Fans Say White Pine Unchanged So Far In First Season Under Billionaire Ricketts

Winter has finally gifted some pretty good snow to the White Pine Ski & Summer Resort near Pinedale, Wyoming, for its first season under a new owner.

Billionaire Joe Ricketts, founder and former CEO of T.D. Ameritrade and co-owner of the Chicago Cubs, bought the family-style ski resort, closing on the deal in April. Speculation surrounded the sale at the time, with equal parts hope for improvements and fear that a beloved winter venue would dramatically change.

At the heart of it all was one simple question: Would Ricketts keep the resort family style as promised, or would it go the way of so many ski resorts of late, purchased by billionaires who turn them into something more exclusive.

So far so good, say fans of White Pine.

“We’ve been up there while they were open and it seems pretty much the same as ever,” Mariah Nystrom Hayes told Cowboy State Daily. “We’ve always had a great experience at White Pine, and this was no different. Everybody there is just super friendly. It still has the small-town feel, and that’s what we really look for. And it’s still affordable compared to somewhere like Jackson.”

That affordability included the food at the lodge, which Hayes felt compares favorably to other ski resorts but won’t set a family back too far.

“A couple can eat there for under $50,” she said.

Prices Stayed The Same

Hayes has been skiing at White Pine off and on her whole life. The resort has a special place in her heart because that’s where she and her husband got engaged.

“We ‘skinned’ up on our skis and got engaged at the very top of White Pine,” she said. “So, it’s a beautiful view that looks out over Sublette County up there. We have a lot of history with White Pine.”

“Skinning,” in skiing, refers to traveling uphill on skis with synthetic adhesive strips that grip the snow applied to the bottom of skis. They are typically made of nylon or mohair, or a combination, and are designed to allow skis to slide forward on the snow but not backward.

So far, the only real change Hayes has noticed at White Pine is that the social media marketing efforts seem a little more put together than they have in the past.

Prices haven’t changed at all. They are still $65 for an all-day adult lift ticket, $50 for youths or seniors ages 70 and older, and $6 for children younger than 5 on the weekends, which Hayes feels makes it affordable fun for the whole family, particularly when compared with other ski resorts.

A New Lodge?

Like many White Pine fans, Hayes is hoping for great things in the future. Her biggest wish would be for a new ski lodge.

“After the lodge burned down a few years ago, it’s definitely been different,” she said. “So that would be my No. 1 hope.”

A new lodge, in fact is one of the top two things board member Kari DeWitt said White Pine wants to improve.

“The plans haven’t been shown yet,” she said. “But it’s really amazing to have Mr. Ricketts’ investment in the ski slope. He has the means to really improve the facility in a way that not many other people could, and he’s been really generous about investing in the property, striving to make it better and keep it daily friendly and open.”

DeWitt is herself a fan of White Pine Resort, often taking her children to ski there, and she appreciates having this kind of resource in Pinedale’s backyard.

“It’s just amazing to have a ski slope 15 minutes from your house,“ she said. “Like, there’s not a lot of places in the country where you can say that, and it’s one that you can afford.”

That’s made the resort an important part of Sublette County’s winter economy, according to Sublette County Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Kaddy Fyfe-Shivers.

“We are happy to see the snow and glad that it is open for business,” Fyfe-Shivers told Cowboy State Daily. “We are very excited to see what happens in the future under the new ownership.”

And Snow Machines, Too?

The other big project White Pine is working on is snowmaking equipment.

But it’s not a simple process at all. It starts with finding a viable source of water to supply the snow machine. Drilling for water wells also requires permission, since the ski area is on U.S. Forest Service land.

“That’s in the very early stages,” said Jessica Jaubert of Three Elephant Public Relations. “With it being a U.S. Forest Service lease, any of those plans have to go through their processes, so we haven’t purchased any equipment yet.”

Jaubert said it’s something that most ski resorts in the West need to have in place to ensure that there is a season with enough snow.

“Wyoming has amazing snow, we’re so lucky in that way,” she said. “But sometimes Mother Nature doesn’t necessarily play ball.”

DeWitt said two test wells have panned out so far with water, and a third is being considered.

Once the wells are in place and the snowmaking equipment bought, that’s where the real expense begins. Larger ski resorts spend anywhere from $200 to $1,000 per inch of artificial snow on any given day, according to the company BTL Liners, a geomembrane systems company that breaks down the costs of snowmaking on its webpage. That cost is in addition to the snow machines themselves.

“Even just drilling the wells is a significant investment,” DeWitt said. “So, I’m just in awe. And Ricketts hasn’t hesitated at all. He’s fully embraced it. He loves the kids, and he’s gotten emails from some of the kids who ski White Pine thanking him for keeping it open. I think he’s just been really grateful about the community response.”

Renée Jean can be reached at renee@cowboystatedaily.com.