Have fun, we'll see you around.

How ya doin'?

- Sup? Yeah

- Boom!

- Put 'er up there.

Thank you, looking sharp!

- Thank you, you're the head honcho

around here aren't you?

- Apparently so.

- That's the word on the street.

(laughter)

- Humbled to be doing this,

and excited at the same time.

This is, this is just a great place

to have an office.

My eighth season overall,

but first one in this roll.

- Congrats on the new position.

- Thanks.

- My name is John McLeod.

I'm the General Manager and President

at Mt. Bachelor.

I took over this position in March of this year.

Pretty close to the end of 2016, it's been

a kind of a crazy rollercoaster ride this year,

but it's been a very enjoyable and fulfilling one.

I've had a variety of other careers, I guess,

throughout my life, but through all of it

tried to ski a lot.

Different places where I've lived,

different resorts all around the world in fact,

and you only get to taste resorts doing that,

but here you get to live it and really

get to know a place deeply,

and the more you do, the more I do, the more

I get to know Mt. Bachelor, the more I love it.

My family and I moved from Atlanta in July of 2005,

but earlier that year we came to check

out the town of Bend, and it was socked in downtown.

It was in February, but it was an inversion.

But we drove up the road, and broke through

the cloud, and saw exactly what you see today...

Blue skies and 50 degrees in the middle of winter

and snow everywhere, and that definitely

got my blood going.

I looked at it and I knew I'd be coming back.

By the time the following winter came around,

I had started as the Financial Comptroller

in October and I think I did get to ski

the very first day we opened.

Tom Lomax dragged me out of the office

and said you're gonna be busy this year

and you might not get too many chances to ski

but you're gonna come ski today.

We went up Pine Mountain and across to Outback

and down Down Under.

I think he thought that was appropriate

given my Australian heritage,

so that was my first run.

It wasn't like it is today,

but it was awesome.

It put a smile on my face and then I

had to go back to my desk job.

This is a great business to be in.

I've worked in lots of different businesses

where you do a lot of the same thing.

You work with a lot of the same people

with the same skill-sets but this is

like a little village.

And it takes everybody and every different

personality under the sun to make it all happen,

and deliver this to our guests.

One of the things I love, I guess,

is the variety.

We have a great variety of terrain...

The front side, the back side, the east side,

the west side, we have groomed runs, we've got

tree skiing, we have deep fresh cold powder,

we have our special version of good strong

dance powder, and then we have every other

kind in between.

It's an incredible mountain, it's a big mountain

for a so-called local resort--sixth largest

in the country, and we have a big season.

The neat part about this is, after a lot of

the resorts have closed for the season,

around Easter time typically,

we're still open.

We've still probably got another month and a half

of great skiing, and one of the best days

of skiing I've ever had was May 7th

in my second year here at Mt. Bachelor.

We had 18" of cold powder.

So, why I love Mt. Bachelor...

The real reason is the people.

I've made so many good friends working here.

This is really a family.

Everyone, in some ways, goes to battle

every day, especially when the weather is challenging.

And when you go to battle with a bunch of people

day after day after day, you form friendships

and bonds and respect and it's just made

me realize that I want to do whatever I can

in my capacity to help the people who work

here succeed in what they do and in their lives,

and this is a lifestyle job for sure.

So, to have a great experience in everything

that they do is my personal mission,

to make sure that, if our employees are

having the experience that they want

and enjoying the mountain and finding fun

when they can and getting through the tough days

when they're just tough days, then the end result

will be our guests will have a great time,

and then this will be a thriving business,

and that's really my job, is to make those

things happen.

(lively music)

I left for a little while and regretted

the decision and I'm super thankful I had

the opportunity to come back and be part

of this story again, and be around

these people and do this thing every day, you know?

It's just awesome.

And I get to ski!

(lively music)