The 2012 Ski Season stunk

December 28, 2012

Bad to worse, worse to worst

It was not just Mammoth that got hit with the bad snow season in 2011-12.

Everyone in the U.S., with the exception of the ski areas in the extreme Northwest, had a ski season that started late—Mammoth got just two inches of snow in December—and continued to stink through the February ski holidays. Snow didn’t arrive until the spring, by which time it was too late to save the season.

On April 29, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area CEO Rusty Gregory let go 75 employees in what came to be known as “Black Wednesday.”

Of the 359 full-time employees at the Eastern Sierra’s biggest employer, the layoffs represented 20.8 percent of the workforce.

Two vice-presidents were let go, along with one employee who had been at Mammoth Mountain for 45 years and another who worked there for 40 years.

“We simply don’t have the money,” Gregory said. “We can’t spend it like we were spending before, and it’s not just us. This is a national malaise.”