Having been raised in the Pacific Northwest, specifically Western Washington, I grew up in great privilege and failed to realize it until recent years. In speaking of privilege, I speak not of wealth, opulence or power, but of the stark natural beauty of this place that we live. These behemoths of rock, striking skyward from the earth, dozens of powerful rivers snaking off the flanks of shimmering snowcapped peaks, each rumbling towards the Puget Sound and the North Pacific Ocean! I live each and every day in awe.
By mentioning that only within the last few years had I come to this particular realization, the intention is not to imply that I didn’t play outside as a brat. I’d come home muddy, with skinned knees, or missing teeth as often as the next kid. From an early age I sought out anything that would carry me down a hill, down the street or on the water. I grew up accepting the notion that all of these activities should, in one place, indeed be so readily available. It was not until I was much older and more traveled that I would come to appreciate the many perfectly aligning factors, right where I’d grown up, making the Pacific Northwest an outdoor enthusiast’s Eden.
A late August hike up the flanks of Mt. Rainier at an age so young memory almost entirely eludes, venturing high enough to find large areas of snow overlooked by summer’s short gaze upon the high country of Washington’s Cascade Mountains. And since this early age, I have felt a pull towards these wild mountains at the ends of America, where winter’s snows meet the frigid rage of the North Pacific. At the age of 7, I was introduced to downhill skiing. Ultimately, it didn’t take. However, when at the age of 12, I first set foot on a snowboard; I was sold.
In the early months of 1999, Washington’s Cascade Mountains experienced winter in all earnest. Mount Baker Ski Area set a world record for single-season snowfall at a ski resort, accumulating more than 1000 inches. As this was my first year on a snowboard, needless to say much of it was spent wallowing chest-to-neck deep in “Cascade Crude” on Crystal Mountain’s aptly named Discovery Chair. If one were to accuse me of “not enjoying that season to its’ greatest potential,” they’re likely correct. I spent the majority of the biggest winter-season seen anywhere in the world, since people began keeping track of such things, on the bunny-hill at Crystal Mountain.
As a student at Griffin Middle School in turn of the century Olympia, Washington, I spent the next couple of years riding an assortment of early morning buses in order to snowboard on the weekends. Later on, in high-school, I would work several part-time jobs at area ski-resorts and in the retail arena in order to help fund a bourgeoning snowboard habit. All of this fit into what I like to call “the rockstar ambition developmental phase” of my teenage male psyche. Rather than wishing for something obscene, such as to play the drums for Creed or Football for the Raiders, I simply wanted to become a professional snowboarder. Even at this modest point in Snowboarding’s overall development and gradual emersion into the corporate world, before Shawn White, Redbull or double-corked rotations, before Google, Facebook or any of the iGizmos, the sport was already established and beckoning for Olympic status.
As High School fell into memory and the winter of 2005 approached, I prepared for what was to be my first season working full-time at an area ski-resort, and living on-site. A vigorous early November storm system had brought heavy snow and unusually early openings to the resorts of the Cascades, despite warnings of a potentially strong El-Nino affecting the winter-season. When the water’s of the South Pacific warm a few degrees, it affects ocean currents and global weather patterns; resulting in the Cascade Mountain’s experiencing a winter with above normal temperatures with below normal precipitation. When these conditions exist we call it “El Nino.” However, when the water’s of the South Pacific run a few degrees below normal, this affects ocean currents and global weather patterns in a strikingly different fashion. Rather than resulting in the warmer and drier El Nino conditions, “La-Nina” brings generally cooler and wetter weather to the mountains of Washington. An average winter lies somewhere in the midst of these two scenarios. An average winter atop US Highway 2, at Stevens Pass, sees an average annual snowfall of around 450” and an under-foot base in excess of 100”.
To the detriment of what had seemed to have been a promising start to the 2004-5 ski season, the holidays ushered in El Nino conditions in full force. By Mid-January of 2005, most regional resorts were closed with little or no snow on the ground below 5000 feet in elevation. Storms were few and far between while playing hit or miss with the freezing levels; the base elevation of all five major Cascade ski areas is found between 3000 ft. and 4500 ft. above sea-level. Whatever storms did eventually filter into the Pacific Northwest that fateful winter were too warm, resulting in rain, or led to strong temperature inversions and operation-crippling freezing-rainstorms; pineapples and ice.
A late March snowstorm would allow operations to briefly resume after nearly two midwinter months of silent lifts and empty lodge. Yet the damage had already been done. An entire leisure activity, as well as a significant percentage of Washington State’s expected revenue via tourism for the first quarter of 2005, had been stricken from the cards for the better part of a calendar year. Just as there would be “no joy in Mudville,” there would be no resort skiing in Washington.
This horrifically mellow winter damaged not only the State’s tourism industry, but brought about the worst drought conditions Washingtonians had seen in decades. The Drought was not as severe as it could potentially have been, in thanks to an abnormally mild summer, but still brought about real problems for agricultural endeavors east of the Cascade Crest. Such operations are almost entirely dependent on irrigation projects moving water from the Columbia River.
The 2005-6 season, again, began with gusto in early November. Luckily for all, after a couple of warm-ups and rain scares, the month of December ushered in snow after snow and it was business as usual. However, eyes had been opened. With the impending release of Al Gore’s new film on global climate change, “An Inconvenient Truth,” global warming was the talk of the town.
Even in 2006, as I labored away as a night lift-operator at Stevens Pass Ski Area, the ski and snowboard industry was a well oiled, corporately-driven machine; big business. An industry, with earnings in the Billions in the U.S. alone, had seen the writing on the wall. The ski industry had been threatened by the results of climate change. In this case not only did a problem effect the bottom-line, it threatened the very resource the entire industry is built around; the snow. Key players and heavy hitters throughout the industry began making waves about “climate change” and “sustainable business.” Whether motivated by passion, or potential profits, a lot of smart people were talking with other smart people, and money was being thrown at the situation.
Global climate change is not “global warming,” rather, “climate change,” as its’ name suggests. Truth: If current trends are not slowed or reversed, some locations on the planet will continue to grow generally warmer. However, the entire planet will not warm, many locations will become colder; possibly drastically so. As waste from fossil fuels and unsustainable industrial practice continues to enter the atmosphere and ocean, climate change will continue and become ever-more-so erratic. The rise or fall of ocean temperatures, in geo-specific locations, can drastically impact global weather patterns. Some potential severe implications often thrown about include: A shorter, hotter monsoon season on the East African Steppe, extreme winters on the North American Eastern Seaboard and an already increasingly sparse rainy-season in fire-wary Southeastern Australia. All of these scenarios could result in local resources becoming scarcer and the potential for great loss of human life looms large. The preceding climatic events are only a couple in a list of potentially hundreds of problems that could, and may yet arise as a result of moderate oceanic temperature fluctuations caused by human industry.
Climate chaos is not an issue that can be solved over night via endless Q&A sessions or by the blind donations of generous billionaires; although these could both prove important and helpful pieces of a larger puzzle, taking part in lighting the way towards an ultimate solution. The ultimate solution will ask each and every man, woman or child on this planet to make certain simple sacrifices, such as: recycling as habit, driving less and walking more, utilizing public transit systems or telecommuting, conserving resources and working to ensure that green-zones remain pristine.
The real strength to enact powerful change in the matter of Climate Chaos lies with the world’s corporate elite; the very pillars of business and industry who drive international commerce. These Fortune 500 corporations, viewing their carbon-footprints with reckless disregard, are the real players with the power to push for the drastic, but essential shift in policy which must occur in Washington DC. In today’s increasingly globalized world, the American Democracy works hand in hand with international big business. Each entity is today unable to survive without the other, as our government has catered increasingly to the corporate world unto the point of dependence. Today, the Private Sector has unprecedented access, influence and potential over-site on most, and in this case environmental, legislation. Moral: Any truly effective movement towards halting the effects of climate change must span the globe and have strong roots and ties to corporate industry.
From 2006 to 2009 the Cascade Mountains of Washington saw a strong resurgence of winter, with snowfall totals piling high above average and what has aptly become known as “the bad year” fading into memory. Over this span I would continue to work as a night lift-operator at Stevens Pass Ski Area, allotting my daylight hours to the pursuit of sport and the search for the best, and deepest snow available. After several years spent shoveling what would amount to feet upon feet of snow, multiple times per day (once in the morning to get out of the driveway, all evening at Stevens Pass and again late at night upon returning home in order to get back into the driveway), I had once again become accustomed to, and expectant of, this sort of heavy weather. So in 2009, when another strong El Nino event occurred, the conspicuous absence of such storms was ever-more-so noticeable. Freezing levels again hovered slightly above pass-levels with hit-or-miss precipitation.
Although there had been a lot of talk, and some early efforts had been made, it was at this point— in large part due to the social-network explosion—that I, personally, began to notice heavy hitters throughout the ski and snowboard universe taking action and proposing preventative measures regarding climate change. Industry juggernauts Burton and Nike, working together with Non-Profits such as the P.O.W. (Protect Our Winters) Alliance, both enacted strong measures meant to promote sustainable activities within the ski industry and mountain culture as a whole. Whether these programs were undertaken in order to protect environment, or the bottom-line, is ultimately irrelevant. The result is the same, big business, or at least big business as pertaining to the ski industry, has stepped on board and joined the fight to prevent climate change. This fresh influx of large dollar (or likely Euro) amounts into a green cause is groundbreaking, and due to the sheer size of the ski and snowboard industry today, corporations in other industries, particularly the other facets of the eco-tourism industry are surely sitting up and taking notes.
Public support for the Green cause within snow culture has been brought about not only by large corporate efforts and celebrity advertising campaigns, but also by efforts in the major & grassroots press endeavors of this industry. From media heavy’s such as Transworld Publications and Absinthe Films to regional weather bloggers Larry Schick and Cliff Mass, a strong effort is being made across the board in order to educate the public on Global Climate Change, Its’ causes and contributors, what could happen to our winters if current trends are not reversed, and finally, what each individual can do to help heal our beleaguered planet. Not only are large corporations and the media driving an industry-wide turn toward sustainable business practices, so too are the resorts themselves. As early as 2007, Stevens Pass Ski Area began purchasing Carbon Offset, and has set an industry precedent by powering 100% of their lift infrastructure through purchased electricity generated by environmentally friendly wind-power.
I was born to play outside, and from an age so young it avoids memory, I have held a love for these mountains. A few years later would come my passion for the monstrous seasonal snows heaved upon them by powerful Pacific storm systems. As I grew in years, I came to realize that I would need to find a career-path that could sustain the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed. I began to look beyond seasonal labor in exchange for limitless pow turns; searching for a more stable future. As a result of my years spent in these mountains and the path my academics were beginning to take, I began to study the meteorology of the Cascades particularly pertaining to snowfall and avalanche forecasting. This academic path, coupled with a background in photography and journalistic writing, as well as a scholastic interest in business & marketing, made the timing integral to seek out a professional internship in this industry I hoped to work in.
Initially I turned an eye towards California and that which was unfamiliar to me. I had been in conversation with some good folks at one of the snowboard magazines, and was seriously considering a move to the Sierra before a Cinco-de-Mayo snowstorm welcomed post-season snow frenzy to Cascadia. The deep snow days the early May storm delivered to the region, coupled with a mouthwatering weather prognosis for the 2010-11 made me scoff at my thoughts of a move to Lake Tahoe. I would seek out something closer to home.
The innovative Marketing Department at Stevens Pass Winter Resort has been doing great things for years now. Taking strides together with very supportive communities In Leavenworth to the East and Skykomish to the West, these guys have stamped this once sleepy “local’s secret” firmly into the destination map of any powder-hound’s subconscious. With an average annual snowfall in excess of 450”, ample in-bounds terrain and side-country, along with the best terrain park in the region, and being little more than an hour from the downtown Seattle waterfront, Stevens Pass was ready to explode; the only thing missing was the match.
After a bit of educational back and forth with Stevens’ Director of Marketing Services, Chris Rudolph, I was signed on for my Junior Internship in Marketing at Stevens Pass. As an academic component, I would also read two texts: Snow Business: A Study of the International Ski Industry, Simon Hudson; and Tourism, Recreation and Climate Control (Aspects of Tourism), C Michael Hall and James E. S. Higham. The first of the two texts that I would dive into, Snow Business, was slightly out of date, and primarily documented the Ski Industry in England. Published in 1999, the text barely covered web-related marketing at all; today an integral part of any business model, let alone specific to the ski industry. The text also mainly covered the state of business in the European, primarily British, Ski Industry. Aside from having way out-dated statistics on the important role snowboard culture now plays in the ski industry, the monetary references were in Pounds! I can do Euros at current exchange rates easily enough, but when monetary amounts are given in Pounds, and exchange rates 12 years out of date, it’s tough to even find an exchange matrix to work with. Some of the marketing strategy as far as in-print advertising was still relevant, but even that game is changing as digital subscriptions and tablet-based web-apps continue to grow in market share versus printed publications.
The second text I worked with, Tourism, Recreation and Climate Control, was a bit more recent (published in 2005) and the state of the battle over climate change has not morphed, over the last decade, nearly as drastically as the state of business within the ski industry. The content of this text although noticeably older—just by the type of language used—is still en-large relevant. The section of this title I worked with most closely dealt with geo-specific examples of potential effects that particular weather pattern-shifts may have on the area. The text contained numerous mentions of the ski and snowboard industry within more general conversation about the business of eco-tourism as a whole. The most relevant section pertaining to winter weather in the Cascades of Washington State overviewed a scenario where waters in the South Pacific Ocean rose 5 to 10 degrees F in average temperature over the next 15 to 20 years. An exceptional El Nino season sees a +1-3 degree F rise in temperature over the course of several months. To see such a large, and more permanent rise in seawater temperatures here would allegedly bring about very dry and substantially milder winter seasons, along with much warmer summers the potential for notably more erratic weather; A sort of permanent super El Nino. No bueno.
In working with the Marketing Department at Stevens Pass, I have learned through total emersion and have time and time again come up swimming. I have put particular energy into furthering my development into photojournalism, taking pride in my documentation of the world around me, as well as refreshing my skill-set in graphic design. I have helped staff and develop media content of events simultaneously and have been allowed to dabble into event management by coordinating with spectators, competitors and sponsors. I have learned from the best, and taken part in an active and successful social media campaign aimed at translating clicks of the mouse into smiling faces riding full chairlifts, and a healthy bottom-line. All the while receiving ample mentoring, feedback and support from the expert marketing team way up here, 4061 ft. above sea-level at Stevens Pass Winter Resort.
In recent months I’ve also learned a fair bit about myself, finding a certain clarity to things. Following a path I set out upon unknowingly, more than a decade ago, I may have inadvertently stumbled out of the wilderness of my early twenties, and onto a potential career path where I can not only take pride in my product, but I also find thoroughly enjoyable. Over the years I’ve come to believe, wholeheartedly, that hard work and simply being nice to people often correlates directly to success. Opening doors instead of closing them; what a concept.
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