SAM Magazine—Eden, Utah, Dec. 13, 2023—In order to keep Powder Mountain financially viable, CEO Reed Hastings plans to sell more real estate at the property and provide homeowners with an area of lift-served terrain that only they can access beginning in 2024-25. The rest of the 8,464-acre resort will remain open to the public. 

“While many of you have been skiing here for generations, I joined this wonderful community only five years ago, and have quickly come to appreciate the soul and natural beauty of Powder Mountain,” said Hastings in a letter posted to the resort’s website. “Sadly, Powder has been struggling financially, so I stepped in a few months ago to invest and find a sustainable path for staying uncrowded and independent.”

The Netflix co-founder became majority owner of Powder Mountain in September following a $100 million investment. 

“In order to pay our bills, we need to sell more real estate, and to do that we are introducing private homeowner-only skiing a year from now,” he said. “We will be designating the Village and Mary’s lifts, which serve beginner and intermediate terrain, plus a new lift on Raintree, for this private skiing, starting a year from now.”

The private skiing will help real estate sales, he said, which in turn will “help fund lifts and lodges for everyone.” 

Hastings also shared plans to invest $20 million for three new public lifts to be installed in summer 2024, including replacement of the fixed-grip Paradise quad with a high-speed detachable quad, replacing the 50-year-old Timberline double with a new fixed-grip quad, and installing another fixed-grip quad to provide lift-served access to Lightning Ridge, which is currently served by snowcat.

“We believe this blend of public and private skiing secures us decades of exceptional uncrowded skiing for all, funded partially by real estate,” said Hastings. “To stay independent and uncrowded, we needed to change, and we didn’t want to join the successful but crowded multi-resort pass model (i.e., Snowbasin) or sell to a conglomerate (i.e., Vail [Resorts]).