Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast

Few would argue that one of the most challenging aspects of a ski vacation can be renting the gear. Bryn Carey, a Sugarloaf, Maine transplant to Utah, has been changing that through his innovative approach to rental equipment delivery at Ski Butlers, a Park City-based company he founded in 2004. Today, Ski Butlers is in two-dozen locations in six states and four countries.Carey grew up in the quintessential skiing family. His father, Chip, was marketing director at Sugarloaf. Skiing was a way of life for the outdoor adventuring family who lived in the remote outreaches of Maine. Then a warm, spring trip to Snowbird changed it all. With his older siblings off to college and dad weighing an opportunity to take over marketing at what would become Canyons in Park City, the family put the decision to Chip, then a young teen. It was a no brainer! They were Utah-bound.Bryn Carey's interview on Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast is a story of passion for winter sport combined with business principles based on values. Sixteen years ago, Carey's fledgling business was one of many experimenting with rental equipment delivery. Over time, Ski Butlers stood out based on its quality of service that is a direct testament to Carey's leadership style, deep love for the sport and an innate sense of stewardship for the environment around him.Carey's business success in the sport he loves stems from the basics of entrepreneurship he learned from his family, going all the way back to his days as a young boy brewing root beer and selling it to friends.Over his two decades in Utah, Carey has very much become a part of the fabric of Ski Utah and life in the Wasatch Mountains. He could have taken the Ski Butlers headquarters anywhere, but his love for the Utah outdoors made it an easy call. He's channeled his passion into leadership roles within the region to protect the future of the Wasatch. His strong feelings about protecting the environment found him in France with his kids for the signing of the Paris Accord in 2015 and an active role in Al Gore's Climate Reality Project.Most of all, though, he just loves being a part of Utah's active outdoor lifestyle. He recalls his youth in Maine fondly, and wants to recreate that for his own family in the Wasatch Mountains.Here's just a small sampling of what you'll find in episode 2 of Last Chair presented by High West. Take a listen, there's a lot more to learn.

Ever wonder what happened to the 'E' in POWDR, the owner of Woodward Park City and nearly a dozen resorts nationwide? You'll learn about that in the season two debut of Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast. POWDRresort company owner John Cumming still has fond memories as a young boy of his father, Ian, scooping him up out of his bed late at night to head to their condo in Snowbird for a long weekend of family skiing. That passion he gained for the outdoors as a child formed his pathway for life as the owner of POWDR, a thriving family-owned resort company competing head-to-head with the likes of Vail Resorts and Alterra.Today, Cumming owns Snowbird along with 10 other resorts across the country from Killington to Copper Mountain to Mt. Bachelor. His innovative Woodward Park City, a new gem amongst a host of national action sports centers under the Woodward brand, offers youth and adults alike with unparalleled action on snow.In a rare interview to kick off Ski Utah's Last Chair podcast, Cumming talks in great detail about his childhood, his growth as a young entrepreneur, his feelings for his resort communities and the challenges brought on by the pandemic. He leaves no stone unturned, addressing the loss of Park City Mountain Resort as well as his own success in managing his life with multiple sclerosis.His intense passion for the outdoors blends with the business acumen he learned from his father and from his own experience as one of the founders of Mountain Hardwear, a leading outdoor clothing and equipment company. His wisdom of resort operations comes from hands-on experience working at Park City Mountain Resort. As chairman of POWDR, he oversees a unique outdoor company that is finding its way through the coronavirus pandemic with both skillful business direction and a high sense of compassion for both its employees and guests.Want to learn more about John Cumming? Best ski run? Most challenging climbing route? Personal hobby? Favorite musician? Take a listen to season 2 - episode 1 of Last Chair: The Ski Utah Podcast.

Without doubt, the 2019-20 ski and snowboard season was one for the record books - great snow, guests from around the world enjoying the Greatest Snow on Earth, restaurants and bars serving up the Ski Utah lifestyle. Then, it all came to a sudden pause on March 14.The pandemic pause caused an unprecedented halt to a great season. How did it all come down? How have the resorts managed it with guests and employees? What does the future hold? Last Chair wraps up the 2019-20 season - including some great powder day stories - with leaders of the sport. Join Last Chair for a conversation with Ski Utah’s Nathan Rafferty, Davy Ratchford from Snowbasin and Dave Fields of Snowbird to get the inside story.

The affable Mike Caldwell bursts into his office, a welcoming smile on his face. Wearing a Salomon vest, he looks a lot different than the portraits of a century of mayors on the wall of his Ogden City office, embodying the active, outdoor lifestyle that has become the trademark of Utah’s second largest city.Eight years in, the third-term mayor has built a strong city by focusing on Utah’s geographical location. A century ago, Ogden’s forefathers capitalized on the Junction City’s location as a railway crossroads. Today, Caldwell has seized on its proximity to the mountains and outdoor recreation. From the 40+ outdoor brand logos with a corporate footprint in Ogden to the thousands of skiers reveling on 25th Street, Ogden truly has become one of America’s great outdoor recreation towns.On any given day, he’ll be riding his road bike to work, taking the mountain bike up onto nearby singletrack, slipping into a climbing harness, clicking into alpine touring gear for a backcountry outing or sliding onto a chairlift for an day at nearby Snowbasin, Nordic Valley or Powder Mountain.This week Last Chair brings you to the top floor of the elegant art deco Ogden Municipal Building, overlooking towering Mount Ogden, for a conversation with Mike Caldwell - a mayor who has eight bikes and five pairs of skis hanging in the garage. He’ll explore Ogden’s rich history and entice you up with a look at the hidden gem among Utah’s ski towns.

Randy Doyle is that guy who always has a happy smile on his face - a fixture on the Ski Utah scene for decades. He literally grew up on the slopes of Brighton and has carried on the tradition of one of Utah’s most family-friendly resorts.Across the Wasatch, there are few views that can match the alpine peaks of the Cottonwoods from the top of the Great Western chairlift down the ridgeline to Snake Creek Pass. Utah’s oldest resort, Brighton Resort, got its start in 1936 as a place for families to ski. Randy’s father, Zane, discovered skiing there and eventually bought the fledging tow rope and creating a Mecca for Salt Lake City families to learn how to ski. This week Last Chair takes us up to the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon as Randy Doyle reminisces on the origins of the resort and how it’s kept its family-friendly culture for nearly a century. We’ll explore the evolution of the sport that has played out on the slopes of Brighton for 84 years and learn about live growing up in the mountains from one of Ski Utah’s favorite leaders.

The bright red PistenBully wound its way up the switchbacks to the top of San Mateo Ridge. Inside, guide Ron Baldis joined the joyous revelry of his guests as they regaled each other with stories of their last run through the trees.Baldis grew up skiing in California, making first runs at Big Bear and joining his family for long trips up to Mammoth. In the early 2000s, he got a call to help a fledgling cat skiing manage its business. He ended up buying the company and now, 16 years later, he still gets the same good feeling as he leads skiers and riders across the 43,000 acres of Thousand Peaks he services with his fleet of cats.PC Powder Cats and Heli-Ski makes dreams come true. On the day we skied with Ron, we joined a group of old high school buddies from Minneapolis. Last summer they got a text chain going, rallying each other to come out to Utah for a guys reunion trip and a weekend of cat skiing.It was a stormy, wet morning when we arrived at the lodge at the head of Weber Canyon. Soon the cats were charging up hill. That first run is full of apprehension. Then you realize, ‘hey, I can do this.’ Dipping off the ridgeline your skis carve into the snow, kicking up snow plumes.Tom Kelly takes the Last Chair podcast to Thousand Peaks, getting to know Park City Powder Cats owner Ron Baldis from the cab of a PistenBully. Listen in as Baldis tells the story of Thousand Peaks ranch and what makes cat skiing such a social affair.

Imagine climbing Mount Everest. Then think about swimming the English Channel. If that's not enough, how about riding your bike across America. That was last summer for Park City triathlete Rob Lea. Oh, and let's not forget the August wedding!Rob Lea and Caroline Gleich are Utah's true adventure couple. Gleich, a noted ski mountaineer, joined fiancé Rob for the Everest climb. On May 24, they stood together atop the world's highest peak, gazing out across the vast expanse of the Himalayas. Just six weeks later, Caroline was in the boat documenting Rob's swim from Britain to France - the first time anyone had done Everest and the English Channel in that short a span of time. Lea wrapped up his Ultimate World Triathlon in September, riding from the Pacific Ocean to Nantucket.It all began when Lea learned that an injury was going to cause him to give up his passion for triathletes. So he wanted to go out with a bang. And, along the way, help raise awareness for gender equality.Last Chair's Tom Kelly will explore Rob and Caroline's ultimate summer adventure, as well as diving into her own passion for big mountain skiing in the Wasatch. The couple will share their backcountry outing in Little Cottonwood earlier that day, plus fun things they love in the show-closing lightning round.

This was one of those ‘man dreams’ - to be riding in a big piece of machinery, conquering the steeps and sculpting the snow, riding in Prinoth Bison, nearly 10 tons of machinery with over 400 horsepower of Caterpillar energy pushing the treads. Deer Valley Resort groomer Laura Sexton was in command, her left hand deftly managing the track control levers, her right fingers flicking buttons on a joystick like an experienced gamer, expertly controlling the hydraulics.A midwest native (Ski Sundown in Dubuque, Iowa), Sexton has been grooming Deer Valley’s mountains for neary 30 years - 27 of which she doubled up as a corpsman in the Naval Reserve. She’s one of the resort’s veterans on a crew with well over 100 years of experience on any given shift. And she still loves it.In this episode of Last Chair from Ski Utah, Tom Kelly explores the mountain on skis with Sexton as she personally inspects the snow surface in the late afternoon hours, before sending her first shift crew up onto the mountain.Snow grooming is an art form. Heading up the hill, Laura flicked the hydraulics to push the blade into the snow, snapping the wings out to gain maximum width. The snow looped up and circled back to the ground, while the treads compacted it. She set the tillers to aerate the snow behind the cat, with bars carving pristine corduroy into the snow.It’s a labor of love for Laura and her team, tracking hour after hour in the mountain solitude to put down precision corduroy for all of us to enjoy the next morning.

When you look at Sundance Mountain Resort, you need to view it as much more than a ski area. When Robert Redford moved to this peaceful valley in the early 1960s, his dream was to preserve this very special place. Today, Sundance is a wonderful blend of art, nature and skiing.Sundance may be a small ski area, but it skis big. Originally known as Timp Haven, Redford purchased the land in 1968, and the Sundance era egan.Last Chair, the Ski Utah Podcast traveled to the scenic valley to speak with President and General Manager Chad Linebaugh. He’ll take you on a tour of Sundance runs in his conversation with host Tom Kelly, even sharing his favorite Robert Redford movie, some little known facts about the famous actor and some insider tips about the Sundance Film Festival. Check it out in this week’s episode of Last Chair.

Sometimes you just have to follow your heart. In the early 1980s, Kim Mayhew did just that. Mayhew and her husband reevaluated their lives, deciding to head west, hopscotching between resorts like ski bums until landing in Utah. Today, Mayhew is one of the most highly regarded resort leaders in America, serving as president and chief operating officer of Solitude Mountain Resort - one of the gems of the Alterra Mountain Company. Shares her story of success and her approach to the challenges presented leading a Cottonwood Canyon resort.