Tim from Ski Rex Media back with a little recording that I haven't been doing. I've been shirking responsibility when it comes to Ski Rex Media this season over there with my new friends at Tecnica, working in the Rollerblade Warehouse, but now we're back, and what better place to get back into it, is the one place that I truly love throughout the entirety of the ski industry with a person I'm quite fond of. Jon Hunt and Whaleback Mountain. Jon the Executive Director, how you doing buddy?
Great, super pumped to be back on with you. It's been a hot summer as we sit here and it's 92° in the office right now, but just having you here makes me think of winter. Oh yeah, I am so ready. I am done with the summer. People love summer. I'm more done with the heat than anything else, but whatever. So we come back to Whaleback because like many of you folks out there, I am interested into what's happening next. Again, like Jon said, it's been a while.
I haven't been here in a while for anything more than the Adam Ezra Group and you know we didn't get to talk a lot that night. It's very busy for Jon. It's because I was busy dancing my face off. Yeah, see it is busy for Jon there, but he's not really working. He's dancing and it's a whole thing. It's a lot of fun. Check out Whaleback's concert series, all kinds of stuff. In
fact, something going on tonight as a matter of fact. Yeah, tonight we have Dark Star Project, a Grateful Dead cover band out of Burlington coming in to, you know, ironically it happens to be the day after what would have been Jerry Garcia's 82nd birthday. So we're pretty excited to honor Jerry and dance our faces off another night. Awesome, that's great. And you know what, we can start there then. We were just talking about what should we talk about. This is what
we'll talk about. How has the summer been here? Because I think some people are still missing out on the fact that Whaleback is a year-round facility. There's stuff going on and like, you know, the concerts and stuff like this. So what do you got? How's the summer been? It's been great. I mean it's been busy like you said. You know, I think people are slower to catch on because we've only been doing it for about three years. Sure. Where we're trying to
evolve into this year-round organization. So we've had everything from summer day camps for the last five weeks for kids from, you know, ages five through 12. Sure. That's been great. So there's a bunch of little kids running around every day which, you know, kind of adds to the excitement of the building. It's nice when it's been quiet for the spring to bring some voices back into here. Totally. Every Friday night we've had live music with the pub open and once again
Kara's out there crushing it with our food service. So, you know, come on down for dinner and listen to some free live music every Friday night. And as we transition into September, not too far away, we'll go back to our Sundays in September. Our afternoon outdoor markets with free live music and food and beverage. Again, just more ways to kind of celebrate the season and get ready for for the winter. Yeah, and those Sundays worked out pretty well I think last year. I mean it looked
like it to me. I was only here for a couple of them. Yeah, the weather really cooperated last September. Yeah. If anyone hasn't blocked the rest of the summer from their minds last summer, but September was really nice. And this summer's been pretty good too, although hotter than normal. Sure. But, you know, I think we've had good crowds here, a lot of excitement, a couple good concerts. It's been a lot of fun. It has been fun. In fact, that reminds me, we got
to go into Alex's office. Shout out to Alex and get my CD that you got signed for me. A very, very wonderful thing. Shout out Adam Ezra Group, wonderful people. So summer's been looking good. We got the same stuff that you've also had going on for those who know, like disc golf, your volleyball court. Is that still around? That's gone. Yeah. No, we didn't see the interest that we were hoping with it. I think a lot of kids played on it when families were here on Friday
night. Sure. But instead we put in a little playground, which has actually seen way more traffic than the volleyball court ever did. So the volleyball court's kind of gone, but we still have our 18-hole disc golf course that the Upper Valley Disc Golf Association has continued to upgrade and continues to kind of fine tune and tweak. So yeah, that's all still going on. That's awesome. That's great. I want to get up here and check that out myself, actually.
The big question I do get still, believe it or not, even though I've answered it for you guys, is are there mountain bikes on the mountain yet? And the answer is no, correct? Not according to us. Folks are more than welcome to use our private property for recreational use without charge, but they're liable for their own actions. I think we've talked about it before, one of the beauties of Whaleback is it's really steep for skiing. One of the negatives is it's
really steep for mountain biking, and there's not an easy way down. So we don't encourage it, we don't promote it. I have seen a bike or two out there at times, and I usually kind of say, please be safe, and then go hide and hope for the best. Hope for the best until you see that helicopter from Dartmouth come flying over to take care of it. So there you go. That's the official. Again, I've answered that question a few times. I'm like, just don't do it. I answer it two to three
times a week. There you go. So it's a very big thing. People are pushing for it. I don't know. We've talked about it maybe sometime down the line. Yeah. I mean, I think I love mountain biking. I think, you know, being a little old school, I can't really wrap my head around using a lift to get you to the top of the mountain. I think if I want to ride down the mountain, I should ride up it.
But I understand it's exciting and people love it. I think it's just right now, financially, it doesn't make sense for us as a business to invest in it and then to be able to support it. So, you know, I'm sure we'll see mountain bikes on this mountain, probably at some point soon. And then in the future, whether or not we're supporting it, I don't know yet. Fair enough. And that's fine. There you go, everybody. Now you have your answer.
Live with it. Okay. But you can still come up and walk up the mountain. Hiking up this mountain is a wonderful thing. Yeah. I mean, we have hikers all the time. We have folks coming out and having picnics out on the base area. The disc golf course gives you something to do while hiking because you got to go up. And I think, you know, the back nine is up on the top third of the mountain. Totally. I'm not quite to the summit, but pretty darn close. So you're getting a good
workout too. Yeah, absolutely. It's great view. A lot of fun just being on the mountain anyway. As I was telling John earlier, we were talking about Whaleback today at the Rollerblade warehouse and you know, everybody's excited and I'm excited. One of the things we were talking about is the timeline for the lift. And you and I were just saying that. So the new lift is coming and it will be there this season. Yes. Yes. The lift is here. It's sitting in the garage down in
storage. Oh, totally. I remember when you showed it to me. Last year, the weather just jammed up the whole process and jammed up every process and thing we needed to do. So we needed to shift the focus to opening last year. This year, the focus has been on installing but also a lot of our snow making work that our federal grant is supporting that we just recently finally got the permission to proceed letter. Sure. So we've been doing a lot of that work. We've contracted with
three different companies to assist with the install. Wow. So it'll be in by this season this year. Cool. Yeah. We're excited about it. And I'm excited. Every time I walk over, I'm like, man, that's going to be choice right there. It's going to be beautiful. It'll get you up the mountain quicker earlier and it'll get the racer kids out of the way. Exactly. So it'll work out well for everybody. Plus, it's a cool lift. Yeah. And it'll be great on Thursday Night Race League, which is
our big kind of beer league, they call it. But like, you know, that's one of our big events that we host every week in the winter. And, you know, we'll be able to turn the lift, the chair lift off and be able to just use the race trail for Thursday Night Race League, which would be great. And then for some other, you know, kind of other races that we host, kind of take the pressure off the chair. Absolutely. And the Thursday Night Race League is a lot of fun. I
don't race personally because that would just be a mess. But it is a lot of fun. I've been here talking to people, hanging out. Talk about a social event. It's so much fun. It's probably more about the social atmosphere than it is about the actual racing. Yeah. While also having former U.S. ski team members in the race. So it's a pretty wild experience. So now let's go back a season or two where you were top dog, I think, the one year was that? I'm pretty sure my team
may or may not have won the championships of the B-League my first year. My first time ever racing a ski gate. Sure. Was that season? Yes. I don't have a racing background, but I do have a tiny little trophy on my windowsill. Which is a beautiful thing. There it is. Now you got to defend that. So you'll be out there. I retired. You retired? I retired. That's fair enough. Everybody should retire. Quit while I'm ahead. Quit while you're ahead. Exactly. So that's awesome. So now we know
Thursday Night Race League will be back. And again, if you haven't noticed, we're transitioning into the winter, but the summer has been great. As we said, I feel like I might be moving too quick. Do you feel like I'm moving too quick? No, I think we just we want to make sure we don't skip over the fall. Yes. With our fourth annual Fall Flannel Fest, which is our kind of marquee fundraising event of the year, where our chair of the board, myself, kind of give updates on
how last season went and how next season is planned and any big things coming up. But it's also a celebration of the mountain with a silent auction, live music, kind of a neat way for our group to kind of get together and our community to celebrate Whale Day. That'll be Tuesday, October 10th. And then the other really exciting thing in the fall that we haven't nailed a date
down, it'll be somewhere in October. But through our partnership with IndyPass and their partnership with Teton Gravity Research, TGR sent out a film crew at the end of last season and again this summer to do some interviews with some folks in our community, myself included. And they are releasing a movie focused on four North American skiers that are that are in the business,
not for profit. Absolutely. And we are, we are one of the focuses. We're actually potentially going to be the the first release of the movie will be in the Upper Valley somewhere. Awesome. Again, still working out the details on it, so please stay tuned on that. But it's going to be really exciting. So there you go everybody, TGR, Whaleback. We all know Teton Gravity Research, very popular with their filmmaking, they're very good. And now with Whaleback being at the forefront
in one of their films, that is incredible. What a, what a great thing to watch this mountain where it's gotten since I've been coming here, which is like three years, you know. And it's like, you know, I didn't get to know it back in the day, but now it's like I've seen it grow. It's fantastic. So IndyPass is a big deal with you guys. You're a full partner now in last year,
I believe, right? Yeah, this will be year two. And I think, you know, not just from the movie or just from the past, but in so many, so many different ways, partnering with IndyPass has turned out to be a really good relationship for Whaleback Mountain. Sure. We're really excited about it. They continue to focus on a similar mission to us and supporting ski areas like us. And we're just really excited to see what the future holds with our IndyPass memberships.
And that's something interesting to talk about with you as well. One of the, it might have been the first time we ever talked, we met, we talked about would IndyPass, do you think, be a good fit for Whaleback? And you were unsure at that time, but it's awesome that it worked out. I love the IndyPass. I love Doug. I haven't met the guys from Entebene yet, but that's okay. Yeah, no, I think, you know, I had met with Doug and we had talked early on, probably back when we had talked about
potentially seeing if there was a fit. And at the time it didn't make sense. And I think with the, you know, with Doug's support and the transition to Eric and Entebene, it just, the pieces fell in at the right time for us to fit in. And we've actually, you know, kind of developed a great relationship with them. They also, I think you had a really nice segue there. They also are behind our new, newly installed RFID system, which is all an Entebene
system. They're going to now, everything we do here from e-commerce to point of sale, for our Lyft tickets, our day tickets, our season passes, our food and beverage, our retail, everything rental will all go through Entebene systems, which we're really excited about. It'll make on our end, from a business point of view, it'll really help us kind of be more efficient in what we do and be able to track more data than we've ever been able to do to really know what our
customers or guests are really excited about. And then on the guest side, it's going to make the guest experience a whole lot smoother. They're going to have their RFID card. That's going to give them Lyft access. That's going to give them access to French fries. That's going to give them access to the bar. Like they can, they can do everything with that one card should
they want to. And if they're, they're nervous about, you know, sending little Johnny to the lodge and not being able to, you know, have him get his chicken fingers or cheeseburgers, they can load money, preload money onto their, Johnny's card. Johnny can use that card to purchase stuff. Fantastic. So it's really going to make the guest experience a whole lot smoother. Yeah. So it's not just a, it's not just your pass, which is what you see. I mean, I know in the modern era,
a lot of systems are trying to put in that type of system. A lot of mountains are trying to put that type of stuff because it does make things more smooth line, much easier. And now you've got it. So now you're going to take your thing out to the, your, your card out to the Lyft. Are we doing a still, we got someone to hand scan. So there's still someone to talk to, or are you doing like a hand scanners? We'll have hand scanners. We want humans to interact
with our people. Perfect. You know, again, that's, that's one of the things that we feel we do really well. And what our guests really like is that there is that, that at home feeling when you're at Whaleback. So we're still going to have hand scanners out at all the lifts, but it'll give us more ability to track in a more efficient manner. Absolutely. And data, it makes the world go around.
Now there is something, I will bring this up more half joking than anything, but there was a person while I was scanning tickets last season over here at the chairlift, who he was taking a little take in the back that I scanned his past. And he's like, I don't want this place to join the future. I think that was almost his exact words. I was like, I don't know, but what do you think? If you think that's going to be a real issue or you think it's just people talking, I think it'll be
an early bump. And it's one thing I've thought about in every decision that we make, you know, one of our, our first point of our strategic goals is to maintain Whaleback's unique character. Yeah. How do you do that while continuing to move forward with better technology that's,
that keeps us affordable, but also gives us the ability to track this data. That's really important for us, especially which, you know, as a nonprofit, when we go out and fundraise and apply for grants, having data to back up what I'm trying to tell someone, it really helps a long way. So I think I predict this season, there will be a couple of bumps. I, it's a new system. There's going to be bumps on our end. There's going to be bumps from the guest experience
from specifically like someone who's been coming here for 40 years. It's going to be different. Yeah. But not a whole lot different. You know, it's going to feel different at first, but I think, you know, once folks get going, it'll be seamless. And again, I think as long as we're continuing to do things that increase our technology and put us into the future, but remain true to what we are and our character, that's the balance that we, that we go through every day. Yeah. And I think,
I think that'll be all right. Like I, for whatever reason, when you brought it up, I just was reminded of that one. Is it? I've had board members say it. When I brought it up, I told board members that this was the route we were going. And there were a couple that were like, Ooh, this is going to be tough. And you know, you know, I like to use the phrase a lot, like, is the juice worth the squeeze? Totally. The juice on this is way worth the squeeze.
100%. Because I think it's really going to help us again. I think I've said it seven times, so you can edit this part out, but I think it's really going to help us move into the future in a really positive way. Yeah. Do I really have to edit? Come on, man. I hate doing editing, but I haven't sworn yet. So no. Yeah. That part I don't care about though. I've gotten better with it. I'm very, except when I'm talking to the highfalutin ski bum guys, Mario, Brian shout
out those guys. They bring it out of me. They're a lot of fun though. And they should be coming up this season too. They're going to try. Great. Cause that's something I try to do. I try to push, which is why we're talking about this here today. So we've talked about the autumn. Everybody come out, check out fall flannel fest, help a whale back. If you can make it, you know, this place runs on donations. So it's, it's, and it's a great place. I love it. Some people have
asked me like, are you sugarcoating? I'm like, no, I love this place. I still love it. And it's, it's fantastic. I love being here. A TGR movie. So keep an eye out for that. One of the first places might be upper Valley. Now I don't mean to backtrack, but a lot of those films, when they come around here, they go down to 11 opera house. Are you going to do it here? We're going to do it there. You think we're not going to do it here. Okay. We don't have the capacity. Sure. It's
we could have the capacity if we could show it outside. Totally. But then there's a whole lot of other invariable things that could happen. So I could mess it up. We in talking with Indy and our friends at Indy pass, you know, we feel like this could draw a lot of people. So Lebanon
opera house is absolutely a potential site for it. We're in talks with them right now. I don't think it's premature for me to say that it looks like we're probably going to host it there in partnership with them because we want to, you know, I think the way that nonprofits survive is by having agreements with friends and, and you know, Lebanon is the next town over it's the biggest city in the area. Yep. You know, having a space that size that could accommodate something that I think
will attract a whole lot of people that are excited about it. I think, I think it'd be a really good site for us. We haven't, it's not set in stone yet. That is a possibility. I'm just impressed that I kind of knew that might be where you're going because the place is great. And like I said, it's not like I know what I'm talking about. Other films have come through there and I think it's going to be, you know, I think because it's more than just us, it's focusing
on four skiers around North America. Yeah. We just happen to be. And one of the reasons I think that, you know, it potentially will be the premier is we're in more of a population dense area than a couple of the other ones. Sure. They're, they're a little bit on the outskirts. They're, they're awesome skiing in great places, but I think we're in more of a population density being so close to Boston too, where, you know, there is a lot, there are a lot of IndyPass
partners in our members in the greater Boston area. And I think, you know, those folks are going to want to see this movie because all of the mountains in the movie are also IndyPass members. Yes. So I think it makes sense. I think it does. Um, and you know, speaking again of IndyPass, um, I know I'm bouncing around a little bit. I'm still trying to get used to doing this again. I
was never a great interviewer to begin with. Um, anyway, the IndyPass again, full partner that also you get the, I don't know if it's changed the discount, if they buy your past IndyPass add-on is like a buck and a half or something. Yeah, when it's on sale. Yeah. You can buy, if you're, if you're a Whaleback Pass holder, you can buy the Indy add-on. Yes. Again, and again, they've, you know, they've had to limit because of their popularity, you know, so check the Indy website,
IndyPass website. It's like Indy, I think it's just IndyPass.com. Yeah. And I don't know when they're, if they're going to do another sale. Last fall, they did one in the fall, um, you know, for their waiting list folks. Totally. Um, I will tell you that if you come to the fourth annual Whaleback Mountain Flannel Fest, um, we do have one IndyPass that will be in the silent auction. There you go. So it might be the only place to get one this fall. It might be. As they say with
the lottery, you can't win if you don't play. You can't win if you're not here. Yeah, absolutely. You can't win. And it's a great event anyway. I have a lot of fun coming to that. The one year it was cold. I remember I had to wimp out early, but bring more flannel. Yeah. I mean, I'm notorious for, for layering my flannel. So I remember that cold year and it actually was kind of right up my alley. Yeah, it was, it was nice. It was a great night. A lot of fun. Um, John gets to speak there
and he's a wonderful, uh, uh, public speaker has a lot of fun. Uh, I think, I don't know, man, you didn't MC the, uh, Adam Ezra group this year. Did you? I did the intro. Did you? I can't remember. I think, yeah, I didn't, uh, cause I struggle. I think I speak okay publicly. Sure. But I can't use a microphone. Um, anyone who knows me knows I'm really loud anyway. Sure. Um, and I can't use a podium. So if anything is in front of me, I shake it. Um, it's a good thing this isn't on video
because I'm actually demonstrating it right now. Um, and I pace a lot and I use my hands a lot. Yep. Um, so, you know, at flannel fest, I pace back and forth on the stairs quite a bit and talk about, um, my excitement for our future. Cause I, I do, I recognize it's my job to, to be optimistic about the future of Whittack Mountain, but I also fully believe it. I wouldn't keep doing this. Um, if I didn't believe that there is a place in the industry and market for ski areas like
Whaleback mountain. Yeah. And more importantly, I think, yeah, I'll say more importantly, I think there is a place for Whaleback mountain in the upper Valley specifically. 100%. It's just, it's too important to community. It really is. And it is a straight up community mountain, but that doesn't mean they're not welcoming to outsiders. I've brought outsiders from Pennsylvania. You know, we still talk about Rob cooking cheesesteaks in the parking lot.
One of the top three cheesesteaks I've ever had. There you go. And you know, he's from Pennsylvania. He'd come up and he skied and we had a blast. Uh, you know, shout out to Brian from Massachusetts who came up this past season for the first time, um, who was very excited. He's, I think the words he used was pleasantly surprised, but he was very on about the mountain. In fact, he told me he was bragging. He was on,
he went from here to somewhere in Vermont with some other, someone else. He was bragging this place up too. He's like, it was great. Um, he liked your IPA that you have branded. He was very excited that he was able to get a can of his own, you know, not just on tap. Very excited. So come on out. It's a great place anyway. Very welcoming. It's, it's community oriented, but it's everybody oriented. And I think that's part of the thing. Everybody can ski.
Yeah. Yeah. I think, you know, we, I focus on our community because it's, it's the bulk of our guests, but for us to be sustainable and to continue moving into the future, we need to branch out. I mean, that that's the biggest driver of the IndyPass partnership because it brings new people here. It brought almost a thousand new skiers to the mountain last year that probably, if you asked 90% of them, they would have said I've driven by a
thousand times and never stopped. Now we've gotten them to stop, come in and experience it. I hope they came on a great day or even a good day this past year. Good days were kind of great days. And, and I hope they, they, they recognize and understood when we say community feel our communities, anyone who comes here. Yes. You know, I think that's, that's a big piece that we're trying to message out. Absolutely. And it is great. I, again, I ran into people at
Snowbound, the Snowbound Expo last year said the same thing. Like I drove by a ton of times. I'm like, well, it's on the IndyPass. It's right there. Just pull on in. It's a lot of fun. In fact, leave your car on the interstate and just walk down. It's fine. It's not fine. Don't do that. Let's see, pull it, pull into the parking lot. And if you know, you just want to give it a try, ask for John. I'm happy to take you out there and give you a guide and your first time's on me.
Absolutely. See, there you go from the man himself who skis much better than I do. So be prepared. Second best skier on the mountain. Second best skier on the mountain. Shout out to Alex, who was the first self-proclaimed self-proclaimed. Oh, I proclaimed it too. Cause I was just happy one day I kept up with him. Actually that when Brian was up here, all three of us took a run and I kept up with both of them. I was like, yeah, that's something because they're all good.
Everybody's better. So we talk about the lift. We talk about the upcoming season a little. Do we miss anything? I don't think so. We did talk about the fall. You know, I think those two big events between the TGR movie and the, uh, and flannel fest are kind of our two big things. Sure. And then the Sundays in September are really exciting. Um, now it's, we just gotta, you know, get through the fall and hope mother nature cooperates. Last year we saw an 11% dip in days
of operation compared to the previous winter. Absolutely. That was rough. Take out 11% of the days and that hurts the bottom line quite a bit. It does. Well, the preliminaries are looking good for us. And if there are friends in the Southern hemisphere or any indication, they're having good winters, Australia and in South America are both doing pretty well right now. Will it continue for us? I hope so. I'm very, I'm very hopeful because I'm, I'm ready. I'm ready. I would ski this right
now on grass skis if I had them, but that's a whole other thing that I don't know about. Awesome dude. So come to whale back again. Thank you, John, for having us again. Big, you know, also a fan of Ski-Rex media, friend of Ski-Rex media, an originator with Ski-Rex media, really like John was reached out to me before many other people and believed in me too. And I'm very excited about that. Um, so we're going to get through the summer. We're going to, you know, get into the
winter. It's going to be a lot of fun. I'll be here running lists again. I'll also be here on, geez, what's the one, what's the concert in September or August third week in August, maybe Friday, August 23rd. Um, we have, we're doing a benefit, um, in conjunction with the upper Valley land trust. Sure. Um, all funds will be split between the two ticket sales, I believe $10. Um, and it's, uh, the over ochre ochreville river and Western terrestrials.
Uh, my understanding, it's made up of a group of, um, friends that went to Kimball union Academy 20 years ago, doing a reunion concert at whale back. So we're really excited about it. I think it, it, I mean, it benefits us, but also, um, our friends over at the upper Valley land trust. I think it's really exciting. Um, it's a band that I've not listened to before, so I'm always looking for some good new music. Yeah, me too. And the reason I brought that one up is because once
again, I will be the doorman. So I'll be performing live for anybody who comes up for tickets and whatnot. So there you go. Tim for Ski-Rex media will be Tim from whale back again, which is totally fine by me because I love whale back. Thank you, John. Um, if we think of anything else, we'll definitely let you know, but I think we're good brother. Great. Yeah, definitely just, you know, keep an eye on our website, follow our newsletter, um, check social media. That's where
we post everything. Yeah. Um, and ski it to believe it. Ski it to believe it. Thank you, dude. Cool.