S1,E33: President, Ski Utah - Nate Rafferty

Nate Rafferty, the alpine aficionado leading Ski Utah, is the special guest joining us today, bringing with him tales of snowy peaks and the intricate dance of the ski industry. We trace Nate's footsteps from his early days in Utah to creating grand ski experiences in Arizona and back, now with the wisdom and drive that helm one of the most influential ski organizations. His journey is a vivid illustration of how a love for the mountains can shape an entire life's work, peppered with insider knowledge and personal anecdotes that celebrate the camaraderie and culture of this winter wonderland.

As the skis are put away and the resorts echo with the last calls of the season, we unpack the nuances of why some hills fall silent despite a wealth of snow. Sharing the slopes with Nate, we learn about the delicate balance ski resorts must maintain as the seasons turn, and the innovative ways places like Snowbird and Solitude keep their lifts humming for the dedicated snow seekers. Our conversation veers into the future of the industry, spotlighting the ski passport program that's carving the path for the next wave of Utah powder enthusiasts and discussing the anticipated return of the Olympics to Utah's slopes.

We wrap up with reflections on the vibrant ski community in Utah, a tapestry woven with new faces and the steady hands of locals. Nate and I trade tales about the thrill of tearing down pristine slopes, the solace found in van life, and our adventures beyond the ski runs—from golfing in tranquil dawns to chasing horizons on motorcycles. These shared passions, we agree, are the threads that bind us, pulling us together in anticipation of the big events that turn our quiet towns into bustling hubs of international camaraderie and competition. Join us for this expedition into the heart of Utah's ski culture, where the spirit of the mountains is as enduring as the snow that caps them.

Please be sure to like, review, follow, subscribe and share the podcast with your friends and family! See you next time 

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Transcript

Erik Nilsson: 0:11

What's up, brothers, and welcome back to another episode of the Small Lake City Podcast. I'm your host, eric Nilsson, and ski season is coming to an end, even though we've had a lot of really good late snow. But are you ever curious about who runs the ski industry and oversees it and all of the different complexities and logistics that it has? Well, in case you didn't know, the organization that does that is called Ski Utah and their president, his name, is Nate Rafferty, and we were able to sit down and talk a lot about how. He grew up in Utah, fell in love with skiing, moved to Arizona where he grew a ski trip from a couple dozen people to over 200 people, and then came back to Salt Lake and has been working at Ski Utah ever since.

Erik Nilsson: 0:53

Such a great guy with great perspective, who has a deep love for these mountains and everything that we can do in them. Great conversation, talking about how it's changed over the years, what we're looking forward to at the Olympics and a lot of other fun things in between, and if you pay enough attention, you might get some good ideas for next year for where you should be skiing. Well, nate, I'm excited because I remember when I first I kind of was talking about when we were setting up, like when I put together the list of people I wanted to have. Yeah, I had Ski Utah. I just put the name of it because obviously I mean you can't think of Salt Lake City, utah, you can't think of Utah without hearing the greatest show on earth snow on earth and thinking of the mountains. And then I kind of put that away and it thinking of the mountains, and then I kind of put that away and it wasn't until I recorded with um adam barker.

Nate Rafferty: 1:43

Yeah, you had to put up with for a time, yeah, the team, yeah, and he's like I want to hear from nate rafferty. I was like, yeah, me too. Yeah, hell, yeah, why not? Um, yeah, I did have to put up with him. I still have to put up with him from time to time, of course he darkens your door.

Erik Nilsson: 1:52

Yeah, need a photographer.

Nate Rafferty: 1:53

Yeah, your legs shaved yeah whatever, but he's into motorbikes now too, so we sucked him into that dark world, yeah.

Erik Nilsson: 2:03

I feel like Adam's like that. You know that friend that's always down for whatever and you can convince him to do like anything. Yeah, from every story I've heard about Adam. After meeting Adam, just Ask Adam, he'll do it.

Nate Rafferty: 2:13

Yeah, he'll do it. Yeah, he totally does His eyes light up and he goes all in. You know he's an all in guy, no matter what it is. So fly fishing, photography, shaving your legs If you're a guy, this new deal bolt, shout out to bolt. I made my first purchase. I'm waiting for my gear to show up.

Erik Nilsson: 2:35

I know I need to order mine. I wanted to wait until I could go to like Target and be like, ah, it's here. But then I'm like that's way too long. We can get a second one when that happens.

Nate Rafferty: 2:42

Yeah, I'm stoked for him. I think it's going to do great, me too, and like just knowing it, all in Adam is that he'll just you know. If he's going to do something, it's going to get done well and right, I think. So it won't be for a lack of effort if Bolt doesn't make it, but I think it will.

Erik Nilsson: 3:08

Totally Well, nate, I want to. I think you're the best person we could ever talk to that's going to know the ins and outs of skiing in Utah and all the details behind it. So I want to pick your brain on a lot of things that are going on. But really, before we jump into it, I want to start with kind of how you got to be where you are. I mean, it was a small stint, but you were born in Florida and then raised here and I know skiing didn't really become like a main part of your life until later, which is not the most Utah thing. My grandpa's saying was always if you could walk, you can ski, and so we all learned to ski in diapers uh, for bed, I don't know. But yeah, we'd love to hear kind of like what growing up here was like and kind of how you did eventually get into skiing.

Nate Rafferty: 3:44

Yeah, you know, um, I I consider myself a Utah native. Technically I guess I'm not. I was born in Florida. My dad was in the air force at Patrick Air Force Base near the Kennedy Space Center and I spent all of a month there, I think, and then they packed up the car and my dad was coming out to get another degree in meteorology from the University of Utah. So Utah is all I've known. My dad still lives in the same house that I grew up in, just behind, uh, foothill sports, den, um behind Foothill village. So he's still there.

Nate Rafferty: 4:22

And uh grew up Bonneville, bobcat, clayton, cougar, highland, ram, then off to Arizona, uh, get out of the mountains and into the desert and and uh, air quotes college, uh, some college life. So, uh, yeah, it was fun and just an awesome place to grow up. My um, my folks, bought a, a 1978 VW van and you know that was the start of my van life. I'm on van number two already. You know that was the start of my van life. I'm on van number two already. And yeah, we went all over North America in that thing. So like 41 states, all seven Canadian provinces I might get that wrong, but a lot of them and yeah, just saw some cool stuff and that really instilled the travel bug in me.

Erik Nilsson: 5:16

No, that's awesome. I love that you get that perspective. Like I always, it's always fun for me to see how many people have the opportunity to travel the world. I mean again. Another good example is Adam, but then still so excited to come back to Salt Lake City, utah, and love his backyard and still get stoked to go ride up Alta every day and enjoy the simple things here.

Nate Rafferty: 5:40

You know it's perspective. It's the same reason I left and wanted to feel and see something new. So I left, uh, utah. A lot of my buddies were going to uh, the? U or BYU or wherever, and uh, I definitely wanted to fly the coop and I loved my time down in Tucson five short years down there, the Ivy league of the Southwest and um, but I was ready to come back. And then when I came back, um, I really understood why I loved it here so much.

Nate Rafferty: 6:04

I mean, and when I talk to people about my favorite things about living in Utah, um, I grew up in salt Lake. I've been up in Park City for the last 25 years, but it's the variety that we have which is just crazy. And they're, you know, especially this time of year, which I love. Just the other day I skied at Snowbird in the morning and rode dirt bikes out in the West Desert in the late evening and have these days that go in, you know well, past 8 o'clock. Have these, uh, these days that go, and you know well past eight o'clock.

Nate Rafferty: 6:39

But skiing powder in the cotton woods and then getting in the van and rolling down and, uh, riding red dirt later in the afternoon or the next day it's, it's, it's so awesome. I mean, you go to places like other States where you know hard to get more beautiful than Montana, but it's also a long drive to the desert from on. So if you have the right tools and the right, you know the season, um, you know, you can really make a lot of fun out of. You know, I love diving into ski season in January and February and March, but it gets to be this time of year and my quiver starts changing to two wheeled things and golf clubs and still ski a little bit. But uh, yeah, it's just fun. And then by the time I'm getting sick of all that. Then, uh, snow starts to fall and uh, you know, that's probably one of the things I like most about Utah.

Erik Nilsson: 7:28

And I always, like it's my favorite time of the year, especially with the snow, the way it is, because one of my favorite things in like spring, especially this time, is when you can just look at the mountains and see that freeze line. Yeah, Just go up and up and you'll still see these beautiful white peaks. I mean all of like the beauty of winter, but then you just see this greenery of spring slowly like take its place. And I always love that period because then also I get to go ski in the mornings and golf in the afternoons. Yeah, Cause then also I get to go ski in the mornings and golf in the afternoons, and we also have, like I think it's like I think you alluded to it really well Like it's this perfect amount of time to be like, okay, skiing super stoked. Yeah, Kind of getting over. Oh, hey, look. Well, here's all my other activities.

Nate Rafferty: 8:04

Well, you hit it super hard and you're going to run out of that stoke a little bit. You know some people. I just love the fact that you can be really into it for a couple of months and and we are on the cusp of that that best time of year, I think, where the mountains are just turning green and it looks like Switzerland here for just a few weeks and there's still gobs of snow up in the mountains and then down in the Valley, it's 70 degrees and our conference room at ski Utah looks up at the the mountains and just today I was noticing just the first tinge of green on there. So I'm psyched about that.

Erik Nilsson: 8:41

Oh, I love that change like, because I went on a trail run up city creek uh, this weekend and it's like the flowers weren't blooming but you could see like, give it a week and it's going to be just like perfect wildflowers that first kind of like yellow flower that shows up and yeah, just that whole life that blows up?

Nate Rafferty: 8:57

is city creek open this summer? They're talking about closing it.

Erik Nilsson: 9:01

It's going to be closed for like two years I know I had heard that, but I had never heard anything else huh, because I'm dying to go ride my bike up there too yeah so maybe I'll just go for it and until it says closed I mean, there's also the time when, like, emigration was closed, but you can always see a couple of people going up and down every day. Yeah, we'll see. Yeah, at your own risk, um, so I like. So, going back to your experience at Arizona, like I love how you brought this passion for skiing with you and I think that was probably where your first experience of like gathering a community around skiing started of. Of uh, I can't remember the name of the group that you started, but they tripled it and had a bunch of ski friends the next season.

Nate Rafferty: 9:39

Yeah, I just kind of, you know I get. I just count myself as so lucky, just dumb luck. You know, fortunate Um, I was living in our fraternity house down there and guy came walking in and, you know, just asked, the first person he saw said, hey, who's the ski guy in your house? And we had, I think we had 150 guys uh in the house and 60 guys that lived in. And somebody said, oh, go talk to this Nathan guy and he's in room 10. And this guy came up there, ended up being one of my best friends. Um worked for a company called LA ski and sun tours and they were looking for they ran these um ski trips over what was it? Mlk weekend, uh, three day ski trips. And they did it with all the fraternity houses and sorority houses from colleges all over the Western U S and you'd go and there'd be 5,000 people and just I'm already sold raging right.

Nate Rafferty: 10:35

I mean, it was super easy sell and it was super cheap. You hop on a bus and you go and it had been happening for a year or so. I was like what they called a house rep. And so I, you know, rallied all the guys in our fraternity house and if I sold 40, I think I got a free trip. The whole trip was like $379 or something. And so I did it and I got, I was like, wow, this is the best thing ever.

Nate Rafferty: 11:01

And the next year he said, hey, what would you run the whole school for us? And the year that I did it the first time, I think we had 150 people come for the whole year or or for that trip and the next year. And I didn't even know what that number was. And of course, this is pre-email, pre-internet, everything on the phone, notebooks, all this stuff. Um, and they said we've got a deal for you. You get a free trip and a dollar for every person that comes.

Nate Rafferty: 11:32

I was like Whoa, that's a lot of beer. Um, a dollar for every person that comes. I was like, whoa, that's a lot of beer. Um, the ultimate incentive, I'm like a deal for me. And uh, so I called him when we were supposed to report all our numbers and said, hey, yeah, I got 750 people or something like that, and I could hear the phone almost drop on the other end and, um, it just came super easy to me and it was super fun, so went on the trip, made 700 bucks, had a good time and it I guess it instilled in me or made me think about maybe there's some kind of future in you know. Somebody's got to work in the ski industry. I had no idea what that meant, you know and I. What I really wanted was a free season pass or a free way to ski.

Nate Rafferty: 12:14

So, I came back and, um, I actually was reading a couple of books on how to, you know, find a job after college would the best ways to do it. And they said, think about an industry that you like or want to be part of and go, uh, interview somebody in that industry. So I just came back I think it was spring break, even knocking on some doors, interviewed a guy named Mark Menlove who was at the time the communications guy at Park City ski area, and talked to him and thought, gosh, he seems like cool guy in this cool business. Maybe I should, you know.

Nate Rafferty: 12:54

I got to think about this and then, when it came time to graduate, um, somebody told me in fact it was Jody, a woman named Jody Morrison who worked for park city ski area at the time and she was at a trade show that I was at, a Warren Miller show down in Tucson or something. She said you ought to go down and go to this company called Ski Utah and talk to them. So I called them out of the blue, knocked on the door and it turned out Mark Menlove went from Park City Ski Area being the PR guy. He was now the president of Ski Utah and I talked to a woman there by the name of Raylene Davis who is the marketing director, and she hired me to be an unpaid intern. She still works at SkiUtah, she had her 39th anniversary and is kind of the bedrock of our company.

Nate Rafferty: 13:44

Um, and I pretty much haven't left. I was a unpaid intern for two years, I was a receptionist, slash office manager, I was the PR guy for seven years and then I've been the president for 18, I think something like that. Anyway, hopefully they don't get tired of me because I don't know how to do anything else and I don't think they would know what to do if you left.

Erik Nilsson: 14:09

It's been so long probably just like shut it up and leave, but I love that. It's like unpaid intern for two years now. I get a call, the shots and I'm the one running it all and yeah, and such a fun like, but all driven by passion because, again, like you're following something that you love to do skiing you found like this connecting of, like, oh, maybe like bringing people together around skiing or being bringing people together in general, yeah, and then again, like being action oriented and being someone's like well, maybe go interview people. You're like okay, and then, ironically enough, you're like, oh, like, I interviewed this guy who's now doing the exact thing I want to, and not only do I like know him, but he's asking for me, cause, like a lot of people would hear that at face value like, oh, you got lucky, like whatever, but I mean it sounds like you were doing the right things and putting yourself out in the right way. That make it. I mean the rewarding experience.

Nate Rafferty: 14:55

I think that's absolutely right. You know being in the right place at the right time. You know, uh, all of a sudden your chances increase. You know you're, uh, just in infinitely. And you know, I remember getting my first paycheck at ski, utah, as a office manager. That was my first full-time job and I was making $19,000 a year and I I'm sure I didn't like had to hardly claim any taxes and my first paycheck was somewhere around 500 bucks and I looked at that thing and I just thought how am I going to spend all this?

Nate Rafferty: 15:29

money before I get another one of these paychecks in two weeks. I'm so psyched. Um, and it was uh, that was just fun, you know. I mean I work with a really good crew of people fun loving, hardworking, um, you know, passion for sharing the love of skiing. So it's been a blast.

Erik Nilsson: 15:48

Yeah, I love. One of the things you've done as a leader is implementing what is the 12 inch rule.

Nate Rafferty: 15:53

Oh yeah, the powder clause.

Nate Rafferty: 15:54

Yeah, the powder clause you know that was groundbreaking at the time. Today everybody gets whatever time off they want, whenever you go up or not show up. But I was the pioneer. Yeah, people would. I would, we'd mentioned that. So the deal was if it snowed 12 inches or more, you could take off as much time you wanted that next morning, but you had to take. Let's say you took four hours out of the office. You got back to the office at 1230. We opened the doors at eight 30. So you were gone four hours. You need to make up half that time that day. So two hours, so you stay till seven seems pretty reasonable.

Nate Rafferty: 16:32

Oh yeah and um, and obviously if you've got meetings or stuff, you you know you can't blow off important stuff, um, but it was groundbreaking the time and now it seems like we just ski all the time whenever it snows.

Erik Nilsson: 16:44

I mean I, there's this almost same line going up being a little Cottonwood Canyon Monday.

Nate Rafferty: 16:52

Tuesday whatever day of the week it is, it seems like it's always just wanting its way back. Well, now you know, it's just so easy to work remote. I mean, I've walked past a computer in my, in my office, in my house, and if I'm unlucky I get sucked into email there. And all of a sudden I look at my watch and it's 11 o'clock in the morning. Like geez, I gotta be at work.

Nate Rafferty: 17:08

Um and you know, but you can do it anywhere, which is a blessing and a curse and um, but you know, on balance, I think it's great to be able to do this stuff and sit on a chairlift and fire off a few texts and uh right, yeah, I mean, it's awesome.

Erik Nilsson: 17:28

Yeah, I can, I can get behind that definitely. Like I was mentioning you too, I mean I took strong advantage of the work anywhere you want to and took it to some extremes. But yeah, I mean, why not take advantage of the perks? Like it also sucks too, but and I do try to.

Nate Rafferty: 17:37

It doesn't happen as often as I'd like, maybe, but totally shut it down um a week or two a year. Um, if I'm off in the middle of nowhere doing something, um, just totally cut it off and it doesn't happen a ton. But um, it's pretty nice when it does.

Erik Nilsson: 17:56

Absolutely so. In the past, you know, like you said, 18 years of being president of ski Utah. What are some of the things that you look back and are most proud of, or some of the biggest accomplishments that you feel like you've done?

Nate Rafferty: 18:05

you look back and are most proud of, or some of the biggest accomplishments that you feel like you've done? Oh man, um, big question, I don't know. Um, you know, I don't know if it's me on anything. Uh, you know, our organization gets a lot of credit for, and and I'll pass along a lot of this credit to Raylene our passport program, and again, it's. None of this is possible without the support of our resorts, but that passport program that used to be fifth graders, I was going to say that was my favorite thing.

Nate Rafferty: 18:34

We used to say ski for free. It was like $29, $39. Then we started saying, well, there's a processing fee Cause I was like we can't say if it's free, if it's 30, even 30 bucks or 40 bucks, but almost free.

Nate Rafferty: 18:46

It's now $69. Um, but it's also has grown. So it's fourth graders, fifth graders and sixth graders. For 69 bucks you get three lift tickets at every resort in the state. Um, and it's you know. The whole idea behind it obviously is to grow lifelong skiers and we get kids hooked when they're that young. Their parents are in, their siblings are in. I've met so many people that have said, you know, they started skiing because of this program and it's so cheap you can't afford not to do it. And you know, you look at battered daycare and, uh, you know, get a bunch of kids in your neighborhood that are all on that same pass, have a parent drive them all up, cut them loose on the mountains and you know, this is where I had some of the best times of my life growing up skiing. I didn't start skiing until I was a little bit older, eighth grade or so. But you know just that feeling of freedom and being in the mountains and we're just so lucky to have it so close, oh, so close. Just stupid how close it is.

Erik Nilsson: 19:49

And I was talking to a friend, a coworker, that lives in California but she's from the Midwest, and I was telling him like, oh, yeah, like in elementary school, in fifth and sixth grade, it was nice because we just got to go skiing in the afternoons. Like what do you mean? Like you just got to go skiing, like oh, no, no, no, like our parents wouldn't come get us, there'd be a bus and we'd all get in it and then we'd show up and I think every time I did was at brighton, and then our instructors be waiting for us and we'd go ski a half day and come back and she was just flabbergasted, totally. I was like, oh, and then, on top of that, they give us all these passes that we can go again.

Erik Nilsson: 20:19

Like some of my favorite ski memories, especially in my like that age of life when I was like really like skiing with friends instead of always with family, I mean, I think that was the reason I skied solitude for the first time, maybe even, um, snow basin as well. But like, yeah, I mean it broadens a lot of people's um, uh, horizons of skiing. It brings a lot of new people in. It gives, like these great experiences for kids and getting to see one of the best parts of the area hands down and it's so easy.

Nate Rafferty: 20:45

And going back to again this time of year, you know, less crowded and and I had a, we had. There was an olympic press conference downtown here last thursday. It was thursday, wednesday or thursday and I was conflicted because I also heard pipeline was going to be open that morning up at snowbird and I was like, no, I can do it all. Uh, I'll go down, went to the press conference from nine to 10, split like right at 10, um, hauled up to the resort, quick change, uh, and then hopped on the tram. I was hoping it was supposed to be open till noon. Was the Intel? I got Um, but I got up to the top of hidden peak at 1120 and that it closed at 11. So, um, you know, worst case scenario, take a few runs at snowboard, like three runs. I'm back back in my car, sandwich at Einstein's on the way down and uh, back at my desk by like 1230.

Erik Nilsson: 21:42

Yeah, I can't complain with that. That start to the morning.

Nate Rafferty: 21:45

No.

Erik Nilsson: 21:46

Miss her up a little bit Fine. But yeah first case scenario you got a couple laps on the tram, dip over to Mineral Basin. Call it a day.

Nate Rafferty: 21:52

Can't win if you don't play, so I gave it my best shot.

Erik Nilsson: 21:55

Amen, like I said, I mean there's been so many great experiences that people have grown up in Utah and like now that live in Utah I get to have because of Utah has done and that landscape has changed so much for people who have experienced it for so long and I know that, like the dynamic of skiing has changed so much. I mean, when you look into the future of I mean even next year, through the next five years, I mean what's on top of your mind?

Nate Rafferty: 22:17

You know I've I've haven't been this excited for a while about the ski industry here in Utah and I saw a report from whole presentation from an economist at a conference I was at maybe last fall and they talked all about the new Utah and how we've grown from a small state to a medium-sized state. Our growth is now majority not from Utahns giving birth but from people coming in from outside of the state. Our economy is just on fire. We've got all sorts of improvements at the ski areas Deer Valley's huge expansion, expanded excellence which will almost triple the size of the ski area up there. Powder Mountain's got a ton going on, new lifts happening at Snowbird. I mean Sundance has a hotel going in. I mean it's just really exciting to see all these improvements happening at the ski areas and you know that experience is just going to get bigger and better, I think.

Erik Nilsson: 23:48

Yeah, I mean it's so fun to see how excited people get, Because I mean again, like I'm from here and it's easy to get jaded by it all, especially when I have to wait longer than I have to and there's lines now. But I always love that, that energy that people that come bring Cause there's like do you realize what's right in front of you? Like I will be there all day, every day, for the rest of my life. I'm like, oh, like welcome. Yeah, Must be new here, but love the energy.

Nate Rafferty: 24:10

You know there are plenty of people who, yeah, do get jaded by that, and sometimes locals are people that have been here for a long time and seen it in a certain way. And you know, change is hard. Um, not everybody loves it. I don't love it. A lot of times I get stuck in my ways and a lot of things.

Nate Rafferty: 24:26

But I just decided a long time ago um, you know, there's enough to go around and you know, if you're a local and you can't find your way to your favorite stash or something, um, because there are crowds or whatever, you're not doing a very good job as a local, cause I still know where all those spots to be are, and it's all about timing and, yeah, it's gotten busier, for sure. But, uh, I've just made a conscious decision. I'm going to, um, look at that energy and take the positive from it, because, guess what? It's not changing either. Um, you know this state is just has too much going for it.

Nate Rafferty: 25:04

Um, whether it's the ski areas or NBA and NHL and the? Um, you know all the tech and and it's just a great place to be and to have an airport here that you can go around the world nonstop, you know, just adds to all that good stuff. So I choose to look at the positive aspects of that and not get bummed out about, um, some of the uh, the other side, that's just a natural occurrence of uh, some of that success.

Erik Nilsson: 25:32

I mean you can be bitter and turn your cheek to it and then don't enjoy it and lose that part of what gives you joy. Or if it doesn't really give you joy, then maybe it's a good thing you're not. But yeah, I'm with you. Nothing's changing back anytime soon, so we can enjoy it. And I also love your point about if you don't know where a place to go, then you might not be the person you think you are.

Nate Rafferty: 25:51

Yeah, you got to be a better local. Come on, know where it's at.

Erik Nilsson: 25:55

And also like one thing I was thinking about when I was getting ready is I think the culture around skiing has changed a lot over the past. I mean four or five years. I mean in COVID definitely made it a bigger thing. Is just like this proliferation of touring compared to traditional resort skiing. I mean, how much has that impacted the way that you think about skiing? Or maybe it's not really in your purview or something you think about regularly?

Nate Rafferty: 26:15

You know I think it's great, your purview or something you think about regularly. You know I think it's great. I've always done a little touring, not a lot, um, and one thing that we can do it around here is kind of do a little bit of both so you can leave out of a gate at Alton ski over to Brighton, um, same with park city and deer Valley, although you have to be on a special tour to do that actually, uh, but, um, you know I, I just think anything sliding. You know I, I just like the mix of all that and the Wasatch isn't a huge place at the at the end of the day. So, um, you know, picking and choosing where you go, but, uh, there's always a cool experience.

Nate Rafferty: 26:55

You know, I spent a lot of time skiing at the resorts, uh, for most of the year, and then I start to expand that a little bit and spend more time in the late season, I guess, back country skiing a little bit more, a lot of side country. The other day we had an event at Brighton and I just couldn't wrap my head around and I had to get back, pick up my wife to go to another event downtown Salt Lake. So I thought I'm just going to ski over to Brighton from Salt Lake or, I'm sorry, from park city, and so I skied up through deer Valley, up guards and Pat skin up guardsmen, scoot over to Brighton, hang out at the event for a couple hours up the great Western chairlift out that gate, you know, glide across the whole flat Well, it's not that flat area but back down towards guardsmen and um, just a cool thing to be able to do.

Erik Nilsson: 27:48

Yeah, I think it's such a great way to experience it too Cause and you can probably attest this as someone who enjoys a good van trip is when, like you traditionally travel and you fly to a place or go to a place specifically, you miss so much of, like, the context of the in-between and how it all comes together. And I think that's a similar way with if you only ski in the resorts, or even I mean, get out in the winter and the resorts I mean you don't have to always have skis on I mean snow skiing, hiking, running, whatever Like you get so much more appreciation for how it does all come together instead of, like I know this one face of this one mountain and this one Canyon.

Nate Rafferty: 28:21

You got to get your feet on the ground in those places and, um, so we run the interconnect tour and that goes from Deer Valley to Park City. You would take somebody who's a normal Alpine skier you don't have to have skins or Alpine or backcountry set up at all and we ski from Deer Valley to Park City, park City over to Solitude, boppen to Brighton, back to Solitude, then over to Alta and Snowbird. And what's really fun is to well, there are a bunch of fun things about that tour, but to see the perspective on people's faces you know when you ski up to that sign at Solitude they're like whoa, I mean like I've been to all these places but never in one day, yeah, and to see how, how close they are, and also to feel the different culture at each of these resorts you know you go through from Deer Valley to Brighton, to Alta, to Snowbird I mean they're just, they couldn't be more different and they just feel, you know the whole vibe changes it at each location and I think that's really fun.

Erik Nilsson: 29:19

Yeah, that sounds like such a cool experience because it's awesome. I mean, every resort has their own sort of like. I don't want to say like vibe, but um.

Nate Rafferty: 29:29

They do the culture I mean it's. It's almost like going to a going through a different country, exactly Um, you should get your passport out and have to show your visa going, going to something.

Erik Nilsson: 29:39

Sir, you cannot be here, you, you, you, you're two resorts over, that's right, um. And then also, I mean the thing that's becoming even bigger topic as we kind of get more guidance that it could be a thing is the Olympics coming back? Yeah, um, I mean, how do you think about that, cause odds are, if you've already been in this role for 18 years, you'll probably still be there when that comes around. So I sure hope so.

Nate Rafferty: 30:00

Um, yeah, I was a part of it in O2 and it was just an amazing experience and I've been. The IOC was in town this last week and I interfaced with them a little bit and you know what I came away thinking was the Olympics are just so much bigger than the ski industry in Utah and because people would often ask me you know, how does this affect the ski industry? And it's just so much bigger than all of that. I think it's hard to totally put my finger on what that's going to mean. And it's just so much bigger than all of that. I think it's hard to totally put my finger on what that's going to mean.

Nate Rafferty: 30:31

And it's going to be so different for us in 2034 than it was in 02. I mean, we were just a different place. We were still kind of waving our hands hey, we're Utah, we're over here, not on that international map, and we are so much better known now. You know, not on that, uh, international map, and we are so much better known now. Um, and you know, really, it's uh, just such an incredible way for the whole community come together and host this group of international people that come here and and sport truly transcends, um, politics and war and all these great things, and so it's such a fun experience yeah, no, I agree, I'm excited for something to bring us like all together because I mean just even thematically in country, in the world, there's so much division and I mean it's either, I mean there's two.

Erik Nilsson: 31:23

the two biggest motivating factors are love and fear, and so it's either we all have to have a common enemy or we can all have something we're commonly passionate for. And if that's what brings Utah together and brings us a little bit more brotherly love, then I'm so excited to see kind of everybody lean in and kind of be that typical like Deseret that we always think about and where were you?

Nate Rafferty: 31:41

or were you even born?

Erik Nilsson: 31:43

I was in, let's see, it was 2002. So I was in, let's see, it was 2002. So I was in sixth grade. I remember going to a Paralympic hockey game. I'm going to a hockey game, yeah, that was fun. But I was also living in the Yelcrest area, so it was right by Rice Eccles. I remember going downtown and seeing all the award ceremonies and just the energy, but so young that I really couldn't contextualize what was going on and really didn't understand like the magnitude of it and like I wish it was like this year, in two years, so that I could be young enough where you can kind of be in the hustle and bustle of everything and not feel that removed.

Nate Rafferty: 32:16

But I'm excited to have a second swing at it and get to have that maturity and perspective to appreciate it more it's gonna be fun because we're gonna be talking about it for 10 years and when it finally comes, comes, it'll be so great and Utah will do just a phenomenal job in hosting it. Um, you know our some of those passport kids, fourth, fifth and sixth graders those might be our Olympians. Uh, you know, I mean those. Those kids will be 20 ish years old when the games come here and would love to see somebody who got stoked on skiing through one of our our passport products, uh, stand up on the podium and with a medal around their neck.

Erik Nilsson: 32:51

Yeah, and that nothing brings it more full circle than that. Yeah totally no, that's awesome. Um anything, any other interests that keep you around the state or keep you engaged?

Nate Rafferty: 33:00

Yeah, um, you know I like well ski a ton in the winter and then in the summer I've gotten really into riding motorcycles off-road and mountain biking and anything two wheels really. So I've had some good adventures on motorcycles that have taken me around the world Just really the best way, I think, to explore. And you get all the senses when you're in a car. You get one sense, you get to see it, but you don't feel it, you don't smell it, you don't hear it, um, and you get all that on a, on a motorbike, and so it's just a fun way to explore the whole state of Utah or across the country or around the world. Yeah.

Erik Nilsson: 33:43

And I have this one buddy who? He he lives in Portland with him and his wife and his family. And then he has another friend, a mutual friend, but I don't do it with them that every year they do like a motorbike trip in South America, oh nice, and so they just did. I think it was a week somewhere in Peru, might even like around Patagonia, and just it's always just this like a like there's always planned out, they know exactly where they're going. He do you exactly where they're going. Um, he, um, you know Casey Lansaw by chance, don't, okay, he's a photographer, like motorcycle photographer, and so it's like 50, 50, if someone knows him or not. But yeah, they do this amazing trip every year. And every year I'm like I need to do, like I need to start habits in my life to get me to this point Because, again, like you experience every sense of it, you're in the middle of it all, you're not just in this glass box wondering when you're going to get your next destination.

Nate Rafferty: 34:32

I talk with some of my friends sometimes about I'm really good at recruiting people into this world and uh, um, you trying to think about what the economic impact is of the friends that I've recruited into riding motorcycles. And uh, it was with a couple of guys and we were in I don't know. Uh, we did some event started in Croatia and it was Bosnia, albania, north Macedonia. It was like eight countries in eight days and we're all just looking at each other going. What have you gotten us?

Nate Rafferty: 35:05

into how we get here yeah, and you know some of the funnest moments in my life totally, and that's one thing that.

Erik Nilsson: 35:14

so me and a lot of my friends have just become helplessly addicted to golf, like pretty much everyone our age, yeah. But it's been fun because there's pretty like there's like about eight of us that half are married with kids, half most are married with kids and we've kind of found the only time everybody can really golf is like first thing in the morning. So we love like a good 6.15, 6.30 tea time and go play nine, be at the office by nine Great start of the day. And we're all kind of realizing like, hey, if we want to have these trips, like we see, like our parents are, like these people five, 10 years old, and it's like now, like now, or else we'll never get the habit going long enough and do it. And so it's fun, as we've realized that now we're like oh well, what do we want to do? So we're going to have at least like yearly golf trip. I want to do something else, some more adventuring, but I mean motorbiking would be the way, but yeah it's just, it's like skiing or golf.

Nate Rafferty: 36:09

They can also be these catalysts for travel. So I'm also, I also love to play golf. I'm only pretty good at it, but, but I love playing it at practice. I don't go to the range for hours, but the right way to go, go show up five minutes before my tea time and go, um, but, uh, it's just another excuse to go around the world and around the country and and, uh, hang out with friends. And also something that you can do, like skiing, multi-generation. So, um, you know, this winter I witnessed my father-in-law, who's 85 years old, skiing with his daughter and his daughter's daughter and his daughter's daughter's daughter, you know. So four generations skiing together, and you know, and they can do golf together too. Yeah, so it's pretty amazing to be able to. Uh, you know, there are only a few of those kind of lifetime sports where everybody can can do that together. It's pretty fun.

Erik Nilsson: 36:59

Take me to a pretty place. I get to go play in a golf course.

Nate Rafferty: 37:01

That's again like a pretty place at a pretty place and Utah has got a ton, and I remember reading a while ago that Utah had more golf courses per capita than any state in the nation. I don't know if that's still true. We've grown a lot, so that number might be off, but yeah, we've got a lot of good golf and it's you know, you can do it pretty inexpensively too.

Erik Nilsson: 37:24

And I never appreciated it until I left Cause. When I moved to Seattle for four years, like that's kind of where I like. It was really like okay, I think I actually really like golf, like we can start doing this. But I mean it was 30 minutes without traffic either North or South, to Jefferson or Jackson golf course. On the weekends I'd go play someone. That's like 45 minutes away.

Erik Nilsson: 37:41

Everything was super expensive. You had to plan tee time so far ahead where I didn't realize at the time but I was used to going to school with you where I could always just swing by Bonnie and go get like and just walk on, everything would be fine. Or if, worst case scenario, I'm going to Glendale and doing that and like everything was there. And then I moved back and I'm like, wait, from my house I have like 10 golf, like 10, 18 whole golf courses within 20 minutes. Like sign me up.

Erik Nilsson: 38:08

And then then, if you want to even travel even further, I'll go down to St George. And if you have something like the best, most inexpensive golf courses and like golf experience that you had, like like that group of friends our first one was, uh, down to St George last or two weekends ago and like I, I've used to go, cause I was dating someone who lived, her family lived down there, so I'd go down a lot, yeah, and so I was used to it. And then I'd get down with my friends, like assuming that they had, and they're like I've never played golf down here, I'm like so much good, get ready for the betterment of your life and especially again, you can do those seasons.

Nate Rafferty: 38:38

You know you can go down there in February sometime. And so that was my home course and I'd go ball hunting there. Yep, um, go, get you know, check in with the the pro. He'd make me go pick up like cigarette butts out in front of their pro shop for 15 minutes to get a ball hunting permit. And then I'd go out um, go through all those gullies, find all these golf balls, come back, sell them back to the pro shop guy, get my five bucks or whatever, buy some French fries, play some video games. And yeah, it was my hangout. And then it had a junior golf pass up there. It was um 50 bucks for 25, nine hole rounds, so a little punch pass. And I don't know if you remember I don't know when they did it.

Nate Rafferty: 39:25

This is aging me, probably, but the course layout was different, different hole numbers. I don't know why they switched. I liked the old hole layout, um, but whatever, that's the part of me that doesn't like the change part right. Bitching about something.

Erik Nilsson: 39:42

Bring the original Bonnie bag.

Nate Rafferty: 39:43

Yeah, exactly, um, so it was fun.

Erik Nilsson: 39:46

No, that's yeah, I, I. So I play men's league every Wednesday at Bonneville, like that's the home track. That's where all my cause. I didn't play in high school, but I mean all my friends did, so I get to watch them destroy me every week.

Nate Rafferty: 39:56

But I, I. I took golf class three times in college. I got four A's in my college career and three of them were in golf. Uh, cause he just had to score under. I don't know what was like 45 for nine holes or something. So I, I liked that class.

Erik Nilsson: 40:14

Maybe I do need to go back to college. Yeah, totally, well, thanks so much for coming on. I want to wrap up with the two questions I always end with, uh, first being, if you could have someone on the small lake city podcast and hear more about their story and what they're up to, who would you want to hear from?

Nate Rafferty: 40:29

Ooh, good question. Who do we want to hear from? Um, I don't have. You had Aaron Mendenhall on.

Erik Nilsson: 40:38

Probably have you haven't. She's in my crosshairs.

Nate Rafferty: 40:42

Yeah Well, pull the trigger, get that lady in here, she'd be fun. Um, she's awesome and doing great things for our city. Um, who else would be good to have? Um, junior Benus, he's a guy who has been skiing up at snowbird for a long, long time. He's 90, see 99 and a half years old, 98 and a half years old still works at snowbird as a instructor up there. He'd be really cool.

Erik Nilsson: 41:12

Oh, I bet he has all the stories.

Nate Rafferty: 41:14

Yeah, I'm just trying to think of whether these people live in Salt Lake City. I listened to your Julian Kark podcast, yeah, and so much of his growing up reminded me of mine, with skateboarding and being a derelict and getting into skiing and all that fun stuff.

Erik Nilsson: 41:30

Yeah, I guess you guys do share a lot of like kind of that thematic stuff.

Nate Rafferty: 41:33

I think so he's got better hair than I do. But um, um, no, uh, ski bros for sure.

Erik Nilsson: 41:40

Yes, yeah, no, julian's great. I love everything he's been up to. Yeah, cool, yeah, no, I think those are great ideas. And then, lastly, uh, if people want to find out more about ski Utah, get involved. See what you're up to. What's the best place to find ski Utah and everything that you guys do.

Nate Rafferty: 41:55

Pretty easy SkiUtahcom. We're on Instagram, little bit on Twitter, uh, but mostly SkiUtahcom. We've got a super cool app that just keeps getting better and better, where you can get all the snow data and forecast stuff that you could ever dream about. So go get our app and see on the hill.

Erik Nilsson: 42:15

Yeah, we got a. What do we got like a week left, less than a week.

Nate Rafferty: 42:18

You know week-ish of lots of places open, but then Snowbird and Solitude and I think even Woodward are going to. You know, take it till there's nothing left, so into May for sure.

Erik Nilsson: 42:31

So remind me of the rule on that, because this is the way I've understood it and I could be wrong and I want to make sure I haven't been lying to people for like 20 years.

Nate Rafferty: 42:39

but I'm going to say you have been, but go ahead, perfect Let me just throw myself under the bus.

Erik Nilsson: 42:44

So most of the resorts, if not all, operate on a land lease of the national forest and part of that is restrictions of how many days they can be open and how much water that they can pump to make man-made snow right. Negative Okay.

Nate Rafferty: 42:58

No, so we stop skiing, because nobody comes skiing anymore.

Erik Nilsson: 43:06

All right, that makes sense.

Nate Rafferty: 43:07

That's pretty much it. They're kicking down the door to come ski on rocks and dirt in early November and then there's 120 inches of snow sitting on the ground at Alta. I don't even know how much they have there might be more than that right now and they're going to turn the lifts off because nobody's going skiing. They're playing golf like you and riding bikes like me. If we could figure that one out, we could ski. You know tons and tons more. But that's kind of the just the natural cycle and and the snowbirds and solitudes of the world and and Woodward kind of keep going for whoever's left and they shut it down, do a handful lifts and keep sliding until the dirt shows up.

Erik Nilsson: 43:50

Well, now I know and I will correct my ignorant behavior.

Nate Rafferty: 43:53

Yeah, it's not the elk migration, it's not insurance, it's no skiers.

Erik Nilsson: 44:00

No skier. Yeah, it's hard to run a resort when there's no one paying anything. Yeah.

Nate Rafferty: 44:03

Figure that one out for us, will you? Okay?

Erik Nilsson: 44:05

Deal. Yeah, they're going to have to catch me on my next activity ADHD cycle when I'm coming back to skiing and get my attention back. That's it, let's do it Awesome. Well, thanks so much for coming on. It's such a great good to know you and chat with you, excited for everything coming up in next season and this new generation of passport holders.

Nate Rafferty: 44:21

I appreciate the opportunity. Oh, thanks man.