Monarch brings in new GM from Mountain Creek.

[MarzNC]

I've only been to Monarch one afternoon . . . and it was a powder day. It's on the list for a return visit some day. A new lift will soon open up more lift-served terrain. The new GM is moving from Mountain Creek.

July 2024

The Story Behind Monarch Mountain's New Expansion - FREESKIER

After a decade of research, Monarch Mountain was approved for terrain expansion into No Name Basin. Here's what it means for skiers like you.

freeskier.com

September 24, 2024

Monarch Mountain Names Chris Haggerty as GM

SAM Magazine—Salida, Colo., Sept. 24, 2024—Monarch Mountain has appointed Chris Haggerty as the new general manager of the ski area. Haggerty succeeds reti

www.saminfo.com

"
Monarch Mountain has appointed Chris Haggerty as the new general manager of the ski area. Haggerty succeeds retiring GM and COO Randy Stroud, who will stay on for the 2024-25 winter season to help with the transition.
. . .
Prior to joining Monarch, Haggerty was a longtime team member at Mountain Creek Resort, N.J., where he served as food and beverage manager and public safety manager, according to LinkedIn.

Monarch is offering guests the opportunity to meet Haggerty from 1-3 p.m. on Sept. 27 and 28 at its annual Crest End of Season Closeout Sale."

 

[Benny Profane]

Can't think of two more different mountains.

 

[MarzNC]

Under Snow Operating leadership and partial ownership, Mountain Creek has won Top Workplace awards in recent years. As long as the new GM has good leadership and team skills and is willing to learn, doesn't matter as much that the previous management job was at a different type of mountain.

Helps a lot when the incoming GM has a chance to work together with the outgoing GM for an entire season.

One of Haggerty's projects as Asst. GM at Mountain Creek were the goats.

July 2021

Mountain Creek's 'goatscaping' crew eats and sleeps all day

Mountain Creek Waterpark introduced "goatscaping" this summer, where goats and sheep walk around snacking on all kinds of grass and weeds.

www.njherald.com

 

[Benny Profane]

Well, food and beverage is something a lot of people do in America. Probably the hardest thing is hiring and retaining people at, you know, food and beverage wages. Seasonal, on top of that. Tough job, but, has he ever patrolled or managed a patrol?
This is a high Colorado powder/avi environment. Not New Jersey. It doesn't show at MC. Then there's grooming in a powder environment. That's another crew. Digging out lifts. Do they still have a cat? I rode that thing. Not everybody has that.

I don't know. It's like the Sox going for a rookie coach. Aim higher

 

[MarzNC]

Do they still have a cat?

My understanding is that the new lift will provide access to some of the terrain currently accessed by the cat. Not clear whether or not the cat operation will continue after the lift is working. I assume it will because the current cat terrain is about 1600 acres and the lift-served area is under 400 acres.

I want to get back to Monarch but since I go to Colorado in early season, Monarch isn't open yet. Maybe next time I plan a trip to Crested Butte, we'll spend a few days in Salida and ski Monarch. In the summer, Gunnison is an hour drive away. But you have to go over Monarch Pass. Wouldn't want to deal with that during the winter. Same reason we stay in South Fork to ski Wolf Creek instead of Pagosa Springs.

 

[MarzNC]

America. Probably the hardest thing is hiring and retaining people at, you know, food and beverage wages. Seasonal, on top of that.

Not seasonal for a 4-season resort. Mountain Creek has had a waterpark since 1998. Built a bike park recently, but looks like Haggerty moved on about the time that opened.

In any case, the comment in the NJ article about being the food service manager and public safety manager in the article came from LinkedIn. At some point Haggerty had more responsibilities than that. The SAM article about the move to Monarch says he was GM from 2001-2022, which is not quite the whole story either. Found Snow Operating news from October 2021 about a promotion to Co-GM in 2021, working with Evan Kovach. As of 2024, Kovach is the Resort Chief aka GM at Mountain Creek.

September 24, 2024

Monarch Mountain Names Chris Haggerty as GM

SAM Magazine—Salida, Colo., Sept. 24, 2024—Monarch Mountain has appointed Chris Haggerty as the new general manager of the ski area. Haggerty succeeds reti

www.saminfo.com

" . . .
Prior to joining Monarch, Haggerty was a longtime team member at Mountain Creek Resort, N.J., where he served as general manager from 2001-2022. He most recently served as the director of operations at Crystal Springs Resort, a New Jersey golf and spa destination."

In any case, I'm giving the guy the benefit of the doubt. The GM retiring didn't have much, if any, ski industry management experience when he started working at Monarch. Sounds like a great mentor for an incoming GM.

April 2024

After 23 years at Monarch, Stroud will retire next year

Randy Stroud, general manager and chief operating officer of Monarch Mountain, announced to his management team last week that he plans to retire at the end of the 2024-25 ski

www.themountainmail.com

" . . .
Randy Stroud, general manager and chief operating officer of Monarch Mountain, announced to his management team last week that he plans to retire at the end of the 2024-25 ski season.

Stroud has worked at Monarch Mountain for 23 years and has been general manager since 2015. He started his Monarch career as the food and beverage manager after spending several years working for Heart of the Rockies Chamber of Commerce.

Under Stroud’s leadership, Monarch has seen its most successful years in the ski area’s long-standing history, according to a press release. Among his accomplishments, Stroud said he takes most pride in the development of the dedicated and knowledgeable team around him.
. . .

The Powder Monarch LLC ownership group and managing partner Bob Nicolls will lead the search for Stroud’s replacement.

“On behalf of the Monarch owners and myself, we give heartfelt thanks to Randy for his 23 years of service. This ownership group has only had two general managers, Rich Moorhead and Randy. Randy has helped deliver tremendous improvements to the ski area and value to the overall skier experience,” Nicolls said. “His role as leader and mentor to all staff have been invaluable. He too has been a community leader, participating on many committees and boards over the years.”"

 

[jamesdeluxe]

I haven't been there in three years; however, based on four visits since 2008, it's one of my favorite old-school joints out west despite the limited vertical (a: no onsite lodging, b: enough terrain that it spreads out skiers, c: excellent snow preservation, and d: Hall lifts!). It's a nice yin/yang to full-service Crested Butte an hour or so further. The cat-skiing terrain that will be lift-served should be a nice addition.

 

[MarzNC]

I haven't been there in three years; however, based on four visits since 2008, it's one of my favorite old-school joints out west despite the limited vertical (a: no onsite lodging, b: enough terrain that it spreads out skiers, c: excellent snow preservation, and d: Hall lifts!). It's a nice yin/yang to full-service Crested Butte an hour or so further. The cat-skiing terrain that will be lift-served should be a nice addition.

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Your trip reports were one reason my friends and I made the effort to ski Monarch when driving from Dillon to spend a few days checking out Wolf Creek for the first time. We've been spending a week skiing Wolf Creek in mid-Dec since 2022. But Monarch hasn't been open early enough for a stop when driving back east.

According to Liftblog, the Garfield double was built in 1969. Major upgrades were done by Skytrac in 2010.

 

[Harvey]

Your trip reports were one reason my friends and I made the effort to ski Monarch

Love this.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

We've been spending a week skiing Wolf Creek in mid-Dec since 2022. But Monarch hasn't been open early enough for a stop when driving back east.

That's probably the likely scenario but you never know -- this was during my visit on December 15, 2019: almost 150 inches YTD.

Separately, @MarzNC: don't you live in NC (Asheville)? Maybe you can let us know in the off-topic forum how are things looking there right now.