Entabeni Systems to buy Black Mountain Ski Area, transition to community-based ownership model

“Our intention is to make sure this place is open indefinitely,” said Erik Mogensen, the Director of Entabeni Systems and Indy Pass. “In the spring, it could be offered to the community in the form of a co-op model.”

Skiers ride the chairlift at Black Mountain Ski Resort in Jackson, N.H.Teton Gravity Research / Katie Lozancich

JACKSON, N.H. — Erik Mogensen is on a mission to preserve historic independent ski areas.

The director of Entabeni Systems and Indy Pass, which offers ski packages and supports more than 200 independent ski resorts, stepped in to ensure Black Mountain Ski Area would open for its 89th season last winter, following the announcement from owner John Fichera that the small resort here in Jackson would close.

Now Mogensen’s group is taking on full ownership of Black Mountain with plans to transition to a community-based ownership model, Entabeni Systems announced Saturday afternoon.

“Our intention is to make sure this place is open indefinitely,” said Mogensen, who moved from Colorado to Jackson on Oct. 1 to serve as general manager at Black.

“I view us as a custodian that can help Black through a transition,” he told the Globe. “We want to run it for a year, clean everything up, stabilize operations, and basically get it to the point where in the spring, it could be offered to the community in the form of a co-op model.”

With help from the Fichera family and other partners, including former Saddleback CEO Andy Shepard, Mogensen intends to explore multiple long-term options to keep Black open.

Looking down to the main base area of Black Mountain in Jackson, N.H.Matt Pepin

Shepard comes aboard as Director of Engagement following 20-plus years in the nonprofit world, including endeavors to purchase and revive three small ski areas in Maine (Black Mountain in Rumford, Quoggy Joe, and Bigrock), eventually transforming them into nonprofit organizations with community-based boards.

In 2019, Shepard worked with Boston-based investment firm Arctaris to purchase Saddleback in Rangeley, Maine (which had closed in 2015), and he continues to help the firm invest in housing, healthcare, and child care to make seasonal employment viable in the region.

In sharing some of his experiences with Mogensen, Shepard hopes to help Black transition to its next phase of ownership, whether that is a nonprofit, co-operative model, or private investment firm.

“This won’t be the only effort like this,” said Shepard. “We’re hoping to help other ski areas in the future, such as Antelope Butte [in Idaho]. This is the beginning of an effort to try and find solutions to challenges for independent ski areas.”

While there aren’t many ski areas employing co-operative ownership models — Vermont’s Mad RiverGlen is one example — Black might be able to succeed due to its storied tradition.

The oldest continuously operating ski area in New Hampshire brings a certain charm to the ski-hungry Mt. Washington Valley, offering a quaint, family-friendly atmosphere in contrast to the larger resorts in the area.

With 71 trails, more than 143 skiable acres, and 1,100 feet of vertical drop, the mountain offers a significant canvas for beginner and expert skiers. Adding lifts, or improving on the five existing systems, could become a priority for new management, but the simplicity of Black is part of its charm.

Over the past decade, Black’s neighboring resorts have been purchased by outside corporations, leading to workforce competition and other factors that prompted Fichera’s sombre announcement last fall. With the backing of Indy Pass, the Fichera family hopes to be part of transitioning Black into the future.

“It’s going to be bittersweet from a personal perspective. I spent half my adult life here and it’s going to change overnight,” said John Fichera, who purchased Black in 1995 with his brother, Andrew.

“Good luck finding other ski areas with this much history,” he said. “You can’t let it die. You have to make it work.”

Fichera and his children will be invaluable resources at the mountain they know so well.

Fichera’s son, Doug, is the new Director of Mountain Operations, bringing decades of experience to the role. Growing up at Black, Doug began experimenting with snow guns and grooming equipment at an early age, and by the time he was 21, he had gained national recognition for his snowmaking prowess while working at Sugarbush.

Now back in Jackson with his wife, Liz, who he met at Black in 2010, and their 4-year-old son, Daniel, Doug Fichera is hoping to apply his expertise to his home mountain while running his regional snow-making business, Summit Resources.

“Black is just a special place,” he said. “It’s not on a main road. There’s farms, cows, and horses around. It just feels independent and homegrown, and it really is a kids’ paradise. It’s been an incredible part of my life and it’s part of the family.”

Doug’s sister, Allison Fichera, is also back in Jackson and entering her third year as Black’s marketing manager.

“The ski area made us who we are,” she said. “We spent all of our free time there skiing as kids, then working as soon as we could. It’s synonymous with my upbringing, and I’m so excited to see what Black Mountain becomes in this next chapter.”

The Black Mountain Ski Resort in Jackson, N.H.Courtesy of Black Mountain

When Mogensen was a teenager, his beloved local ski area outside Buffalo closed. Before turning 21, the tech wiz developed an app that sold for millions, then he founded Entabeni (Zulu for “place of the mountain”) Systems in 2016, built the original tech for Indy Pass, and purchased the company outright in 2023.

Since February, over 100 resorts have been added to Indy Pass, offering an alternative experience to skiers in a competitive marketplace that is becoming increasingly dominated by ski areas on the Epic Pass – owned by Vail Resorts - and Alterra’s Ikon Pass.

Like John Fichera, Mogensen believes increasing corporatization is not good for the ski industry, so he wants to provide opportunities for people who share that sentiment to get involved with preserving independents.

“It’s definitely a movement,” said Mogensen. “A lot of people are passionate about this. Most of the ski industry is becoming more expensive and exclusive. We’re trying to push the needle the other way and have a chance for the average family from Boston to own a piece of this ski area. If the [co-op] model is successful, it can be replicated in other places.”

“We don’t want to build empires,” he said. “We want to support causes.”