Three days into 2023, three of the most decorated American ski athletes — Bode Miller, Chris Davenport and Michelle Parker — gather under the sunrise glow at Holloway’s Pretty Good Horse Barn, a ranch in Bozeman, Mont.

It’s an odd location for the group — flat prairie land, the Bridger Mountains far off in the distance. But there’s an important connection: Not only does Miller call Bozeman home, he also has a history of training horses. And his business partner, Andy Wirth, happens to have a horse named Cinco at the ranch.

As the athletes suit up in their ski gear — both for a photo shoot and to keep them warm in the brisk 10-degree weather — Miller talks about his kids and the challenges of getting back to a school routine after the holidays.

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For Miller, the answers can be found in the Snöbahn indoor ski center in Colorado and Alpine-X, a company he invested in that’s looking to develop indoor snowsports resorts in unexpected locations like Austin, Texas. They are cost-effective and ideal for beginners.

“Those two together will be the biggest impactors of the ski industry in the last 50 years,” Miller said. “It is a great sport, but I know how brutal it is in the beginning. All you do is fall down, you’re uncomfortable, you’re cold, it’s frustrating, it costs a bunch. Who wants to pay to be uncomfortable? These have the ability to introduce half a million to 1 million new skiers to the sport every year and get them interested.”