History: Q&A with Mike Bandelin
As Diamond Peak Ski Resort celebrates its 60th anniversary season of operations, we sat down with IVGID Director of Community Services (and Diamond Peak General Manager) Mike Bandelin, who has worked at the ski resort for 40+ years – starting back when it was still called Ski Incline.
A young Mike Bandelin at Diamond Peak.
Q: When did you start working at Diamond Peak/Ski Incline and how did you get the job?
A: I started at Ski Incline on November 16, 1984, if I remember correctly. I interviewed for three jobs that day: one at the Crystal Bay Coffee Shop, one at Spitsen Lumber, and here at the resort. I lived just down the road in Mountain Shadows and only had to drive up Ski Way.
I had been here for three days – I had just moved from Arizona – and after I filled out the application, I don’t think I actually left, they just put a shovel in my hands, and I was shoveling the deck that day. We opened on Thanksgiving that year, so there was a ton of snow on the ground, and that was pretty much my first time seeing snow.
Q: What was the first job you did here at the resort?
A: My specific position was in the parking lot, but I did a combination of Parking Lot and Base Operations work – pretty similar to what we do today. So I would shovel snow when there was shoveling to be done and park cars on weekends during the winter.
In the summertime, I went to work at the beach house at Burnt Cedar, cleaning the beaches.
Eventually, they started calling me back up to the ski resort earlier and earlier each year, until in the summer of 1987, I actually stayed here and received the chance of a lifetime working alongside the mountain manager, ski area manager Jurgen Wetzstein and Design Workshops on mapping and flagging the newly proposed upper mountain trails.
That summer, we were preparing to begin the construction of the five upper mountain trails, the fixed-grip four-passenger ski lift, the vehicle maintenance building and the remodel of the old shop in the base area to our Child Ski Center.
In the summer of ’88 we put in snowmaking on Crystal Ridge and Sunnyside. And then in ’89 I became full-time year-round at Diamond Peak as the Assistant Lift Manager, and held that job until ’94. And then I became the Lift Manager.
Eventually, when Ed Youmans became the Resort Manager, he appointed me as the Mountain Manager – a position I had from 1997 through 2014. In 2015, I was appointed as the Interim General Manager, and was given the General Manager position a year later in 2016.
Now, while my title has changed to encompass all of IVGID’s Community Services venues (Mike is now IVGID’s Director of Community Services), I still keep my office at Diamond Peak and am involved in the day-to-day operations as much as I can be.
Q: Why do you think employees tend to stay around for so long at Diamond Peak?
Mike Bandelin has worked at Diamond Peak for 40+ years.
A: Here’s a good example: I got to park cars and clean the toilets and shovel snow, but still every day the Mountain Manager or Jurgen Wetzstein would say “How’s it going?” and knew who I was. I just thought it was really cool that the upper management of the ski resort knew my name.
Plus, it’s a smaller mountain. And for some reason, back then, the bar was packed every night with employees, so it was super close-knit. It was actually a bar that people would come to from town after work. Back then, hardly anyone commuted from the valleys, so it was very close to home and so fun.
I didn’t really know any better – and I still don’t because this is the only place I’ve ever worked in the ski industry – but we pride ourselves in always having the best grooming around. So having that niche where we feel like we’re able to teach people the sport of skiing, show them a great experience, and convert them into being skiers… Jurgen was really big on that. So we’d
always have a really good grooming fleet.
We have employees returning year after year because I truly believe that we provide a great place to work. There is something to be said for being able to work at a place that provides fun and recreation, we have opportunities to bring smiles to our customers and our staff enjoys that type of environment. A large percentage of our staff also works with IVGID during the summer months at our beaches, recreation center, golf courses and tennis complex also enjoying providing a great experience to our customers.
And I think it’s still like that today. Those people in the ticket booths know my name and your name and they’re not afraid to ask a question about why we do this or that. And that might not be the same at a mountain where you have a thousand employees.
