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Industry Leaders & Legends

THE QUEEN OF SOUTHERN SKIING

Celebrating Reba Moretz’s Appalachian Audacity & Innovation

BY DAVE BYRD

HER NAME MAY NOT BE AS UBIQUITOUS AS “Lindsey Vonn” Appalachian tops out at 4,000 feet in elevation, with
or “Mikaela Shiffrin,” but Reba Moretz is arguably one of the about 400 vertical feet of skiing across roughly 40 skiable
most influential women in American skiing today. Few peo- acres and 12 trails (the longest clocks in at half a mile). The
ple, men or women, can lay claim to growing the sport of mountain provides six lifts (two quads, a double chair, two
skiing more than her—especially in the South. Reba Moretz’s conveyors, and a handle pull tow), and boasts one of the few
ingenuity and lifelong dedication to the sport, her family outdoor ice skating rinks in North Carolina.
business, and the broader ski industry, helped to introduce When the Moretz’s took over ownership of Appalachian
new skiers to the sport, many who then went on to embrace in 1968, Reba was all of 36 years old, with two young children
the sport at bigger mountains out west. The industry owes at home, running a household and starting a business. She nur-
this humble octogenarian from the Blue Ridge Mountains of tured a growing regional ski industry at a time when few people
North Carolina an enormous debt of gratitude and overdue in this part of the country knew anything about the sport.
recognition for her efforts. “When stock sales started in 1961, several local ministers
While Reba herself—she endearingly insists that peo- invested in the ski area by buying stock,” recalls Reba’s son,
ple call her Reba—was never a big skier, she has achieved the Brad, the current president and general manager of the ski area.
well-deserved status as the Queen of Southern Skiing. This “We joked that it almost took a minister to make the
is thanks in large part to her unique touch of charm, south- ‘leap of faith’ to invest in a ski resort—in North Carolina.”
ern hospitality, and a six-decade love affair with her husband, In fact, devel-
Grady Moretz, with whom she jointly owned and operated oping skiing in the
Appalachian Ski Mtn. near Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Courtesy of Brad Moretz South was such a
To get a sense of her accomplishments, imagine the sheer risky proposition
challenge of developing and operating a ski area during the at the time that
1960s in the humid, hot southeastern United States. The ini- North Carolina’s
tial developers chose the rural location in the western part of the state agency
state for a ski area because they thought it was the “best vacation reg ulating secu-
destination between Newport, Rhode Island, and Palm Beach, rities and invest-
Florida,” Reba remembers. ments devalued
The original ownership group opened the then-named Appalachian’s
Blowing Rock Ski Lodge, around the same time that bur- Reba & Grady Moretz built a ski area—and the initial $10.00
geoning ski area, Cataloochee, was being developed in 1962. industry—while raising their family. stock offerings.
By 1968, the Moretz family and partners had bought This forced the ski area to devalue the stock investments to
the ski area in foreclosure and changed the name to just one dollar to reflect how dangerously speculative this
Appalachian Ski Mtn. business model was south of the Mason-Dixon Line.
For more than 50 years, Reba has worked alongside her “When Appalachian opened in 1962, there was literally
husband and children, practically seven days a week every no ski market,” Brad remembers, talking about the enormous
winter, to grow the family business. Appalachian’s success is challenge facing his parents. “The handful of skiers in the area
indeed one of family success. Reba’s husband Grady (who were men who served in the military who may have skied over
passed away in 2018) spent several terms on the NSAA in Europe, or the few transplants from the North just begin-
Board of Directors (their son, Brad, also recently com- ning to move south,” he said.
pleted two terms on the NSAA Board of Directors, after “My parents literally had to build the sport and a market
his father retired). Grady also received NSAA’s highest from scratch.”
honor when the association bestowed him with the Lifetime Reba recalls how often Southerners were stunned by the
Achievement Award in 2005. Together, the husband and audacity of starting a ski area in North Carolina—it was such
wife team grew a small, local ski hill into a thriving regional a foreign concept, several early customers asked, “Where do
ski business. you put the snow in the summer?”

80 | NSAA JOURNAL | SUMMER 2019