The Eaglecrest Ski Area has seen a plethora of changes recently. The change of plans for the gondola due to the cost of installation, staff being cut due to a lack of income and funding — and of course operations are always dependent on the weather.
Now, Eaglecrest has a new General Manager, Julie Piper. KTOO’s Mike Lane recently visited with Piper to learn about her plans for the ski area.
Listen:
The following transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.
Mike Lane: You’ve worked at Eaglecrest before, and you described your interest in Eaglecrest as deeply personal. So, what is it about this mountain that’s drawn you back to Eaglecrest this time as GM?
Julie Piper: Eaglecrest was the first ski area that I worked at, ski resort mountain that I worked at, where I felt like I got connected to the community. My first season at Eaglecrest, I was done with school, looking to stick around a mountain for a little while. I had done an internship in Montana at Yellowstone Club. I had worked at ski areas in Michigan when I was going to school, and that was fun. But the community is what drew me here, and as I got to teach 3, 4, 5, 6-year-olds, to ski who are now having children of their own, and that’s wild watching them all graduate and grow up.
The first season I was there, I was given this opportunity to create a program. I was approached by the general manager at the time. He had talked about this organization called the Eaglecrest Foundation and said, you know, we’d like to get youth on the mountain who wouldn’t otherwise be on the mountain.
We got to teach them to ski and snowboard. We got to give them this amazing opportunity where you learn life lessons on the mountain, and it was just so inspiring. And I think that’s really what locked my heart into Juneau.
Mike Lane: I understand there’s been staffing changes in the past year. So, what does the staffing situation mean for this winter?
Julie Piper: We’ve got an amazing crew. There were some cuts with the budget – that was not easy. It was definitely challenging decision making with Erin and the team. She involved the heads of each of the ski area departments in that conversation, as well as the board to to make that recommendation for the final budget, and so the team is small and it’s slim, slimmer than it’s been quite a while. But it is is filled with passion, filled with knowledge, and filled with the same vision of moving forward of having consistent operations, having accessible skiing for the public, and just all of us understanding, like there’s been some trust that’s been broken over the last few years.
Mike Lane: So, how do you rebuild that trust with the community then?
Julie Piper: Conversations like this, and regular conversations, being in the community, being open to feedback, transparent marketing, and I say that while our marketing position is vacant right now, and we do have somebody starting later this month. So, it’s going to be taking a lot of the feedback that I think the staff, the board, the city, and honestly, the public has seen through everything on social media over the last couple of years. When people are are sharing their feedback, there’s definitely nuggets of absolute truth that we need to improve consistent communications and being in the community. I mean, we’re going to have Discover EagleCrest Day coming up on the 19th. We’re all going to be there and available to talk with the public and talk about what’s going on.
Mike Lane: What does the loss of the gondola mean for Eaglecrest’s future?
Julie Piper: I think it provides a more streamlined path of what we need to focus on, which is building summer revenue, off-season revenue, and managing our expenses, and having consistent operations, and growing our skiing community as well. There’s definitely opportunities for a strategic plan to identify opportunities for off-season revenues and just maximize the use of the space, while also still offering an amazing retreat for the public, to be an accessible retreat, to go berry picking. I mean, who else has a beautiful gravel road to the top of a mountain with blueberries along each side?
Mike Lane: How do you make Eaglecrest financially sustainable now?
Julie Piper: That’s the age-old question. It really is tackling some of that low-hanging fruit that maybe fell by the wayside. I think you know we didn’t have some tours this summer that we’d had started up in previous years, anticipating some changes with the gondola. I think that was planned, and that made sense to to put some of those on hold. But restarting those conversations, and I’ve got some meetings set up with folks in the tourism industry who want to restart that conversation to be able to provide tour access and spread the tourists out in Juneau a bit, and bring some up to Eaglecrest and maximize the use of that space, and and rebuild that revenue source for us. This season they had put on put hold on a lot of rentals in the lodge, and so our revenues were down for that, and really just pushing that out. The staff has been amazing at responding to calls and folks who are planning for the 2027 wedding season. So we’re open. If anybody’s interested, give us a call – it’s a beautiful venue.
That was Julie Piper, the new GM at Eaglecrest, speaking with KTOO’s Mike Lane about her plans for the ski area.
Discover Eaglecrest Day, a free community event, is tomorrow from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Eaglecrest.
