Though officials didn’t know it at the time, Colorado Ski Country USA hired its future President and CEO in the spring of 1994 — a skier, lawyer and business woman named Melanie Mills.

Mills worked her first 15 years at the organization on government affairs and in-house legal work before the leadership role came to her in 2009.

But working in the ski industry seemed fortuitous for Mills; after all she met her husband at a ski resort.

“I became a skier in college, had friends who skied, and (had) learned at Waterville Valley in New Hampshire during the 1980s,” Mills said. “I met him (Greg Mills) in a lift line and after 31 years, we’re still going strong.”

While working for a law firm in Washington D.C., the Mills decided to move to Colorado to stop commuting between D.C. and New York. Mills took a job in the Denver office of the D.C. law firm she was at, which Colorado Ski Country USA became a client of.

“I didn’t know CSCUSA existed when I moved here,” she said.

The savvy Mills began her journey at CSCUSA while making the transition from practicing law to learning the business of the ski industry.

“At the time I had no idea I would get involved in the ski world,” she said. “I really got to know the resort chiefs over the years. Greg and I had two kids during that time, and I was juggling parenthood with work while the industry was evolving too.”

During the 1990s, the ski industry saw many evolutions: incredible growth of mountain facilities; advancements in equipment, including the parabolic ski; the acceptance of snowboarding resort-wide; and ticket purchasing consolidation.

“You used to buy your home resort tickets at Conoco and not many places offered season passes,” Mills said.

Although daily ski tickets can still be purchased at City Markets in Dillion and Breckenridge, and some King Soopers locations around metro Denver, the selling of tickets to the extent in the past has been consolidated.

More recently it has become a “ski pass or ski product” core approach, she said.

Adding in equipment advancements, Mills also recalled how that action created longevity among a large group of skiers.

“Shaped skis opened the door,” Mills said, especially regarding Baby Boomers and their future in skiing. “The thought then (early 1990s) was that 20 years ago boomers would leave the sport, but shaped skis help drive that (keeping them skiing).”

The second 15 years, Mills watched more evolution in the ski industry bloom. While the industry did ebb and flow, she believed and saw it remain on a steady growth trajectory during her tenure.

In 2008, Vail Resorts left CSCUSA and the Great Recession occurred — changes that brought on new challenges for the organization and around the industry.

CSCUSA reported in spring 2009, skier visits for the 2008-09 season were down approximately 5.5% and tallied 11.85 million visitors state-wide. The trade associations’ member resorts were down 6.9% and tallied 6.79 million visitors.

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered skiing and snowboarding at Colorado’s resorts on March 15, 2020.

Mills said it bluntly, “world events have shaped the time while I was here.”

“It was important (then) to inform, know how to affect policy where we could, and place real core value for our members, never more important than during the COVID time to negotiate the policies of operation,” Mills said of her work with the Colorado government in helping make sure the 2020-21 ski season happened at all.

The eagerness to get out in the 2020-21 season was very apparent.

“We were surprised to see what kind of weather people would stand out in to drink a beer”, Mills said, because that is how much skiers wanted to ski during the pandemic.

Present and beyond

CSCUSA’s most recent focus is on marketing and creating programs to new-to-the-sport skiers and riders, and the non-core skier (skiers who might make only a few trips a season).

“Can’t make much more noise to the core skier,” she said.

CSCUSA is investing its efforts into young families, too. The trade association’s new GEMS program, a value pricing program for the non-core skier, is currently being offered for the 2023-24 season.

Mills also said CSCUSA has its ears to the ground regarding how the climate change affects the ski industry.

“The attention on climate change is a focus,” Mills said. “Stewardship in the 90s was there, and resorts talking about how to improve supply chain issues, promote carpooling, offer green lodging, using wind energy to run lifts and purchase renewables to run ski areas, and be advocates for it all.”

In 2011, Mills said CSCUSA was involved in helping get the Ski Area Recreational Opportunity Act passed into law.

The legislation opened up the doors for ski resorts to use National Forest Service land in non-ski season months.

“The Act passed allowing for summer activities to happen at the resorts, and now summer and year-round investment can happen, albeit small but a growing part of the business,” Mills said. “Summer visits to Colorado are more dispersed (away from the resorts), and resorts were able to add activities to the ‘mountain resort’ experience.”

The resorts are looking at the emphasis on how to partner with the communities near them, she said, and to communicate how working at a ski resort for locals is a good experience. The additions of an employee village at Winter Park and child care centers at Steamboat and Copper Mountain, are ways the resorts are making those investments into area communities happen.

“What’s good for ski areas has to be good for the town and communities near them,” she said. “I see investment and guest experience together. It’s a fun time to be in the industry.”

After 30 years, Mills still thinks there is never a dull moment in skiing and the ski industry.

“I really like opening day,” she said. “The excitement about it, the energy about it, the wearing costumes, great mood, pure fun and standing in a line and skiing only one or two runs…but something about it, you just never get tired of it.”