President's Message

Marmot Basin, August 8., 2024

Our friends in Jasper are not ones to dwell on things. I have marveled and drawn motivation from the forward-thinking nature and optimism of the town and our colleagues at Marmot Basin and Jasper SkyTram. To be clear, the events and losses in Jasper have been traumatic. Fear, anger, and grief are all active emotions. Equally, however, inspiration and learning have already come from the many conversations with Marmot Basin’s CEO, Jason Paterson, and members of his team.

• From the outset, care, concern, and actions for their team have been at the forefront. While supporting others, there is also the need to address one's own emotions, loss, and fully support their loved ones. Leaders are not immune.

• There is appreciation for outreach from many industry colleagues. Brief and simple messages of support may seem like small gestures, but in the moment, they are a welcome glimpse of reprieve for the recipient.

• There is good news as resident re-entry has commenced and Highway 16 is open to traffic. But rebuilding is not easy. The immediate threat to Jasper may have eased, however, there are a myriad of details that are never anticipated or mentioned in media clips that need to be sorted out to enable the return of residents and the welcoming of visitors.

• We can help as colleagues with brand reputation impacts. As Jasper's recovery evolves, sharing images of open businesses, streets, and natural surroundings unaffected by wildfire is important to restore reputation—and visitation—when ready. While this applies to visitors, it is just as important for instilling confidence in our current and future employees.

Crisis can bring forward the best in us, as demonstrated by our colleagues in Jasper. It also behooves us to seize this sentiment and the many learnings from this crisis prior to the next one—easy to say, often hard to execute. In the week that our colleagues were being evacuated, CWSAA had several unrelated industry calls with ski areas. There was an unmistakable and palpable sense in these conversations that conveyed, “This can easily be any one of us.”

Most ski areas have infrastructure within or next to rural settings. Attendees of past fall and spring industry meetings will recall the learnings shared by leaders from previous disasters. Mitigating catastrophic events is a large part of our industry’s daily safety and risk management routine. Rightfully so, our focus is and will continue to be on operations such as lifts, slopes, and paths to purchase. However, the events in Jasper highlight our need to expand our scope to mitigation and crisis management around natural disasters. "Plan for the worst and hope for the best" is a proven mantra, and it continues to ring true. In the short term, it serves as a reminder to operators to ensure close contact is maintained with local emergency officials and that our teams are trained on protocols. In the midterm, CWSAA and the industry need to increase awareness and advocacy for prevention and mitigation, as well as leverage the many resources and training available for emergency planning and crisis management.

Cheers

– Christopher