Grooming the Future of Winter

PistenBully and the Boyne Forever Foundation share more than a partnership — they share a philosophy. Meet the company that's been grooming Boyne's slopes for generations, and why that relationship is forging new paths on the snow and beyond.

Every perfect run starts long before the lifts open. It starts at 2 a.m., when the groomers roll out across dark terrain — smoothing, shaping, building the corduroy that skiers and riders wake up dreaming about. Behind those machines is PistenBully, and behind PistenBully is a decades-long commitment to doing mountain operations the right way.

When Everett Kircher founded Boyne Resorts, he operated on a simple but powerful philosophy: care for the mountain, and the mountain will care for future generations. That long view — rooted in stewardship, community, and the belief that great mountain experiences don't happen by accident — is the legacy the Boyne Forever Foundation was built to carry forward. And when it came time to name the Foundation's first corporate partner, the answer was already written into Boyne's operational history.

PistenBully wasn't a vendor to call. It was a collaborator already living the same values.

"We were looking for partners who already believed in caring for the places and people that make mountain communities thrive," says Michelle Wein, Executive Director, Boyne Forever Foundation. “PistenBully didn't need to be convinced of that vision — they were already living it alongside us. Becoming our first corporate partner reflects a shared belief that protecting winter, supporting communities, and investing in people is essential to the future of our industry."

A Legacy in Motion

Boyne Resorts and PistenBully have worked side by side for decades, bound by a shared commitment to innovation, operational excellence, and responsible stewardship of mountain environments. Today, Boyne operates the largest fleet of PistenBully's flagship diesel-electric machine — the PB 600 E+ — in the world. That's not a purchasing decision. It's a values statement made visible, running across Boyne's network of destinations every single night.

The Boyne Forever Foundation formalizes and expands that philosophy for today's challenges: climate resilience, workforce needs, and evolving community expectations. While previous generations focused on building vibrant destinations, today the work also means confronting environmental impact head-on—and finding partners who can do that with you.

"In many ways, the Foundation is an extension of Everett Kircher's original vision," Wein notes, "ensuring Boyne's positive impact continues not just operationally, but philanthropically and sustainably for decades to come."

"What makes a mountain resort special isn't just the terrain — it's the shared experience. The early morning groomers, the perfect corduroy, the conditions that get people out the door and onto the snow together. PistenBully is a true partner in creating that, and you feel it in everything from opening day to closing weekend." — Mike Unruh, SVP Mountain Operations, Boyne Resorts

Where Innovation Meets Stewardship

PistenBully has been engineering snow groomers for more than 50 years, and their most advanced machine — the PB 600 E+ — is the most powerful and fuel-efficient groomer in its class. More power, less fuel. It's the kind of innovation that sounds simple until you multiply it across an entire resort network running thousands of hours each season.

But the environmental story goes further. PistenBully's SnowSat LiDAR system has fundamentally changed how resorts manage snow, measuring depth in real time up to 165 feet around each machine and allowing operators to find deposits or thin patches and move snow exactly where it's needed. "Fewer passes, less time, less fuel — and often less snowmaking. It guarantees that slopes are perfectly built and last longer, without wasting time and resources,” explains Liz Worgan, Marketing Manager, PistenBully

The downstream effects are significant: SnowSat customers have saved meaningfully on snowmaking costs and extended their seasons — outcomes that matter both environmentally and economically for resort communities that depend on a long, healthy winter.

"Partnerships like this allow sustainability to move beyond aspiration and into daily mountain operations," Wein says. "We're able to highlight and accelerate technologies that reduce fuel consumption, improve snow management efficiency, and ultimately lower the environmental footprint of resort operations — while still delivering world-class guest experiences."

Just as importantly, it connects guests and team members to the behind-the-scenes work required to operate mountains responsibly — turning operational innovation into shared environmental awareness.

Showing Up for Mountain Communities

Technology is only part of the story. For PistenBully, responsibility to mountain communities is active, not passive — and it predates the Foundation partnership.

PistenBully has a history of making its machines and technology visible and accessible to the people who live in ski towns. They've supported women's initiatives, adaptive events, and regional sustainability outreach — showing up not just as a manufacturer, but as a community participant. That spirit maps directly onto the Foundation's community pillar, and it's already beginning to shape what collaboration looks like on the ground.

"The health of each mountain community impacts PistenBully," says Worgan, "and we have an interest in supporting these communities as an active part of each place where our machines are located. Protecting mountain landscapes is crucial to our business. It's something Boyne and PistenBully already do together.”

Through the partnership, the Foundation will fund environmental stewardship programs across Boyne resorts, support equitable recreation access and community-based initiatives, and fuel the first rounds of grant cycles benefiting both mountain communities and Boyne team members. PistenBully's contribution extends well beyond the financial — it's thought leadership, community engagement, and a willingness to put the company's name and presence behind the Foundation's work in meaningful ways.

Leading the Industry Forward

Perhaps the most significant dimension of this partnership is what it signals to the broader ski industry.

For too long, sustainability in mountain operations has been treated as a brand narrative rather than an operational reality. Boyne and PistenBully are building a model for how operators and manufacturers can work collaboratively — not just to run better mountains today, but to protect the future of winter recreation and the communities that depend on it. "Together, we're demonstrating what it looks like when operators and manufacturers work collaboratively," Wein says, "to protect the future of winter recreation and the communities that depend on it."

PistenBully has always led through innovation. The Boyne Forever Foundation is committed to leading through intention. That combination has the potential to move an entire industry.

"The Boyne Forever Foundation's core values of nature, community, and people clearly align directly with our values," says Worgan. "Moving forward, future opportunities will come naturally. We're excited for all that we will accomplish together."