We’ve taken our time with this and if our response has felt slow, know that it’s because we wanted it to be thoughtful, deliberate, and have tenure beyond this moment in time. More than jumping into the fray with a statement of support, in itself an important first step, we needed to listen, to learn, begin to unlearn and re-educate ourselves in order to understand how we might be of service to the movement. We felt these steps were necessary to move beyond words and toward sustainable action.

So first, we unequivocally support Black Lives Matter and recognize we can and should do more to support their mission. Can we solve racism? No. But we do have the power to amplify and redirect energy within our communities and our industry. That we live, work, and play in arguably one of the most beautiful corners of the country does not insulate us from the ugliness of racism and the devastating effects it has on our friends, neighbors, and guests. As the largest employer in the region and a draw for hundreds of thousands of visitors each year, we will lend our influence and our platforms to be better, more vocal, supporters of anti-racism.

Our first step was to sign the Outdoor CEO Diversity Pledge with the In Solidarity Project, an organization committed to “moving the outdoor industry towards authentic inclusion”. As the first ski resort to pledge, we will work with other partners, companies, and organizations to leverage our location and amenities in support of creating a more inclusive space for all people of color.

Working with the In Solidarity Project connects us with lived and learned experience to guide us in a topic we admittedly need help navigating. We’ll start with 10 team members attending (remotely) a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) training session on August 25th. From there we plan to engage directly with someone from the In Solidarity Project community for the one-on-one support we’ll need to properly structure our plan moving forward.

We’re also working on hosting a series of Corner Conversations about inclusivity and diversity in our local community, and more broadly than just the world of snowsports. Recognizing it’s not our place to lead these conversations, we will instead bring together leaders in business and inclusivity as well as a range of perspectives with knowledge in the field of equality and social justice education to speak on matters ranging from barriers to snowsports participation to educational inequality. We will invite locals, our staff, guests and anyone willing to listen, to participate and be part of the change. We hope that through these conversations, we will not only expand our collective understanding of where and how this inequality persists, but generate new programming designed at systematically reducing and eliminating it.

There will be more to come on Corner Conversations and other initiatives in the very near future. In the meantime, please feel free to share your thoughts and ideas with us. We’re open to any help and all stories, advice and comments on this topic.

Note: In keeping with our standard practices, we will keep any/all comments on this and other threads. We want to be transparent about both the problems that exist and the two way conversations that will ultimately lead to change.