Leading Light - Matt Mosteller
Words by Matt Coté
There are all kinds of people who’ve tried to make the word “powder” part of their nickname, but not many who’ve pulled it off. “Powder Matt” Mosteller is among the rare few who have, and for good reason. The rambunctious ski industry executive’s dedication, not just to our sport, but also to getting people into it, has spanned three decades and branched out into some wildly benevolent directions.
Moving mountains. Photo by Pat Bates
As the senior vice president of Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR), a company he’s been with for 25 years, Mosteller’s day job is already to get people out skiing. But for him, the effort extends beyond the margins in the company’s ledger—he’s a true believer that sliding on snow makes us all better.
“Skiing really saved my life,” he explains while working remotely from his humble East Kootenay home in Kimberley, British Columbia, hundreds of miles from the nearest skyscraper or corporate dress code.
“I was a super fat kid, I had no friends and I was stuck in my room with no direction. Skiing was the first time I ever experienced freedom and joy,” he recounts.
It’s a freedom that would come to define his life, as he graduated from his very first turns at Snoqualmie Pass outside Seattle, Washington (where he lived as a youth), and ultimately qualified to race downhill in a bid for the Nor-Am Cup. That eventually brought him to Rossland, B.C., and Red Mountain Resort, where he met the infamous Crazy Canucks. It’s also where he met Charlie Locke, the owner of Lake Louise Ski Resort who went on to found RCR, and offer Mosteller a job.
But it’s more than his career path that’s out of the ordinary, it’s the amount of extracurriculars he’s fit in over the years. To start, he was foundational in instituting a Grade 2 fun pass at all of RCR’s resorts in his early years. It gave every such kid who wanted one a free season pass, provided discounts on outerwear and gear, and got a ton of youth into skiing—particularly around the Canadian Rockies. And while that program lasted an admirable number of years before morphing into other shapes, it was delivered through sponsors Mosteller strung together outside of his job description. The feeling was so good, he decided to keep on giving, well beyond what he could do at work.
He went on to found the Canadian chapter of Mappy Hour Canada, which bills itself as “a space for those living in cities to come together and share our passion for the great outdoors,” and has championed an adjoining speaker series (check out #mappyhouryyc). He also co-founded the group Disconnect to Connect with Jim Button of the Village Brewery in Calgary, Alberta. This endeavour seeks to pry people away from their devices and get them outside through curated trips to off-grid locales, like backcountry ski lodges.
It doesn’t stop there. With co-founder Kevin Pennock, Mosteller’s now put together a Kimberley-based, not-for-profit organization called KORE, the Kootenay Outdoor Recreation and Enterprise Initiative. It’s goal is to foster outdoor industry development in small, underserved towns—right where the best outdoor recreation is.
“After seeing what was happening in Utah and the 22 other states that have outdoor economy incubators, the question was: How do we create jobs in the outdoor economy?” he says.
KORE was the answer. It brings together over 30 small outdoor manufacturers—or “makers”—as KORE calls them, to advocate and strategize collectively for the homegrown craft gear sector in rural areas. Two of those companies include Instinct and Thoroughbred Skis, which are both handmade in B.C.
But if all that makes you skeptical of Mosteller’s nickname because it doesn’t sound like it would leave any time to actually ski powder, you’re missing the point. It’s not about the powder he skis, it’s about the powder you ski. Knowing that he’s getting more and more people pitted every winter is at the heart of who this guy is.
“You stay productive, you feel like you belong,” he insists—the joy in his voice serving as proof of concept.