Berkshire East Owners Buying Catamount Ski Area

The owners of Berkshire East Mountain Resort in western Massachusetts have reached an agreement to acquire the nearby Catamount Ski Area SAM reported in April that Catamount president Tom Gilbert and vice president Rich Edwards were actively seeking an investor, a joint venture partner, or a new owner/operator for the mountain. The deal is expected to close in the next two weeks. The purchase price was not disclosed.

Berkshire East owners Jon, brother Jim, and father Roy Schaefer will keep Catamount’s current management team that has owned the 79-year-old ski area since 1973. "We're assuming Catamount in its current state of operations," said Jon Schaefer when asked by the Berkshire Eagle if all of Catamount's current employees will be retained. The resort employs about 450 people during the winter months.

Catamount straddles the Massachusetts-New York state line—one of only four ski resorts in the country that is located in two different states. Edwards and Gilbert have been looking for ways to generate more revenue and also raise capital to make improvements to the resort for many years.

"To remain really competitive in the ski industry there's many things that need to be done, and we've been trying over the years to raise some capital to do these projects," Gilbert said. "We realized we were not successful in raising capital and realized we needed to bring something in."

"We're assuming Catamount in its current state of operations," said Jon Schaefer, a member of the Berkshire East family ownership group, when asked if all of Catamount's current employees will be retained.

"We've been working aggressively at Berkshire East to grow our business" he said. "To offer more value to both sets of customers moves us to a new market. It put us in an area where hopefully we can have some of the summer activities that we can bring.

"Eighty-five percent of the Catamount customer base is from New York; probably 75 percent of ours is Massachusetts and Connecticut," Schaefer said. "What we've done (for the summer) may or may not be applicable at Catamount. But it's an area of focus for us."

The Schaefers said they plan to start right away with some general improvements, which may include snowmaking upgrades and some coats of paint on Catamount’s structures. Larger upgrades and projects will be evaluated, namely the addition of the right mix of summer activities—something the Schaefers have done at Berkshire East over the last few years.

"Identifying [new summer activities] will be what has worked in the industry at other locations," Jon Schaefer said. “But then also what would work for the local communities."

Catamount Ski Area is a ski resort located on Mount Fray of the Taconic Mountains in Hillsdale, New York and South Egremont, Massachusetts. It is one of the few remaining family-owned ski areas in New England. Catamount is also one of the largest ski areas in the Berkshire/Taconic Mountains.

Catamount first opened for business in 1939 with three rope tows. Decades later, Bill Gilbert and Don Edwards took over management, purchasing Catamount in 1974. Since the change in ownership, many trails and lifts have been added. In addition, snowmaking coverage has been increased from 25% to 98%.

In 2006, the summit double chairlift was replaced with a fixed grip quad chairlift.