Q&A: Curt Sheffield, Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort

By Richard N. Velotta

Monday, Jan. 24, 2011 | 3 a.m.

A ski resort in the middle of the desert? Really?

That’s the reaction many have when they learn of the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort, less than an hour’s drive from the Strip.

The area has 11 trails with the longest at 3,000 feet and an 860-foot vertical drop to a base elevation of 8,510 feet. The resort gets 120 inches of a snow a year on average and has a 4 1/2-month season that begins Thanksgiving weekend.

Three chairlifts and one surface lift service the resort operated by Park City, Utah-based Powdr Corp.

Curt Sheffield, director of business affairs for the resort, is the man who has to convince a disbelieving world that there’s enough snow in the desert to ski. A five-year Las Vegas resident, Sheffield was sold on Southern Nevada when he spent part of a day skiing, part of it playing golf and ending it with a swim in his pool.

He told In Business Las Vegas about the challenges of marketing his product, how the recession helped the local property and the big plans on the drawing board:

IBLV: Many people moving to Las Vegas or visiting here are surprised when they learn there’s a ski resort within an hour’s drive of the Strip. Tell us about the facilities you have.

Sheffield: Getting the word out is probably our biggest challenge. The ski area itself has been around since 1963. We have a day lodge and one other building that has a rental and ski school in it. We’ve got two lifts for intermediate skiing, two-seater and three-seater chairlifts and on our bunny hill, we have a two-seater chairlift as well as a “magic carpet” — a people mover that runs uphill for kids. We have a really incredible beginner program. For adults, it’s called 1-2-3-4, and for kids, it’s A-B-C-D. We also have weekend programs, a snow kids and a snow tots program. Later in January, we have an all-mountain team for kids that are more advanced and want to learn more about skiing, maybe not on the runs themselves. We have complete rental. We can set you up with lessons, the lift ticket, a snowboard setup or a ski setup. We even rent outerwear because so many people don’t have the big, thick coat and pants. The only thing you have to buy is a pair of gloves and hat and bring your sunglasses on most days up there. A lot of days are just beautiful blue-sky days where you don’t need the goggles and the superheavy gear.

Do you have snow-making equipment?

We do. We just increased our snow-making pond size by about 5 1/2 times this summer so we have plenty of water to convert into snow to get the season open. It’s still a natural process. It has to be cold enough and the humidity has to be right to make snow. It’s just water and air that makes the snow. This summer, we’re going to put in additional snow-making lines and heads so that we can coat the entire mountain. Hopefully when we open, which is typically the day after Thanksgiving, we’ll have waist-deep powder up and down the mountain.

How much water goes into making snow?

It’s hundreds of thousands of gallons. We have two springs that feed our little reservoir. All we do is borrow the water for a few months. It comes out of the ground naturally so instead of just running down the hill, out into the desert and underneath, we just capture it and then spray it out in November when it’s cold and then it goes back right back into the ground and back into the desert. All we really do is borrow the water for a few months.

To whom do you market and how do you do it?

We’ve gotten a little more aggressive this year. We’ve hit UNLV quite strongly, both at the football tailgate parties as well as the basketball games — a real Rebel promoter this year. We’re also in the racks up and down the Strip to get the word out to the tourists. We’ve hired the Idea Factory and Forte Creative Media to get the word out to locals. They are putting us on the map. Our season-pass holders are probably the best word-of-mouth people that love the mountain and want to share it with others. I can’t really share how many season-pass holders we have.

How has the economy affected the ski industry here and in other states?

The slow economy has hurt the destination resorts throughout the country — the Mount Bachelors, the Sun Valleys and some of the large Colorado resorts where people fly there, rent a hotel room, buy the meals and do the whole thing. What it’s done for us is it’s moving our business because we’re a half-hour from town, an hour from the Strip, you can go up for the day, enjoy the mountain, enjoy the skiing, but you don’t have to spend the hotel money or the dining money for a two- or three-day ski trip. So it’s been really good for us.

How is the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort faring financially compared with previous years?

We’re having another banner year because of the snow. Our best advertising is when you look up from downtown and see the white on the peaks. That’s when the secret gets out.

So who is the prototypical customer? The guy who’s tuning up for a ski trip or someone just learning?

All of the above. Customers say, “I only have a day or two off, so I’m going up to the local hill.” “I’m getting ready for a ski trip to Park City Mountain or Copper (Mountain) so I’ve got to get my ski legs or snowboard legs on.” And certainly we’ve always been known as a place to learn to ski or snowboard.

What’s the biggest challenge in marketing a ski resort in Southern Nevada?

Nobody believes there’s really snow here. (Laughs) I can walk into a grocery store with my Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort baseball cap on and people look at me and say, “Really?” They just don’t believe that we’re actually here. And then, of course, they believe that because we’re in a desert that everything must be man-made. But it’s not. It’s just your standard ski resort. Our base lodge is at 8,510 feet so it’s always cold up there. So all we really need is to keep the temperatures down. The snow that we get is really phenomenal because it’s high and dry, so it’s always fun to play in.

Your base is at 8,510. What’s the high point?

We only go up about (another) 1,000 feet vertically right now, but we do have a master plan in place to double that. We’ll have about 2,100 vertical feet when the master plan gets built out over the next five to 10 years.

Who do you consider to be your competitors — other ski resorts such as Brian Head in Utah or Big Bear in California or the dozens of popular diversions in Las Vegas?

Probably more the multiple diversions in Las Vegas. All the other resorts are a bit more than a day trip away, so we’re the logical choice if you’ve only got one or two days off. It’s just a different style of a vacation when you get right down to it.

A number of people look at tribal casinos and riverboats as the minor league version of gambling that can prepare you for a trip to Las Vegas. Is the Las Vegas Ski and Snowboard Resort a minor league facility that can prepare you for a trip to Lake Tahoe or Colorado?

It definitely does that, but it also is an incredible mountain. We not only have the groomed runs that we groom up every day, but we’ve got amazing tree skiing. You can get off the beaten path and just go exploring through the ski area.

So you can get off the trails?

It’s called “off piste.” It’s the nongroomed mountain.

What lodging amenities are on the mountain? Do you have promotional ties with them?

There’s lodging in Kyle Canyon. One of the biggest misconceptions is that we are on Mount Charleston. We’re not. We’re in Lee Canyon. If you take U.S. 95 north and take State (Route) 156, that takes you straight up to the ski resort, 18 miles up the hill, in Lee Canyon. There’s a connecting road between Kyle Canyon and Lee Canyon that you can get over to the Resort at Mount Charleston, which is one of our lodging partner. We do “skications” with them. They’re part of the Siegel Group, so we have arrangements with three of their properties here in town — Rumor, the Artisan and the new Gold Spike. We’re also partnered with Station Casinos and we’re doing skications with seven of their properties. They basically package the room with two lift tickets and our ski bus to get them up the mountain. So it’s a day trip. The beauty for the casinos is that it gives their guests something to do during the day, but we get them back in time for dinner and a show.

Are there any promotional ties with Strip resorts?

Siegel and Station are the only lodging partners we have at this time. But we’re part of the National Concierge Association, so we stay in touch with the Strip properties through that group.

It’s one way in and one way out to your property. How often does weather make it impossible for you to operate?

We’ve closed one day in the past five seasons due to weather and that was actually this season when we got that 8-foot storm that came through in a two-day period. We were closed until about 1 o’clock that day. We have a great relationship with the Nevada Department of Transportation. They do an amazing job for us. And, of course, we do our own snow removal as well as avalanche control on the mountain itself.

What happens with avalanche control?

We’re a Class 1 avalanche facility, so we have a howitzer. We have to settle the snow with avalanche shoots. It’s done at the crack of dawn on a heavy snow day. We have snow safety people hike above the ski area and do hand charges. If they see areas that are of concern to them, they settle the snow to make it as safe as we can for our guests.

Besides personal vehicles, is there transportation to and from the mountain? You mentioned the ski bus.

We have three different choices. Our ski bus starts at Town Square at the side of Whole Foods Market. That leaves at 7:15 every morning and goes up to the Santa Fe Station and parks in the hotel garage and picks up people and goes straight to the mountain. That departs at 4 p.m. to come back down to drop everybody off. We have city shuttle options so if you’re staying at a Strip hotel, we will pick you up at your hotel, take you to the ski bus and then get you back to your hotel. We’ve added a new feature this year. We received a grant from the Mount Charleston license-plate fund and have started a mountain shuttle that goes to the Resort at Mount Charleston.

You’re a private enterprise. What’s the permitting process with the U.S. Forest Service?

We’re a leasee of the Forest Service.

How does that affect your ability to expand?

We have a master plan in the review process with the Forest Service. We met with them prior to the holidays and we’re hoping to get approval for that in the late spring. Then, we’ll be able to start some of the larger projects, such as the pond this year, to make it a much newer and better experience for our guests. Our buildings are elderly. They’ve been up there for decades and we need a new day lodge to support the volume. When the ski area was built, there were less than 200,000 people in Las Vegas. Now we’re trying to support upward of 2 million and guests to the area. We have a huge influx during the holidays, people from all over the world. You’ll hear many, many different languages up there during the holidays. So the word is getting out.

What’s the timetable on the master plan?

We look at it as a five- to 10-year plan. Every project begets another project. We put the pond in; now we have to put the lines in to distribute the water across the mountain. Then, we’re looking at day lodges and from there, we’ll be going on the mountain and increasing our capacity.

A number of mountain resorts in other states supplement their income with summertime amenities such as zip lines and alpine slides. Any plans to do that here?

Yes, it’s in the master plan. The biggest thing for us is that we’ve spent the last four or five years trying to get everything underground fixed. We’ve replaced our generators because there is no NV Energy in Lee Canyon. All of our power is self-generated. So we have a brand-new power system, an upgraded sewer system …

Self-generated?

We have big old Detroit diesel generators. All the summer homes up there are on generators. So we’ve done everything we can underground getting ready for the master plan so that we can build a new day lodge, add five or six more ski lifts and up to 50 trails. That’s what’s in the master plan.

And that’s where the summer amenities come in?

Yes. We’re looking at those options. Back in the day, we used to have concerts. We’d love to get back into that. The problem is we’ve had so much going on in the summer buildingwise that it’s really hard to focus on the business. We’ve had to make the decision right now to focus on getting these things built. As that comes along, we’ll be able to go back to a summer model of business. It’s 30 degrees cooler up there so when it’s 110 here, it’s really nice on the mountain.