I am not sure I have ever considered reviewing television shows, but the CBS Undercover Boss series is a show that often catches my attention. Since this week’s episode featured Andy Wirth, CEO of SquAlpine, I figured it’s worth talking about it here.
If you have not figured it out yet over the last two years, Andy Wirth is a master at marketing his vision. Tonight’s episode served largely as a one hour infomercial for Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. There was a lot of emphasis on Andy assuring the viewers that he understands the differences between Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. But I am guessing that a lot of Alpine Meadows enthusiasts know that he entirely missed the mark. Early in the episode, he describes Squaw Valley as a mountain enjoyed by primarily advanced and expert skiers, which is why they bought the lowly Alpine Meadows next door, to provide “family friendly” terrain and groomed slopes. Suddenly, the meaning of the intense grooming at Alpine Meadows this season begins to take on a new meaning. He really does not get Alpine Meadows. Added later: I apparently did not catch the point where Mrs Wirth stated her husband would need to “dumb things down” to relate to the employees. It’s been mentioned several places online already. Ouch!
There is also a large segment featuring Wirth as a terrain park night employee. There is a huge build in to the park features at Alpine and the importance to the success of the mountain. The parks as seen on this episode look fully utilized, which we have seen has not yet been the case. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to see the connection between the huge build out of the park this year, and the knowledge that it would be showcased on primetime television this March.
The Employees
The episode also included 2 employees from Alpine and 2 from Squaw. Typical episodes of Undercover Boss include some great employees and some not so great employees. Producers managed to pick some of the best employees to work with Wirth. The employees were led to believe that “David”, portrayed by Wirth with a mullet and Fu Manchu, was a contestant on a reality TV show hosted by Jonny Moseley.
Bennett, a snowboard instructor at Alpine Meadows, was the first to work with Wirth. He was candidly open and honest about some of the issues that have arisen since the merger took place. We applaud his message about instructors and coaches wearing helmets as role models. Bennett also mentioned the problem with the shortage of staff as some employees left as a result of the merger.
Christi, a member of the swing shift park staff at Alpine Meadows, was the second to work with Andy. By the looks of this scene, Wirth has little hands on experience with tools. Christi was an amazing young lady with a 
passion for life, but did not have much to say about the park crew job itself.
Wirth also put in time with two employees at Squaw Valley, first as a ski patroller and then as a lift mechanic. As Wirth spends a lot of time at Squaw, it was difficult to maintain his “David” persona. There were some awkward scenes of Wirth wearing goggles and sunglasses indoors to protect his identity. Ultimately, Charles the lift mechanic was able to identify Wirth. Clearly most episodes of Undercover Boss involve out of town bosses visiting remote factories or stores, where it’s unlikely that employees will identify them. Wirth has made a large number of public appearances in the media and is frequently seen around Squaw. It’s no surprise that Squaw employees blew his cover.
The Closing
The closing scenes for the episode were fairly typical, with “the boss” having taken note of personal employee needs. There were the usual touching scenes of employees being offered generous gifts: Bennett was given flight school, Christi was given a housing allowance, a snowmobile and money for other personal needs, Tucker was given a honeymoon in Chamonix, and Charles, a Visa card to pay for a hot rod project. We all need one of those bosses.
The thing that was atypical for this episode was the lack of a company followup. Generally, the closing scene for Undercover Boss involves a company meeting where “the boss” comes clean and discusses changes to company policy based on their work in the show. This segment was missing and Andy only briefly mentions anything about what he learned about the company. There was a very lackluster support of Bennett’s helmet concerns – with Andy only offering that helmets were available “at cost” to instructors and coaches. I don’t think that is any kind of change.
All in all, Andy Wirth continues to appear to be a nice guy…with very little understanding of Alpine Meadows. Maybe we need to “dumb it down” for him? 😉
I agree with your review, I noted everything you did, but what set the bad tone for me was right at the beginning Mrs Wirth saying to the camera… it was going to be difficult for Andy to “dumb down” to act like an employee…… hopefully Andy doesn’t feel that way about his employees… I was disappointed on the helmet also… nice to do nice things for a few employees but the helmet thing would have been a big sincere statement about employee welfare, setting examples and saving lives… he seems like a nice guy and certainly knows how to promote a business..
Saw the second (Squaw) half of the show so I missed the Alpine portion. It is important to remember the show is about entertaining the viewer. To expect anything earth-shattering, like Andy realizing that the terrain park needs to be moved from Dancefloor, is unrealistic. Was this from this season? I do wonder what the coworkers of those who were on the show thought about them getting generous gifts. I am sure there are lots of employees who are good workers and have an interesting story to tell too. To be optimistic, if this show prompts Andy to visit Alpine more often (I think he said he would do that) that is a good this.
Now if Andy can make a Miracle March happen that would be great.
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Here’s an idea, Andy:
How about taking some of the piles of cash they’re paying you for that tacky McMansion, and actually pay ALL your employees a decent wage. You know, so all the ones who aren’t on TV shows can afford to live in town too.
Sheesh.
Kinda funny to see my stepdad on the show..You have to understand something..Andy knows what it is like to be at the bottom. When we lived in Steamboat he started out in the mail room as an employee so he knows what the bottom is. He has worked every job from the ground up so he values every single employee under him because he knows they make up he company as a whole. When I originally started snowboarding he hated every minute of it because it was the new thing and unaccepted. but he quickly grew to accept it and as far as Marketing goes he is definitely a genius.
Obviously you had a very lucky childhood and try very hard to understand the struggles he went through to work his way up. However he is still a biased corporate owner who still holds predjudice towards snowboarders as obvious from the segment. Maybe you need to “dumb it down”
I don’t think the “dumb things down” was an insult… He just needed to appear to not have a clue about the ski business…
The Romney’s said things that were taken out of context, it happens when you have money, haha
Hi Mark,
Thanks for the review. I don’t watch TV but had to watch this show. The combo of comments by Andy saying that buying Alpine Meadows for more family runs and missing out on the snowboarding market did not sit well. (My dream would be to make Alpine like Alta.)
The viewer could not expect much from Andy as far as solutions on helmets. Andy did not wear a helmet to the snowboard lesson.
I feel bad for the employees that did not get on the show and therefore did not receive all of the wonderful prizes and cash.
Also, does a CEO really need TV show to help them go out and get a temperature check of employees morale and thoughts on the company? Honest communication is key to all healthy relationships.
Lets start a fund to buy back Alpine.
Mark excellent writing.
Your dream is to make Alpine like Alta? I agree that the buyout takes away some of Alpine’s character but banning snowboarders is super lame. Good things some dreams never will come true 🙂
Like Alta? Well, I guess we can all start to act like a bunch of self important d-bags if that’s what you really want.
Anyone who wants Alpine to be more like Alta should move to Alta. Anyone complaining about the park taking away their beloved dancefloor run should also find a new mountain. May I suggest Northstar or Homewood as they both have plenty of blue runs similar to dancefloor but with much longer runs. Have fun.
Snowboarding is an intregal part of the snow sports industry. Alta is a micro resort that has a permit from the U.S.F.S. to use the area the way they want, including to ban snow boarding. That works for them, I guess, but I hope it never happens in Tahoe again. I believe Alpine used to ban snow boarding, but I’m glad they offer it now. Snow boarders are a different demographic and they do bring some problems, but that’s more about those individuals than it is the sport itself.
He said “family friendly” and he seemed to value safety enough to make his nominal change to helmet availability, but how is the terrain park keeping the family character that he says he bought Alpine for?
With the terrain park location changing the flow of the mountain so much, it makes me more concerned for the safety of my young one who has outgrown Meadow, as we must graduate her to runs where there are more intense bottlenecks. That is not being safety conscience, that is pushing an agenda with significant disregard for people who don’t share your vision.
I did notice the points made that employees have to constantly reinterview and that they lost some key veteran maintenance employees, one reason some familiar faces are no longer around. Kinda surprised there was no grooming segment, although of course that would have highlighted the loss of so many veterans at Squaw this year. Mark’s review hit the mark, the show was pretty lame.
Anyone else notice in Wirth’s part with Bennett at the very end, when they’re discussing helmets, as Wirth is talking about making helmets available to staff at cost, that audio bit sure sounds to me like it was spliced in later. Who knows what he actually said, but I bet Bennett wasn’t nodding his head in agreement to the overdubbed audio. Kinda weak I think. Although that’s the “reality show” bread and butter I guess.
Good review, in general. I watched the show. I think the “dumb it down” comment by Karen Wirth, simply meant that Andy had to seem more like a new employee, rather than a corporate executive. The two do speak differently, I think you’ll agree. Also, I never heard him say “lowly” Alpine as your comments state. Alpine Meadows is a fantastic resort and fits very well for many reasons with Squaw Valley and was a smart aquistion. They are different from each other and yet both excellent and have a different loyal customer base. The show is a “Reality” based TV show and therefore fits into that genre of shows. For what it was, it was well done, entertaining and showed both resorts in a very good light. I think Andy, Jonny, and the team members they picked, all did a great job. Certainly it gives publicity to Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows, but that’s part of what the show is about. I applaud Andy for putting himself out there both professionally and personally. Andy and his wife are both very nice people. I don’t think previous management of Squaw would have ever considered opening their home up or appearing on that show. For me, it was a good move all the way around and shows that they care about BOTH resorts.
One of the keys to the Undercoveer Boss formula is making sure that selected employees get rewarded for their work. Some bosses have offered mentorships, donations to a favorite charity, birthday parties for kids, and cash awards, but ZOWIE! The rewards on this show totaled well over $100K! Did Andy and KSL get so caught up in making themselves look good for the cameras that they neglected to understand how it would play in front of the other overworked, underpaid ski staff? Hmm…while trying to improve public relations on the outside, sounds like Andy might have a bigger employee relations challenge on the inside…
I watched “Undercover Boss” last night from my dvr. A few things came to mind….
1) I think it was good to see Andy Wirth out and about on the mountains checking things out. I think he needs to do more of it, but not only check on how the employees are feeling but check on the customers as well, get their take on things. I remember seeing Alex Cushing skiing around the mountain from time to time.
2) I think Andy might have this whole merger concept wrong. I agree that he needs to keep the same unique spirit and characteristics of Squaw and Alpine alive, but do it in a way that enables both mountains to work together. For example… The Terrain Park… Squaw is know as an “International” ski resort, they have big ideas and big plans at Squaw. Alpine is known more of a locals/family mountain. So when it comes to the park, put the BIG park at Squaw, my suggestion would be over on Solitude. Build the park, superpipe, and everything you want over there, if not there,somewhere else at Squaw. I suggest Solitude for a couple of reasons, a) It really doesn’t infringe or change anything at Squaw, the spirit and character would remain the same. b) It’s easy access, and close to the existing park at High Camp and you could have all the park features big and small in one location on the mountain. You could even upgrade to a quad chair on Solitude which would not only serve the park, but also relieve long lines a Shirley’s.
Now let’s look at Alpine… We get rid of “The Firing Line”… put the park back on Kangaroo. Now we are going back to doing things on a more local, family orientated way, which is what Alpine is known for. We are keeping with in the boundaries of Alpine’s spirit and character, while providing more intermediate terrain for the runs that you lost by building the BIG park on the BIG mountain at Squaw. We now have the best of both worlds without effecting either mountains, and using one to enhance the other. You also aren’t depriving Alpine of Terrain parks, and now you are not taking anything away from the frontside of the mountain. Alpine is still Alpine. Then if they do decided to have a race on Wolerine, the mountain isn’t so clogged up.
The main point I’m trying to make is instead of looking at Squaw and Alpine as separate entities, look at the big picture, on where one mountain can compliment the other. It sure would be nice not to have to ski into a rope every time you go top to bottom.
Maybe even restructure the passes… A Squaw pass , with so many Alpine days as a benefit. Alpine pass with so many Squaw days as a benefit, Or the “Squawpine” pass. I would also include a “Park” pass if you moved the park to Kangaroo. I think if you did this the crowds would be more consistant at Alpine. The other thing is make day passes somewhat affordable at Alpine! None of the other mountains that are compareable to Alpine are charging the kind of money Alpine is…. for the same amenities.
I think the snowboard instructor, Bennet, had it right on the show. Since the merger, weather it’s helmets or terrain parks, it does feel like Alpine is being taken over by Squaw, instead of both mountains working together.
I just watched the tv show tonight and caught the “dumb things down” right off the bat and played it 3 times with my wife watching and I found it to be insulting to the staff. I plan to never visit this place and wish others would take note as they are the elitist and above the average person. I even went as far as to contact the resorts media rep. I am a medical retired military member and fought for this country to see elitist like this insult the average life style.
They need a COO : Chief of Oops.
They are just a winy teeny bit out of tune, as illustrated by blowing $250k on inflammatory pro-sov junk mail rather than things to win over hearts and minds. At least a tots/kinder playground got a mention in chevis’ latest list of ideas. Now how about the teens, Mr Hosea.
My husband wasn’t watching so I reenacted the “dumb it down” for him and he laughed as hard as I did but not as hard as we laughed at the prizes at the end. I watched this episode right after an episode where the undercover boss gave money to an employee for therapy for her handicapped child and to another employee to take care of her father who had advanced cancer.