Eastern areas seek financial relief
In an extraordinary “summit meeting” in Boston on April 2, leaders of the eastern ski area industry met and discussed financial and legislative problems of mutual interest. In addition to key figures from each of the eight state area associations involved, the meeting was attended by Cal Coniff of NSAA, and by a representative of NSAA’s legal counsel in Washington.
The meeting was called and chaired by Tom Corcoran of Waterville Valley, president of Eastern Ski Areas Association. Sherman Adams of Loon Mt., N.H., was another key figure, and his knowledge of governmental operations was heavily used by the group.
The meeting first defined the problems, with a representative from each state summarizing the financial condition of areas in his state. The group then discussed whether or not this was a proper matter for ESAA to become involved in, and voted unanimously that it was. Thirdly, a plan of action was arrived at, and the necessary committee machinery was set up.
While trying to avoid any sensationalism or overstatement, and while noting that the hardships were not geographically uniform, it nonetheless was the consensus that a grave situation exists, and that a substantial number of areas needed some sort of financial relief if they were to open for next season. The best bet is that business was off an average of 40 per cent, and that is from a year that was itself pretty bad. The universal reduction in operating costs helped, but not enough to cope with a season like ’73-74.
Approximately 16 bills are before Congress that relate to financial relief for industries hard hit by the energy crisis. The ESAA group decided to concentrate their efforts on House Bill (HR) 13068 and Senate Bill (S) 3096, as having the best potential for the hard-hit northeastern ski area industry. These bills would provide direct long-term loans of between 25 and 30 years duration, at interest rates of between 4 and 6.2 per cent.
The ESAA group planned to suggest some appropriate amendments to the legislation in order to ensure its applicability to the ski resort industry. It was recognized that there would be enormous competition for the available funds, and that the case for ski areas would have to be well-prepared and well-documented. Plans were for testimony to be given by Tom Corcoran on behalf of ESAA.
An ESAA Taskforce on Legislation was established, with Governor Sherman Adams as chairman, and consisting of Adams, Tom Corcoran (Waterville Valley, N.H.); Phil Gravink (Peak ’n Peak, N.Y.); Phil Camp (ESAA Executive director); John Christie (Saddleback, Me.); Bill Riley (Mt. Mansfield, Vt.); Rick Carter (Ski Sundown, Ct.); Gus Steppacher (Elk Mt., Pa); Paul Bousquet (Bousquet’s, Mass.); and Matt Baker (Great Gorge, N.J.). The first four listed above constitute the executive committee of the taskforce.
In addition to possible relief from national sources, there were some state programs being studied that looked quite promising.
NSAA convention plans announced
The 12th Annual NSAA Convention and Trade Show will run from Tuesday, May 21, through Thursday, May 23, at the Hotel del Coronado, across the bay from San Diego, Calif.
The featured presentation will be one by the Disney organization running most of Wednesday. Bob Hicks, who headed up Disney’s big and frustrated efforts to develop a resort at Mineral King, will give a slide presentation on European ski resort operations. This was part of a massive research program undertaken by the Special Projects Division of Walt Disney Productions.
In addition, other Disney executives will talk about employee training, promotion, advertising, marketing, grounds maintenance etc.
Another highlight will be an audio-visual presentation by Ogden Leisure on successful food and beverage operations. This organization is one of the country’s major volume feeding organizations, and for the past seven years has operated the huge Mt. Snow, Vt. food operation.
One of the early pioneers in “convenience foods,” Ogden abandoned the concept at Mt. Snow and developed a program for using volume buying to economically produce “homemade quality foods” on premises at the resort. The presentation will be made by Ogden’s VP for marketing, H. William Whitaker.
Rounding out the seminars are: “Fuel shortages and your marketing programs in the future” by Skip Voorhees, of Resort Counseling Assoc.; “Successful summer operations” — a panel discussion; and “Serious accident review and prevention” by Dave Fleming, NSAA Lift Engineering Program Director.
The trade show, which opens at 11 a.m. on the first day, runs concurrently with the convention.
NSAA executive director Cal Conniff unsuccessfully sought vice president and Vail skier, Gerald Ford, as guest speaker. At presstime nobody had been confirmed for this spot.
The convention closes with elections, and business meeting, starting at 10:45 a.m. on Thursday, May 23.
“Gold Pass” program to support ski team
At the mid-winter meeting of NSAA, board approval was given to a U.S. Ski Team fund-raising program involving the sale of 100 “Gold Passes” at $1,500 each. Purchasers of the fully transferable passes will be able to ski at any of 150 participating areas.
If all the passes are sold, $120,000 will go to the U.S. Ski Education Foundation for the ski team, and $30,000, (20 per cent) will be retained by NSAA “for administrative costs.”
Participating areas are spread across the country, and pass purchasers will be able to ski at most of the major resorts.
Major new resort in East
It appears that the only new ski area in New England this coming winter will be Greylock Glen in Adams, Mass., an 1,100-acre resort owned by Alan S. Canter of Elco Resort Developers Inc. of Springfield, Mass.
Three Borvig double chairlifts and a ski school cable lift will be installed this summer, with the longest lift 3,500 feet with a vertical rise of 750 feet. All of the major trails and slopes will be covered by an integrated snowmaking system, and most of the area will be lighted for night skiing.
Sno-Engineering Inc. of Franconia, N.H., has the turnkey contract for the ski area, part of a year-round recreation complex which is described as the most modern and complete convention facility in New England.
NASTAR program Shows increase
At press time, the 1973-74 NASTAR season had not yet concluded but statistics received by SAM for races held through March 23 show 55,136 NASTAR participants had made 75,621 runs on courses at 83 NASTAR ski areas. That represents an increase over 1972-73 of 4.2 per cent in number of entrants and 7.8 per cent in number of NASTAR runs taken. Final NASTAR statistics are tallied in late April when all areas have concluded their recreational ski racing programs.
To date, Aspen Highlands, Colo. has had the greatest area participation with 2,465 racers as of March 23. And the Highlands has also conducted the most number of races, 48, by that date with A-Basin, Colo. and Indianhead, Mich. right behind at 47 races held. Keystone, Colo. recorded the greatest number of total runs, 3,817, as of the March tally date.
Ellis services are expanded
Frank and Margo Ellis of the Ellis Snow Reporting Service report they had a “fantastic year,” citing as evidence the thee million calls they handled and the $52,000 phone bill that came for the first month of their 35 WATS lines.
The Ellis service was sponsored this season by Coca Cola, National Car Rental and Beconta, and was national for the first time.
Taking advantage of his communications network, Ellis has now taken on ski area room reservation and plane reservations functions.
Major changes at Squaw Valley
There was both good news and bad news about Squaw Valley this spring.
First, the good news: The site of the 1960 Winter Olympics, with one of the finest skiing mountains in the world, will be transformed into a major destination resort through a $250 million joint venture by Richard C. T. Baker and Alex Cushing.
Baker, managing director of Mainline Corporation, Ltd., of Sydney, Australia, recently purchased all land and facilities in Squaw Valley previously owned by the State of California for $2.5 million at public auction. Several months earlier, in conjunction with Wayne Poulsen, he had acquired other large parcels of land.
Under terms of a 50-year operating agreement with Cushing, who will be chairman of the board of the newly-reorganized lift company, Squaw Valley Ski Corporation, Baker acquired Squaw Valley Lodge plus additional valley land needed for development of a European-style core village. In exchange, Cushing received a portion of the land on the mountain and previously-owned State lifts, which Baker had just purchased.
While Baker develops condominiums, hotels and shopping malls on his 2000 acres in the valley, Cushing will be spending more than $1 million in each of the next 12 years to construct 13 more lifts, a high-altitude 18-hole Robert Trent Jones golf course at Gold Coast, and a restaurant at the top terminal of the 150-passenger cable car to be called “High Camp.”
Immediate plans this summer call for a new chairlift on the Killy Challenge run at Gold Coast, overhaul of the Cornice No. 2 and Headwall chairs, plus the start of work on High Camp.
When fully developed, Squaw Valley will have a daily lift capacity of 15,000 skiers, a permanent population of about 14,000 and 4000 condominium and hotel units housing 6000 visitors.
Baker and Cushing also said they will attempt to bring the Winter Olympics to Squaw once again, in 1988.
Now, the bad news, at least for Cushing: Civil penalties of approximately $18,000 were levied on his present firm, the Squaw Valley Development Co., for two violations of newly-adopted lift safety regulations.
The citations, made under the Occupational Safety and Health Act by the State Division of Industrial Safety, stemmed from an accident March 8 in which seven persons were injured, three seriously, when the Exhibition chairlift rolled backward, and from the alleged failure to operate the KT-22 chairlift March 18 without a properly-functioning backstop brake. Mechanical deficiencies on both lifts have since been corrected.
Cushing has announced that two lift-engineering firms will be hired to completely inspect Squaw Valley’s lifts this summer, and that these firms would continue to make twice-monthly inspections throughout next ski season.
Pros set new prize money highs
The Benson & Hedges professional ski racing tour ended with the veteran Hugo Nindl, 32, as the winner, with $93,200 to show for it. Second place went to Renzo “Zande” Zandegiacomo, a rookie, who won $61,300.
The total prize money for the season jumped from $351,000 in 1973 to $527,500 this season. Indeed, Nindl’s winnings amounted to more than the total won by all the pros in the 1970 season.
Seminar planned for municipal areas
A three-day seminar on the development, design and operation of municipal ski resorts is scheduled at Humber College, in Ontario. Attending will be park directors and municipal recreation authorities both from Canada and the U.S. Dates are June 3-5.
The Federal Government in Canada has shown considerable interest in developing such facilities as has Ontario and some other provinces.
Among the topics to be covered are: Total concept approach to planning; Snow control; Solid waste management; and, of course, presentations on lifts, snowmaking, grooming etc.
Project coordinator is Don Mathews, and he should be contacted for further details at Humber College, Rexdale, Ont. Canada, M9W 5L7.
High school racing program set
Waterville Valley, N.H. was the scene of a pilot ski racing program, called HI-STAR, that Ski Magazine is starting for high school teams. In this first meet, teams from Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey raced on Saturday to establish NASTAR handicaps. Then, on Sunday they raced head-to-head on dual slalom courses with team members alternating courses during three runs. These dual races were done entirely without timing devices, just a signal voice start and judges to name winners at the finish. Teams received one point for each win and the team with the most points won the meet. Ski intends to make the HI-STAR program nationwide next year.
Dufresne-Henry purchases Kinney and Associates
Dufresne-Henry Engineering Corp., of North Springfield, Vt., recently announced the acquisition of the New Jersey firm of Kinney and Associates from the estate of the late Bob Kinney.
Included in the purchase were all of Kinney’s ski consultant business assets, according to Robert Dufresne, senior partner in Dufresne-Henry. “This purchase will expand our growing Mountain Engineering Division, and thus provide our clients and the Kinney clients an unparalleled choice of engineering services from lift design to spray irrigation,” said Dufresne.
Charles Kise, P.E., of the Kinney firm, will remain in New Jersey, while Sel Hannah, Jr., has decided to experience Vermont living and has moved north to join SAM contributing writer, Nils Ericksen, at Dufresne-Henry.
Thiokol makes new appointments
The Logan Division of Thiokol has announced the appointment of James B. Ferrara as Director of Marketing, replacing Bob McGregor, who is entering other fields. In a concurrent move, John Lavoie was made Director of Technical Services, replacing Rex Brown.
Both Ferrara and Lavoie are long-term veterans of other Thiokol divisions.
PEOPLE
Jerry Jones named vice president in charge of marketing at Keystone, Colo.. .Chuck Johnsos, Vail’s marketing director, has surrounded himself with some beautiful and high-powered talent: Pam Conklin is in charge of publicity, and in February appointments (the release said Feb. 12, but it was probably Valentine’s Day) Susan F. Contesini was named Manager of Marketing Services, and Karen Siebert was appointed Manager of Sales and Services.. .Jack Marshall resigned as vp and general manager of Elkhorn at Sun Valley. He plans to get involved with another project in the developmental stages.. .W. E. (Elmer) Sutton, a major figure in the development of lift and tramway codes in the Canadian northwest, has retired from his position with the Province of Alberta after 32 years of service. Sutton was recently honored by Canada West Ski Areas Assoc. for his service to the industry.. .Glen Paulk has been appointed president of LTV Recreation Development, Inc., replacing Kenneth H. Klopp, who resigned. Paulk was formerly vp and general manager of LTV-RDI’s Steamboat Ski Area.
Bainbridge returns to New Mexico post
Buzz Bainbridge, well-known in ski resort marketing circles, has resigned as vice president of the Jackson Hold Ski Corp. to become director of Ski New Mexico, a new organization for the promotion of New Mexico skiing.
Bainbridge, and his wife Jean, started their ski careers in New Mexico immediately after World War II when he managed the Santa Fe ski area. He later became involved in promoting or managing Red River, La Madera (Sandia), Sierra Blanca and running the ski school at Los Alamos. He was marketing director at Aspen from 1963-68.
Brodie has big Summer plans
Brodie Mountain ski area in New Ashford, Mass., which opened Nov. 6 and closed April 13 for the longest season in the Berkshires, will go directly into a summer camping program.
President Jim Kelly constructed a huge outdoor, heated swimming pool last fall in the form of an Irish Harp, and built a bathhouse with an upstairs apartment next to the pool. He has also constructed 100 camp sites, with utilities, and two other comfort stations.
Kelly plans to build two tennis courts for summer use and will have a riding stable in operation. He will also offer daily hang-gliding or kite flying lessons, with Doug Weeks as the instructor. An Eastern gliding championship is planned for late June at Brodie.
PR director Dennis Jenks, a water ski champion and hot-dogger, will operate a water ski school from Kelly’s home on Onta Lake in nearby Pittsfield, Mass.
Tramway code taskforce named
David Fleming, the recently-appointed head of the NSAA Lift Engineering Program, has been named chairman of the NSAA B-77 Taskforce. This committee is charged with assembling and evaluating proposed revisions to the tramway code.
Other members of the committee include Chuck Dwyer of the U.S. Forest Service, John Fletcher of Steamboat Springs and Stan Judge of Wildcat, N.H.
Binding workshop schedule set
The schedule for the 1974 Skiing Mechanics Workshops has been set as follows: Boston (Sept. 22-24), New York (Sept. 25-27), Chicago (Sept. 29-Oct. 1), Denver (Oct. 2-4), Seattle (Oct. 6-8) and Palo Alto (Oct. 9-11).
As in previous years, the workshops are sponsored by Skiing Magazine in cooperation with Barringer and Williams, and are produced by Harry A. Leonard & Co. Inc., 53 West 82nd. Street, New York, N.Y. 10024. They are approved and endorsed by NSAA and SIA.
Registration fee for the 3-day workshops is $100 for a shop’s first registrant, and $80 for each additional.
Faculty for the workshops includes binding experts Gordon Lipe, John Perryman, Carl Ettlinger, Paul Cohen and Doug Pfeiffer.
Burrington Hill sold
Chet Page, for 18 years the owner and operator of Burrington Hill Ski Area, in Whitingham, Vt., has announced the sale of his area to Edward Tanny, of Avon, Conn. It is not expected that the new owner will operate the area for public use.
Mr. & Mrs. Page intend to remain in the Whitingham region.
