If you’ve ever wondered if Hawaiian shirts pair well with skis, then you’ve missed the Aloha Spirit on the mountain and the late spring skiing Northern Arizona generously made possible this year.

With 281 inches of snow during the winter season and 55 of those inches falling at the end of April, officials at Arizona Snowbowl said, “Hold on! The snow is so good, we don’t have a closing date yet!”

So, for the first time ever, skiers and boarders could slide their winter fun right into June. Arizona Snowbowl’s history-making season swooshed across eight months, from Nov. 17 to June 1.

“The 2023/2024 winter season was truly monumental!” said Snowbowl Marketing Coordinator Angelina Grubb. “This marks Snowbowl’s longest winter season to date, and I am overjoyed to be a part of the Snowbowl team!”

The ski resort celebrated other firsts as well, including the first Early Load Days for passholders, granting them access to the Grand Canyon Express chairlift an hour before the general public. Snowbowl hosted its first Passholder Party with grills sizzling, music playing and drinks pouring. And, on Memorial Day Weekend, sightseers mixed with skiers above ground as Scenic Gondola Rides operated for the first time while lifts were running.

And, as seasons collided on the mountain, longtime Snowbowl employee Ryan Hartl stepped into the assistant general manager role.

“Serving in a leadership position is about empowering individuals to realize their potential, and it is a joy to witness the journeys of others,” said Hartl. “I love spending time with the team, guiding them to be in alignment with what the company sees as moving in the right direction and giving them the bandwidth to make decisions.” 

In his 17 years with Snowbowl, Hartl has shifted from Rental and Repair Shop manager to Resort Services director. This past year, he served as interim general manager at Willamette Pass Ski Resort, one of the newest additions to the Power Pass collective.

“The values and team effort are what keep me excited to come to work every day,” he said. “Each day brings a renewed sense of excitement and purpose, reminding me of why I am grateful to be part of the Snowbowl family. What we do at Snowbowl just has that feeling of freedom and working to fulfill a larger purpose.”

With a quick transition from winter to summer, Snowbowl invites guests out for high elevation disc golf, mountain dining and family-friendly activities such as bungee trampoline jumping, summer tubing and Scenic Gondola Rides. FBN

By Bonnie Stevens, FBN

For activities and information, visit www.snowbowl.ski/summer-at-snowbowl.

Courtesy Photo: Thrilled about the history-making season, snow sports enthusiasts joyfully scheduled more days on the mountain.

During times of sustained inflation — those periods when the price of a carton of eggs makes headlines — it doesn’t take much for a business executive to cast themselves as an enemy in the eyes of an overextended American public, but out-of-touch statements with a certain “let them eat cake” undercurrent are certainly a shortcut to achieving villainy. 

For instance, in February,  WK Kellogg Co. CEO Gary Pilnick was likened to Marie Antoinette for encouraging people to eat cereal for dinner as a way to save money; this, despite the fact that the price per unit of Kellogg’s products was up nearly 20% compared to the year prior, the highest increase among ready-to-eat cereal brands. “There’s no reason for you to jack up your prices the way you did, except to screw us,” said the narration in one TikTok video that went viral at the time. 

Months later, Brian Niccol, the CEO of Chipotle was similarly accused of “greedflation” as customers began to report receiving smaller portion sizes when they visited the Mexican-inspired chain. Reddit is littered with hundreds of similar complaints — which somehow weren’t ameliorated by Niccol’s recommendation that customers give employees a special look (eyes wide, head tilted in disappointment) when they “want a little more pico.” 

Perhaps that’s why Don Vultaggio, the founder of Arizona Iced Tea, is being lauded as an inflation-time hero for making one simple, yet audacious proclamation: The brand’s 23-ounce cans, which have cost 99 cents for three decades, will continue to be priced at 99 cents for the foreseeable future. 

“We’re successful, we’re debt-free,” Vultaggio explained to TODAY’s Savannah Sellers in a June interview. “We own everything. Why? Why have people who are having a hard time paying their rent have to pay more for our drink?”

Vultaggio went on to say that he doesn’t intend to raise prices “in the foreseeable future,” a decision impacted by both his background — during his first job as a grocery clerk in Brooklyn, he made $1 an hour — and the current state of the economy. 

“Everything [people are] buying today there’s a price increase on. We’re trying to hold the ground for a consumer who is pinched on all fronts,” Vultaggio explained. “I’ve been in business a long time, and candidly, I’ve never seen anything like what’s going on now. Every single thing has gone up, and I call it ‘from a paper clip to a too-big filling machine.’”

That said, there are rarely clean-cut victories for consumers under Big Capitalism and the real cost of Arizona Iced Tea is no exception. While Vultaggio can continue stamping “99-cents” on the can, that doesn’t guarantee stores will actually comply when it comes to their pricing. It’s a discrepancy that numerous observational comedians have used as fodder, and even inspired a satirical commercial on the FX series “Atlanta” which features the now-iconic line: “The price is on the can, though.” 

Since Vultaggio’s TODAY interview, X, formerly Twitter, has been flooded with field reports from bodegas and corner stores across the country, where users take and post photographic proof of offending cans, with prices sometimes up to $2. In response to one meme that depicted Arizona Iced Tea as a fantastical giant fighting back its enemy, inflation, an X user said: “As a New Yorker, I’m legally obligated to love Arizona iced tea  — and I do — but y’all can’t be posting this … when it’s impossible to find it for sale at 99¢ pretty much anywhere any more.” 

Since federal agencies don’t control how much your local supermarket or corner store charges, this isn’t illegal (and despite rumors to the contrary, there isn’t a federal hotline to call to report stores that slap a $1.34 price tag on a can of Arizona Iced Tea). This is something that Vultaggio himself has acknowledged. 

“I hate to raise prices, I’m an old salesman and the worst day in a salesman’s life is when he has to go to a customer and say you have to pay more,” Vultaggio later told TODAY.com. “But on the other side of it, we’ve done all we can to hold the price.”

He continued:  “Unfortunately, we don’t govern how store owners choose to price their products. The price is on the can. We do all we can to help retailers remain profitable, so stores can sell it for 99 cents.” However, Vultaggio has promised that his company is “gonna fight as hard as we can for consumers.” 

“Maybe it’s my little way to give back,” he said.