Nevadan at Work: Resort manager finds gainful work as a ski bum

Kevin Stickelman made a career out of his favorite hobby.

Stickelman got his first taste of skiing at age 10, on a fifth-grade field trip to a resort in Missouri. He spent his teen years and early 20s dabbling in the ski industry, working as an instructor at resorts across the Midwest and the West. But it took a "temporary" stint in Park City, Utah, to show Stickelman that skiing jobs were just as legit as the engineering jobs he initially intended to pursue.

A decade into his ski career, after a series of promotions, Stickelman took the helm at POWDR Corp.'s Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort. Stickelman is overseeing the resort's $35 million, 10-year master plan, which will boost chair lifts from four to 10 and trails from 16 to 50. The improvements will boost the resort's capacity to 400,000 annual visits, up from fewer than 150,000 now.

The best part for Stickelman? "The ski slope is my office, and the chair lift is how I get to work."

Question: When and why did you go into the skiing business?

Answer: I intended to get a real job as an architectural engineer, but I fell in love with the ski industry and moved out West. I moved to Park City, Utah, to be a ski instructor for one year in a mountain town. It was the iconic ski-bum life - eat Ramen noodles for dinner and share a room with a bunch of roommates. It was a little feast-and-famine. At busy times, like holidays and spring break, I'd do very well, but I needed to save money to get through the periods when there weren't as many vacationers. After a year, I said, "This is something I'm going to take a shot at." I pursued additional credentials, was able to teach a broader variety of lessons and started to really feel like I was where I needed to be.

Question: What do you like about your job now?

Answer: It allows me to be outside. I have been outdoors from the time I was a little kid. On our family farm in Kansas I spent a lot of time throwing hay in the summer. When I got into my teenage years, I went to summer camp for a number of years. I love the outdoors, and skiing was a way be outside year-round for my career. It has also introduced me to a tremendous number of people from all walks of life. I've taught everyone from underprivileged kids to celebrities. I've met some really interesting athletes, community leaders and business leaders. On snow, all things become even. It brings out people's true personalities.

Question: What brought you here?

Answer: I had worked for POWDR Corp. 10 years prior to coming to Las Vegas. I knew we had a sister resort in Las Vegas, but I had never been here. I told them I wanted to see it before I got too far in. I flew down from Oregon and met the COO. It was 114 degrees that second week of September. I was blasted with heat. We got in the car and drove for about an hour. As we rounded the last corner toward Lee Canyon, I could see the ski slope and these aspen and ponderosa trees, and the iconic rocky cliff band and the ridgy mountain the resort sits on. I said, "I get it." I saw the opportunity to put this ski area on the map.

I didn't want to keep the ship running straight. I wanted to grow and develop the area into a place that would become one of the outdoor destinations in the Las Vegas area. To take a ski area that's been around for almost 50 years and is still off of the radar of even the local population, and to turn it into something that would be a true outdoor winter recreation mecca - those opportunities just don't come along often, especially in the ski industry. To have a ski area positioned less than an hour's drive from a city of 2 million, plus 40 million visitors a year, the opportunities are just tremendous here. It's the type of challenge I like.

Question: How does it differ from other resorts you've worked at?

Answer: It has a smaller, closer-knit group of a dozen year-round staff members. Also, I wake up in the morning, where I live on the north end of town, and it's 70 degrees in the winter. When I get to the mountain, it's 20. The upside to grow this business is also tremendous. I was in the grocery store on the way home, standing in the checkout line. The cashier saw my uniform shirt with the logo and said, "Wow, where is that? Is it a new place?" The ability to tell our story and bring this ski area into the fold of outdoor attractions in Las Vegas is something you can't find at any other resort.

Question: What's a typical day like?

Answer: In the summertime, I work on master development plans, manage construction projects and work with federal agencies we deal with up on the mountain. On weekends in the summer, we operate scenic chair-lift rides and have concerts on the mountain, so summer is a time to take a breath and plan for the upcoming season. In winter, if we're doing avalanche control, we start at 4:30 a.m., and some evenings, especially in the busy time, we may be up here until 9 p.m., going through close-down. Every day is different. I ski a lot. I check on conditions of runs and talk to people to make sure they're feeling what we want them to feel, which is that they're welcome and having good time.

We have to be detail-oriented in financial planning and capital-expenditure planning, which all takes place in the winter so we can have capital projects dialed in for groundbreaking when the snow thaws. There's also a lot of community outreach with partners, and because we're part of a bigger company, I travel a fair amount in winter to sister properties.

I ski less now than I did as an instructor. I used to ski up to 150 days a year, and now it's more like 50 days a year. I could ski more if I wanted, but our master development plan keeps me off the snow and working with federal agencies, architectural planners and engineers.

Question: What do you like best about your job?

Answer: Every day is different. On any given day, I can focus on finances, marketing, product development, staff training or building community relations.

Question: Anything you don't like?

Answer: Sometimes, I don't like the long hours. In winter, we easily work 60 hours a week or more. It's the nature of the beast. We have a certain number of days that can make or break a season. It's like being a farmer. At harvest time, you're in a tractor or combine 12 to 14 hours a day. In the ski business, when you've got snow falling, you have to capitalize on that with an all-hands-on-deck approach. As the person leading the operation, I'm involved in pretty much every aspect during those busy periods.

Question: What's your biggest career accomplishment?

Answer: One of the biggest is here. We have worked with the U.S. Forest Service to have our master development plan accepted as a guiding document for the ski area in the next 10 to 12 years. It outlines our growth and development objectives and defines our infrastructure needs. Within this industry, getting that document is a challenge in the best of times, just getting the Forest Service to buy into your plan as a ski area moving forward. It's a balancing act between development and conservation, between business growth and not over-utilizing the land you're on. It had been in the works for a couple of years before I started here, and we got it accepted within my first year.

Question: What are your career plans?

Answer: I see myself in Las Vegas for a while. I'd like to see a big portion of this master plan implemented under my leadership and under the leadership of other executives working with me. But I don't think I'll be here forever. My wife and I talk about where we want to be. I would love to be running a larger ski area down the road, or own a ski area or ski-area holding company. I'm still fairly young in this business. I see a lot of opportunities in the future beyond Las Vegas. For the next four or five years at least, though, I see myself here, carrying out Phase I of our master plan.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.