In “normal” times, a ski season such as the industry enjoyed last winter would have triggered a mammoth expansion boom. Lifts would have been thrown up, condominiums would have mushroomed. But these are not normal times, and the sound of the screwdriver and oil can is heard in the skiland more than the helicrane. Management is tinkering and fine tuning. There was little stomach for starting new areas.
The reasons are not hard to find. Uncertainty about the economy and inflation; a feeling—especially in the east—that despite a long and sustained ski season, uphill facilities had not really been strained; an overhang of condominium inventory and poor land sales was producing little in the way of expansion dollars. Banks were not exactly throwing money around, either. Psychologically, perhaps the most widespread feeling east of the Rockies was, “Okay, let’s see if we can have two years in a row like last year’s to match the two horrors that preceded it.”
The Northeast
“More moderate growth”
by John Hitchcock
Despite a bountiful winter, which saw virtually every ski resort in the East reporting from “very good to the best on record” in terms of dollar gross, precious few dollars are being spent this summer on expansion programs.
In fact, it appears that the only new projects of any magnitude in the northeast are a 4141-foot chairlift at Sugarloaf, Maine; a 3300-foot triple chairlift at Butternut Basin, Mass.; a 3500-foot tandem double chair at Taconic Trails, N.Y., and a 3100-foot double chair and 1000-foot T-bar at Camden Snow Bowl, Maine.
Improved snow-making, trail-grooming, baselodge expansion, better lighting, more parking facilities—these were the reports from the ski industry in June.
“The ski industry is maturing, with more reasonable goals and a more moderate growth,” explained Butternut’s Channing Murdock, president of the Eastern Ski Areas Association.
His medium-sized area, with a 1000-foot vertical and three chairlifts, has long been considered one of the best operations in the East. He had cut 55 acres of new trails and slopes and the liftline for his new Thiokol chair several summers ago. “I wanted to be sure that we could reasonably utilize such increased lift capacity before I built anything,” said Murdock.
And in another atypical announcement, he said that he does not plan to do much in the way of promoting his new facilities, which will include five new electric Hedco airless snow cannons. “The baselodge and parking lot will be too crowded if I advertise much,” Murdock continued.
Bromley in Vermont, however, with the greatest season in its long history, with 152 days of operations and a booming gross, is happy to report a new 51-unit luxury lodge will be open at Christmas right at the foot of the Lord’s Prayer slope and the main Summit lift.
The Bromley Sun Lodge, owned and operated by Erwin Dostal of Dostal’s Lodge at nearby Magic Mountain, will be as close to a major lift as possible. “Ten big steps should put you on the lift,” said PR boss Kit Cooper.
While Bromley set new records in every department last winter, Kit said that it wasn’t that easy. Bromley offered a variety of package and discount plans, and plans to do even more in specialized sales this winter. “The old days of sticking to one rate for every day and every person has ended in the ski business and it is truly competitive,” said Cooper.
If there is a relative calm in ski area construction, there is a tremendous flurry of related tennis court building, and for many ski area inns, tennis seems to be considered the answer to filling beds, dining room tables and bar stools in the non-ski months.
The Midwest
Mostly improvements
by Teddee Grace
Following a profitable 1974-75 season, but faced with a still questionable economic forecast, midwest ski area managers are coping in a variety of ways ranging from daring to conservative. Almost all areas are investing in improved snowmaking and slope maintenance at the minimum. Others are continuing on schedule with planned expansion and one Illinois area is undergoing a complete facelift.
Eight-year-old Villa Olivia, Barlett, Ill, which draws from the Chicago market, will feature an entirely new look when it opens this fall, according to ski area manager Chuck Walters. “We’re building a new ski hill adjacent to our existing hill that will not only triple our facilities,” he says, “but double our vertical.” the new man-made ski hill will have between 150 and 200 feet of vertical, and will be about 600 feet across, expanding skiable terrain to 20 acres. To service the four runs, Villa Olivia is installing its first chair lifts — two quads.
“With this addition we’ll be able to accommodate around 3,000 skiers a day,” Walters days. “Last year was the best year we’ve ever had and because we believe we’ve found the most successful program for our market, we expect continued growth.”
At Telemark in Wisconsin, owner Tony Wise is constructing 15 kilometers of new cross-country trails, bringing Telemark’s cross-country ski trail network to 63 km.
Telemark is also converting to airless snowmaking, adding five new SMI units to the one installed last season on a trial basis. A new reservoir will provide water for both the snowmaking equipment and the year-round resort’s newly expanded 18-hole golf course. “We’ll have twice as much water as before,” says Wise. “We’ll be able to pump about 1,000 gpm.”
“We feel we can meet all skier needs with our present facilities,” says Charles Moll, managing director of the four Boyne Country areas in Michigan. “We will, however, be making some minor improvements such as clearing and widening a few slopes.”
Getting a jump on the season, Wisconsin’s Scotsland has installed an outdoor Cliff Taylor GLM ski deck, and will offer a summer GLM package. The package, at $6 or $6.50, will include equipment rental and a lesson. “We’re also upgrading our rental equipment,” Trepp says.
At Wisconsin’s Wilmot Mountain, Inc., John Stopa, vice-president, says, “We’re adding one Hedco snowmaking unit, a Thiokol, a Madson Snowgroomer and a Valley Engineering mogul planer. We’re doubling the size of our maintenance, recontouring some trouble spots on some of our slopes.”
Entering phase II, Spirit Mountain, Duluth, will be cutting three new trails, and adding a double chair to bring the total to four double and one triple.
“Our first year was extremely good,” says Lesley Hokenstad, PR director. “We had estimated 70,000 skier visits and had 150,000 so we feel confident about continuing with our planned expansion.” Spirit Mountain will also add another 100 sets of rental equipment.
The Lincolnshire Marriott resort, which opened this spring in Deerfield, Ill., will include skiing among its recreation attractions. “Although we expect to draw from the local community and resort guests,” says Charles Wilson, recreation director, “we’ll be marketing our ski area as an intensive instructional area rather than a recreational area.” Wilson will have a staff of 25 instructors to teach skiing on all levels, not just beginner, on the mini area which has a 75-foot vertical and a run of 700 feet serviced by one Harusch handle platter lift. The area will be lighted for night skiing and the rental department will be stocked with 500 sets of GLM equipment. Cross-country skiing will be available on the adjacent 170-acre golf course.
The Sierras
New lifts minimal
by Bob Lochner
Ski areas in the Sierra are coming off an excellent season, and while most of the larger resorts plan to plow back a good chunk of those profits, the summer of ’75 is much quieter than those of the 60’s, and the actual construction of brand-new ski-lifts is minimal. Instead, much of the money is being spent on improvements that don’t show — improvements that have been forced on resorts by the new concern for the environment.
Heavenly Valley may add a major chair, Stagecoach, on the Carson Valley side of the mountain. It would be 6500 feet long with a vertical of 1500 feet. However, at press-time, a final decision was still being delayed pending the outcome of some litigation.
“If we build the chairlift, we’ll be spending nearly $1 million,” Heavenly’s president Hugh Killebrew said. “Even without the chair, our improvements this summer will total more than $500,000.”
This figure includes expenditures for glassing in the top tramway station and building elevators from the restaurant to the station; finishing a three-story structure on the Nevada side of East Peak that will house a first-aid station, warming hut and food service, and extensive trail clearing.
Squaw Valley, at the north end of Lake Tahoe, will place primary emphasis on completely replacing the KT-22 chairlift, increasing its capacity in the process from 550 to 1000 per hour. The base facilities, owned by the bankrupt Mainline Corporation, are still for sale with a target date of September 30 for completion of a transaction. The lifts are owned separately — by Alex Cushing’s Squaw Valley Ski Corp.
At nearby Alpine Meadows, Werner Schuster said his area is replacing the Big Poma with an 1800-foot-long chairlift and confining the remainder of its activities to paving additional parking spaces, etc.
“We haven’t noticed the tremendous growth in demand that we did in the 60’s,” Schuster said, “so there’s no real need for too many more lifts at present. Instead, we’re trying to even the flow, get more skiers to ski midweek, etc. And many areas are still busy paying off the lifts they built a few years ago.”
Sugar Bowl is also replacing a surface lift with a chair this summer — on the beginners’ slope — and plans to add another chair for experts on the East Face of Mt. Disney next summer, at a total cost of $350,000.
Southern California
Substantial investments
by Luanne Pfeifer
In the Southern Sierra, Mammoth Mountain for the first time in several years is not installing new lifts this summer. “We will spend this summer cutting some new trails,” says Nick Gunter, accountant and controller for Mammoth. “We are still paying back the bank loans from last year on a one million dollar garage (for maintenance equipment) which is not directly visible to skiers.”
At June Mountain, owner Bud Hayward is spending about $200,000 in erosion control and hill maintenance work this summer. A building moritorium for the past four years, due to sewers, still holds up construction of new lodges for another summer. Hookups to the sewer laterals is expected to be complete this summer so that by the summer of ’76 increased overnight lodging can be expected.
Last winter during a better-than-average snow season, Snow Valley ski area found out that Los Angeles skiers were really interested in pursuing their sport at an area close to home, and is now installing a huge snowmaking system. Ratnik Industries is installing the 33,000 cfm system, which will cover 45 acres. It is claimed it will be the second largest snow making system in the country.
Five chair lifts will span and service the snowmaking area, including a new double chair being installed this summer by Lift Engineering.
Elsewhere in the mountains near Los Angeles, tight money had no effect on Blue Ridge and Holiday Hill where buyers for both ski areas, which had not been previously up for sale, turned up unexpectedly with enticing offers. By early June, Blue Ridge accepted the offer. New owner of the San Gabriel Mountain ski area is ski shop owner Dick Woodworth of Los Angeles. Holiday Hill at press time was still undecided about selling. Both areas have been owned by individuals for over 20 years without a change in proprietorship.
Pacific Northwest
A conservative attitude
by John Hoefling
Conservatism would have to be the word describing Pacific northwest. White Pass general manager Nelson Bennett probably sums it up best. “It must be my New England upbringing,” he says, “but we’re taking a very conservative attitude in view of the economy.” This means no new lifts this year. White Pass is busy, though, adding lights to their no. 3 chair, and fireproofing the engine rooms and turnaround buildings on their other two chairs.
And what may be good news for many skiers is the day lodge’s first bar is being added. Bennett is looking towards next year and possibly a new chair to replace an existing Poma.
Snoqualmie Summit, already with the most lifts in the Pacific northwest A will be adding an eighth, a triple chair close to last year’s new Riblet. This one, a Thiokol, will serve a beginners area along it’s 1,060-foot length and 300-foot vertical rise. Area operator Webb Moffett says it will have a capacity of 1,600 skiers per hour.
Oregon’s Multorpor-Ski Bowl complex is undertaking that state’s most ambitious construction program. President Carl Reynolds reports that the present upper bowl Riblet double chair will be dismantled, reconditioned and moved to Multopor to replace a 25-year old T-bar. “We’ll be doing what has been planned for five years,” he says. “Then a new Riblet double chair will be installed in the upper bowl, but in a more westerly direction, terminating at the top of Cascade Peak.”
Timberline Logde and Mt. Hood Meadows will be waiting until next year for possible expansion. Timberline, which has a proposed multi-lift and housing program on the drawing board, had anticipated a May 1 Forest Service approval deadline, but the date has been pushed back two to three months.
Acquisitions
Alpine Meadows buys Park City control
California ski management leapfrogged into Utah in late May when Alpine Meadows of Tahoe purchased 80 percent of the stock in the Greater Park City Company.
The ski area and golf course at the resort 30 minutes outside Salt Lake City will be operated by Alpine Meadows, while the accommodations will be managed by the Moana Corporation, which developed several condominium projects and hotels in the North Tahoe region.
According to the announcement by Ray Johnson, president of Alpine Meadows, the Royal Street Corporation of New Orleans will be responsible for developing the remaining unimproved land.
Johnson, a C.P.A. who headed his own construction company before taking on the presidency of Alpine in 1970, was responsible for putting the North Tahoe resort into the black following consistent annual losses since it opened shortly after the 1960 Squaw Valley Winter Olympics. He plans to spend the bulk of his time this summer and winter at Park City.
Immediate plans for the Utah resort include complete replacement of the Thaynes chairlift and extensive overhaul combined with upgraded maintenance on the other seven chairlifts and gondola tramway.
Johnson said many of the existing staff will be retained, including mountain manager Phil Jones, and the joint ticket with nearby Alta and Snowbird will be continued.
Vail fights stock raid
The bid of Contran Corp., a Dallas investment firm, to buy 250,000 shares of Vail Associates stock went into the courts in May on a complaint by Vail, and came out of the courts on June 13, when the court’s temporary injunction on the tender offer was lifted. Contran extended their offer to purchase the shares at $10 until June 25, and at the same time obeyed Chief U.S. District Court Judge Alfred A. Arraj’s order by giving stockholders who had previously tendered their shares a June 20 cut-off date for withdrawing their offer to sell.
In urging Vail stockholders not to sell, Peter Seibert pointed to the excellent seasons the resort had been enjoying, and suggested that the offer was too low. He also called attention to the very considerable (allegedly $100 million) in claims against Contran which are currently in litigation.
Colorado expansion delayed by Governor
In an attempt to break the logjam over the proposed Vail Beaver Creek development, Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm has named a 17-member panel to determine the future of ski area development in the state. The committee includes ski area developers, politicians and environmentalists.
Lamm took the initiative when it appeared that the controversy over Beaver Creek is no nearer resolution than two months ago, when he and Colorado Senator Gary Hart petitioned John McGuire, chief of the U.S. Forest Service, to rescind a Forest Service designation of Beaver Creek as a winter sports site.
Lamm has requested that any decision about development at Beaver Creek be delayed until January 1976. By then, Lamm hopes that his newly appointed panel will have worked out an overall winter resource management plan in coordination with the State Planning Division.
The governor, who campaigned on an environmentalist platform last November, cited a proliferation of planned ski area developments in Colorado—10 in Eagle County alone—as his reason for a requested one-year moratorium on all projects—including Beaver Creek.
Meanwhile, Jim Monaghan, Lamm’s environmental aide, has been negotiating with Vail Associates and Eagle County representatives for a Beaver Creek compromise. Monaghan has stated that the maximum density the governor will accept is a ratio of two persons in the base area for every one skier on the slopes. Vail Associates originally had projected a potential population base of 40,000 should the Beaver Creek development reach full fruition, meaning a sizeable reduction in this and various satellite projects would have to be made if the governor sticks by his guns.
Groswold heads Winter Park
Confessing “an emotional attachment,” Gerald F. Groswold has assumed duties as president and chief executive officer of Winter Park ski area. Groswold, 43, assumes the position after serving as a trustee for 14 years. Steve Bradley will remain as executive director with a primary responsibility toward long-range planning and public relations.
“I’ve got time invested in Winter Park,” Groswold said in explaining his move. His involvement goes back to the early trail-clearing days when he served as water boy for the cutting crews more than 30 years ago.
Upon taking the position June 1, Growsold, son of a pioneer ski maker, assumes command of the completion of Winter Park’s 350-acre expansion area, Mary Jane — the largest single expansion of an existing area in Colorado ski history.
Mary Jane will open in December with three double chairlifts serving 4,800 skiers per hour. They will be serviced by a $1.2 million, 37,000-square-foot day center which features two restaurants, ski shop, rental shop, ski patrol and ski school. Cost of the development is $4.8 million and it will bring Winter Park’s total skier capacity to 7,400 skiers.
Groswold also announced plans for still another expansion which will mark the first lodging facilities ever on Winter Park property. This planned addition, which could be completed for the 1978-79 season, would include a 200-unit lodge, condominiums, employee housing and an institute which would expand Winter Park’s involvement in outdoor recreation for the handicapped and disadvantaged.
North America gets international races
Even though Jackson Hole lost its bid to host the 1978 World Ski Championships — its third unsuccessful bid — North American resorts came out quite well in the allocation of World Cup fixtures at the recent FIS Congress and World Cup meetings in San Francisco.
Heavenly Valley got a meet on March 5-7 which had previously been scheduled for Sweden. After California, the tour will go to Aspen for a meet March 12-14. The final two events are in Canada — Mont Ste. Anne for a giant slalom, and then to Montreal, March 20-21, for the finals, which will be head-to-head events for the top 32 men and top 32 women in the standings.
North America is not only scheduled for the finals in March ’76, but also for the opening event in World Cup tour the following December in Sun Valley. This would be the first time the tour has opened on this continent.
Bobby Hackett promotes skiing
The American public will be seeing and hearing Bobby Hackett, on television and in print, tell them that skiing is “the greatest sport in the world,” and that “There’s no reason you can’t ski either — you don’t have to be overweight.”
These promotional messages, for which Hackett, an enthusiastic skier, is volunteering his time and talent, are intended to increase interest in the ski sport, create new skiers and promote skiing safety. The T.V. message alone is expected to reach an audience of approximately a hundred million with the thought that “if I can hack it, you can hack it too.”
The effort is to be sponsored and financed through the American Ski Federation, which includes seven ski organizations, including NSAA.
Ski writers announce fall workshop
Effective news release writing, the new journalism, ski photography, and the changes in communications, are but a few of the topics to be covered in a two-day session of workshops, seminars, and lectures this fall, October 18 and 19, sponsored by the Eastern Ski Writers’ Association. In an effort to improve overall press coverage and writing, and to assist ski area operators and manufacturers in their working relations with the ski press, this fall seminar includes a number of industry related topics. This second press seminar is open to all interested individuals, and those from outside the ski press are heartily welcome to participate.
All areas of ski communications will be covered: broadcasting, photography, feature writing, press relations, newspaper ski columns, even a session on the ethics of ski journalism entitled: “Getting the turkey off the hill,” will investigate the relationships between the press and the industry.
For more information, contact Writer’s Seminar, C/O Maine Workshops, Rockport, Maine 04856.
Skiing Mechanics Workshops scheduled
Skiing Mechanics Workshops have been scheduled in ten cities this fall in a format that has been changed. The main difference is that, in addition to mechanics, the rental shop personnel and the store management will each be involved in special sessions of their own.
Dates of these sessions, which are sponsored by Skiing Magazine, are:
| Dates | Area |
|---|---|
| Sept. 10-12 | Toronto area |
| Sept. 14-16 | Montreal area |
| Sept. 17-19 | Boston area |
| Sept. 21-23 | New York area |
| Sept. 24-26 | Chicago area |
| Sept. 28-30 | Salt Lake area |
| Oct. 1-3 | Denver area |
| Oct. 5-7 | Seattle area |
| Oct. 13-15 | San Francisco area |
| Oct. 20-22 | Los Angeles area |
For further details, contact Skiing Mechanics Workshops, 53 West 82nd Street, New York, N.Y. 10024.
Lift societies elect officers
The Association of Recreational Tramway Authorities (ARTA) and the Society of Aerial Tramway Engineers (SATE) each held annual meetings in May at Seven Springs, Pa.
New president of ARTA is Stan Judge of Wildcat, N.H. Ed Immergluck (Thiokol) is v.p., Gordon Linebaugh (USFS) is secretary/treasurer and David Fleming executive secretary.
Information concerning ARTA is available from the secretary at 630 Sansome Street, San Francisco, Cal. 94111.
The membership of SATE elected LeRoy Schultz as president, George Lippert vice president and Jan Leonard secretary/treasurer. The organization plans on increased programs of circulating technical papers on aerial tramway related topics.
Information concerning SATE is available from LeRoy Schultz, P.O. Box 407, Logan, Utah, 84321.
People
Jim Gibson named director of sales at Telemark in Wisconsin. . .Charles Wilson will be in charge of the ski facility of the new Lincolnshire Marriott in Deerfield, Ill. . . .Bill Sherwood, 32, Trail Crew supervisor for Vail since 1973, died in May from injuries sustained when his motorcycle was struck by an automobile. . .Bea Jones, formerly marketing director of Bear Valley, Cal., has taken a similar position for Elkhorn at Sun Valley. . .Ed Pilkerton is new manager for Condotels of Snowbird in Utah. . .Robert Rossi named controller at Mount Snow, Vt. . .also at Mt. Snow, Larry Jensen was named as director of Group Sales.
Supplier News
Thiokol makes new appointments
Thiokol has announced the appointment of Gordon Hine to head Vehicle Sales of the Logan Division. In the midwest, Vic Dennis, formerly of Crested Butte, takes over from Alan Hardy. In Maine, Thiokol appointed The Oliver Stores as its new distributor.
