Controversy
New facts filed in fray over Mineral King
The Far West and U.S. Ski Associations, in an attempt to stem a court appeal brought by the Sierra Club against development of Mineral King Valley as a skiing facility, have filed a brief amici curiae with the Supreme Court containing legislative materials supporting U.S. Government plans to develop the area.
The 58-page “friend of the court” brief, pointing to precedents in the case, argues that the Secretary of Agriculture has the authority to permit the development of winter sports facilities on national forest land and that the authority to develop such a facility at Mineral King Valley in California’s Sequoia National Park is clearly within the law.
The brief further argues that the Secretary of the Interior is empowered to authorize the construction of a transmission line across Sequoia National Park to serve Mineral King and that the state of California is authorized, through the Secretary of the Interior, to improve a road in the park which provides access to Mineral King.
The Sierra Club, in its June 1969 suit against Walt Disney Productions, developers of Mineral King Valley, claimed that the government had no such powers.
A preliminary injunction was granted the Sierra Club nearly a month later on the ground that “irreparable harm” would be done to the area if the government were allowed to proceed with its plans. The order was later vacated when it was determined that the conservationist group lacked standing to bring the suit and that it could not prove that “irreparable” injury would be suffered. The Sierra Club resultingly appealed its case.
The brief refers to previous court cases and several Congressional acts to reinforce its arguments. It further points out that early acts authorizing term and revocable permits for use of national forest lands imposes no limitations on the size of such permits.
“The issue for this Court,” summarizes the brief, “is not whether the Sierra Club or anyone else believes Mineral King should be developed as a winter sports facility, but whether the Secretaries of Agriculture and the Interior are empowered to authorize such a facility at Mineral King. The statutes relied upon grant that power.”
Cushing offers $250,000 for state’s Squaw Valley holdings
Alex Cushing, the controversial operator of California’s Squaw Valley (see “Reports,” April SAM) has bid $250,000 for the state’s interest in the area. Cushing recently referred to his quarter-million dollar offer as a “terrible gamble” which he was taking to offset the public impression that Squaw Valley, former site of the 1960 Winter Olympic Games, is a “bunch of junk.”
According to a state Parks Department official, Cushing’s offer, made in mid-October, is being evaluated along with several other bids that have been made since the area first went up for sale last April. If Cushing’s offer is accepted, the sale will have to be approved by the California legislature.
Initial advertisements for bids brought a lone bid, subsequently rejected, of $250,000 from John Stevenson, son of the late Adlai Stevenson. In addition to Cushing’s bid, other major corporations have also submitted offers.
The state interest at Squaw Valley comprises 1,220 acres and includes two double chairlifts and several buildings which the state is presently maintaining. Purchase of the land also involves obligations to fulfill existing state contracts to supply utilities, fire protection, sewage disposal and other services to existing concessionaires for a 17-year period. The state, according to reports, loses several hundred thousand dollars each year in fulfilling its contracts at the area.
Cushing, a major concessionaire at Squaw Valley, operates his own lifts as well as state-owned lifts under a 17-year contract.
Aspen Skiing Corp., Ski Patrol rift still rages at Aspen
The dispute between Aspen area ski patrolmen and the Aspen Skiing Corp. continues as representatives of the two groups remain at odds over working agreements and union recognition.
Several areas are at issue. Representatives of the Aspen and Snowmass ski patrols, affiliates of Teamsters Local 961 since last winter, claim that the Aspen Skiing Corp., which laid off its trail crew last season following the union election, is guilty of unfair labor practices.
A trail examiner for the National Labor Relations Board has affirmed the patrolmen’s charges and has ordered the Aspen Skiing Corp. to pay back wages to the packers and engage in earnest collective bargaining with the patrol.
Tom Richardson, ASC vice president, said that his organization will appeal the decision. The ASC would first appeal to the NLRB in Washington and, failing that, the decision could be contested in federal courts. The Aspen and Snowmass ski patrols are presently working without a contract.
Negotiations to iron out the differences between the ASC and the patrolmen broke down in October over the issue of who should do the work of the former trail crew. The patrol had taken the position that such work should be performed by patrolmen of least seniority.
The ASC was in agreement that regularly assigned duties should be drafted on a seniority, should be avail- on a day-to-day basis any patrolman, regardless of seniority, should be available to meet emergency situations or other non-scheduled priorities that might develop.
Kevin Cassidy, a spokesman for the Aspen ski patrol, told SAM recently, “There have been no negotiations since October, and none are scheduled for the immediate future. Although we’re prepared to work without a contract for the time being, we’ll have one by Christmas or we’ll simply go out on strike.”
Stock transactions at Caberfae area under investigation
The Michigan Department of Commerce is investigating a series of stock transactions between the Caberfae ski area near Cadillac and the Michigan Securities Co., Inc., the brokerage firm that handled Caberfae’s stock offering in 1967 when the ski area went public.
Although the Commerce Department would not comment on the investigation, it is believed to have been stimulated by a stockholder’s law suit against the ski area’s board of directors and the area’s chairman of the board, James DeLoff, who is also president of the brokerage company.
The suit, brought by Earl Chelsea, a Detroit businessman and Caberfae stockholder, charges DeLoff with self-dealing in the purchase of neighboring Big M ski area and in the initial offering of the stock.
Ownership of Caberfae’s 500,000 shares of stock was limited to 10,000 shares by any one corporation, person, family or interest. However, it is now alleged that Michigan Securities Co. owns 150,000 shares and that friends, relatives and others connected with DeLoff or Michigan Securities own another 50,000 shares in the area.
In addition, Chelsea contends, DeLoff set up a corporation to purchase Caberfae’s neighbor, the Big M ski area, and then turned around and sold the area at an inflated price to Caberfae while he was chairman of the board of Caberfae.
Chelsea is also seeking the reinstatement of Merle Treppe, former Caberfae area manager, who was fired last December, then sued by Caberfae for conversion of funds to personal use and arrested for embezzlement. However, he was arrested without a warrant and the prosecuting attorney in Cadillac admitted in court that he had no evidence to press the charges in any case.—Pat Doyle Begrow.
Instruction
PSIA announces plans underway for Nat’l Ski Academy
At a meeting in Denver last fall, the Professional Ski Instructors Association took on the task of setting up a National Ski Academy for the training and certification of U.S. ski instructors. Horst Abraham, assistant ski school director at Vail and a member of the Rocky Mountain Division of PSIA, was put in charge of the study.
Abraham’s latest report is that arrangements are now well underway and that PSIA expects the academy to be in full swing within two years. The tentative site: Washington’s Mt. Baker.
“We’re now investigating the cost of the project,” said Abraham, “in conjunction with several plans that we’re looking at.”
According to Abraham, the course work will be varied in length, depending on the subject. “We anticipate weekend courses,” he said, “and longer-term course work in ski school management, equipment, bio-mechanics, racing instruction, as well as physical education and other general courses which are necessary if we’re to receive federal support. We hope to make this program the Ph.D. of ski instruction.”
Promotion
Limited-ticket area reservation service slated in the East
Ski areas who have limited their weekend lift ticket sales may have solved one problem—crowded lift lines—but they’ve created another. Many skiers, including regular customers, have had to be turned away.
“The limited lift line has disappointed as many people as it has helped,” says Jerry Van Dyke, vice president and regional manager of Ticketron, a computerized ticket reservation service scheduled to go into operation in the East in mid-December.
At New Hampshire’s Loon Mountain and at the Bromley and Stratton areas in Vermont, skiers can now avoid the early-morning hassle by buying their lift tickets in advance at one of Ticketron’s 300 locations—Macy’s and Grand Central Station in New York, the Pentagon and Walter Reed Hospital in Washington, D.C., M.I.T. in Boston and at most Sears stores.
Limited-ticket areas offering the Ticketron service will also be able to utilize a terminal at the area that spews out advance-sale tickets at the area at no extra cost to the skier. At remote locations, the purchaser pays an extra 65¢ per ticket.
Ticketron’s reservation service will be kicked off this month with a “Buy where you live or work” promotion. Besides lift tickets, the company offers a special speed line pass at Camelback and Blue Knob ski areas in Pennsylvania. Remote offices, says Van Dyke, can also be programmed to reserve hotel or motel space at the ski resorts.
Development
New lifts up skier capacity in Colorado; Arapahoe East opens
More than 650 acres of new skiable terrain has been opened up this season with the addition of 14 new lifts at Colorado ski areas.
These lifts, Colorado Ski Country USA reports, will increase the state’s skier capacity by 15,945 skiers an hour and provide access to over 40 miles of new trails. In all, over $9 million was invested last summer in area improvements at Colorado’s 29 ski areas.
A new area, Arapahoe East, opens this month. Operated by Arapahoe Basin Inc., the area is located 15 miles west of Denver and will be serviced by a double chairlift and poma lift. A ski school, night skiing and snowmaking are part of the plan.
At other Colorado areas, Winter Park, Hidden Valley and Snowmass have each added another double chairlift, while Crested Butte, Keystone and Breckenridge have added two new chairlifts apiece. The original No. 1 single chairlift on Aspen Mountain has been replaced by a new double chairlift. Ski St. Marys, north of Idaho Springs, has expanded with two new lifts.
Olympics
Angry Denverites protest ’76 Olympics; City still committed
Color Denver perplexed. In the wake of word received by SKI Magazine that Olympic officials may be eyeing a Swiss alternative to Denver for the 1976 Winter Games, a citizens’ group has dealt the city another blow by renewing its protests against the Games.
Richard Kithil, vice president of Protect Our Mountain Environment, Inc. (POME) in Evergreen, Colo., is urging opponents of the Olympics to express their opposition to the Games to the International Olympic Committee. Evergreen was one of the areas tentatively chosen as a site for the Nordic ski events.
In September, SKI Magazine learned through its European correspondent that Sion, the Swiss Alpine ski resort that lost to Denver in a bid for the 1976 Games, had received confidential word from top IOC officials that it could replace Denver if the Colorado city were unable to fulfill its Olympic requirements.
“Resorts like Steamboat Springs or Aspen or Vail do not represent a fulfillment of Denver’s application,” an IOC member told SKI.
Denver has had difficulty in finding an acceptable location for the Alpine and Nordic ski events. There was some speculation that a new mountain near Vail might be used for the Alpine competitions and that Steamboat would be used for Nordic events. Olympic officials have made it clear that such sites, more than 75 miles distant from Denver, would be unacceptable.
Douglas Roby, IOC U.S. representative, and Norman C. Brown, Denver Organizing Committee public affairs director, have both maintained that there is “no possibility” that Denver will lose the Games. Brown said that if site changes proposed by the DOC don’t meet with international approval, the DOC will change the sites.
An apparent change in the IOC’s stance came last month when information director Madame Monique Berlioux, in a visit to Denver, said the IOC harbors no doubts concerning Denver’s ability to stage the 1976 Games. “When the IOC selects a city to host the Olympics,” she said, “we are confident that they can do it.”
The DOC, in the meantime, is going ahead with its plans for the 1976 games. A planning board to assist the committee in selecting sites and planning facilities compatible with the environment has already been organized. In addition, $19.6 million in federal funds has been requested—$15.9 million for the construction of competition facilities and $3.7 million as an “inflationary contingency.”—Lois Barr.
People
Otto Schniebs, skiing pioneer, dies at 79
Otto Schniebs, America’s venerable skimeister, died in October at the age of 79.
A German immigrant whose love for the mountains and the ski sport was never diminished, Schniebs immortalized the words, “Skiing is not just a sport, it is a way of life.”
He was a member of the Ski Hall of Fame, appeared in Who’s Who in America, held the New England Council’s coveted Silver Bowl and was memorialized by a monument at Schniebs Pass at Aspen.
Schnieb’s contributions to skiing are legendary: He brought the Arlberg technique to this counry in 1927; he founded the American Ski School; he was the author of numerous books on skiing technique; he was the first to tout the skiing potential of the Colorado Rockies; he coached the Dartmouth ski team in 1930-36 to an unprecedented six intercollegiate championships.
In 1956, Schniebs settled near Whiteface Mountain, N.Y., where he began the area’s now-famous ski shop. He is survived by his wife, two daughters and five grandchildren.
Foster T. Chandler has been named assistant vice president and director of marketing for the Killington ski area in Sherburne, Vt. Chandler, who joined Killington in 1964 as assistant marketing manager, will be responsible for the area’s advertising, public relations, promotion, market research and package plan development.
Don Adams is the new superintendent of Whiteface Mountain ski center in upstate New York. He replaces John King who joined Sugarbush Valley, Vt., as general manager last fall. Adams had been assistant superintendent of Whiteface, a state-owned area, since 1968.
