John Kircher Acquires Crystal Mountain

crystalmountainresort.com/blog-winter/jo...es-crystal-mountain/

Thanks for the link. Interesting.

I can say John Kircher, the Kircher family, and Boyne resorts fueled my love for skiing and snowboarding. They have done a lot for skiing, and the economy in northern michigan. Being born and raised in the center of Detroit, pre internet and cable, exposure to skiing was pretty rare. Other then Warren Miller and ABC's wide world of sports.

They have a small chain of stores in the Detroit area called boyne country sports, used to be Bavarian village sports(would fit well in leavenworth). One of the very few options at the time. Probably one of my biggest inspirations. Their gross pointe location was in my bike riding zone from my grandma's house. As a little kid, I'd stop and gaze in the window and day dream. long before I ever skied,, the seed was planted. Some years later I purchased my first pair of skis from them.

Boyne/ Boyne Highlands eventually became my home hill. Gold pass holder for most of the 2000's. Less then 400$ for an everyday, every resort pass. Well used. Many many days at Brighton and big sky. Main reason I came to Washington the first time was to use my pass at crystal and see Washington. Might not be here today if not for the Kircher family.

The broader Kircher family IS Boyne.  Interesting, but wonder why they would parcel off part of the empire.  Perhaps John will blog about it some day.  Seems they also own some patents on snow-making technology.
Boyne at Wikipedia

My dad was one of the original 750 shareholders that were bought out by Boyne in 1997. (Those shares of stock were converted to membership units in the Crystal Mountain Founders Club when Boyne bought the ski area.) Our family has been skiing there since the area opened.

These days, I don't ski Crystal nearly as much as others on this site, but I've been pleased with the improvements that Boyne (and Kirscher) have made to the area. I think the recent sale is good news.