Twenty years ago the industry was finishing up what SAM described as a “very strange winter.” The East had never had it so good, and we reported a tale about a Vermont area that did so much unexpected volume in February they ran out of lift tickets. At one point, West Virginia had the premier ski conditions in the country, with between three and six feet of powder. A Massachusetts operator became panicky when he calculated his net profits for the season and realized he had not planned enough new projects to avoid a huge tax bite. By the end of January, Sunday River, Maine., was 22 percent ahead of the previous year’s total revenues. The ultimate bragging point, though, was the rescheduling of several important western racing fixtures in the East.
The West? They just wanted to bid the season a heartfelt “Good riddance!” Widespread, desperation cloud-seeding led to complaints about “cloud rustling.” About the only exception was Southern California which reveled in a couple of big dumps that kept them humming from mid-December well into March.
Preoccupation With Energy
It is hard to believe, but 20 years ago the ski area industry was shaken by a big black cloud that hung over it labeled “Energy.”
No, it wasn’t the energy crisis occasioned in 1973 by the Arab oil embargo, but fear there could be a permanent shortage of energy until new sources and technologies could be developed. The NSAA newsletter speculated on whether we could beat back the “gasless Sunday” threat. An editorial in SAM on “Our Energy Future” quoted a world authority, Emile van Lennap, secretary-general of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, representing the world’s 24 leading consumers of energy: “Within less than a decade—whatever happens in terms of Alaskan, North Sea or other production sources—we are going to be hit harder than ever,” he said.
Reducing energy consumption was a national priority, and if sacrifices had to be made, it was clear that burning fuel to make snow or run ski lifts would seem inappropriate compared to keeping schools and factories open.
Indeed, the bitter cold that brought such great skiing to the East and Midwest also resulted in thousands of workers being laid off, schools closing and critical shortages of heating oil.
An official of the Energy Research and Development Administration in Washington, S. Locke Bogard, who was also a senior NSP patrolman, painted a dire picture in SAM: “The ski industry, like all production or recreational enterprises, will be forced to take measures to contribute to the solution of the energy famine—there is no escape and the impact will be sooner than later. The energy intensiveness of the ski industry is recognized. . .”
Industry Pioneers Die
It was a particularly bad time for losing some of the industry giants. Bill Whitney had pioneered the ski resort concept in New Hampshire when he first offered skiers an integrated operation of a ski lift, a ski school and a ski lodge. The year was 1936. . . Fred Pabst—”At one point he had ski areas like a sultan has wives,” SAM had reported. “Seventeen were going at one time, from Canada to New Hampshire to Vermont to New York to Michigan.” By the early 1940s, he had settled on one, Big Bromley in Vermont, and it became truly the laboratory of all the operational components and marketing techniques that were to define the industry in the big growth times ahead. . . Roland Palmedo, whose creative fingerprints were to be found in the beginnings of Vermont’s Stowe and Mad River resorts, as well as organizationally in the origins and operations of countless ski organizations, from clubs to trade groups like NSAA to racing, including the FIS.
Here and There
The Copper Card was introduced by Copper Mountain, Colo. It was a frequent-skier discount program. . . The 1975-76 Economic Study was released. Among other items, it showed that the average lift ticket revenue was $6.62, which was 78 percent of the $8.52 average adult lift ticket weekend price. That percent was down from 81 percent the previous year. It was a down year for Lift construction—down to 78 and the lowest in 20 years. Just five years earlier the total had been 220. In terms of new areas coming on line, there were only five, of which four were in Canada. Five years earlier, 35 new areas had seen the light of day.
30 Years Ago in SAM
For its fifth convention, NSAA planned to work out a new dues structure. It turned out to be based on wire rope footage (measured one way). Dues would range from $100 for under 5,000 feet to $550 for 45,000 to 50,000. After that it was an additional $50 for each 5,000 up to a maximum of $750. Fiber ropetows were to be figured at one-half these figures, with a minimum dues rate of $50.
