How the American Opioid Epidemic Shaped Vail Resorts’ Rise

The American opioid epidemic is among the most devastating public health issues in recent history. But what you might not know is that it also had a huge impact on the state of the North American ski industry.

Between 1999 and 2020, over half a million people died from drug overdoses from prescribed and illicitly obtained opioids. But also, during that same time, a ski resort conglomerate that is very well known today more than 9x-ed its resort portfolio. And one of the most shocking facets of it all is that these two facts aren’t entirely unrelated.

So what exactly unfolded, and how did the opioid crisis end up helping turn Vail Resorts into the largest ski resort conglomerate in history?

In 1996, the Sackler-owned Purdue Pharma released the pain medication OxyContin, and it exploded in popularity. The Sackler family became incredibly wealthy, with disposable income to invest across a variety of industries.

Purdue Pharma and the Sackler Family

So before getting into Vail Resorts’ involvement, we have to give a bit of background into the opioid crisis and its original ties to the ski industry. In the mid-1990s, a company called Purdue Pharma—which had been under Sackler family ownership for the last fifty years—re-incorporated with a business model focused almost exclusively on pain management medication. In 1996, the company introduced an extended duration release of the pain-relief compound Oxycodone, and they branded it as OxyContin. Although this type of drug had been in limited use for decades, Purdue Pharma lobbied the FDA to approve OxyContin without conducting any long-term assessments or studies of its addictive properties. It quickly became one of most profitable drugs in history, garnering an estimated $35 billion for Purdue Pharma. According to one pharmaceutical analytics company, 80% of Purdue Pharma’s sales came from OxyContin alone.

The unfathomable success of Purdue Pharma’s pain medications made the Sacklers among the richest families in the world, with a reported worth of $13 billion at the height of their wealth. With that wealth, they invested in hundreds of cultural institutions over the years, which many now view as laundering the reputation of a family that was actively nurturing and profiting off of opioid addiction across the United States.

As part of a larger strategy to diversify their wealth and protect their assets, the Sackler family set their sights on a significant investment—the North American ski industry.

Peak Resorts originally grew by scooping up Midwest hills like Boston Mills (shown above).

Peak Resorts

So how exactly did the Sackler family dip their toes into the icy waters of the ski industry? By becoming involved in Peak Resorts.

Peak Resorts was a big player in the ski industry, owning and operating several popular ski resorts across the Midwest and Northeastern United States. The company was founded in 1977 by Timothy Boyd, a veteran of the ski industry, who had a vision to create a strong regional presence of ski areas across the U.S.. Headquartered in Wildwood, Missouri, Peak Resorts started modestly but quickly grew by strategically acquiring smaller, independently owned ski resorts that catered to urban skiers in major metropolitan areas, particularly those within driving distance of ski destinations.

Initially, Peak Resorts focused on acquiring properties in the Midwest, a region where Boyd saw a largely untapped market. The company’s first acquisitions included resorts such as Hidden Valley in Missouri, Snow Creek in Kansas City, and Paoli Peaks in Indiana. By focusing on mid-sized ski areas, Peak Resorts capitalized on providing affordable, accessible skiing options for local communities, which made the company competitive despite lacking the vertical terrain and deep snowpacks of larger resorts in the Rockies.

Prior to the 2007-08 season, Peak Resorts made its biggest move to date with the purchase of Mount Snow in southern Vermont. Easily the largest ski area in its portfolio, Mount Snow was known for its accessibility to skiers and riders in the Boston and New York City metro areas, as well as an extensive footprint size, strong lift infrastructure, and outstanding terrain parks. Soon after, Peak Resorts acquired Attitash and Wildcat in New Hampshire. Both resorts were well-regarded destinations known for their good value, proximity to Boston, and stunning views of the White Mountains.

With investment from Peak Resorts, Mount Snow received significant upgrades in 2011. The resort installed a detachable high-speed six-pack bubble chairlift—the first in all of North America—capable of quickly transporting riders to the summit while shielding them from the elements. The mountain also expanded its snowmaking operations and opened the Carinthia Base Lodge, a $22 million facility with three full-service restaurants at the base of a 100-acre terrain park.

The Sacklers became significantly invested into Peak Resorts shortly after it became a publicly-traded company, providing key funds to invest into New York’s Hunter Mountain.

So where did the Sacklers come into play? Peak Resorts became publicly traded on the NASDAQ in 2014, raising funds through an initial public offering that helped bolster its aggressive acquisition strategy. The Sackler family jumped at the opportunity, buying its first Peak Resorts stock in 2015 and increasing its stake in the years after that.

The Sackler family’s involvement was part of a major capital injection that Peak Resorts utilized to keep growing aggressively. Around the time of the Sackler family’s initial involvement with the company, Peak Resorts expanded into New York with the acquisition of Hunter Mountain, handing it ownership of one of the largest ski areas within a three-hour drive of New York City. The now-Sackler-backed company invested heavily into Hunter, and in 2018, the mountain finalized the largest ski resort development in the Eastern U.S. in recent years, with a 33% expansion to the mountain’s skiable footprint. The project—known as Hunter North—included a new high-speed six-pack, 5 new groomed runs, and 4 glade trails. The expansion also added a new 250-vehicle parking lot, which helped significantly with a resort that had struggled with crowd management and traffic flow over the years. Under Sackler influence, Peak Resorts also introduced the Peak Pass, a budget competitor to the Epic and M.A.X. passes at the time that offered access to all seven of Peak’s Northeast ski resorts.

At its zenith, Peak Resorts owned and operated 17 ski areas across the Midwest and Northeast. With a market cap of nearly $100 million in January 2017, Peak Resorts was a prominent name in the regional ski industry. 

Variable weather across Peak Resorts’ ski resort portfolio hurt the company’s ability to consistently turn a profit—and the Sackler family’s cash injections helped keep it stable.

But even at its peak, Peak Resorts’ financial position was not exactly stable. This was in large part due to the capital-intensive nature of ski resort operations.

Operating over a dozen ski resorts required significant investment in snowmaking, grooming, and infrastructure to remain competitive, particularly in regions where natural snowfall was unreliable—of which the company had significant exposure. Peak Resorts’ financial success was often tied to weather conditions, with warm winters or limited snowfall directly impacting profitability. As a result, the company occasionally struggled to maintain consistent financial growth after it went public, experiencing periods of revenue contraction and constrained cash flow. Another challenge was keeping pace with the competition, particularly from larger conglomerates like Vail Resorts and Intrawest, which both possessed stronger financial footing and national reach. The Sackler family's involvement in the business was key to maintaining cash flow.

In 2018, Peak Resorts acquired three more resorts in Pennsylvania; Liberty Mountain, Roundtop, and Whitetail. The purchase was made possible by an infusion of $76 million from two members of the Sackler family—and notably, this investment also gave them a controlling interest in Peak Resorts. With a controlling stake in Peak Resorts, the family became a significant force in the ski industry. However, their name and ownership stake would change rapidly in just the coming months of that transaction, with scrutiny over their ill-gotten gains finally reaching its climax.

The sudden rise in prescription and non-prescription painkiller use led to an exponential increase in overdose deaths between the late 1990s and the late 2010s. Purdue Pharma played a significant role in making the rise in prescription painkillers happen.

The Opioid Crisis and the Push for Prescription Painkillers

So what exactly did the Sacklers do that got them so much scrutiny—and found them right at the center of one of the most devastating addiction crises in United States history?

Traditionally, extended-release opioids like Oxycodone were used only for acute pain during medical procedures. But starting in the late 1990s, Purdue Pharma and other companies pushed for doctors to prescribe their drugs for chronic pain, ignoring and sometimes obscuring information about the addictive nature of these drugs. 

They incentivized their salesforce to push opioids for even the smallest treatments, holding contests to reward the company’s top sales earners. In some cases, they even paid doctors directly to promote more aggressive pain treatment with their addictive offerings. Pushing these painkillers resulted in a chemical dependence for hundreds of thousands of patients, often forcing them to obtain illegal pain-relieving drugs like heroin and synthetic fentanyl.

The sudden rise in use of prescription and nonprescription opioids led to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to finally declare the opioid crisis a public health emergency in 2017.

Soon after that emergency declaration, states attorneys general and the U.S. Department of Justice held Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family responsible for the crisis, and they were soon subject to over one thousand lawsuits in all 50 states. But as their troubles were mounting—all while still at the helm of Peak Resorts—the Sacklers received a financial windfall from an unlikely source.     

Vail Resorts was on a roll in the mid-2010s, gradually acquiring resorts across the West Coast, Midwest, and Northeast.

The Explosive Growth of Vail Resorts

In late 2018, the lawsuits against Purdue Pharma and the Sackler family were in full swing. But on the other hand, Vail Resorts was on a roll from a growth perspective.

Known for its flagship Colorado properties like Vail and Beaver Creek, Vail Resorts had already been a reasonably dominant force in the ski industry throughout much of the 20th century. But in the new millennium, they adopted a much more aggressive acquisition strategy, purchasing ski areas across North America to establish itself as the leading conglomerate in the winter sports world. A key component of this strategy was the introduction of the Epic Pass, a season pass granting access to all Vail-owned resorts, which incentivized skiers to remain loyal to Vail's growing network of properties. Many people thought Vail was crazy when they introduced such a product at such a low price point, but the pass exploded in popularity.

Between 2008 and 2018, Vail Resorts’ market cap increased by over 350%, driven in large part by its Epic Pass strategy.

Source: macrotrends.net

Recognizing the need to expand its geographic footprint beyond its original Rocky Mountain stronghold to increase pass sales, Vail Resorts turned its focus to the Midwest and Northeast markets. These regions, while lacking the scale and snowfall of the Rockies, were more densely populated and offered proximity to millions of potential customers. To achieve a national presence and promote greater value for Epic Pass holders, Vail Resorts began looking into the acquisition of resorts in these areas, and following a series of smaller-scale acquisitions between 2012 and 2018, including Afton Alps, Mount Brighton, Wilmot, Stowe, Okemo, and Mount Sunapee, Peak Resorts was the perfect target. Bringing in ski areas like Mount Snow, Attitash, Wildcat, and Hunter could make the Epic Pass even more attractive to East Coast skiers who previously had somewhat limited options within the pass network.

In light of these factors, Vail’s executives approached Peak Resorts with a preliminary offer in late 2018. By this time, the Sackler family was facing thousands of lawsuits, and their misdeeds were becoming front-page news.

As Purdue Pharma faced mounting lawsuits and increasing scrutiny over its role in the opioid crisis, the Sacklers found themselves under immense public and legal pressure. They began liquidating assets, attempting to shield themselves from legal consequences and preserve their wealth amid escalating financial settlements and reputational damage. For them, an exit from Peak Resorts was driven just as much by liquid necessity as business strategy.

For Peak Resorts as a whole, this shift on the part of the Sacklers represented an opportunity. Despite the company’s financial position, mounting operational costs, and stiff competition, it found one willing and very eager buyer. Vail Resorts saw their opportunity and seized it.

Vail Resorts’ acquisition of Peak Resorts gave it a new stronghold in the Northeast and lower Midwest.

Vail Resorts Purchases Peak Resorts

Vail Resorts’ generous acquisition price furnished the Sacklers with a windfall of about $87 million.

In July 2019, Vail Resorts finalized a deal to purchase all 17 resorts in the Peak Resorts portfolio. But even though Peak Resorts was only worth around $120 million, or $5 per share, at the time of the acquisition, Vail paid a total of $264 million for the resorts at $11 per share. They justified the high purchase price as a means of attracting customers from major metropolitan areas in the Northeast and Midwest who did not want to put up the travel or lodging expenses required at one of their Rocky Mountain resorts. The sale ultimately furnished an estimated $87 million to the Sacklers based on their 40% ownership stake in Peak Resorts. This resulted in a significant profit for the Sackler family, as Peak Resorts’ stock price was never higher than $9 following its IPO, and for much of its time as a public company, the stock traded between $4-$6 per share.

Obviously, the acquisition of Peak Resorts came with some controversy. Their association with the Sackler family and their involvement in the opioid crisis raised ethical questions and concerns among skiers and riders. Many critics argued that Vail’s acquisition directly benefited the family that perpetrated and profited off of a national tragedy—especially given the valuation price of the acquisition. For their part, Vail Resorts did not directly address the Sackler family’s previous ownership of Peak Resorts, focusing instead on the strategic benefits and enhancements the acquisition brought to their guests.

According to a 2019 dispatch in Powder Magazine, residents close to Attitash and Wildcat welcomed a change in ownership and a dissociation from the Sackler name. New Hampshire, in particular, had been hit hard by the crisis, seeing three times the number of overdose deaths compared to the national average. Some residents anticipated greater investment in the resorts’ snowmaking, lift infrastructure, and amenities under Vail’s ownership. Others, however, expressed concern and frustration over Vail’s incursion, fearing that it would diminish the affordability and local character of these two resorts.

So, in the five-and-a-half years since the sale, how has Vail Resorts’ ownership actually changed these ski areas?

Vail Resorts has made significant investments into formers Peak-owned properties, with new lifts at Mount Snow (pictured), Attitash, Hunter, Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Boston Mills, and Brandywine.

Changes to the Former Peak Resorts Properties

The most immediate impact from the ownership change was that 17 new resorts were added to Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass. As Vail Resorts noted in their sale announcement, skiers and riders in major metropolitan areas like New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and St. Louis could maximize the value of their season passes. Instead of orienting their season pass purchase around a big trip out west, Epic Pass holders could enjoy quick trips to more local resorts. Vail Resorts also continues to offer the Northeast Value Pass, which is somewhat of a spiritual successor to the Peak Pass and offers access to just its Northeast resorts at a discounted rate from the regular Epic Pass products.

Thus far, investment in former Peak Resorts-owned mountains has been somewhat limited compared to Vail’s bigger destinations. But even Mount Snow, which is the largest former Peak Resorts-owned mountain and still the second largest ski area in Vail’s East Coast portfolio, features just 601 skiable acres, about a third of the size of most of Vail’s Rocky Mountain resorts. As a result, these ski areas are far less likely to become capital priorities than Vail Resorts’ other properties.

That being said, Vail Resorts has made some substantial improvements over the last five years. In 2022, Mount Snow upgraded the fixed-grip Sunbrook chair to a high-speed detachable quad, bringing high-speed lift service to a key intermediate terrain area and finally retiring what might have been the least desirable chairlift at the resort. Mount Snow also replaced two aging triples with a high-speed six-pack in that same year, providing a fourth high-speed lift route out from the main base area.

On Attitash, investment from Vail Resorts enabled the construction of the Mountaineer high-speed quad, which replaced the agonizingly long Summit triple chair, as well as the replacement of two aging beginner-oriented double lifts with a fixed-grip quad. These upgrades were completed between 2022 and 2023. Some of the more regional ski resorts, including Jack Frost, Big Boulder, Boston Mills, and Brandywine received new fixed-grip chairlifts that replaced decades-old counterparts during that timeframe as well.

Also, it is worth noting just how much of a lifeline Vail Resorts was for many of these mountains from a financial security standpoint. With the variable winters in many parts of the Northeast and Midwest, it’s unclear how many of these mountains would have been able to survive on their own. Vail’s diverse set of resorts across more reliable regions, including Colorado, Utah, and parts of the West Coast, allowed the company to stay reasonably financially stable even if the regions of the former Peak mountains experienced terrible winters.

For Peak Resorts properties, the two biggest downsides of Vail Resorts ownership have arguably been a significant uptick in crowds and dramatic lift ticket price increases.

But as many of those who’ve visited Vail-owned properties in recent years well know, those upgrades have come at a cost. As with all Vail Resorts mountains around the world, these areas significantly raised their one-day lift ticket prices. Mount Snow saw the most dramatic increase, with one-day weekend lift tickets ballooning from $118 in the 2019-20 season to over $185 this season. Attitash and Wildcat have also raised their lift ticket prices by over 60% in the last five years, with weekend rates going up from $89 to $144. Thankfully, resort-goers can still access these resorts for reasonable prices with an Epic Day Pass product, but these go off sale in early December each year, resulting in a significant access tax for those who don’t plan well in advance.

Finally, the popularity of Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass products has resulted in significant crowding at many previously Peak-owned resorts. Mountains like Hunter and Mount Snow have seen increasingly unacceptable waits during peak times, in some cases to the point where the mountains feel more like amusement parks than actual winter getaways. The problem has started to level out over the past year or two—and lift investments at the worst chokepoints seem to have helped—but there’s no doubt that many of these mountains feel more corporate than they used to. 

Vail Resorts’ purchase of Peak Resorts clearly cemented it as the largest ski resort company in North America, but the acquisition and its ties to the Sacklers has raised questions about corporate responsibility.

Source: Vail Resorts

Final Thoughts

So by acquiring Peak Resorts during a critical period of its growth, Vail Resorts was able to cement itself as not just a national brand with a presence in nearly every major four-season U.S. metropolitan area, but also the largest ski resort conglomerate by number of resorts owned in North American history. The deal allowed Vail Resorts to greatly expand Epic Pass access and take over operations of some of the most competitive mountain offerings in several parts of the Northeast and Midwest.

But however many changes these 17 resorts have seen under Vail Resorts ownership, they pale in comparison to the heartache and suffering caused by the opioid epidemic. Purdue Pharma is still in the process of bankruptcy and a complete rebrand. As of this article’s publication, the U.S. Department of Justice just reached a financial settlement with the Sacklers for their role in perpetrating the crisis, but it still needs court approvals and the family is likely to face more lawsuits in the coming months.

The controversy surrounding the Sackler family and Peak Resorts sheds light on broader questions of corporate responsibility within the ski industry, let alone other sectors. For some, Vail's decision to acquire Peak Resorts despite the Sackler connection represented a purely financial decision driven by a pursuit of market dominance. But others argue that such decisions overlook the social impact of corporate growth, especially when funded by profits linked to widespread human suffering. As Vail Resorts continues to shape the ski industry, questions surrounding corporate ethics, social responsibility, and public perception have already influenced the legacy it leaves behind—and will undoubtedly continue to do so.

Our hearts go out to those affected by this crisis, and we hope the ongoing court cases bring some measure of solace and justice to the individuals and families impacted by opioid addiction. We’ve linked to some charities and organizations that are working to help those affected below.

• Facing Addiction with NCADD: https://ncaddnational.org/

• Shatterproof: https://www.shatterproof.org/

• Partnership to End Addiction: https://drugfree.org/

• Herren Project: https://herrenproject.org/