Moguls With a Mission

These days, the Muellers can afford to make major improvements, such as the 18-hole golf course that opened in 2000, the Jackson Gore expansion that debuted last month, or this season's purchase of a grooming device, called a Zaugg Pipe Monster, that will render Okemo's snowboarding park that much more radical. "They've been gradual improvements," Tim says. "You can't spend $10 million in one year and expect enough people to show up and pay for it instantly."

Diane still emphasizes the importance of customer service each fall, when she indoctrinates more than 1,200 seasonal employees into the "Okemo difference." Her message: It's everyone's job to exceed the expectations of their guests, whether that means offering help to a skier who's deciphering a trail map or recommending a favorite soup to someone lingering in a cafeteria line.

But the Okemo difference isn't just about beyond-the-call-of-duty customer service. It's also about attention to detail when it comes to taking care of the mountain itself. The Muellers try to keep their entire grooming crew on the payroll year-round so that they can retain those who know the terrain intimately. And the Muellers allow the groomers to go over trails two or three times until they're perfect. "We don't just want the snow to be great in the morning," says Tim. "It has to hold up during the day." This year, Okemo was ranked the best-groomed mountain in the East for the fourth year running by the readers of Ski magazine.

On busy winter weekends, the Muellers demonstrate the Okemo difference themselves. "When the place is swarming with skiers, it does a lot for morale to see Tim working in the rental shop and Diane making sandwiches," says Bruce Schmidt, director of operations. "It's hard for people here to say, 'That's not my job.' "

The couple has tried to leaven all of the work with a sprinkling of fun. Office pranks (like decorating a manager's office with Christmas trimmings in the middle of summer) are ingrained in Okemo's culture. Each spring, there's a competition for the most outrageous Easter bonnet -- which Diane often manages to lose, according to long-standing tradition. (It's not unusual for bonnets to be kidnapped and held for ransom in advance of the judging.) The snowmaking crew has been featured in a series of parody posters, including one that pictures them as an '80s glam-rock band, "Guns and Hoses," and another with them in cowboy hats and dusters as "The Fastest Guns in the East."

A Business (and Life) That Works
What difference does the Okemo difference make? The result is a ski area that draws a devoted following -- and that buttresses real-estate values in the Okemo area. On a tour of trailside property, Dan Petraska, an Okemo manager who worked with Tim even before the Muellers bought the mountain, points out a three-bedroom townhouse that recently sold for $805,000. When it was built in 1997, the selling price was $265,000. "If you want prices to go up like that, you have to make sure that people still want to come here to ski," Petraska says, "and that's something that Tim and Diane really care about."

Unlike many ski areas, Okemo has avoided major conflicts with environmentalists and its home town, even as the resort has grown. Instead of fighting over how much water Okemo should be allowed to take out of the Black River for snow making, the Muellers spent $1.5 million to build a 73 million - gallon retaining pond to store water during the spring, summer, and fall. Each November, Okemo plays host to a community gathering, showing Ludlow residents what's new for the upcoming season. An annual fund-raiser that Diane started has collected nearly $1 million to support Vermont's Special Olympics as well as technology and art programs for schools. Diane also serves as vice chairwoman of the Vermont State Board of Education. "You feel responsible, being the largest business in the community, first to do well and sustain the vitality of the area," says Tim, "and second, to give back."

Despite the all-consuming nature of running a ski area, the Muellers never pushed their children to get involved with the family business. "We didn't want them to hate skiing," Diane explains. Ethan has held a series of jobs at Okemo, starting out as a "tray kid" in the cafeteria, moving on to become a boot fitter, and later working as a junior instructor to save money for his first car. Today, he oversees Okemo's snowboard parks. And Erica, who attends the University of Colorado, Boulder, chose not to work at the mountain this season. Instead, she focused on winning a spot on the Junior National Snowboard Team.