Vernon, NJ – Ed Youmans has returned to New Jersey’s Mountain Creek ski resort in the role of Chief Operating Officer following a 13-year stint at Diamond Peak Resort on Lake Tahoe in Nevada, most recently serving as that resort’s general manager. It’s a homecoming of sorts, as Youmans began his career in the ski resort industry as a lift operator at Mountain Creek in the early eighties, when the resort still went by the name of Vernon Valley/Great Gorge.

Youmans, a New Jersey native, grew up learning to ski at Vernon Valley/Great Gorge and it wasn’t long before he sought employment at the resort as a way to help facilitate his love affair with winter sports. Far from the stereotypical ski bum, Youmans advanced up the ranks from a lift operator position in 1984, eventually becoming Mountain Operations Manager, prior to leaving for an executive position with Diamond Peak in 1995.

Youmans’ return to Mountain Creek is also a re-pairing of sorts for himself and Bill Benneyan, to whom he reported when Benneyan was General Manager at Vernon Valley/Great Gorge in 1994. Benneyan, who became the Chief Marketing Officer for Crystal Springs and Mountain Creek in 2010, will be working hand-in-hand with Youmans as the two oversee the resort’s development.

“I couldn’t be happier to have Ed coming back to Mountain Creek as a peer. His work rehabilitating Diamond Peak is well known in the industry and with the new capital we’re investing in this resort, I couldn’t think of a better guy to guide us through some amazing years of growth,” commented Benneyan.

Youmans is rejoining Mountain Creek in time to oversee a 360-degree revamp of the resort. After the merger of Mountain Creek by Crystal Springs Resort in May of 2010, more than $40 million dollars has been invested to improve the resort’s infrastructure, including the largest snow tubing center in the country and the new 55,000 square foot Red Tail Lodge.