When the National Ski Areas Association put out the call for member resorts to join in the NSAA Climate Challenge this year, Ragged Mountain answered with a resounding “Yes,” along with the other four ski areas in the Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. portfolio.  NSAA’s Climate Challenge initiative has been around for several years, and more regional destination resorts are starting to be in a position to join industry stalwarts such as Aspen, Killington and Sugarbush in the efforts to reduce energy usage and thus carbon emissions.  Geraldine Link, Director of Public Policy at NSAA, exclaimed in her emailed response about Ragged Mountain and the other PGRI resorts’ involvement, “NSAA is excited to see all these ski areas enter the Climate Challenge. It is awesome!”.

Jay Gamble, General Manager of Ragged Mountain, noted the resort has already named a steering committee of staffers to develop and implement the eco-friendly programs, and he has named Ski Patrol Director Liz Bolton the program’s “sustainability champion” to lead the efforts at the resort.  Gamble also indicated the committee had drafted the initial list of actions to be executed over the next several years to reduce waste and energy usage with the objective of eventually getting to a carbon neutral footprint.

Ragged Mountain’s spokesperson for the environmental initiative, Kyle Matzke, explained it is important to approach the NSAA Climate Challenge as a collaborative effort involving guests as well as resort operations.  “We can reduce idling time for our groomers and buses, we can recycle and compost, and switch from printed media material to digital versions. We can even ask our suppliers to reduce the amount of cardboard used when they ship items to us, but those efforts will only accomplish some of our goals.  As part of our sustainability effort, we will be communicating with our guests and educating them on how they can help by respecting the no idling zones in our drop off areas and making sure they participate in the recycling programs and use refillable water bottles instead of single use plastic containers.  Our pitch to them is pretty simple – we’re all in this together, so let’s all pitch in.”

Gamble noted Ragged Mountain would be involving outside resources to enhance the effectiveness of their efforts, including the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services as well as their utility provider, Eversource, to access programs designed to save energy.  “We’d like to be good stewards of our natural environment and to protect it for future generations,” Gamble concluded. “Reducing waste and our carbon footprint is something we all believe in, so we are very pleased to be part of NSAA’s Climate Challenge.”

ABOUT RAGGED MOUNTAIN

Located in Danbury, Ragged Mountain Resort is situated on 2,100 acres in the beautiful White Mountains.  Ragged Mountain has 55 named ski trails, miles of hiking trails on-site, and plans for further expansion.

Ragged Mountain was purchased in 2007 by Salt Lake City based developer Pacific Group.  Over the past couple years, Pacific Group has invested more than $20 million in improvements and expansion.

Ragged Mountain is managed for Pacific Group by Park City, Utah based Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. (PGRI), a non-subsidiary affiliate of the Pacific Group.  PGRI owns/operates ski and mountain resorts including Powderhorn Mountain Resort on the Grand Mesa of western Colorado, Mt. Washington Alpine Resort on British Columbia’s Vancouver Island in western Canada, Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and Wisp Resort in the Appalachian Mountains of western Maryland.

To learn more about Ragged Mountain, visit www.raggedmountainresort.com.