Chuck's Page
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By Chuck Shepard April 2, 2009
This has been a strange ski season for Hoodoo and for all the ski areas in the Northwest. Somewhat like last year the snow was infrequent during the season, but now that the season is about to end, we are having our deepest base levels of the winter. In fact today’s storm is predicted to take us over the century mark. Just a couple weeks ago, we weren’t real sure we would have enough snow to make it through Spring Vacation. Now we are being asked if we will still be open in May (No). In fact we were fairly certain that we were going to close after next weekend, but now it is a wait and see item. Last year we stayed open two weekends after Spring Fling but we had fewer than about 150 skiers each day. It is discouraging to stay open longer when we don’t get enough guests to pay for the salaries of the daily employees, not to mention grooming. So we will see. Right now, no matter what, we will be open at least on next Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11. We will then announce if we will be open the next weekend, although even if we do decide to stay open, a rainstorm could come in causing us to change our minds. If you have a voucher for this year, do not put off using it. Unfortunately, our year ending date is always a last minute decision. It is a little easier these days for us to stay open longer because we keep most of the employees on for another month or so working in the campgrounds. That way if it is possible to stay open since we will still have the employees to help us. It was a season of mixed blessings. A lot of you became new season pass holders this year. Unfortunately, this was not the best year snow wise for us, but you easily were able to get your money’s worth anyway with the spring pricing of the passes. With the patterns of snow over the last few years, I predict a heavy snow year next season and one that will allow us to open by early December at the latest. Feel free to save this prediction and remind me of it next November. This year was somewhat true to predictions except perhaps the year ending series of storms. An early opening was predicted and we were open by Thanksgiving. But the snow was light during December and so were the skier numbers. December was a lot better for us than the worst December ever the year before. (except six years ago when we didn’t open until NYE). When we were able to open before December, we were hopeful of ending our last calendar year with a strong ending, but we only did about 2/3 of what we needed. Still it was better than 2008. January was pretty weak as we had way too many rain days. Last year in 2009 our January was the best month we had ever had in any month. This year we gave back all the progress we had made in December. February and March were about the same as last year’s months financially, but thanks to a lot of season pass holders who seemingly were reluctant to spend any money, we at least had some pretty good numbers in terms of guest visits even though the income was poor for that many guests. Oh well, people were having fun and we had our second best year ever in terms of total guests (It was a banner year at the Autobahn as well) and we expect it to be an OK year financially especially with the low snow and the bad economy. We feel fortunate to not have done a lot worse. In fact we really lucked out this year in the snowfall. The snowstorms seemed to either end with our mountain leaving the ski areas south of us with a lot less snow or the snowstorms seemed to end at our parking lot elevation. We had a lot of days when I or some one else would come into the parking lot with reports that it was raining at the highway entrance while we were having snow in the parking lot. Things could have been better, but they could have been a lot worse as well. In fact compared to the other ski areas in the NW we did better than almost any of them in terms of upping our relative percentages. I am not sure exactly what worked, but something did and you seemed to appreciate it. This is also the year that will make a huge difference to Hoodoo’s future. In spite of my investment into the ski area, I have never really been sure that we would make it for the long haul. I know that most customers can’t imagine having Hoodoo close especially after the new lodge was built along with the new lifts, but I was never positive we would make it. I have been working my tail off though to make sure we did. This is the year when we will know for sure that all of our hard work has paid off. As I said in the last Page, this is the summer when the Willamette National Forest will decide if they want Hoodoo to continue managing the campgrounds and expand our management to the whole Forest. It is hard to imagine us not getting picked. You, the customer, have given us a lot of positive feedback and the FS administrators that we have worked with have seemingly been pleased as well. So I feel very good about our chances. In addition this is the year when most of the rest of the Region 6 Forests (Oregon and Washington) decide upon who is going to manage their campgrounds for the next ten years. We are not bidding on them all, but we do feel very positive about expanding into some more. Currently, we are in five Forests and we hope to be in about two more. In the future if you want to plan a camping trip pretty much anywhere in the Washington – Oregon Cascades www.hoodoo.com will be your source of information for a great camping trip. Currently, we also have a great resort on Crescent Lake and RV parks in Crescent Junction near Willamette Pass, Camp Sherman RV and Patio RV fairly near Hoodoo, and Dexter Shores RV on Dexter Reservoir. It is also possible we will purchase another RV park in Washington near Mt. Rainier. This is the Hoodoo of the future. It has been a decade long journey to reach this stage, but the big changes are almost done. Hopefully when this is over, we can once again think about changes we want to make at the ski area. We are planning on adding more runs and another lift to the tube area, the Autobahn and we are still hoping to put in some more runs and perhaps a lift on the other side of Blue Valley. That area was approved for expansion many years ago and I would like to see it concluded. Perhaps the two biggest changes for me though will be that first, I am hoping to turn over Chuck’s Page to more writers. Obviously, I have not been nearly as prolific as I once was. Most of you have already forgotten why you ever read Chuck’s Page to begin with. We need to pass the torch to someone else or perhaps a few more someone elses. (But I will still contribute as well). The final change is that sometime soon the ownership of Hoodoo is going to pass to the next generation. Rumors of this happening have been around for years, but I hope it will happen this year. I will still be involved full time at least for a few years, but it is time to let the next generation come up with some fresh ideas. I am getting stale. Matthew McFarland, my son-in-law has really been running the ski area for the last few years with my supervision. He has been in the ski business almost all of his life and he certainly doesn’t need me looking over his shoulder anymore. I will stay involved with the campground company for many years to come, and I will continue as the CEO of that company for the next two years even though I won’t be in ownership after this year (hopefully). I have promised though to stay fully involved there for awhile and after I give up the leadership role, I still plan to stay on as a management employee for a decade or so. It is hard for me to imagine retiring. I don’t understand the allure. Why would anyone want to reach a point in their lives where they no longer matter. (sorry, that is how I see it anyway) But taking a vacation might be OK. In fact I may take one before the summer sets in, if I can remember what it is like to not spend my day reading and writing emails and writing organization charts. Hope you have a great spring and summer. See you around the campfire,
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