A Snowball's Chance Part 2

The Dirtbag Diaries

Duct Tape Then Beer

Sports, Wilderness

4.8 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 14 November 2025

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Mount Bachelor, one of America’s largest and beloved ski resorts, was put up for sale in August of 2024 after two decades of contentious corporate ownership. Sensing a sliver of opportunity, a high school teacher, a housing appraiser and local home builder launched a community campaign to put this ski hill back in the hands of locals. What started as a Facebook thread, snowballed into a legitimate would-be buyer with $100 million in local backing that collided into Wall Street players, the specter of climate change and the looming reality that the joy of skiing is no longer a simple business to run. This is the 2nd episode in a two part series. Start with Part 1 Submit your Short by Nov 16th Support comes from Kuat Racks Oboz Washington Discover Pass: Get your Pass at discoverpass.wa.gov Ka’Chava Go to https://kachava.com and use code DIARIES for 15% off your next order. Diaries+ Members-- Their support is powering the Diaries- thank you! You can join today. Our book, States of Adventure, 30 stories adapted from The Diaries, is out in the wild. See if it's available on your local shelves or order it here: geni.us/StatesofAdventure

Transcript

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0:00.0	Previously on the Dirtbag Diaries.
0:04.0	People want a soul. They want a soulful experience.
0:07.0	I don't think anyone's like, oh, the industry's getting better than that.
0:10.0	There's just this like divide between the haves and the have-nots.
0:13.0	It's getting even worse.
0:14.0	If the mountain falls apart and they get these bad reviews,
0:18.0	people stop coming back, you know, that affects all of us that live here.
0:23.6	When we heard the mountain was being listed for sale,
0:27.6	I posted something kind of silly, like, hey, I've got 20 bucks in a snowboard,
0:30.6	you know, who's interested?
0:32.6	And here's this guy saying something about who wants to do a feasibility study.
0:42.1	And so that's like, you know, step on the gas, like we're just flying.
0:55.0	There were four inches of solid ice on every road in downtown bend. Every time I took a corner or entered one of the mini roundabouts, my heart would skip a beat as the rear end of my truck clawed for traction.
1:02.0	Every attempt that I made to stop was a stress test for my recently repaired ABS system.
1:08.0	The morning after I arrived, I came out of my hotel to three inches
1:13.3	of fresh snow, blanketing everything in sight. This is Bend, Oregon in March. I was here not to
1:19.0	chase snow, per se, but to connect with the three community members at the head of a high-velocity
1:23.9	effort to return their mountain from the decades-long grip of a private company
1:28.1	back to the community. Chris and Dan had formed a B-Corps in September, giving them a legitimate
1:34.2	entity to manage their efforts through, and in the long run, allowing for a management strategy
1:39.3	that prioritized things other than merely profit. Ryan Andrews had joined to structure the financial instrument behind their bid.
1:47.0	When we left the group of our snow-stoked heroes, they were full speed ahead.
	...

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