PARK CITY, Utah – Last year ski racing legend Bode Miller and resort industry veteran Andy Wirth were betting big that everything at their Peak Ski Co. startup would work perfectly. It did not.
“We ended up facing a lot of challenges. Andy was running the business and we were overspending and carrying too big of a payroll. We have an amazing group of investors and advisors but we never used that roster of experts to help us. That was a grave error. By the time I saw where we were, we were already in a death spiral,” Miller, a 48-year-old father of seven, told The Sun last month. “It was just mismanagement. The way the money was spent and how much, it was not sustainable.”
Peak Ski Co. launched in 2021 with one of the most successful ski debuts ever. The skis were lauded by ski magazines. The Montana-based company collapsed suddenly last fall, leaving creditors and employees unpaid as it shuttered an extravagant showroom in Bozeman, Montana.
Miller, who has won more ski races than any American male, has quietly relaunched Peak Ski Co. with an apology.
“What I didn’t fully appreciate — and what I deeply regret — is how much responsibility comes with asking people to believe in you, invest in you, and trust you. We pushed hard. We moved fast. And in doing so, we made mistakes. Serious mistakes,” he wrote in an email to Peak Ski buyers and investors. “Some of you were disappointed. Some of you were frustrated. Some of you may have lost confidence in me and in Peak. That’s on me. No excuses.”
Miller has joined forces with two business leaders and new investors to revive Peak Skis.
In a small warehouse on the outskirts of Park City, Utah, David Whitlock is unpacking hundreds of boxes of Peak made at the century-old Fischer ski factory in Austria. They are all-mountain 88s and 98s, with the patented “keyhole technology” that helped fuel Peak’s astronomical rise two years ago. That keyhole feature — created by Miller — is a cut-out in the front of the ski that purportedly makes it easier to flex “allowing easier and quicker turn initiation and short radius turns,” according to the 2023 patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.
Up in Washington State, the retailer Evo is selling more Peak skis made in the Elan factory in the Slovenian Alps.
California-based Whitlock, with an MBA from Harvard and 30 years financial experience in growing startups, is dabbling for the first time in the winter hardgoods industry. Miller’s other partner, David Currier, is a former Olympic ski racer who has spent 40 years working in the ski industry.
“It’s a great ski and we’re excited about getting things back in line,” said Whitlock, standing amidst chest-high boxes of skis in the freshly rented space. “We understand people aren’t happy with what happened and for very good reason. But this is a new team and an opportunity to show the real possibilities of this company.”
Peak Ski Co. has moved from its abandoned showroom in Bozeman to the Park City garage. The hope is that a skeleton crew can start selling Peak skis and use the money to seed a revival. Miller has moved his family from Bozeman to Park City and said he will be “much more hands on” this time around, he said.
Wirth, a resort executive who worked at Steamboat and Palisades Tahoe before helping to shepherd Granby Ranch out of foreclosure, is no longer part of the Peak Ski Co. he co-founded with Miller.
“He has forfeited his equity, which at the time was a liability, not an asset, and he has moved on. I still consider him a friend,” Miller said “Even though he did a lot of things wrong, his intensity and his heart was in the right place. He just got in his own way most of the time. He has extensive business experience but he was used to a scale that was not applicable and that showed in a lot of the decisions he made.”
The new investors are hoping the rebirth of Peak Ski Co. will start in a factory. The mission is not necessarily about making more Peak skis, but overhauling how skis are made.
The new team at Peak doesn’t want to get too deep into plans for manufacturing. They are keeping those ideas a secret until they can reach implementation. Miller said he has a deal with Bihler, a family-owned German manufacturing company that develops tools for automated manufacturing, to develop new processes for making skis.
That’s what the true vision of Peak Ski Co. was about, Miller said. It was never just about the skis. The skis were a financial tool “to create a much broader impact on the industry,” Miller said.
“I think that I was never really enthusiastic about the ski division on its own without the manufacturing solution,” Miller said. “That’s the idea and the concept of what I initially wanted to do. I just got pulled into operations and running a business and that was not the economic windfall that we wanted. The opportunity is massive both from the economics and doing something huge for the industry as a whole that really improves the sport. That was the entire point of Peak when we launched.”
Response to the Peak Ski Co. re-launch has been mixed. There are still folks — investors, employees and vendors — who are owed money. There is still a lot of grumbling about unpaid debts. Calls to several people owed money indicate Miller has not reached out to share details of Peak Ski Co. 2.0.
Miller and Whitlock said they hope those who are owed can get behind the relaunch as a way to get Peak Ski Co. back into a position where debts can be settled. Miller said it was this plan or a bankruptcy,
“It’s a long road to get there and we are taking the first of many steps,” Currier said.
“We are learning to crawl, walk and then run.” Whitlock said. “But I think this can happen. I think the stars are aligning.”