In late 2002 Sierra Club Books published Downhill Slide: Why the Corporate Ski Industry Is Bad for Skiing, Ski Towns, and the Environment by ski journalist Hal Clifford. I just reread it after skiing our newest area, Moonlight Basin.

Clifford gives an extremely harsh critique of the ski industry. He faults its cultural, economic, and ecological impacts on a sport he grew up loving. Here are a few snippets from his January/February 2003 Sierra Magazine article based on his book. They provide the grist and gore of his account.

“Participation in skiing exploded after World War II, growing with the baby-boom generation. By the mid-1970s, almost 750 ski areas were up and running. But the downturn was easily predicted. Growth in ‘skier days’ plateaued in 1980 and hasn’t moved much since then....

“This stagnation threatened the industry as a whole, but for the largest ski-resort developers in North America, it became an opportunity -- one predicated on turning once-folksy ski-lift operations into massive real estate ventures....

“[T]he sport of skiing morphed from a more or less environmentally benign outdoor experience into a destructive, extractive industry. Environmental damage increased as ski areas sprawled. And it was all made possible by the U.S. Forest Service, the developers’ ‘partner in recreation,’ which leases public acreage for ski runs, allowing resort operators to scar mountain slopes with clearcuts and turn quiet alpine valleys into real estate bonanzas....

“What [the ski industry cares] about most is not skiing or the natural environment, but growth and income. In that, they’re not all that different from other extractive industries on mountain lands. In this case, the corporate ski industry treats nature as a place to be mined, as much for real estate resources as recreation.”

Those who have lived in our region for a few decades, or visited it regularly, know the story well. Many lament it. Here’s my take.

Clifford longs for the days of his youth when he believed ski bums and tight communities defined the sport. In his view it has been sullied, perverted into a soulless, profit-driven business.

He identifies only three “good” areas in the entire U.S., Mad River Glen, Bogus Basin, and our Bridger Bowl. He states that “local control is a critical and necessary difference that changes everything, for it essentially aligns the ski area’s interests with [the community’s well-being].”

His major complaint derives from a simple observation: aside from college-aged folks, skiing has been transformed from an egalitarian sport/subculture into a status-driven consumptive activity. It’s become “polo on snow.” This transformation has priced his kind of folks out of the game and relegated workers who serve the skiers to rural ghettoes far from the base areas. Those who work there can’t afford to live there. He sees employees, many of whom are illegal aliens, treated as disposable, itinerate surfs. And in general, he may well be right.

It is surely true that in a competitive situation for-profit firms are driven by profits, not love of the sport. MBA types running the operations are most unlikely to rank community welfare as their highest value. Once, when Big Sky was reorganized, its new owners explicitly and publicly dismissed locals as unimportant to the success of their venture. Their target clientele was wealthier out-of-staters.

Back to Moonlight Basin. Ramona and I were guests in Cowboy Cabin No. 12. This is, even by our Gallatin Gateway standards, a modest but very comfortable accommodation. (We were told these small cabins sell for $400,000.) We skied to the lodge and were met by staff, friends from Bridger Bowl.

Although it was developed as a real estate venture that didn’t even offer its own skiing, Moonlight Basin now claims to offer a new ski culture. Unlike the service workers described in Downhill Slide, staff receive full benefits. Morale surely seemed high. I was told that 85 percent of the area under ownership would be placed in permanent conservation easements to protect habitat. Only time will tell if they keep this promise. We know there will be strong temptations to break it.

While I’m confident that Ramona and I will continue to support and love Bridger Bowl, I hope Moonlight Basin succeeds in braking the Downhill Slide.