In The Media

 The technology is there for major ski resorts to start truly considering using solar, wind, micro-hydro, geothermal and/or biomass energies to fuel their resort’s energy needs.

Real estate and theme park attractions will be replaced with ski areas that get back to focusing on what is important.

Een cool project in Alaska. The Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project wil van Manitoba Mountain in Chugach National Forest een duurzaam skigebied maken.

Long before megacorporations took over the ski world, no-frills, community-owned mountains were the lifeblood of the sport.

It’s envisioned that the MRA will create a portfolio of small to mid-size ski areas that share the philosophy espoused by both that alliance and Mt. Abram

MRA is a grassroots organization investing in “Mountain Playgrounds” owned and operated by locals

They (MRA) are a voice and a spirit that is desperately needed in the ski industry

Ski areas touting an emphasis on community and the environment

This year, Abram will be the first ski area in the country to team with Mountain Riders Alliance, a new organization whose long-term goal is to collectively market a network of member mountains where the focus is on quality skiing, affordability, and eco-friendly practices.

Now, the pair are testing their combined hypothesis: that sustainability can save small and medium sized resorts, and that skiers will support those area.

MRA hopes to promote alternative business models for small and medium-sized resorts through this new partnership with the Brendle Group. They will develop specific plans and strategies for carbon-neutral, net-zero ski resorts.

Keeping those smaller and mid-sized resorts economically viable is critical to the future of the industry, which has become top-heavy with oversized mega-resort companies, an economic model that has had sometimes disastrous consequences for other industries.

MRA has provided a great vision and template. They’ve shown that riders are very interesting in this model. We bring the engineering and business rigor to prove these pathways are possible … we’re really optimistic we can prove that based on our previous net-zero work.

By partnering with MRA, Brendle Group has the exciting opportunity to help advance MRA’s Mountain Playground vision while bringing our newest services in net zero water, ecosystems services, and sustainable economic development to the ski industry.

These lifts would access the mellower lower pitches of Manitoba Mountain and would serve as a jumping off point to the extreme backcountry terrain for which the Chugach is famous.

MRA is looking to build Mountain Playgrounds rather than resorts: skier-focused developments with minimal infrastructure and reasonable costs, built in partnership with local communities and with a mindful eye on environmental impacts.

A joint effort “to promote a cooperative business model” has been announced by Mt Abram, near Bethel, Maine, and the Mountain Rider’s Alliance.

Fed up with what they see as skiing’s “increasing costs and sense of exclusivity,” MRA seeks nothing less than to recreate the ski industry along more sustainable lines.

Mountain Rider’s Alliance is trying to change the sport of skiing. More accurately, they’re trying to return the sport to its roots.

So for the past few years, a grassroots group of visionaries has started to formulate  an alternative economic model that may not only help ensure the future of skiing, but could serve as a blueprint for the broken system that still masquerades as free market capitalist but in reality has become a form of corporate totalitarianism.

MRA believes the current corporate resort model – high on infrastructure, real estate, non-skiing amenities, and energy – is putting skiing out of reach for many people while creating an experience that is distant from the true ideals of snowsports and ultimately, unsustainable.

Mt. Abram Ski Resort is joining with an international organization in a pilot project designed to  give the resort’s skiing community more say in what happens at the resort

Instead of hitching a ride with Marty McFly in a modified 1981 DeLorean, we’re moving ahead with an organization called Mountain Riders Alliance.

 Supporting this mission is just the beginning. We’re building a replicative model to save what we love about skiing, and offer a new direction for ski areas around the world.

Mt. Abram’s collaboration with MRA is about skiing, plain and simple: a thriving business model away from the commercialized, overpriced, factory outdoor experience at the mega-resorts.

Teamed up with the MRA, Mt. Abram will not only be giving nature’s gift the respect it deserves, but be providing a better community for their fellow snow-lovers.

Instead of top-down decision making to benefit corporate shareholders, grassroots involvement by skiers could help shape management decisions, ensuring that the area is run for the benefit of the skiers and riders.

$25 might not get you lunch at a mega-resort, but it will help create a future where ski areas are committed to having a positive social and environmental impact, as well as providing great skiing

MRA to fund a ski area trust that would help resorts go greener, enable for-profits to convert to co-ops, and shake off some of the corporate hegemony that so thoroughly grips the sport.

MRA plans to add approximately five more ski hills to their Mountain Playground partnership in the next five to seven years, focusing on “Ski areas under performing with upside potential, on-site renewable energy potential, an engaged community and a large enough population base to make the project viable”

Represents the first partnership with an existing ski area for the MRA, which was founded in 2009

Mountain Rider’s Alliance has partnered with Mt. Abram to promote a cooperative business model and convert Maine’s authentic ski area into an MRA Mountain Playground

Ski “resorts” have bastardized the sport, MRA is taking it back for the people who love it most

The ski industry is 3 billion dollars annual business and we believe that there is a segment of the ski population who will gravitate towards our business model of focusing on the ski experience.

We are most stoked about is that just beyond the proposed ski area boundary is straight up, slam banging, down to the nitty gritty big mountain backcountry terrain.

The Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project aims to construct three surface lifts that offer access to some 10,000 acres of “legendary Chugach terrain”

Mountain as playground: that’s how many Alaskans see the Chugach.

Schectman says the lack of competition has made lift tickets more expensive.

 We want the sport to refocus on the ski experience.

But the biggest problem I see is that often the decision makers aren’t passionate skiers. They’re worried about making the big corporation more money.

Mountain Rider’s Alliance mountains would change the current ski resort model by taking the priority off of selling lift tickets and passes by selling memberships in each ski area it owns.

Think heli-skiing without the heli.

Rich Walcoff and Jamie Schectman discuss ski industry sustainability and the current state of the Tahoe Ski industry. (Interview starts at minute 27)

In a trend that extends beyond the holiday season, gear makers are partnering with philanthropies to promote causes close to the hearts of owners and employees.

In the 1980′s and 90′s ski areas got out of the uphill transportation business and got into the resort business

They have an epic design and only 500 will be sold so you will have the opportunity to ride some kick a** boards, be the envy of all your snow riding buddies, and have a great conversation piece on the lift and during those backcounty dayz.

in the 80′s and 90′s, ski areas got out of the uphill transportation business and got into the resort development, and culinary, and out-of-boot experiences. So that was kind of the motivation for us to say ‘well, did you know there’s another way? Let’s focus on the community, and environment and being rider centric’, and with that the Mountain Riders Alliance was born.

To partner with local, national and international non profits to make the world a better place.

MRA is working with a class at Alaska Pacific University to help shape the outdoor education offerings. The group hopes to offer avalanche training and wilderness survival courses, and also introduce kids to safe outdoor recreation.

I’m not pretending to have the answers, but what I find fascinating is the debate from both sides and what that is teaching me about how skiers think. One such movement that is picking up a lot of steam in the industry is Mountain Rider’s Alliance.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback from the local communities.

These limited editoin MRA skis really do it all as they help the environment and give back to the community while  still being  exceptionally functional, unique, and artsy.

Ski areas by the people, for the people? Mountain Rider’s Alliance shoots for just that.

It is an exciting time to be skier or snowboarder; witnessing the much needed movement that MRA is generating to challenge current resort practices places skiers in a revolutionary era.

So are you ready to show all those on the mountain that it is time to take skiing back to its roots?

Each step along the way, social media played a pivotal role in building the MRA brand, as well as defining, refining and delivering their message.

MRA project manager Dave Scanlan emphasizes that Manitoba is going to be a ski area, not a ski resort. I like that. Somewhere along the way, resort skiing started being more about luxury and less about skiing, and somewhere along the way people like me stopped being able to afford resort skiing, too.

Inspired by MRA’s flagship project, Manitoba Mountain, located in Alaska, the one-of-a-kind top sheet design showcases the beauty of the terrain while giving homage to the sun, rivers, and natural environment.

Breckenridge-based boutique ski maker Skilogik is producing a limited edition Mountain Rider’s Alliance graphic on its entire lineup to bring attention to Mountain Riders Alliance’s (MRA) principles of community values, environmental respect and minimal ski area infrastructure.

Our model reduces the carbon footprint, sells memberships, and has advisory councils to keep the management in check.

Som social marketing director på SKILOGIK är jag stolt över att kunna meddela att vi precis inlett ett samarbete med Mountain Rider’s Alliance – en grupp riktigt grymma människor som jobbar hårt för vår favoritisports framtid i en bransch, där alltför många alltför ofta struntar i miljön.

The Mountain Rider’s Alliance has partnered with Skilogik to produce a custom, limited-edition ski graphic for the 2011-12 winter season. A portion of the proceeds will go to the MRA and MRA’s new nonprofit partner, the Native American Olympic Team Foundation.

Skiers around the globe can now show support for a future in skiing that is based on community values, environmental respect and access to exciting terrain with minimal infrastructure by purchasing this limited edition Mountain Rider’s Alliance Skilogik custom graphic ski, now available on Skilogik’s entire lineup.

We want to try and prop up and promote and support all the local businesses as much as possible.

People are finding that there’s a cleansing and refreshing nature when they go back to these minimalist areas”

Think Silverton Mountain with heli-quality AK terrain, accessible for about $40 a day. The fact that Chugach Powder Guides sought out an exploratory permit for an area an hour and a half skin from Manitoba validates the potential of the terrain here.

NSAA President Michael Berry says the MRA plan could work. “The industry was founded on that model and there is no reason why it can’t be replicated.”

Welcome to the cold revolution. The first generation of new era hot shots, initially out for a sick thrill, is looking for meaning, and they’re finding it primarily in the struggle to solve climate change.

There would be a real ski village, one where everyone lives, works, shops and plays. It would create its own energy on-site and not be dependent on the grid, but instead serve as a provider of energy for the surrounding communities.

För de som tycker att framtidens skidåkning är nåt att bry sig om rekommenderar jag Mountain Rider’s Alliance och Home.

Listen as renowned photojournalist Tom Winter gives us his two cents on the Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project in the Kenai Range in Alaska.

Mountain Riders Alliance is moving forward on its plan to reopen Manitoba Mountain, a ski area on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula that closed down in 1960. MRA, according to its website, wants to make a “positive change in the ski industry.

And on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula in the Chugach Range, the Mountain Rider’s Alliance is helping spur talk of the revival of Manitoba Mountain, a small ski area that ended operations in the 1960s.

While the group touts that the resort’s three surface lifts “will access 10,000 acres of legendary Chugach terrain,” that figure includes all terrain accessible within a two-hour hike from the lifts.

No it’s not that Manitoba…. it’s in Alaska and it’s going to be a new ski area of a different breed. A ski area focused on working with the local communities, saving energy and keeping it as natural as possible.

According to the MRA website, the Manitoba project embodies a new philosophy of ski area development based on core skiing and community values, including a collaborative operating partnership with local businesses to increase job opportunities.

The Project is noteworthy because it looks to develop a minimalistic ski area that utilizes clean energy, promotes winter outdoor recreation, and increases economic stability and regional employment opportunities in the area.

Three surface lifts will access 10,000 acres of legendary Chugach terrain. Renewable energy options including micro-hydro and wind are being evaluated.

On the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska the Mountain Riders Alliance is working to rebuild Manitoba Mountain, a minimalist ski area that was last opened in 1960.

Manitoba Mountain provides a great launching off point to your classic Chugach lines.

MRA is the only ski industry model currently proposed that is compatible with the Parks Canada mandate.

The Mountain Riders Alliance is continuing to look for public input about their proposed Manitoba Ski Development.

The increasing environmental concerns among the skiing community led directly to a new vision of how a ski area can operate: the Mountain Rider’s Alliance, made up of industry veterans and passionate recreational skiers, aims to open and operate a ski area that, among other sustainable practices, will be a net producer of electricity.

The project aims to incorporate wind, solar and micro hydro power to make the ski area sustainable and allow for all profits to be put back into the mountain experience.

With the help of Mountain Rider’s Alliance, [Local ski enthusiast Dave Scanlan] hopes to resurrect the historical Manitoba Ski Area and in the process, infuse some economic activity in the tri-community areas of Hope, Moose Pass, and Cooper Landing.

Mountain Riders Alliance, a different approach to guiding Snowsports into the future…and perhaps saving it.

Community ownership and involvement would ensure that they remained focused on core values and benefited the surrounding towns.

Guide companies will be able to operate out of the ski area, as will private concessionaires like food service companies. ‘We don’t need to run everything, and we want to create opportunities for the locals to have their own businesses,’ says Schectman.

The Manitoba Ski Area is designed to bring outdoor education, physical activities, social camaraderie, and economic stability to the East district of the Kenai Peninsula through the development of downhill skiing, community based ecotourism, and outdoor recreation opportunities throughout the entire year.

‘One of the Manitoba Mountain Ski Area Restoration Project’s primary goals is to bring economic stability to the communities of Hope, Sunrise, Moose Pass, and Cooper Landing by creating a centrally located destination to create local jobs and foster additional private sector economic activity by redeveloping the downhill, and Nordic ski opportunities in the Summit Lake Recreation Corridor,’ states Scanlan.

‘Our priority will be to have a copious and safe snowpack, large amounts of expert-level terrain with a wilderness experience, and easy access,’ Schectman says. ‘We think if we do this once [run a ski area with MRA's unique ideals] and show it to be a refreshing, viable model, we’ll be able to duplicate it throughout the world.’

Jamie Schectman aims to change the way ski areas are run, one chairlift at a time

MRA members point to failed ski resorts built on real estate schemes, like Idaho’s Tamarack Resort, to prove their point. Rising lift ticket costs, negative impacts on ski communities and the environment, and the desire to combat climate change have all led Schectman to found the group, which he describes as ‘a movement of snow enthusiasts who are dedicated to changing the ways ski areas are run.’

 Managed by people (and corporations) more interested in short-term profit than long-term viability, mountain resorts across the world are fast approaching the tipping point.

Mountain Rider’s Alliance believes the great ski and snowboard community can make a change.

The Mountain Rider’s Alliance wants to develop sustainable ski-energy centers.

By pooling together our money, us snow lovers can have our own ski area to enjoy…one that is based on values, not turning a quick profit!