General Manager Matt Lillard’s ski season won’t end with a last slash through Eaglecrest’s wet spring snow. He didn’t break his leg in West Bowl or suffer an ACL tear on Steep Chutes.
No, the end of Lillard’s run at Eaglecrest is a lot less exciting, he said: He’s taken a job overseeing Vermont ski area Mad River Glen, a small, cooperatively-owned five-lift operation. His last day at Eaglecrest is slated for March 2.
“(Mad River Glen) reminds me a lot of Eaglecrest in its passion and the people involved,” Lillard said in a phone interview Thursday. “It presents a very unique ski experience.”
Eaglecrest will meet today to decide how to proceed in the interim. Lillard said Eaglecrest’s strong seniority will help them continue to run the area for the remainder of the season.
The 40-year-old veteran of ski operations grew up in New Jersey and said he has been keeping his eye on an opportunity like this for a while. Lillard has worked at Vermont ski areas before, starting his career at Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow, Vermont.
“I’ve chosen to be at areas that have a smaller feel,” Lillard said. “I think it comes down to personal choice that I’ve made. Being a part of a ski area (as opposed to a resort) allows you to be a bigger part of the community.”
Massive ski resorts like Vail, Colorado, depend on business models based more on “real estate and bigger profit streams, not necessarily the skiing,” Lillard said.
“There’s a tangeable and intangeable difference between the feels. If you spend time at smaller ski areas, you get that feel.”
Mad River Glen is one of the only resorts to still feature a single person chair lift. Its motto is “ski it if you can,” and pride as one of the “last bastions of natural snow skiing in New England” parallel Eaglecrest’s low reliance on snow making and high percentage of expert terrain.
The job at Mad River Glen will allow Lillard to continue focusing on day-to-day ski operations. He’s proud of the smoothness with which Eaglecrest has run in his tenure.
He also cited the building of the Porcupine Lodge as a landmark achievement.
“Acquiring funds and the construction of the Porcupine Lodge were definitely the biggest infrastructure,” Lillard said. The new lodge will help Eaglecrest stay open in low-snow years, something he believes will benefit the ski area.
Lillard’s family will remain in Juneau until the end of the school year.
• Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com
