Substantial expansion planned for 1976-77
A spot check turned up the following: An 1,800 per hour chairlift called Southern Comfort at Sun Valley . . . Solitude in Utah, closed for the past two seasons, is scheduled to re-open next winter with three new lifts: a 5,000 ft. double, a 3,800 ft. double and a 3,000 ft. triple . . . At Park City, Utah, a new 4,000 ft. chair that will open up mostly expert terrain . . . Snowbird, which enjoyed its best season ever, plans two new chairlifts . . .
Keystone will construct three new chairs, one of which will replace the Poma on the practice hill . . . Vail will do some major lift renovation: No. 1 and No. 2 chairs will be rebuilt to increase capacity by 18 per cent. No. 4 lift at mid-Vail be be converted to a triple for increased capacity . . . Steamboat, Copper, Breckenridge, A-Basin and Purgatory all plan chairlifts.
Sundown in Iowa will install a new chairlift, as will Devil’s Head in Wisconsin — a triple . . . The Pines in Indiana will be adding a J-bar . . . Tony Wise of Telemark, Wisc., hopes to add two chairlifts. He also plans an air structure to enclose his four tennis courts . . . Also in Wisconsin, Whitecap Mts. is adding a chairlift — its fourth.
Winter Park to install snowmaking
Winter Park has announced it will install a $1 million snowmaking system to insure a Nov. 15 opening date. Designed by P.B. Alford and Associates of London, Ontario, the system will be operational for the 1976-77 season and will cover 71 “critical” acres on the slopes.
Officials estimate it will take 300 hours of operation to cover this area with 20 inches of man-made snow. A second phase of the project would be completed by the following year.
The ski area wll purchase an additional 75 acre feet of water from the Denver Water Board to facilitate the operation.
Beaver Creek finally gets the green light
Beaver Creek ski area development returned to the takeoff pad Feb. 19 with the announcement by Colorado Gov. Richard Lamm that the state has withdrawn its objections to the winter sports site 10 miles west of Vail. The announcement came with the completion of an environmental assessment report by the Forest Service with the cooperation of the state, Eagle County and the developer, Vail Associates, Inc. The review process lasted more than a year after Lamm had announced his moratorium on ski area development in Colorado Feb. 1, 1975.
The development, now scheduled to begin construction in the Spring of 1977 with initial opening in November 1979, has been under fire since Colorado voters torpedoed the 1976 Winter Olympics in a late-1972 ballot. The development will be on 2,200 acres of private and 3,000 acres of Forest land. Actual ski area acreage will be 4,000, as compared to 6,400 presently on Vail Mountain.
Expenditure at the fulfillment of the project is estimated at $17 million on the mountain and $130 million in the village. Projections are for accommodations to house 10,000 tourists with adjacent independent developments in the Eagle River Valley accommodating an additional 10,000-12,000.
Lamm also announced that the state soon will release a comprehensive winter sports plan which will permit future developers to fully understand the requirements which will be placed upon them.
Addressing that matter, Vail’s Bob Parker said he hoped future developments would not have to pay the high cost of delay experienced at Beaver Creek. “If the winter sports plan is realistic, the recreation industry can fulfill its potential as a major and healthy element in the Colorado economy,” Parker said. “If not, then I am afraid the future looks bleak, not only for the recreation industry, but also for the growing numbers of Americans who want to recreate in Colorado.”
Parker said Vail Assoociates is in the process of preparing a definite financial plan and that major financing will come from third-party capital sources. “We’d prefer a number of passive private investors rather than a partner,” said Vail Associates president, Dick Peterson. Vail Associates will retain management of the construction and operation of the resort.
Snowmaking increases in Southern California
With no snow in sight by the first week in January in Southern Calif., the Forest Service gave the go-ahead approval to Mt. Baldy Ski Area to install snowmaking equipment. The mid-season decision ended many years of petitioning by Mt. Baldy.
For the 76-77 season snowmaking will extend to the top of Snow Summit Ski Area-giving a total drop of 1200 vertical feet of skiing on man-made snow. Two chair lifts over one mile long each will serve the expansion to the top.
LAW
Aspen sued under anti-trust laws
Does a uniform package lift ticket plan among four ski areas constitute an anticompetitive arrangement subject to prosecution under antitrust laws? The Colorado attorney general’s office thinks so and has backed up the contention with a suit against the four Aspen ski areas.
In filing the suit Dec. 22 in U.S. District Court in Denver, Assistant Attorney General Robert Hill addressed three basic points. The first was the four-area ticket administered by Aspen Resort, Inc., since 1968. It provides six days of skiing at any of the areas—Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk—for $64, or $54 during low season.
Hill also attacked the practice of the three subsidiaries of the parent Aspen Skiing Corporation—Aspen Mountain, Snowmass and Buttermilk—charging the same price.
Finally, he at least partially entered the independent ski instructor controversy by charging the Aspen Skiing Corporation and Aspen Highlands with jointly enforcing boycotts against persons who violate the other’s rules.
Company officials declined to comment on the charges pending the trial, whose date has not been set. But one did react with this angry comment: “If they’re saying that Aspen has a cooperative lift package, that’s hardly a surprise. Hell, we’ve been advertising that all over the world for years. It was because the skiers wanted it that the package exists in the first place.”
The Crested Butte expansion flap
The controversy over ski area expansion at Crested Butte which led to the suspension of Howard “Bo” Callaway as President Ford’s campaign manager is tied to a $49 million real estate development — which obviously isn’t peanuts.
Among the more interesting elements of the dispute are a quick alteration in the way ski area capacity is calculated, the role of real estate development in the viability of a ski area and whether the reversal had anything to do with the storage of peanuts in Georgia.
The chronology of the matter is this: In January 1975 the Forest Service issued a management plan which recommended that adjacent Mt Snodgrass not be developed, but that expansion be permitted on Mt. Crested Butte, site of the existing area.
The Forest Service recommendation was based on a carrying capacity formula using vertical transport feet as the key determinant. By that formula, management told the Forest Service in 1974 it could accommodate 7,500 skiers per day. Expansion at the existing site could increase that to 12,000 skiers per day.
Using those figures, the Forest Service estimated it would be 10 years or more before this 12,000-per-day capacity would be approached. But in February 1975, a month after the Forest Service report came out, Crested Butte officials submitted revised capacity figures based on a “comfortable carrying capacity” formula.
Under this new formula, Crested Butte said it could handle only 4,000 skiers per day and that area expansion would add only another 1,000. Snodgrass was projected as capable of accommodating an additional 4,500 skiers.
Then came the controversial July 3 meeting in Washington between Callaway, then leaving his Army post to direct Ford’s campaign, and J. Phillip Campbell, under secretary of agriculture. The matter of the ski area expansion was discussed at this time and from this sprang the charge of influence peddling.
Further, it has been suggested that Callaway’s role in using army facilities to store $142 million worth of peanuts for the Agriculture Department gave him leverage in getting the decision reversed.
While everyone involved insists that the change was made only because of the logic of Callaway’s argument, the fact of the matter is that three key local forest officials who drafted the January management plan — the forest supervisor, the district ranger and the land use specialist — were abruptly transferred to other assignments.
And on Dec. 16, 1975, the Forest Service issued a revised draft environmental impact statement which indicated approval for Mr. Snodgrass. The resulting furor among local residents opposed to the development resulted in the aforementioned allegations and the consequent investigations.
The key to the desire by the Crested Butte Development Corp. to develop the new area is based in the value, real and potential, of the real estate.
As in so many matters wrapped up in election-year politics and charges of wrong-doing, the ultimate decision on Crested Butte expansion probably will be made on emotion rather than logic.
ASSOCIATIONS
Judson receives ESAA award
The Eastern Ski Areas Association’s most prestigious accolade, the Sherman Adams Award, which recognizes unusual and extended contribution to the ski industry, was awarded to Dave Judson, former owner of Otis Ridge ski area in Massachusetts.
A 10th Mt. Division veteran, Judson served in many positions with ESAA, including president, and was one of the organizers, and first president, of National Ski Areas Association.
Pollard, Peabody in Ski Hall of Fame
Two familiar names in the ski area industry were among those elected to the Ski Hall of Fame: Harry Pollard and Roger Peabody.
Harry Pollard, national director of the NSPS, has been an active skier since 1923. His long association with the ski world includes directing the operations of the original Waterville Valley.
Roger Peabody, prior to his long service as executive director of USEASA, was manager of the Cannon Mt. operation at Franconia, N.H.
Ski writers hold elections at Stowe
The Eastern Ski Writers’ Association elected officers and members of the board of directors at Stowe, Vermont, at their annual meeting on March 6. Re-elected as president is Janet Nelson of Ski Area Management and Ski Magazine, and as vice president is Edward G. Pickett of the Valley News and Killington-Pico Paper. New members of the board of directors are: David H. Lyman, Student Skier and Ski America; Kenneth A. Maloney, Bridgeport Post; and Clair Walter, Ski Magazine, Ski Business, Skier and Ski Racing. Outgoing board members are: Fred Hart, Sr., WNLK-WDRN radio; David Mongillo, WNTY radio and Meridan Journal; and William H. Rice, Jr., Schenectady Gazette. Robert Wall of the Syracuse Herald Journal is re-appointed as associate press member of the board and Fred Hart of WNLK-WDRN radio is re-appointed secretary-treasurer.
Channing Murdock is new ESAA president
At the 26th Annual Meeting of the Eastern Ski Areas Association, held at Stratton Mountain, Channing Murdock of Butternut Basin, Ma. and Ski Sundown, Ct. was elected president, succeeding Tom Corcoran of Waterville Valley. Murdock is currently a director of the National Ski Areas Association. The Eastern Ski Areas Association represents the largest group of ski area operators in the country.
Other officers elected by the ESAA Board of Directors include Phil Gravink of Peek’n Peak, N.Y. as first vice president; Stan Judge, Wildcat, N.H. second vice president; Bill Norton, Cannon Mountain, secretary (for the 26th consecutive year!); and Orville Slutsky, Hunter Mountain, N.Y., Treasurer.
Directors elected by the membership at the Stratton meeting include Channing Murdock, Phil Gravink, Tom Corcoran, Rick Carter of Ski Sundown, CT, Tink Smith of Stratton Mountain, VT and Harvey Clifford of Glen Ellen, VT. Other ESAA directors are Russ Haggett, Pleasant Mountain, ME; Mike Beebe, Temple Mountain, NH; Bill Riley, Stowe, VT; Paul Bousquet, Bousquet, MA; Alan Fletcher, Nashoba Valley, MA; Jack Van Scoter, Cockaigne, NY; Gerald Buyce, NY Dept of Environmental Conservation; Sepp Gmuender, Ski Roundtop, PA; and Gus Steppacher, Elk Mountain, PA.
Errata
The Winter issue of SAM regularly contains two features which are particularly susceptible to errors of omission and commission: 1) the Annual New Lift Survey; and 2) the Supplier Directory. SAM uses the Spring issue to try and set the record straight.
The Lift Survey gets tougher each year because of the increasing number of lifts that are re-engineered, re-built and re-located. When should these be considered as “new lifts?”
SAM attempts to maintain a lift inventory, so if a lift is re-located, we do not mind listing it as “new” but we have to “subtract” it from its previous position in our inventory and from our statistical totals of VTFH. The input for all of this is not as complete and accurate as it should be.
Another problem arises when a lift manufactured by one company is modified ad re-located by a different lift manufacturer. Whose lift is it then? SAM is inclined to think that a Pomalift, for instance, remains a Pomalift for record-keeping purposes. For that reason we are changing the “New Lifts by Manufacturer” (Table IV) to show five surface lifts for Poma Aerial Tramways and one for Lift Engineering.
The only other error that has been reported involves the Riblet chairlift installation at Eaglecrest, Juneau, Ak, which is scheduled for the 1976-77 season. It appeared prematurely in the Winter issue.
Still in the lift section, SAM acknowledges a sin of omission: no photo credit was given for the photo of a helicopter carrying a lift tower. This “great” picture was supplied by Butternut Basin, Mass.,—as was the qualifying adjective.
In the Supplier Directory section we omitted some key words from the Gryphon Corp. of N.A. listing. It should have read: “Manufacture, sale and service of wire rope transportation systems for recreational and industrial purposes; chairlift systems, gondola systems, aerial tramway systems, funicular railway systems, inter-urban passenger transportation systems; industrial systems for lifting and hauling. Related services.”
Ski management clinic to be at Bakersfield
The California State College at Bakersfield, in conjunction with Mammoth Mt., is offering a seminar in ski area management April 21-23.
Dave McCoy and other Mammoth staff will be joined by guest lecturers Tom Corcoran of Waterville and Steve Bradley of Winter Park in conducting the 3-day seminar.
Registration fee of $200 includes breakfast, lunch, lift passes, workshop materials and course fee. The course is good for two college credits.
For more information contact Beverly Smith, P.O. Box 24, Mammoth Lakes, Cal., 93546, (714) 934-2571.
Stratton adds Newcombe tennis clinic program
Stratton Mt. in Vermont has announced that all-time tennis great, John Newcombe will operate the Stratton John Newcombe Tennis Center on courts that will be built as soon as the snow is off the ground.
Newk Plus Two, Inc., the John Newcombe-Clarence Mabry partnership which currently operates instructional programs in Texas and Florida, will manage the Stratton clinics. Instruction will be offered at three, five and seven-day programs when the center opens.
MARKETING
TV and backgammon spur food/beverage sales
Ogden Food Services reports that food and beverage sales at the Keg Pub in the Mount Snow, Vermont ski resort have increased more than 100 per-cent over the identical 1975 sales period.
Bill Manewich, Ogden’s on-site general manager, attributes the sales growth to two recent merchandising innovations: a large-screen TV with video cassette attachment and backgammon games available for patron use.
The Mount Snow film library is equipped with over nine hours of ski films shown on the Keg Pub’s giant TV screen. Posters promoting the backgammon program provide an incentive for non-players by offering free instructions. Tables tents suggesting a two drink minimum proved unnecessary since patrons who borrow the backgammon sets normally have far more than two drinks!
Ogden has had responsibility for food management at Mt. Snow for eight seasons. The facilities range from a wine and cheese shop to formal dining at the Reuben Snow Tavern.
The large-screen TV and backgammon programs are currently being implemented at many of Ogden’s ski area clients including Bogus Basin, Crested Butte, and Golf and Ski Incline located in Incline Village, Nevada.
The Great Aspen pass hassle
For most everyone, it was the first time they could recall a Colorado ski area filing suit against the Forest Service. But the injunction gained by the Aspen Skiing Corporation prohibiting enforcement of a controversial season pass plan was much more. It was, as Tom Richardson sees it, a precedent — a very important one at that.
“We hope this will mean that you can’t force a company to establish a cross-subsidy,” the corporation’s vice-president and general manager stated. “The Forest Service was trying to set up a situation by which 90 per cent of our skiers subsidize much lower rates for the 10 per cent local skiers,” Richardson asserted.
At issue is a battle which has been simmering between ASC and a vocal local element for more than a year. It began Jan. 8, 1975, when the corporation announced a change in its season pass plans.
The $250 pass of the current season, which excluded 32 days of prime holiday time, would be replaced by a non-restrictive $550 pass for the three areas operated by the corporation for 1975-76.
Enter the Forest Service, which turned thumbs down on this new proposal, calling it discriminatory because of the limited time framework during which it could be purchased.
Instead, both ski corporations initiated a “host” pass, which cost $200, but required a daily validation of $8 at Aspen Mountain, $5 at both Snowmass and Aspen Highlands and $3 at Buttermilk. Further, there would be a $100 rebate on the base price for employees of local establishments. Regular daily lift tickets are $11 at all four areas.
This set off a howl among the many locals who favor the expert terrain of Aspen Mountain and felt the corporation was overtly trying to exclude them to the benefit of the tourists.
Following this outcry, the Forest Service directed that the original $250 pass of 1974-75 be reinstated and the “host” pass discontinued. The corporation objected, claiming this would create an intolerable bookkeeping situation.
The Forest Service then ruled that the “host” pass could remain in effect, but that the $250 plans of the previous year also must be reinstated.
At this point, the corporation figured it had heard enough and went to court, gaining a 10-day injunction Jan. 22 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., against the $250 pass. The injunction was made permanent Feb. 3, to last through the season.
The issue to be resolved over the summer is what kind of season pass, if any, Aspen will offer the locals for 1976-77. “It could turn into quite a hassle,” one ski corporation official conceded.
SUPPLIER NEWS
Hedco Names Western Rep.
Karl J. Dell, formerly vice president of marketing at The Dewey Electronics Corporation, Paramus, N. J., has joined Hedco, Inc., a Dewey subsidiary, as western region sales representative, with responsibility for sales in California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, and New Mexico.
Dell has been active in the ski industry for over 15 years. He is a certified ski instructor and is currently a member of the board of directors of the Far West Ski Instructors Association. He is also serving as vice president of marketing for the Professional Ski Instructors of America. While at Dewey Electronics, he had direct responsibility for all Hedco snowmaker production and field service.
Dell can be reached at P. O. Box 1559, Kings Beach, California 95719 or by phone at 916-583-4124.
Hall Elects Timmerman
Victor E. Hall, Chairman of the Board of Hall Ski-Lift Company, Inc. has announced that Rand R. Timmerman was elected assistant secretary of the company at the annual board of directors meeting. Mr. Timmerman has been a director of the company since July 28, 1972.
Mr. Timmerman first started working for Hall on a part-time basis in May of 1974 while a full-time student at Syracuse College of Law. Upon graduation in May, 1975 he became a full-time employee of the company. He is a member of the New York Bar.
