Rich and famous float the Salmon
SUN VALLEY, Idaho – When some two-dozen rafts barrel down the Salmon River today, New York investment banker Herbert Allen will be in his ceremonial post at the head of the caravan.
Guides accompanying the other 200 or so captains of industry and their families will be under strict orders not to pass the 64-year-old billionaire host and the hand-picked favorites in his boat. As the convoy docks for lunch at the end of the three-hour trip, Allen will expect to be handed a plate of food, hot off the grill, the moment his feet hit the shore.
Billed as a rugged romp through the wilderness, the white-water rafting trip is a signature event of the exclusive Allen & Co. investment conference, which began Tuesday with the arrival of its elite invitees. But outfitters say the rafters are so pampered that even the port-a-potties are posh. Said one local outdoorsman, with a bit of dry understatement: “It’s a high-maintenance group.”
For 22 years now, a Who’s Who of the corporate and media worlds have converged on this resort town to fraternize and frolic on Allen’s dime. Among this year’s 213 guests and their invited families are such regulars as Microsoft Corp. founder Bill Gates, Viacom Inc. Chairman Sumner Redstone and billionaire investor Warren E. Buffett.
No one from Allen & Co. would talk about the annual gathering. Al-though growing numbers of reporters have shown up in recent years, hoping for some face time with the moguls, everything about the event is supposed to be kept secret – including the guest list – a copy of which was obtained by the Los Angeles Times.
Sources say Allen spends an estimated $10 million wooing current and prospective clients during the five-day event at the swanky Sun Valley Resort. He leaves fruit and flower baskets in his guest’s rooms and treats them to hayrides, fly-fishing, horseback riding, yoga, skating lessons and golf.
“The rapids are mild but a lot of people are scared to death of them,” said sports executive Dave Checketts, a regular on the rafting trip.
The eight-mile journey is fodder for the kind of local river lore that’s not usually associated with tycoons of any stripe. There’s “Opie Rock,” for one. That’s where director Ron Howard’s boat got stuck in the shallows during the Allen excursion more than a decade ago.
And then there’s the oft-repeated mishap of Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media baron. In 1983, he fell overboard and floated, feet first, down the river.
Some estimates put the cost of the Allen & Co. rafting trip at about $150 a head, or about $30,000, for about 200 guests. “They wrote the biggest check of the year,” said Stoll, who sold The River Co. in 1990.
More than one mega-deal has gone down in Sun Valley over the years, including Walt Disney Co.’s $19-billion purchase of Capital Cities/ABC, which was born after a chance conversation in a parking lot between Eisner and Buffett in 1995.
But some say there’s more horsing around than horse trading.
“You take these people out of their high-stress jobs and they turn into little kids,” said one veteran guide.