"You can't make this stuff up."

Chris Diamond heard that refrain regularly during his 44-year career in the ski-resort industry, when he guided major ski resorts in Vermont and Colorado and was intimately involved in the most significant issues shaping the sport. So when he finally retired from his position as the president and COO of the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. in 2015, he decided to write it all down.

Ski Inc. is unlike any book ever published on skiing, providing a candid and colorful behind-the-scenes view of what it takes to manage a successful resort in a constantly changing resort industry.

Armed with English degrees from Middlebury and UMass, and fresh off a tour as a lieutenant in the Vietnam War, the author did not set out to build a career in the ski business. But in 1972, he wound up at Killington Ski Area, where he came under the wing of resort founder and visionary Preston Leete Smith and legendary marketer Foster T. Chandler. Killington at the time was setting the pace in everything from snowmaking to recruiting new skiers, and Diamond was a quick learner.

What followed was his total immersion in the resort industry, a business that evolved from simply getting skiers up the mountain into a multi-faceted, vertically integrated service industry. He witnessed the seminal moments in resort ownership as it evolved from single-area entrepreneurs to conglomerates, including the dramatic implosion of Les Otten's American Skiing Company and the downsizing of Intrawest during the 2008 Great Recession.

Through all the peaks and valleys, Diamond developed a unique leadership style that had its roots in his Vietnam experience. He flourished as a "musher-manager"--picking the right team, providing direction, making sure everyone had the right tools, and then getting out of the way.

Diamond isn't shy in pointing out mistakes made along the way, including his own. Ski Inc. and Ski Inc. 2020 are required reading and entertaining rides for anyone who works in skiing, wants to work in the industry, or is just passionate about the sport.