A conversation with Ethan Mueller: Part I

Ethan Mueller began his new job as vice president and general manager of Crested Butte Mountain Resort this week. We sat down with Ethan for a quick chat Monday to get a feel for how he is approaching his new leadership role with the ski area.
Here is part one of a two-part interview from that conversation…

 

 

NEWS: Congratulations on the new job. Were you surprised at the timing when you were approached about taking the job?
ETHAN: Thank you. It’s definitely something that’s been a work in progress between Ken [Stone] and my folks. They looked at where we are going as a company, what we have done so far and what the new realities are in the valley and the nation.

NEWS: How are you going to deal with the new realities that impact the ski resort?
ETHAN: Nationally, the economy continues to be a question mark with challenges such as the debt ceiling. Obviously, we are focused more locally, and locally means the whole valley. The national economy is placing realities on our valley that we can’t do a whole lot about. But there are things locally we can all continue to improve upon.
As a broad topic, community relations is something I would like to see continue to improve. And that’s from Gunnison to Mt. Crested Butte. The RTA [Rural Transportation Authority] and the whole airline program is obviously something that needs to be focused on moving forward. We are working very closely with the RTA and supporting that. The model that’s there right now however isn’t a long-term model for the valley or us. Hopefully we can get that back on track from a program standpoint. I think the flights we have coming in this year are good. Is it perfect? No. Is it ever perfect? No.
Within the company, we have a lot of positive energy going on. Summertime is a great example of the great stuff going on up here. But we’ve also been moving the needle in the winter as well. I think we need to continue that momentum and look for new opportunities. Different guests are wondering about different things. Our out-of-town visitors are curious about mountain improvements. We are making improvements at the Paradise Lodge. We are continuing to update the terrain park. The zip line is another improvement.
Locals, on the other hand, are more keen on where we’re going as a company and as a community. That’s a bigger question and something we need to work on together. I’m hopeful that we can increase the speed and level of improvement around here, focus on what’s going well and hone in on some things that aren’t going as well as they should be.

NEWS: Give me something specific. Give me something you can do now that you’re in this seat. Something you’ve perhaps been thinking about. Give me a change.
ETHAN: Back to communication, we will work as hard as ever to reach out to the community and hopefully get the reciprocal effect out of the valley as well. And this includes all the communities and the people in the valley that have shown a passion and caring for what goes on here. I think that is something important to us as a company and the valley. We’ve been here seven and a half years, and everyone has always understood the community and resort are tied at the hip. If the resort does well, the community does well. If the community does well, the resort does well. I think that will be one of my bigger focuses. It’s something that needs to happen. I hope people in the community will be engaged by that and excited.

NEWS: What about the idea of getting the job just because of your name? The attitude that you’re the Mueller kid. How do you deal with that attitude and do you feel you’re ready to run the ski area?
ETHAN: Fair question. I do feel ready. I’ve grown up in the ski industry since I was five or six years old. As hokey as it sounds, I’ve worked at it since I was 11 and I’ve done a lot of line jobs throughout the resort, which I’ve always thought is really important. I didn’t always know this is where I was headed in my career but I always felt that hey, if I’m asking somebody to do something, it’s important to know what you’re asking them to do. So at the end of the day, I do have more than 20 years of experience. And I expect some people to look at me and think I’m pretty young to be doing this but it wasn’t a decision my parents took lightly. And if you know my parents, they’ve never been one to put me or anyone in a position that I wasn’t capable of doing. I do have the experience.
 There are a lot of great people working up here. We have a phenomenal management team. At the end of the day, yeah, I’m 34 years old and some might think that’s too young but there’s a great team here supporting me. And supporting the resort. I don’t see that as a risk at all. It’s a lot more about the team than it is about me

NEWS: Are you hiring someone to step into your old role?
ETHAN: There’s been a bit of restructuring. Nick Herrin is the director of resort services so he’s taking on some new things. Jeff Whiteside has joined the division manager team as the director of culinary services. Michael Kraatz is also taking on some other responsibilities. So there’s been some distribution but no, there won’t be an additional person.

NEWS: Your parents are expected to do more?
ETHAN: Time-wise they spend about 50 percent here now and 50 percent back east. Part of that is work and part of it is having two grandkids here. But they are definitely committed to be more focused on Crested Butte. The reality is, my parents’ model back in the day was for them to dive into the operations. They did that in 1982 at Okemo and they made a great success of it and went to Sunapee. When they got here, that made it three resorts and they knew they had to approach it differently. To a degree, they handed the reins to others and I think we’ve decided to pull those back a bit. There’s some great things going on here but it’s no secret there’s some things that still need to be figured out, such as revenues vs. expenses, real estate and the outside and uncontrollable realities. So yeah, they’ll be more focused.

NEWS: Back to the community. On the season pass prices, given the new economic realities from last winter even, would you guys even consider some sort of season pass discounting to sell more of them? And by that I mean sell more, not just up here but perhaps in places like Gunnison and Montrose and Junction.
ETHAN: The passes are fairly set. We do keep the locals in mind with our pass prices and our different products. This is a model that continues to evolve; it is something we will always continue to evaluate. I would say in general, our value is pretty fair. We’re not in the Front Range so we can’t drop our price in half and expect our volume to double, which is what would have to happen to maintain the financials. That’s just not a reality for us. But again, trying to recognize what we are as a resort in terms of visiting guests vs. locals and try to balance that is a challenge. We are more of a Telluride model than a Keystone/Breckenridge model.
I know a season pass is a big-ticket item. I recognize that. It’s something we look at. You’ll see different products come and go. We do try to do some key local deals at certain times throughout the late summer and fall. Looking at similar resorts, we are priced pretty competitively.

NEWS: What is the magic key for this place? How do you move ahead without going over the top and turning into some place no one wants? The old Vail and Aspen theory. What’s the big hurdle?
ETHAN: The biggest hurdle is location. I mean we’re a heck of a lot farther away and that makes it hard. It’s the truth, but it’s hard. And tied to that is the airlines, and how do you balance a program that then supports the community in a way that the bottom line is growing, not going the other way.
If we could build more trust between the different communities—and I mean not just with us but between the communities themselves and different organizations—to realize we’re all in this together. I think that would do a lot for this community.
One small example of that is the U.S. Pro Cycling Challenge bike race, the Leadville 100 qualifier and the LOC putting these events on. Those are small things in the grand scheme of things but they are clear valley-wide efforts and they’ll do amazing things for the valley. The more we can accomplish things like that, and trust each other the better we can all do.

NEWS: Are you excited or scared or both?
ETHAN: My personality is that I focus on the excitement side of it. There are definitely challenges and things that could go the wrong way but I’m not going to focus on that. The team will focus on moving things forward in the right direction. Try to stay positive. We can’t worry about stuff that hasn’t happened yet. Stay focused on the best.

Part 2 of the conversation will run in next week’s edition of the Crested Butte News.