Alterra Mountain CEO on upcoming ski season: Sales are unbelievably strong

Rusty Gregory, CEO of Alterra Mountain Company, joins Yahoo Finance to talk about the precautions his company is making as ski season kicks off and COVID-19 cases continue to rise in some regions.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: So ski lovers are getting ready because there's this weather report that already, there's a big snowstorm headed towards Colorado, which means ski season is right around the corner. So to talk about what that means in a COVID environment, 'cause ski slopes are going to open, we invite into the stream Rusty Gregory. He is Alterra Mountain Company's CEO.

And it's good to have you here, Rusty. Appreciate you joining us. You're taking steps to protect the people who do want to go skiing. And there are several of them. You're going to control the number of people who can visit the resort. How is that going to work?

RUSTY GREGORY: Well, it's a little bit different in each one of our own 15 resorts and also, among our 29 partner resorts, for the Ikon Pass. For our own resorts, we'll be requiring that everyone wear face coverings in crowded areas, standing in lift lines, certainly inside buildings, other than in food and beverage.

And we'll be making sure that peak crowding is limited. So in the ski business, over the holidays, on busy weekends during the middle of the year, that's when peak crowds can arrive. And there's a tremendous amount of demand to get out of our basements, off our Zoom calls, and out in nature.

And on the big days, we'll be limiting visitation by making a smaller amount of day passes available. Our pass holders, Ikon Pass holders, will be free to come directly to lifts. On some days, there will be very limited amounts of day ticket purchases available. And that's how we'll control peak crowding, which is really 15 to 25 days a year, depending on the resort.

JULIE HYMAN: Rusty, it's Julie. It's good to see you. So how do bookings look so far? How are advanced bookings? And what kind of demand are you seeing?

RUSTY GREGORY: You know, the first leading indicator was the sales of the Ikon Pass, which we start selling the season prior in the springtime. And the pass sales, despite the pandemic that was raging last March and into April and beyond, has been unbelievably strong and, really, a credit to the fact that there is big demand to get outside. And that's picking up as winter begins. So that is an indication of sales has been quite strong.

We're starting to see now hotel bookings for holiday periods and family vacation periods. Those bookings are strong as well. So, so far, we're quite encouraged. Demand won't be the issue. The COVID issue really will be to make sure that we maintain crowd control, social distancing, and make sure that our resorts don't become too crowded on the peak days, as I said before.

DAN HOWLEY: Rusty, outside of doing the basics, you know, people having to wear masks and washing hands and sanitizing, you know, resorts can get kind of crowded, obviously, with lifts and people congregating towards the bottoms of hills. I guess, how can you ensure that that kind of crowding doesn't occur outside of limiting the number of people there?

RUSTY GREGORY: Well, there is a-- we have a 211-page operational standards deck for COVID that we put together. And it is incredibly mind numbing and complex. So it starts with that, but the basics are, number one, making sure that we don't have the peak crowds in the first place. And we limit ticket sales to ensure that.

And then, number two, we actually need to partner with our guests to help them. They need to help us to maintain social distancing, keep their masks on, and do the things that that are required to help us keep them as safe and healthy as possible.

And we're actually quite convinced that people will be cooperative in that in order to keep the resorts open and allow them to continue enjoying the outdoors this next winter. You know, it'll be different at each one of the resorts-- pardon me-- under each circumstance. But it will take effort on the guest side and on our employee side to make it happen under the circumstances.

RICK NEWMAN: Hey Rusty, Rick Newman here. I'm a skier. I've been to some of your resorts. I'm wondering about trams and gondolas, which are like the subway cars of ski resorts. To my mind, that's one of the most crowded places you can be, packed in with other people.

Are you going to operate those, or are you going to close them down? And then are you going to also encourage people or set up places where people can eat outside when they're taking a lunch break?

RUSTY GREGORY: Yeah, the answer to gondolas, chair lifts, trams, we've got a number of different variety of carriers. Chairlifts will be sitting people apart at least two spaces. And in gondolas, each one is different. There's some six-passenger, eight-passenger, 10, 12, 15, depending on our resorts.

We'll be loading people that know one another, that traveled with one another, that are part of the same cohorts. And then beyond that, we will not be requiring anybody to load with anybody else that they're uncomfortable with. And we'll be loading cars at between half and 60% of capacity.

Most of the gondolas and trams that we have, have windows that can be opened, so fresh air is an important component to it. So we'll be maintaining social distancing and separation among people through all the different loading protocols that we have. And each one of the resorts is quite different, but it's something we're paying very close attention to.

With respect to food, that as well has a lot to do with each one of the county state jurisdictions that we're in because all the rules are different. In some areas, there is no inside dining. So people will be fed in ways that allow them to, you know, come to the curbside, so to speak, but at the ski resort, pick their food up.

Limited offerings, but of healthy, easy-to-eat food outside, carrying it in a backpack. They could take it on the lifts with them. We'll be setting up outside dining with heaters and convenient locations, and recognizing that we won't be able to just operate at the capacities that we have in the past.

We also need to make sure that we've got enough room for people to come in and warm themselves up, particularly in our colder climates. So we're working on protocols for that as well. All of that adds up to that gigantic deck of procedures that I mentioned before, so a lot of work going on.

ADAM SHAPIRO: We are wishing all of you the best and the team at Alterra Mountain. Rusty Gregory is Alterra Mountain Company CEO. All the best to you, sir.

RUSTY GREGORY: Thanks very much, Adam.