BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com
After graduating from the University of Montana with a business administration degree, Jean Mikulas sought the bright lights of Denver to start her professional career.
“I thought being in the city would be amazing,” she said.
Yet she found herself commuting to the mountains as often as possible on weekends, eventually buying a home with her husband, Ram Mikulas, in Summit County. Located about 75 miles west of Denver, the county is home to such well-known ski resorts as Breckenridge, Copper Mountain and Keystone.
“We would come home at 5 a.m. every Monday morning to miss the traffic on I-70, and then we’d turn around and drop off the dogs and head into work,” she said.
New president, GM
As the newly named president and general manager of Red Lodge Mountain, the 49-year-old Mikulas won’t have to worry about commuting very far to work or the mountains anymore.
With a goal to return to her Montana roots — where siblings and parents still live in Missoula, Whitefish and Bigfork — Mikulas has stepped into a leadership role she seems to have been in training for while working in sales, retail, volunteer and rental operations for large companies including Vail Resorts, POWDR Corp. and Intrawest.
“Her deep industry knowledge, Montana roots, and passion for the outdoors make her an ideal fit for our mountain and the Red Lodge community,” said Spencer Weimar, asset manager for JMA Ventures, a San Francisco-based real-estate investment firm that bought Red Lodge Mountain in 2007. “We’re excited about the future with her as part of the team.”
Outdoor focused
Mikulas said the small-town feel of Red Lodge, which has a population of about 2,600 people, was an attraction as well as the access to outdoor opportunities.
“I have to say the outdoor lifestyle is super important to me,” she said.
After driving to Cooke City over the “jaw-dropping” Beartooth Highway, she can’t wait to explore the nearby mountainous terrain.
“We have a conversion van, so we love to just travel … and get out and enjoy,” Mikulas said.
In her free time, in addition to downhill skiing, Mikulas said she likes to snowboard, Alpine tour, Nordic skate ski, classic cross-country and “all sorts of random things outdoors.”
Her husband, who started his own lifestyle apparel business named SkyGOAT, is an “extreme athlete” who is staying behind in Colorado to oversee the sale of their home while transitioning his e-commerce business to Montana.
Rebounding from ski lift death
Red Lodge Mountain, with its 1,600 acres of terrain and 160-acre 18-hole golf course, is coming out of a tough winter season. In March, a Billings man fell to his death from a chairlift after the cable jumped from a tower’s pulleys during high winds.
Due to the accident, the lift — installed new in 1983 — was closed for weeks as an investigation was conducted and repairs were made. At the same time, the mountain also had another popular lower-mountain lift closed for repairs. That one dates back to 1959.
Investing in new chairlifts is expensive. In 2023, JMA Ventures spent almost $3 million to recycle a used high-speed, three-passenger chairlift to replace its Miami Beach chair.
While replacing the older lifts may eventually be on the list of updates, Mikulas said other investments such as snowmaking on the Palisades side of the mountain could be a less expensive option. That side of the ski hill, along with the Cole Creek lift, is notoriously thin on snowfall yet serviced by newer high-speed, four-passenger chairs.
Weimar said JMA Ventures is “focused on creating a financially stable future by reinvesting each dollar earned back in to the resort while emphasizing our easygoing ski experience, growing the sport of skiing and riding through expanded ski school offerings.”
Boosting summer events
Right now, according to Weimar, the resort collects about 85% of its revenue from skiing and the other 15% from summer operations.
This year, more summer events on the mountain — including yoga, chairlift rides and creation of a wedding chapel overlooking the stunning Palisades rock formation — have increased visitation. Mikulas sees the chairlift rides as a way to provide access to people who otherwise wouldn’t be able to see the beauty of the mountain in summer.
“With the addition of summer operations on the mountain we have the ability to lower the negative financial impact of a low snow year,” Weimar said in an email. “We are looking at summer activities from two angles — how do we become a sought-after wedding and event venue, and how do we offer something that draws the 450,000 visitors coming to Red Lodge to drive the Beartooth Pass to include a visit to the mountain as part of their trip.”
Summer offerings may also play a bigger financial role if climate change continues to make winter operations unpredictable.
Connecting to the community
Although still learning about the mountain, Mikulas is impressed by Red Lodge’s beginner terrain as a place to increase youth interest in the sports of skiing and snowboarding. That’s how she started out, taking ski trips to Discovery Basin and Great Divide ski areas in middle school, Mikulas said.
Such a focus on the community is important to maintain the “soul and spirit of what Red Lodge Mountain is,” she added.
“Part of my role, quite frankly, is how do we make sure we’re working together to that end? Essentially, we’re all helping the greater good.”
