Data and tech are helping ski resorts operate more efficiently.
A New Hampshire mountain destination is using technology to analyze everything from how many ski runs its customers complete to the busiest time for selling hot dogs.
The Black Mountain resort is owned by businessman Erik Mogensen. He calls it a “quintessential independent mountain.” But behind the scenes, the experience is now propelled by a high-tech system designed to increase efficiency at the state’s oldest ski area.
The company builds systems that put lift tickets sales, lesson reservations and equipment rentals online, while collecting detailed data to inform decisions like where to make more snow and how much.
“When you don’t have data to fall back on and you don’t have a marketing plan to fall back on, you’re just kind of, like, hoping that it snows one day. And hoping that it snows is not a business plan,” he says.
So, his team crunches the numbers to monitor exactly what his customers are doing so they can adjust staffing and resources accordingly.
“A lot of general managers will go out and look how many rows of cars are parked and that’s kind of how they tell how busy they are. We really want to look at transactional data, down to the deepest level. When are people buying hot dogs and hamburgers, right? How do we staff the cafeteria and at what time?” he says.
The entrepreneur is betting that technology will be a great “equalizer” with the larger players.
“Vail and Alterra and the large operators, they can do a lot of things at scale that we can’t. They can buy 20 snow cats at a time, ten chairlifts. Those type of things. We can’t do that. But we’re really nimble here at Black. We can decide to change the way we groom very quickly or change the way we open trails,” he says.
This article and video were provided by The Associated Press.
[Chairlift with mountains in the background]
[Skiers heading down a trail at Black Mountain resort]
Thomas Brennick (interview): “It’s just good old, old time skiing at its best.”
[Skier heading down a trail]
[Skier looking at the view]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “This is kind of your quintessential independent mountain, right? It has that vibe, that feel. And that’s what people really want.”
[Black Mountain sign]
[Skiers enjoying deck]
[String lights with chairlift in the background]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “Entabeni Systems is a company that I founded in 2015 that builds software and hardware solutions for the ski industry. And so basically what that means is we build point of sale systems, data collection systems, analytic tools, e-commerce platforms.”
[Mountain peak]
[Mogensen working with an Entabeni Systems employee in the office]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “Being here at Black Mountain and having an engineering team on site right above the base lodge really helps to understand the problem we’re trying to solve on the ground level.”
[Mogensen working with Entabeni Systems employees in the office]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “The entire system has no paper waivers. There’s no paper involved. Every point of sale can take touchless tap to pay.”
[Skier buying beer at the bar]
[Skier buying lunch in the cafeteria]
[Skier using digital scanner at checkout, paying with a smartwatch]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “When you don’t have data to fall back on and you don’t have a marketing plan to fall back on, you’re just kind of, like, hoping that it snows one day. And hoping that it snows is not a business plan.”
[Skier riding a chairlift]
[Parking lot at Black Mountain]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “A lot of general managers will go out and look how many rows of cars are parked and that’s kind of how they tell how busy they are. We really want to look at transactional data, down to the deepest level. When are people buying hot dogs and hamburgers, right? How do we staff the cafeteria and at what time?”
[Skiers checking out in the cafeteria]
[Skier grabbing a pizza]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “We also custom build our own hand scanners as well. And our own mobile tablets and devices.”
[Black Mountain employee scanning skiers]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “Not only can we track how many runs they’ve skied, we can track by product. We can track by zip code. We can look at demographics.”
[Lift operator scanning skiers]
[Skier going up in a chairlift]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “Vail and Alterra and the large operators, they can do a lot of things at scale that we can’t. They can buy 20 snow cats at a time, ten chairlifts. Those type of things. We can’t do that. But we’re really nimble here at Black. We can decide to change the way we groom very quickly or change the way we open trails.”
[Mogensen operating a snowcat]
Erik Mogensen (interview): “And so we can take more iterations. But taking more iterations brings a lot of responsibility. And that I think is where technology acts as the great equalizer for these independents.”
[Mogensen operating a snowcat]
[Snowboarder going down a trail]
[Skiiers going down a trail]
This script was provided by The Associated Press.