Rocky Mountain Adventures, Inc.

As Bill Peisner's LanChile flight ascended from the Arturo Benitez Airport in Santiago, Chile, Bill looked to the Andes Mountains off the Boeing 767's starboard wing and began to reflect on his most recent trip to South America. During the past six and a half days, he and his six fellow anglers had caught and released over 500 rainbow, brown, and brook trout, most of which ranged from 1 to 3 pounds, but many of which were of trophy size—the largest just over 6 pounds. The fly-fishing was matched by the be auty of the rivers that ran within view of the Tres Monjas peaks, whose snow-capped granite spires soared over 7,000 feet from their base, and was surpassed only by the camaraderie of the group of trout anglers. As Bill assessed the trip, he found it difficult to believe that this lifestyle was actually an important part of his job.

Bill and his partner, Dave Costlow, were the owners of Rocky Mountain Adventures (RMA), an outdoor outfitter in Fort Collins, Colorado. The company sold and rented outdoor recreation equipment, led whitewater rafting excursions on five Colorado rivers, guided fly-fishing excursions in Colorado and Wyoming, and coordinated guided fly-fishing, hiking, and rafting expeditions in Siberia and the Patagonia region of Chile and Argentina. The scope of RMA's operations and its annual revenues had increased substantially since the company had been purchased by Dave and Bill in 1993. Prior to acquisition by its current owners, RMA was a small Fort Collins outfitter with approximately 5,000 rafting customers per year. In 1997, RMA, under the leadership of Peisner and Costlow, generated nearly $1 million in revenues from retail sales of outdoor equipment, apparel, and gear; fees charged for guided rafting and fishing trips; photography sales; paddlesport and fly-fishing instructional fees; and outdoor equipment rentals.

Prior to the spring of 1998, Bill Peisner and Dave Costlow had identified a number of avenues for additional growth. The opportunities they had identified included adding a second-floor restaurant to their Fort Collins store, building a mountain outpost and lodge in northern Colorado or southern Wyoming, attempting to build more customer traffic on some of the rivers where they currently outfitted whitewater trips, and putting together additional fly-fishing and rafting expeditions in exotic international locations. Bill's 12-hour flight gave him time to think over the success of the company and ponder RMA's future. The company had experienced considerable growth and had allowed the partners to lead exciting lives, but it had yet to provide an exceptional return on their investment. Bill thought by the time he arrived in Denver he might have a better evaluation of some of the growth opportunities that he and Dave had discussed prior to his trip to Patagonia.