoor lesson lineup. Students will meet their instructors outdoors and get right on the slopes.

“We found that it was much more efficient to get people on the hill that way,” Stimpson said. “They would show up in their in their ski gear and just be ready to go when they got their so their lessons.”

The session format stays

Also this season, Wachusett is keeping the pandemic-spawned daily session system for day ticket buyers. Skiers and riders can re-up for extra sessions online.

Season pass holders can stay as long as they want and do not have to stick to the four-hour day sessions or 4-7 p.m. or 7-9:30 p.m. shifts.

A note about Wachusett’s insanely popular season passes, which come in gold, silver, bronze and steel editions.

Wachusett “sold out” of the pre-determined stock of all the passes in early fall, which came as somewhat of a shock to a lot of people who didn’t buy early enough. The only passes still available are bronzes for the participants in the night race league, Stimpson said.

And day tickets will be limited to control capacity.

Welcome back indoors

Last year’s pandemic-plagued season forced most ski areas to adopt a “your car as your base lodge” model, but most areas are letting people back into the base lodge this season and Wachusett is one of them.

Wachusett is making masks optional indoors (Stimpson said masks are recommended), though employees will likely be wearing them. Indoor mask policy will vary from resort to resort this season, usually paralleling their state’s regulations.

Some great news for the 2021-22 season is that all New England ski areas, as of now, will load lifts to full capacity, and that includes gondolas. Also, masks will not be required outdoors, which is a relief, especially for us eyeglass wearers, who suffered from annoying constant fogging with mandatory masks.

However, even though people are free to use the lodge as their base again, Wachusett has expanded its fleet of outdoor lockers for skiers and riders who feel more comfortable outside, and the popular heated Dragon benches will be back.

Unfortunately, to make way for the lockers, Wachusett is removing its popular free ski watch area. With security cameras everywhere, 95 percent of stolen equipment is recovered anyway, according to the ski area.

The park

Expect the park to get a lot of attention this season under Stimpson’s direction.

Indeed, Stimpson is planning a new “hike-to” mini-park located just uphill of the main park on the Hitchcock trail featuring medium to large features, a series of jumps, rails, boxes and a wallride.

On the Fannie’s Folly, another trail in the Vickery Bowl area, is a progression park for less accomplished park skiers and riders, with small to medium features plus rollers and smaller jumps.

The main park is getting a rainbow rail and new flat down rail manufactured by Coastal Jibs in Montreal.

Keep your eyes out for Stimpson when you visit the park. He’ll probably be upside down flying through the air.

The jingle

The notoriously ubiquitous Wachusett musical jingle (“Wa wa Wachusett …”) isn’t going away even with the ski area’s reduced emphasis on radio advertising.

You’ll hear the decades-old jingle in Wachusett’s video reports and some television advertising this season.

Listen to this podcast

I recorded a podcast interview earlier this week with Stuart Winchester, the author of the nationally distributed Storm Skiing Journal, which has over the course of two years become one of the most influential online publications in the snow sports industry.

Last season I profiled Winchester, who lives with his family in Brooklyn, New York. He’s a great guy with an encyclopedic knowledge of New England, Midwest and Western ski areas, and a powerful advocate for consumers.

Check it out here on Twitter or find the podcast on Facebook and sign up to be on the Storm email list.

All this content is free for now, though Winchester plans on charging for aspects of it soon, as well he should. It’s worth it. The podcasts are long form (we talked for at least 90 minutes). And his podcasts with influential people in the ski industry, usually with top ski area managers, go more than an hour.

Killington

I had a blast skiing Killington on Nov. 6, the day after the sprawling central Vermont resort became the first Northeast ski area to open this fall.

Killington is almost always open from early November to late May, and sometimes into June.

While only two trails were open early this month, they skied great, and you could feel the the passion for snow among the largely youthful crowd.

The Peak Lodge bar and food operation were open, and there are few more spectacular mountaintop vantage points to imbibe in New England ski country.

“Being the first to open is very important to us,” Amy Laramie, Killington’s director of communications, evens and special projects, told me as she sipped a club soda in the lodge. “That’s our brand. We’re known for the longest season in the East. We open as soon as Mother Nature lets us.”

A sense of excitement was also in the air in anticipation of the women’s World Cup ski races that will go off this weekend on Killington’s iconic Superstar trail, which already sported good artificial snow cover in early November.

The race wasn’t held during the COVID season, and American superstar Mikaela Shiffrin, a Massachusetts native, is back after a long hiatus following her father’s death in 2020.

After two weeks of racing, Shiffrin is in second place in the World Cup standings, with a giant slalom win and two slalom seconds. Look for her to dominate the GS and SL at Killington, which is really home snow for her as she trained and raced as a teenager mostly in Vermont.

This popular event always draws a big Central Massachusetts contingent from the Wachusett Race Team youth racing community who come to cheer on Shiffrin, an incredible role model for young racers, and her U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team teammates.

I’m going this year for the first time (read about it next week).

Masks won’t be required inside the race arena, but proof of COVID vaccination is and spectators need to be masked on the shuttles to the arena.

See you there.

—Contact Shaun Sutner by e-mail at s_sutner@yahoo.com.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Snow sports, Wachusett Mountain Ski Area, Chris Stimpson, Ralph Crowley, generational shift, Killington