Just as the ski season is about to launch, it has been announced that Bill Rock, who has served as Snowshoe’s president and chief operating officer since 2005, is leaving to take the helm at a ski resort owned by another company. Rock will leave Intrawest-owned Snowshoe to become general manager at a California ski area recently purchased by the publicly held Vail Resorts.
Rock, with 14 years in the mountain sports industry, will lead Northstar at Tahoe, a recently revamped resort near Lake Tahoe that Vail Resorts announced last month it was buying for $63 million.
At Snowshoe, Rock helped lead the resort through the last gasps of the building boom launched around the turn of the century under Intrawest. He partnered with the developers of the Soaring Eagle Lodge to gain a new million-dollar high-speed quad lift unveiled in time for the 2006-2007 season, the Soaring Eagle Express. The high-speed quad chairlift replaced the old fixed-grip (read: very slow) Widowmaker lift.
Rock also knew when to pull back. For instance, there was a slopefront condo called Eight Rivers slated to be built circa 2007 at the site of today’s magic carpet lift on the Skidder slope. As the real estate bubble burst, the Rock administration let go of that dream.
The Vail Resorts press release on Rock’s move credits him with “growing resort revenue, increasing guest satisfaction scores, and developing strong community partnerships.” Somehow, he was able to simultaneously run SnowZone Madrid, Intrawest’s indoor ski resort— yep, you read that right— in Spain.
My personal dealings with Rock were always friendly. He explained to me why my idea of installing one of those roller-coaster-like Alpine Slides didn’t quite fit with Snowshoe’s wild aesthetic. And speaking of Snowshoe’s “Forever Wild” aesthetic, a little over a year ago, he launched a branding effort that pushed his employees to use words like “escape,” “wow,” and “real” in all their communications.
Good luck in your new job, Bill!
