Kurt Buser speed hikes on Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe's Around the World trail every winter morning when he's in town. His record time for the 2.5-mile course: 38 minutes.
Employees of the ski resort occasionally join him for his morning constitutional, but, Buser says with a wink, "usually only once."
The ritual sets Buser's day. He's energized, clear-headed and focused on his task: Creation of Reno's greatest local ski resort.
Buser has been at the helm of Mt. Rose for 15 years. His father, Fritz Buser, has been the majority stockholder of the resort's parent corporation for 38 years and came to Reno once a year for 20 years to check on things. Eventually the family decided it needed to be more present in the resort's operation.
"We realized we need to be more attentive. We were absentee owners," Buser explains.
Buser had been following a different path. A rebel whose idols were Che Guevara and Pink Floyd, Buser came to the United States in 1972. He graduated from UCLA with a degree in city planning and economics.
"Coming out of the '60s, I wanted to change the world," he says. Buser returned to Switzerland for a year, working in city planning, but his future wife wanted to move back to the United States.
Buser landed in San Francisco, where he pursued his dream of filmmaking. He took classes and filmed documentaries he calls "labors of love."
Then he visited a brother living in Bolivia and working with a group similar to the Peace Corps. Disillusioned with trying to change the world, Buser found another way to help.
In 1984, he began exporting the yarn created by the Bolivian people he'd met. He also made a film about the people and their culture, combining his love of filmmaking with spreading the word about their yarn.
Running the mail-order business, Buser discovered how little he knew about yarn, but he also discovered how to run a business.
When the family made the decision to get more involved with Mt. Rose in 1995, Buser was selected on the basis of his business experience.
He lives in Ashland, Ore., but has been committed to spending alternate weeks in Reno. He considers the five-hour commute a perk of the job.
"The commute is pure meditation for me. I've never once started the trip and dreaded it.
"It's a challenge in my life to slow down," he says. "I never slow down. I do things quickly. But I feel like I have a connection with that whole route. I used to take my cross-country skis, throw them on around Lassen, head out and see this one tree. I watched it for years until it died. It became part of my landscape."
Being part of the landscape is also Buser's plan for the ski resort. Mt. Rose is mostly a locals' resort, and in an industry where only one in six visitors ever makes a return visit to a resort, Mt. Rose's clientele is decidedly repeat and opinionated about how the resort is run.
"Being Reno's resort puts us in a comfortable and secure place, but we also have a high responsibility to our users. Our challenge is for people to have a great experience every time, no matter what," Buser says.
Right now, Buser hopes the Slide Lodge, which opens this December, will add to that experience, just as the opening of the Chutes in 2005 did for many guests. According to Buser, the Chutes were the best investment the resort has ever made, but he acknowledges both it and the new lodge were long overdue improvements.
"Each year, our goal is to be even better next year. I want us to be known as a great resort," he says. "To me (the Slide Lodge) is the fruit and the jewel of how we operate here. Details have been paid attention to. We have such a great team here."
His staff is a source of great pride, and Buser works hard to stay engaged. Every year he spends a day in a different department, sometimes serving food or helping the mechanics. This year, his goal is to spend a day working in every department.
"It's so great to learn and show respect for what happens out of sight," he says. "I can't think of a single position here where they don't come into contact with the public somehow. I like people here who like people, who want to work here. If I see someone not giving that experience, we're going to have a talk."
"I always say 'somebody has to be president.' It's not that big a deal, but ultimately I'm responsible for what happens. I take it very seriously. I've done lots of maturing in the last 15 years, brought lots of optimism, fresh ideas. But in the end I'm just a member of a team."
Mountain man
Who: Kurt Buser
What: Executive director, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe
Family: Two daughters, two sons
He says: "I'm getting to know Reno in a different way through my girlfriend. There are as many wonderful people as I've ever met anywhere. And there's a lot more going for it than its fa ade."
