Excerpted from Mt. Bachelor – A History, by Glenn Voelz
This article was first published in the December, 2024 issue of The Homesteader.
The recent Powdr Corp. decision to sell Mt. Bachelor was big news for many Deschutes County residents, especially given the resort’s sizable impact on the local economy. While the announcement may have come as a surprise, the sale is not without precedent. Around 25 years ago, the resort’s original owners made a similar decision, leading them to sell the ski area to Powdr Corp. As with the current sale, the decision was controversial and provoked strong feelings in the community.
In 1998, as Mt. Bachelor celebrated its 40th anniversary, the ski industry was undergoing significant transformation. After several decades of rapid expansion, the industry was entering a period of slower growth. Many smaller ski areas were going out of business. Some survived by expanding, while large ski conglomerates purchased other struggling resorts. Unfortunately, industry trends were moving away from the business model of Mt. Bachelor’s founder Bill Healy.
By the 1990s, more and more skiers were spending their money at destination resorts with slopeside lodging and amenities. For some local skiers, there was a sense that Mt. Bachelor was falling behind its competitors. The resort’s annual skier visits had stagnated for most of the previous decade. Making matters worse, the 1999–2000 season ended with Mt. Bachelor facing a significant downturn in skier visits and two consecutive years of financial losses. In the spring of 2001, the board of directors and shareholders received an offer from the Utah-based Powdr Corporation to buy the resort.
At the time, the Papé Group was Mount Bachelor’s largest shareholder. Randy Papé, president of the Eugene-based Papé Group, served as president of Mt. Bachelor Inc. Members of the Healy family held the second-largest block of shares. The Stevenson family of Bingen, Washington, was the remaining major shareholder. While everyone understood that the resort was in trouble, there wasn’t a clear consensus on the best way forward.
Randy Papé and the board promptly rejected Powdr’s initial offer, with Wallace Stevenson reportedly being the only board member in favor of the deal. In a January 2001 letter to shareholders, Papé expressed concern about relinquishing ownership to “out-of-state interests.” However, he acknowledged that the corporation faced a year of disappointing financial performance due to changing market dynamics and unfavorable weather conditions.
Despite the board’s opposition, shareholders were divided over the best course of action, with the Healy family leaning toward accepting Powdr’s offer. In an interview with The Bulletin, Papé said he believed that Mt. Bachelor could remain a stand-alone entity while competing against the large resort conglomerates. He believed skiers would be better served by maintaining local ownership while developing Mt. Bachelor into a destination resort by adding year-round recreational experiences, new snowmaking capabilities, night skiing, and lodging. At the time, Papé described Mt. Bachelor as an “overgrown day operation” with the lift capacity of a destination resort but none of the amenities.
Later in January, the board met again to review the offer and provide a nonbinding recommendation to shareholders. The Papé Group made a competing offer the following month. However, by that time, more shareholders were leaning towards accepting Powdr’s offer, according to media reports. By the end of March, most shareholders pledged to sell their stock to Powdr. Shortly after the board’s decision, the Healy family, holding 17 percent of outstanding shares, affirmed their desire to accept Powdr’s offer. The deal closed for around $28 million, giving Powdr nearly 70 percent of outstanding shares and ownership of the resort.
After the deal closed, the new owners began trimming costs to restore the operation to profitability. Management ranks were cut nearly in half, along with additional reductions in seasonal staff. However, there were some concerns over how Powdr planned to reverse Mt. Bachelor’s recent financial losses. The new management cut back on some of the traditional perks enjoyed by the community, like free skiing for local sixth graders. The price of season passes also increased. Annual skier visits remained relatively stable during the first five years under new ownership, hovering around five hundred thousand. However, the company reported a significant increase in adjusted gross revenue. At the same time, Powdr Corp. was moving forward with several significant investments to modernize the resort’s infrastructure, including new snowmaking equipment, upgrading the Pine Marten Express lift, and renovating the West Village Lodge. Over the next two decades, skier numbers fluctuated but gradually returned to the record numbers last seen during the resort’s heyday in the late 1980s.