Does that title really say Round 10? Holy smokes does time fly.

Listen, in the grand scheme of things SlopeFillers isn’t much, but it means a lot to me. It’s the way I’ve met so many amazingly cool people. It’s helped me land a job that helps me make a good living and have plenty of time for family and other things. It’s given me a way to learn and grow.

So every year I’ve tried to round up the people who have helped along this journey the most and just give them some love. It’s one of my favorite traditions of the year.

To recap, here are the previous years’ lists:

2011
Eric Hoffman, Christian Knapp, Corey Ryan, Dave Amirault, Kim (my wife), Jon Slaughter, Evan Reece, Doug Holton, Brian Rodine, The Utah Joes (Johnson & Myers)
2012
Missy W Larsen, Milena Regos, Shawn Alain, Thomas Prindle, Ben Zeeb, Kim Blanchard, Ryan Blanchard, Alex Kaufman, Troy Thompson, Davy Ratchford, and everyone who drinks (the ski industry).
2013
Callie Blanchard, Shawn Gallagher, Mark While, Steve Pope, Krista Parry, Paul Allen, Corey Ryan, Kory Samson, Dave Gibson, Kim Blanchard.
2014
The Origin Crew, My Parents (Paul & Kim), Halley O’Brien, Brad Larsen, Patrick Sande, Jason Dyer, Chandler Burgess, Greg Kwasnik, Mary Jo Tarallo, Kim & Callie, James Keddington, Rob Megnin, Bruce Rosard.
2015
Steve Wright, Mike Swanson & Jackie Megnin, Sam Blanchard, Rick Kahl, Jamie Ippolito, Patrick Crawford, Trevor Crist, Kurt Gellert, Jeremy Davis, Chris Bradford
2016
Kim Blanchard, Larry Bird, Craig Deluca, Pascale Savard, Trevor Crist, Richard Elwood, Paul Allen, Dr John Goshert, Rob Webb, Josh Arneson
2017
Trevor Crist, Corey Ryan, Adrienne Saia-Isaac, Hugh Reynolds, Joe Hession, Joni Loveless, Joe Johnson, Claire, Pascale Savard & Donnie Clapp, Kim & Callie & Sam
2018
Kelly Pawlak, Dave Meeker, Ryan Hoover, Greg Fisher & Thad Quimby, Karin Tierney, Nick Herrin, Kim Blanchard (my mom), Dan Tosch, Brandon von Guenthner, Joan Gallagher, Shawn James
2019
Patrick Sande, Brian Elliott, Kurt Kinscherf, Amy Josef, Sam Blanchard, Earl Saline, Donald Blanchard, Donnie Clapp, David Epstein, Olivia Rowan, MJ Legault, Kim Blanchard

Without further ado, the 2020 list.

1) Wanda Glodgett
The highlight of 2020, without a doubt, was the 6 weeks we spent at Jay Peak. Steve was incredibly helpful as I mentioned, but it all started with a conversation with Wanda Goldgett at Jay Peak. She was extremely helpful, helped us get setup with a reservation that matched both the deal and our needs, and answered a ton of questions. The trip went amazingly well and it all started with the patience and assistance Wanda offered.

2) Kim and Cal and Sam
Which leads me to the other people who made that happen: my family. These three humans were amazing to support this idea. Driving across the country with two-months worth of stuff packed in our Subaru took a leap of faith, but my little family had the guts to try something new. They are awesome and the memories we made will last for a long, long time.

3) SAM
A lot of people have done a lot of work to help us through this pandemic, but I think the team at SAM and their incredible Huddle webinars, are right near the top. Olivia, Rick, Dave, and Sarah have done a fabulous job rounding up long lists of people with unique insights to shed some light on how to make it through something like this. It’s been incredible to watch.

4) NSAA
And while NSAA’s efforts aren’t as visible, their lobbying and quantification of impacts and Ski Well, Be Well campaigns have shown just how much they’ve hustled to give resorts any sort of advantage during a year of disadvantages. We’ve needed folks in these positions to step up and they absolutely did.

5) All the Calendar Clickers
Below each SlopeFIllers post is a link to get some time on my calendar. I did it as a sort of experiment, but these chats have turned into some of the coolest, more interesting conversations of the year. But it’s kind of a weird thing to do at first glance, so Jonathan, Nick, Jason, Matt, Jennie, Tom, Mike, Natalie, and many others? Thanks for taking the chance, I loved our jam sessions.

6) Steve Nance
Steve is a good friend and former roommate from college. Even though he taunted me with his amazing powder days when I didn’t have time to ski my junior year, he helped keep the fire going during the college days. And now he’s a partner at an accounting firm and helping do my side-hustle taxes so I can stay focused on the day job and family. In a year like this, that ability to mentally check out of stuff like that has been huge.

7) Mike Wade
Sometimes you just need someone to remind you how to be a good dude. How to help other people out. And Mike Wade, my neighbor, is that for me. When a wind storm took out a tree in front of our home (and our power line), Mike came over with his 4-wheeler/quad and helped pull limbs off the line. When our driveway is looking snowy, he cruises over and plows it. When we’re out of town, he’s keeping an eye on our house. I wanna be like Mike.

8) Kim Leslie
As you may know I’m back doing marketing again at Inntopia. Honestly, it’s been a great move for me. But what’s helped is working with Kim Hewitt. She officially on the sales team, but handles the nitty gritty and keeping things organized with our content calendar and outreach. And she’s great and putting up with my long-winded ramblings as I try to wrap my head around a strategy or trend. Always need some good ones on your team with you, and that’s Kim.

9) Jeff Spring
If there was ever a year I needed a distraction, this was it. As I got more into disc golf, however, I was bummed to learn that the National Tour had been canceled. Jeff, the CEO of the Disc Golf Pro Tour and former industry guy (he worked at Smuggs), got his tour up and running and had an awesome season that was super fun to follow and kept my brain off of other things and scenarios. When things were weird, their tournament coverage were a nice way to check out for a while.

10) Jon Schaefer
Jon is the GM of Berkshire East and Catamount. He’s also the guy who helped get Goggles for Docs up and running. I was just a random name in his inbox who replied to an email request for some help, but he gave me a shot and trusted me to hammer our a basic website while he whipped up some spreadsheets for tracking. I will always appreciate that opportunity to work on something that would become a movement and gave me a meaningful way to make a difference during a difficult time.
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As is the case every year, there are dozens I could have included but didn’t. You likely know who you are because I’ve already told you thank you many times over.

Regardless of whether you’re on the list this year, previous years, or (maybe) next year, I hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

See you next week.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.