Cohen Headed Back To Mammoth

Squaw Valley|Alpine Meadows President and COO Ron Cohen will be leaving to take the same position at Mammoth Mountain|June Mountain. We bid him a fond farewell and the best of luck in returning to what is essentially his home mountain. Cohen assumed the duties at SVAM in 2018, arriving at a tumultuous time with a lot of hot pokers in the fire left by his predecessor.

Over the last 3 seasons, Cohen brought a sense of normalcy back to both Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows. We appreciated:

• Lifts that open on time every day without some of the flimsy rationalizations we heard from the former guy

• Lifts that run every day rather than being placed on hold because the bottom line was more important than the guest experience

• Cohen recognized that there was more value in having two mountains with two different identities rather than pretending SVAM is the biggest resort ever

• Cohen was a hands on manager, even in the toughest of times. You could find him out managing lift lines, enforcing a mask mandate, or just out engaging with guests in a positive manner.

We give our thanks to Mr. Cohen for the effort. For those not in the know, Cohen was at Mammoth Mountain for about 8 years before coming to SVAM. Most recently he served as General Counsel for Mammoth Mountain. Cohen’s wife currently serves as a supervisor in Mono County. It makes sense that Cohen wants to return to the area.

In leaving SVAM, Cohen leaves behind a number of sticky issues, none of which I would want to be in charge of:

• The construction of a gondola that much of the local community does not support

• The eventual construction of a village and waterpark at Squaw Valley that does not have great community support

• A controversial process of selecting a new name for Squaw Valley, which makes people unhappy on both sides. We wonder if the delay in the announcement has something to do with Cohen’s departure

• All of the issues that seem like they have no solution in the Tahoe area: overtourism, heinous traffic, lack of housing for employees, pass sales that far exceed the capacity of SVAM. While those conditions may also exist at Mammoth, the Mono County supervisors seem a bit more in touch with creating solutions, rather than exacerbating the problem

A replacement for Cohen at Squaw Valley|Alpine Meadows has not yet been named. Hopefully Alterra will consider their options very carefully and bring us someone that is more like Cohen and a lot less like the former guy.