Late last month, Vail Resorts — which owns the Stowe Mountain and Okemo Mountain resorts — announced plans to buy Peak Resorts, another industry giant, which owns Mount Snow.
It's another step in the continuing consolidation of ski resorts in Vermont, and it's still up in the air how exactly it all might affect skiers, as well as the remaining independent ski areas in the state.
"Peak Resorts was the only other publicly held and traded ski company in North America," said Abagael Giles, assistant editor at Vermont Sports and Vermont Ski and Ride magazines and a reporter for the Addison County Independent. "It was a $264 million sale so far as what we know, and it was a essentially a stock buyout."
Listen above to VPR's Liam Elder Connors and his conversation with reporter Abagael Giles.
Giles said it's still unclear how the purchase will impact the state's independent ski areas.
"For Vermont's 11 remaining independent resorts, there's really a question of, how can we distinguish ourselves and make our experience something that stands out as being unique in this broader landscape and market that is changing around us," she said.
Giles said that according to financial reports and numbers of visits reported last year, those independent resorts have been doing well recently. She recently wrote an article about how Vermont's 2018-2019 ski season was one for the record books.
