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The following letter was sent out this week to Mammoth Mountain employees by CEO Rusty Gregory.

A letter from Rusty

Dear Editor:

The company has completed its most successful Christmas and New Year holiday period in my 34 years on the mountain. Never in our history have we hosted so many guests with so little natural snow and produced such a high quality experience on and off the mountain.

I had the opportunity to talk to scores of guests over the last 2 weeks.  They were universally effusive about how much fun they were having and couldn’t believe that Mammoth had top-to-bottom skiing, the Unbound pipe and parks were going off, June was open, Woolly’s Adventure Summit had snow for the tubers, and that we even had cross country skiing up to Minaret Summit. They were wowed by the fireworks at Night of Lights and on New Year’s Eve, and had a blast at the concerts and DJ events. The Village rocked and they loved that we opened a day care and brought Sushi Rei back.

Many of our guests came to Mammoth from Northern California for the first time because the Tahoe resorts’ lower elevation and limited snowmaking capabilities only allowed the operation of a small fraction of the terrain and services Mammoth provided. A significant number chose Mammoth over their usual winter vacation spots in Colorado and Utah. You all worked very hard and performed wonderfully. From the bottom of my heart and on behalf of our guests and a grateful community, thank you very much.

But now, the crowds are returning home, the temperatures are warming and the weather is forecast to provide more sun than snow in the days to come. I know that all of you are wondering how the company intends to deal with the less than optimistic outlook going forward.

Here is what I know:

So far, this winter is the driest on record since the 1800s. I’ve talked to the heads of major resorts in California, Utah and Colorado. Each of them are cutting back on lifts, terrain and staffing to save money. Many think that the winter of 2011-12 will never really get started and the weeks and months to come will just bring more of the same.

Here is what I believe:

We operate the best mountain in the country and we run it better than other resorts run theirs. Skiers want to ski and boarders want to ride. This yearning and the demand it produces doesn’t go away just because Mother Nature isn’t cooperative. Mammoth is the skier and rider’s mountain.  When it snows, they will come. In my 34 years on the mountain, I’ve seen several severe drought years with little or no snow in October, November or December. It snowed by mid-January in each of those years.

Here is what we are going to do:

We are going to do the opposite of what other resorts are doing. We are not going to cut services to save money.  We are going to keep everything open – Eagle, Canyon, the Village, all the current lifts and all the terrain possible. If temperatures allow snowmaking, we will add more runs and lifts as soon as we can, even if it’s during the middle of the week when crowds are light. We are going to keep our seasonal and year-round employees. If hours of work get too thin for some, we will feed each of them every night to make it possible for them to stay in town. We will continue to operate all our shops and restaurants everyday on the regular winter schedule. Our rental shops will be renting all categories of skis and boards including demos, everyday.

We are going to do just what we did over the holiday, giving our guests way more than they expect, and way more than our competition. We will do it the Mammoth Way with big smiles, a positive vibe and the informal, authentically sincere service we are famous for.  Our guests will love us for it and they will come back.

I don’t want anyone to underestimate the company’s commitment to the quality of our guest’s experience or misunderstand their individual role in delivering it.

I wish each of you, your family and friends a happy, healthy and prosperous New Year.

Rusty Gregory, CEO
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area

For the Nordic record

Dear Editor,

An article published in the Dec. 17 issue shed some bright, positive light on the steady evolution of the Nordic scene in our community.

Competitive Nordic programs developed and provided by Eastern Sierra Nordic Ski Association have garnered the attention of Mammoth Mountain’s Race Department and are benefiting greatly as a result of their involvement and support. The Mammoth Mountain Community Foundation is also providing scholarships to offset team fees, travel costs, and education expenses based on need and performance. This type of significant support is crucial to the present and future success of local programs geared towards raising the caliber of homegrown, competitive Nordic talent.

The article also inadvertently compared the work of Mammoth Nordic with MLTPA. Given the recent scrutiny initiated by Sandy Hogan regarding the Town’s administration of Measure R and MLTPA, I  believe it is important to note how distinctly different the missions and objectives of our respective non-profits are:

Mammoth Nordic supports, develops and promotes Nordic Recreation.  We are an all-volunteer, non-profit organization providing a high quality, groomed Nordic Trail System free to our locals and visitors alike. Our Club is funded by contributions from our members, local business owners, second homeowners and visitors who value the experience we provide.

MLTPA is a well-compensated, taxpayer-funded consultant to the Town that advocates for trails and public access, fosters stewardship, and convenes and facilitates community participation. MLTPA is currently seeking to secure their operational financial stability over the next five years with a guaranteed $1.5 million dollar commitment from taxpayer-funded Measure R. Suffice to say, Mammoth Nordic supports Ms. Hogan and others who believe the relationship between the Town, MLTPA and the administration of Measure R is in need of an open and transparent review.

Brian Knox
Mammoth Nordic

Locals who will compete in the MS Bay-to-Bay ride for Multiple Sclerosis in Orange County next weekend. From left: Kathleen Knox, Donna Felix, Jean Drummond, Brian Knox, Rachel Georgeson and Sara Morra. 

Kathleen Knox remains upbeat in her battle with MS

It all started innocently enough back in February, 2008. A fall on the slopes. A crick in the neck. “I thought I’d pinched a nerve,” said Sunny Slopes resident Kathleen Knox.

Knox, a vivacious and apparently ageless forty-something (I’ve known her for ten years and she doesn’t look a day older) was working at the time as a ski instructor at Mammoth Mountain.

Over the next seven to 10 days, however, the crick in the neck didn’t go away.

Instead, she began to feel numbness in her fingers. Then the numbness began to creep up her arm. She told her supervisor at the Mountain that something wasn’t right. A blurriness which developed in the vision in one eye confirmed it.

By March, local Neurologist Dr. Douglas Will had diagnosed Knox as having Multiple Sclerosis (MS).

The stats

As described by the National MS Society, “Multiple sclerosis is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system (the brain, optic nerves, and spinal cord). It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. This means the immune system incorrectly attacks the person’s healthy tissue.

Approximately 400,000 Americans have MS, and every week about 200 people are diagnosed. World-wide, MS affects about 2.5 million people. Because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) does not require U.S. physicians to report new cases, and because symptoms can be completely invisible, the numbers can only be estimated.

More than twice as many women as men have MS. Studies suggest that genetic factors make certain individuals more susceptible than others, but there is no evidence that MS is directly inherited. MS occurs in most ethnic groups, including African-Americans, Asians and Hispanics/Latinos, but is more common in Caucasians of northern European ancestry.”

Treatment

Once Dr. Will made his diagnosis, Knox was placed on a 10-day course of high-dose, I.V. steroids.

Sheet: Thus destroying your chances to play professional sports.

Knox: Yes.

There is no cure for Multiple Sclerosis at this time. There are, however, three common MS drugs on the market that have shown varying degrees of success at blocking new “attacks.”

In April 2008, Knox began using copaxone, which requires one daily injection. Knox said the drug is reputed to be 30% effective at blocking new attacks, though really, it’s anybody’s guess. All Knox knows is that she hasn’t had a new attack since the initial one, so she keeps using the drug.

The price is not cheap. According to a Bloomberg news report from March 2011, “Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. (TEVA) said it raised the price of its MS drug, Copaxone, to about $42,300 a year, a 39 percent jump since January 2010.”

The article goes on to say that, “The cost of the MS drugs, which patients generally take for life, now rivals that of cancer medicines such as Roche Holding AG (ROG)’s $50,000-a-year Avastin. The MS treatments may be out of reach for patients who don’t have insurance or don’t qualify for help from the companies, at a time when governments worldwide are seeking to rein in health-care spending.”

Fortunately, says Knox, insurance covers a lot of her copaxone cost. Nevertheless, when she was first diagnosed, one of her initial worries was that “This could ruin us financially.”

By us, Kathleen is referring to Brian, her husband of 18 years.

Psychology

Anyone who knows Brian knows that when faced with a problem, he is relentless in his pursuit of a solution. After Kathleen’s diagnosis, he dove into researching everything he could about the disease. Which was good for Kathleen precisely because it provided her some distance.

There is, she said, a significant psychological component to the disease. “Sometimes, my MS symptoms flare up just by talking about it,” she said.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t think about it. I think about MS all the time. But does it affect my day-to-day life? Not really. I don’t want to over-exert myself. I’m at risk of triggering it [an attack] if I let my core temperature get too hot. But riding a bike is okay. And one of the specialists I spoke to at UCLA said that he thought exercise was the most important thing I could do for myself.”

It’s hard not to think about. MS can strike at any time, and can affect anything run by the nervous system. “My biggest concern is the brain, and how an attack might affect me. I worry about my good eye (since the initial attack inflicted permanent damage on the other one). But I can’t dwell on what might happen, hasn’t happened.”

But you can’t help but dwell. “I ask myself, ‘Will I be able to walk? Ride a bike? Go on a bike tour in Europe with my husband?’”

In her initial fear at the onset of her MS, Kathleen wondered whether her husband would still love her.

That fear passed. What has replaced it is seemingly an even deeper intimacy. They appear to buoy each other. “You can’t tell someone has MS just by looking at them,” says Kathleen. “Because I act fine, he’s in denial, too. If I’m fine, he’s fine.”

The Ride 

Six locals will participate in the MS Bay to Bay Ride on Oct. 22 and 23, benefiting Multiple Sclerosis research.

The Ride covers 150 miles, starting in Irvine and finishing in Mission Bay. The Mammoth Spinners; Sara Morra, Kathleen & Brian Knox, Rachel Georgeson, Jean Drummond and Donna Felix, have shattered their $5,000 fundraising goal, already having raised $6,750.

Nevertheless, they’d still like to raise even more.

If you’d like to help, call any team member or stop by Access Art & Business Center in Mammoth for more information.

As Kathleen Knox said this week, she believes the research is paying off and hopes there will be a cure within 10 years.