I hadn't left North America,

and now I've been to almost 30 different countries.

I'm basically designing playgrounds for a lot of our clients.

We work in Austria, and Switzerland, and France

many large resorts in North America including Whistler Blackcomb.

We just finished the Sochi 2014 master planning.

So over the last 30 years

we've probably done over 400 master plans around the world.

You don't always go into the resort business to make money,

you're doing it because you have a passion.

Back in the 60's and 70's

people had access to small pieces of property

that had just enough slope gradient on them

to throw up a Tbar or a rope tow, open up a ski area,

it was more of a mom and pop operation.

I think we're really starting to see the decline

or even the total disappearance of these little mom and pop operations.

They weren't thinking big, they weren't thinking globally.

They were just thinking of their small piece of land at that time

and 'what could we do to make some money?'

You have too run a lot of business through these little Mom and Pop operations

in order to just turn the lights on.

And what started happening was someone with that vision

or someone with the means to fund these studies

or to look bigger and start adding hotels

and adding shiner lifts and adding all of the other activities,

they started to pop up around them

and they start to move forward with 'what could this be?..

could this be 2 or 3 thousand skiers a day?

Could this be 10 thousand? Can this be a destination resort

where people from all over the world are going to come to?'

And I think there are a lot of other big resorts out there

that have done a good job of following the market

and keeping up with technology.

You know whether its Europe and Tignes Val d'isere,

or whether it's Whistler Blackcomb with their lift technologies.

I think a lot of the bigger players understand

that they have to keep innovating and they're finding ways to stay one step ahead.

I think global warming is happening, I think its affecting climate change.

We do have to be careful and conscious of how low, what elevation we're designing these four season resorts

And we are setting, or we're picking a contour line on one of our topography maps

and saying nothing below this line because we know that it's not going to be feasible.

Whether it's in the next 5, 10 15, or 20, 25 years.

There's no question the economy is the single greatest driver in ski area development.

Before 2008 there was a lot of economies doing very well, and then basically the tap turned off.

I've seen evidence of resorts all over the world in different countries that look like time stopped.

There's concrete shells, there's lifts that are half built,

and actually lifts that are being removed because had to get rid of them and sell them for next to nothing.

You know the recession has definitely affected things

but I think people really still love the mountains and the winter

and they will find a way to still get out there and play.

One place that is sort of an anomaly right now is China.

I still am literally designing on paper, the ink isn't dry

and they are already in the ground building the resorts.

But when I was first going there I would go through these old villages

and there might be 100 people in these old one-storey houses.

And they are standing there with a toque no gloves,

and just a sweater and regular pants and it's -20, and they got the biggest smiles on their face.

They can see that tomorrow is going to be just that much better than yesterday.

People have their basic needs met and now what they are looking towards is the mountains.

The most recent one we've been working on

is the Changbaishan Four Season Resort in Jilin province.

We told them when we started

that it was gonna take you 20 to 25 years to build this resort,

and they basically looked us square in the eye and said we're gonna do it in 2.

I've been there, I've skied it, they accomplished what they said they would

and they did it in less than 3 years.

Changbaishan has now set the standard for all mountain resorts in China.

You'll see all these fancy chair lifts, 4 passengers now or even gondolas,

and most people now are riding on the moving carpets, I would say 90% of them.

It's a young sport there.

But on the other hand you have these day ski areas,

and the ones that are doing very well are the ones near the larger urban centres,

and seem to be really focussed on children and teenagers.

And there is no doubt in my mind action sport culture has arrived in China.

At the end of the day there is a lot of factors that affect ski areas around the world,

but nothing can change the stoke people feel when they slide on snow

and they get to share that experience with others who feel the same way.

I've always been an optimist, and I think the future looks pretty bright.