“Sun Valley is a family resort,” Silva underscores. “To be successful, we need compelling products for all members of the family. Marketing to youth includes well-designed, built and maintained terrain parks, superpipes and other amenities. Young people want to go where other young people think it’s cool. The youth market can’t be an afterthought.” A measure of Silva’s performance will be his ability to attract this critical demographic without alienating those who know the name Sonja Henie.

That requires a calibration of services so each family element—parents, young people, children—gets what it wants. For some older skiers, that conjures up unnerving and frequently unfounded images of peril and horror, of snowboarders hurtling down the hill with minimal regard for civilization as we know it. “The challenge (for management),” Silva says in his thoughtful fashion, “is to design and locate the facilities that speak to each market segment in a way that complements rather than conflicts, and to create an atmosphere of respect for park etiquette and skier responsibility code. It is primarily a process of education, and secondarily, enforcement.”

And there is another asset for attracting young people to the mountain. “One advantage that Sun Valley has as a resort community is that many world-class winter athletes live and train here. There are a lot of very, very great athletes in this town. Their presence, their opinions, enhance the community’s reputation as a destination, particularly for young people.”

A few years ago there was a scathing piece about the Sun Valley Lodge in The Wall Street Journal, in effect accusing the facility of being over the hill, a fusty, worn dowager in a world where youth was the currency of the day. A lot of people in the valley, themselves a tad fusty and worn, cheered that the dowager stood unbowed in the face of tawdry modernism. It would be a mistake today to call the Lodge worn, but it is a place where you can sense history.

“We’ve got to revisit the brand here,” Silva says, hoping not to alarm the Lodge patricians. “You know the old saying, ‘Your greatest strength is your greatest weakness’? Clearly, the heritage here, the endowment, certainly is among the great strengths of Sun Valley. It is what it is—a historic facility. Where that history becomes an impediment is where we need to revisit the brand. I think most people would say the winter business here is skewed to the older skier. We are looking, from a marketing standpoint, to insure that we are speaking to all markets. The wonderful history here should be cherished, but it shouldn’t overwhelm everything else.

“The grandparents may like Sun Valley just the way it is, but they also want their grandkids around.” For Silva, who relishes the world of psychographic variables (the study of the interactive influences of personality, interests, age, values, etc.), it is the challenge of finding the interconnecting themes that draw people—be they 80 or 8—to Sun Valley.

Silva took the helm of the resort in early spring 2009, when Wally Huffman was assigned by the Holdings to usher into reality the expansive and expensive River Run development south of Ketchum, while also having oversight of all the company’s resorts. Although not directly involved in the new project, Silva grasps its impact upon the identity of Sun Valley and its market competitiveness. He was at Northstar when a Ritz Carlton was introduced to the mountain, adding a new tier of amenities and upscale identity. It has not been announced whether the River Run project will be an addition to the core business, an upscale market diversification or a partnership with a five-star chain.

Silva observes that “a five-star, well-appointed slope-side facility with other resort amenities (would) certainly help the area cater to a market that is currently not served.” In other words, it could lend a more contemporary presence, providing an alternative to the heritage resort for those who seek a cosmopolitan resort hotel. Having these two strong assets, the historic lodge and a modern exclusive hotel, in place when the new airport arrives, would be a powerful tool for attracting skiers responding to direct flights to the valley from Midwest, Intermountain and West Coast cities.

To Silva, the existing airport is another barrier to realizing the potential of the resort and the Wood River Valley. “The diversion rate [to Twin Falls] during the winter months,” he says, “is an incredible negative for visitors who are time-poor.”

He is not entering the growing local debate about whether the communities should seek to dramatically escalate their effort to expand tourism, or to seek a more broadly based employment foundation for future development. Or if either is really feasible. He is also not engaged in the conversation about how a new airport would affect tourism. He just says the current system is untenable and undermines the economic potential of the valley.

For now, Silva is focused on dealing with the business directly before him. Huffman, the Holding family, partners and their consultants deal with the cosmic issues. Which brings one back to the question “Why does the food suck?”

“It doesn’t,” he says with subtle emphasis, noting that Ski magazine readers just voted Sun Valley No. 3 in on-mountain dining and overall dining and No. 2 in service. “We need more consistency of quality in some places. But try the Club or the Ram: Consistent quality, attractive menus, good service. Stay with us.”

If you were filling out one of those 1-to-10 performance evaluations for Tim Silva, the 9s would beckon. He is a true troubadour for Sun Valley and its future.