Murray leaves NSAA marketing post
Tom Murray has resigned from his position as Marketing Director of NSAA to assume the position of President of Resort Service International (RSI), which is being restructured. RSI will continue its brokerage of ski resort properties, but Murray will also be handling the personnel search and placement previously handled by Sno-engineering, and will add a Corporate Services Division, in which he will design and direct programs to help corporations outside the ski industry match their marketing objectives with the opportunities available in the ski world.
Murray, who has been handling Coca Cola’s ski programs through NSAA, said, “There is a need to reverse the present services provided to corporations involved or looking to involve themselves in the sport of skiing. We need to examine and understand their marketing objectives. Then determine the ‘where’s and how’s’ of meshing these objectives with the sport of skiing. Once determined, then we can develop effective and mutually beneficial programs. It is important to understand that these companies have products or services to sell. Marketing programs, designed and implemented by RSI, will be measurable in their effect from a sales stand-point, both by the corporation involved and the ski industry.”
The marketing services available range from the design and direction of major national programs to the implementation of equally effective regional and local events and promotions.
Resort Service is one of three affiliated businesses publishing the industry newsletter, International Ski Resort Marketplace. In addition to RSI news, it contains listings and information from Knapp Associates and Sno-engineering.
New headquarters for Resort Service International will be at 18 South Park Avenue, Longmeadow, Massachusetts 01106. Telephone: (413) 567-8483.
Hixson resigns Snowbird presidency
Raymond L. Hixson, President of Snowbird Corporation, today announced that he is resigning that position to become an active partner and Chairman of the Board of Bonneville Associates, Inc., a western-based government relations and financial consulting firm. Hixson, who will remain at Snowbird until a successor is found, will remain on the Board of Directors of Snowbird Corporation and continue to be involved in the future development of the resort.
President of Snowbird since 1975, Hixson said Snowbird, which was opened in 1971, has become one of the premier year-round destination mountain resorts in the world. “I have been privileged to help in its growth and look forward to playing a continuing role with Mr. Richard D. Bass, owner, in its future development.”
Sugarloaf VP Invited To Olympic Games
The operations vice president for Maine’s Sugarloaf has been invited to attend the XIII Olympic Winter Games at Lake Placid as a technical consultant for Valley Engineering of
attendance to be 250, including lift operators and maintenance technicians from across the country,” says Randy Woolwine, Conference Chairman. “Last year’s participants represented seven states and 31 ski areas.”
Highlighting the agenda this year will be keynote speaker Howard Anderson, a well-known safety engineer consultant of Ellensburg, Washington. Incorporating the theme, “Lift Management and Maintenance in a High Risk Environment,” the meeting will provide technical seminars and training sessions, as well as a trade exhibition show of the latest equipment and manufacturing trends available to lift personnel.
Formed in 1972, the association began when many lift maintenance and mechanic personnel recognized a need to discuss common problems and possible solutions. Operations and maintenance technicians of all types of lifts throughout the Rocky Mountain region were invited to join.
The Conference and Trade Show is open to all lift personnel throughout the country. Those interested in more information and registration should contact Randy Woolwine, Conference Chairman, Winter Park Ski Area, P.O. Box 36, Winter Park, Colorado 80482.
New York area group seeks Exec Director
Ski Areas of New York (SANY) is planning to hire a full-time executive director, and is looking for candidates.
Search Committee chairman, John Van Scoter, says he is looking for a “bright, self-starting, motivated person with a strong ski area background.” He stresses that marketing skills and experience are important.
Candidates should send resumes without delay to: John Van Scoter, Cockagne Ski Area, RD 1, Clay Creek, N.Y. 14723; (716) 287-3223.
National Avalanche School sets dates
Applications are being accepted now for Phase I of the sixth National Avalanche School, to be held by the Forest Service at the Pioneer Auditorium, Reno, Nevada, November 4-9. Completion of this phase is a prerequisite for Phase II, which consists of field seminars in January and February at high avalanche hazard areas, including Alpine Meadows, Snowbird, Crested Butte, Crystal Mt., Jackson Hole and Alyeska.
Phase I consists of academic training, and consists of lectures and workshops on such topics as Meteorological Fundamentals, The Avalanche Phenomenon, Avalanche Control Fundamentals, Avalanche Rescue.
Tuition charge is $150. Since the school is always overbooked, selection of students is based on need as indicated in the application.
To receive an application form, send name and address to: 1979 Ntl. Avalanche School, c/o Laurie Foulkes, USDA-Forest Service, P.O. Box 2417, Washington, D.C. 20013.
Errata
The Directory section of SAM that runs annually in the Winter issue contained some errors and omissions. Our apologies to those concerned.
Omitted were:
KNAPP ASSOCIATES. INC.
RD 2 – Box 143
Shelburne, Vermont 05482
(802)985-2221 & Toll-free (800) 451-5167
Equipment broker of both new and used machinery and equipment for the ski area industry and publisher of KA Equipment News, part of Int’l. Ski Resort Marketplace.
Home office: Hugh Knapp, President.
MOUNTAIN RECREATION MANAGEMENT SERVICES
P.O. Box 1406, Sun Valley, Id. 83353
An in-house training program for ski resorts to use in training ski area personnel.
Home office: Chris Stoddard, President.
The telephone number for Spaa Industries International was listed incorrectly in the Directory. It should be (201) 764-7259.
A typographical error resulted in the misspelling of (here correctly) Nuova Agudio of North America Inc.
Colorado Ski Hall of Fame inducts seven
The Board of Directors of the Colorado Ski Museum elected seven new members to the Colorado Ski Hall of Fame, bringing the total thus recognized to 21.
Among the new inductees are three well-known names in the ski area industry: Steve Bradely, past NSAA president and the guiding hand of Winter Park for 27 years; D.R.C. Brown, another past president of NSAA, and now retiring from the presidency of the Aspen Skiing Corporation after serving for the past 21 years; and Sven Wiik, of Steamboat Springs, longtime ski coach for U.S. teams, and influencial in the growth of touring.
Acquisitions
Soda Springs bought by investor group
An investor group which includes the president of Lift Engineering, Jan Kunczynski, has bought the Soda Springs ski area near Donner Pass in the Tahoe region of California. A 30-year-old resort, Soda Springs did not open this year. It will re-open under new management either next season or a year later.
“We will cater to beginners and children,” Kunczynski said. He anticipates that three new lifts (possibly triples) will be installed to replace the four existing lifts. Uphill capacity would remain about the same. Two more lifts might be added later.
Telluride bought by Benchmark Properties
Control of Telluride Ski Resort (Telco) in southwestern Colorado has been purchased by Benchmark Properties, Inc., of Avon, Colorado. Total purchase price was reported at $4 million.
Ron Allred, Benchmark Properties chairman, will serve as Telco’s president, and a Benchmark partner, A.J. Wells, as secretary-treasurer. Joseph Joline, original developer of Telluride, is on the Telco board.
Benchmark is a real estate development operation which has focused its activities until now in Avon, Colorado. The capital for the Telluride investment was derived principally from their Avon land sales.
Among the priorities the new owners cite for their acquisition, according to a report in Vail Trail, is expansion of the lift and trail network, construction of one or more mini-villages on the mountain and some sort of rail service connecting them with the main town.
Colorado lift ticket tax is sidetracked
A proposed tax on lift tickets generally opposed by Colorado operators has been at least temporarily sidetracked in the state legislature.
The proposed tax, never quite formalized in a bill, would have added a five per cent levy to the lift ticket. But if one proposal to round the ticket cost off to the nearest dollar were adopted, the rate could have been much greater.
Colorado operators objected because the increase would put them at a competitive disadvantage with other states which have no such tax. They were joined in their opposition by Colorado residents who still purchase more than half the tickets sold in the state.
The matter likely will be referred to a Legislative Interim Committee, which will study the merits of the proposal and decide whether it be drafted at a subsequent session, probably not before 1981. Revenue from the tax would have been used in mountain communities impacted by skier use.
Also suggested for interim study is the role of Colorado’s Joint Review Process of federal, state and local determination of potential ski area developments.
The Colorado Legislature also seems on the brink of following the lead of other ski states in passing a skier responsibility law to define liability in ski accidents.
Bristol announces expansion plans
Bristol Mountain Ski Area, in Canandaigua, N.Y., has announced plans for “Bristol North,” a completely new area just north of the present facilities.
According to Joseph J. Kohler III, Bristol’s President and GM, “The new area will increase Bristol’s total skiing surface by nearly 50 percent, and the new triple chairlift will increase total lift capacity by more than 1,800 skiers per hour.”
The new facilities are scheduled for completion in time for the 1979-80 season.
Group plans trip to Munich trade show
A ten-day trip to Europe for interested ski area executives is being planned around Intermontec, the alpine sports trade show in Munich, September 8-11.
Organizer of the trip is Sepp Gmuender, who operates Ski Roundtop in Pennsylvania. Sepp attended the same show last year when it was held in Innsbruck and found it very worthwhile. One of the sponsors of the trip is Ski Area Management.
“Any North American ski area operator will find this trade show valuable,” says Gmuender, “and the rest of the trip has been planned to be equally valuable–and fun also,” he adds, “including some receptions to meet with European ski area operators.”
The group will leave New York by Swissair on September 6 and return ten days later, except for those who make individual plans to extend their trip. In addition to visiting the Intermontec exhibits and conferences, the group will go to Garmisch-Partenkirchen and visit Germany’s highest mountain resort, the Zugspitze.
The trip will end up in Switzerland where the group will visit Gmuender’s home town of Appenzell. Here he promises a “fantastic reception” with members of the Swiss Ski Area Operators Association and lift manufacturers present.
Details of itinerary and cost will be available in May (and at the NSAA Convention) from Sepp Gmuender, Trans-World Agency Ltd., Box 256, Lewisberry, Pennsylvania 17339.
Mt. Waterman files major expansion plan
Mt. Waterman, one of the grand old ski areas of Southern California, has filed a comprehensive development plan prepared by Larry Christensen, president of Blue Enterprises, a ski area consulting firm.
Highlights of the plan call for more than a five-fold increase in capacity, six new double chairlifts, expanded parking facilities and a new, all-purpose lodge which will provide a year-round facility. The latter, in addition to offering an obvious advantage to skiers, is expected to be used by hikers, sightseers and campers during the summer months. This, plus the parking, are responsive to a need cited in the Forest Service’s own “Angeles High County” plan for the region?
Ski thefts are serious concern
There has been wide press interest in a study released by Inter-Ski Services on ski thefts. The report concluded that, nationally, thefts during the 1977-78 season amounted to a loss of over 21,000 pairs of skis, with a replacement cost of $6 million.
There was also wide press coverage of Killington’s program of catching ski thieves with “bugged” skis–skis with a very small radio transmitter hidden on the ski. The signal from the bug is then tracked with a radio direction finder.
A number of ski thieves were caught red-handed, and presumably a lot of thieves deterred by the wide publicity Killington gave to its program and its success. Killington is marketing the hardware for the ski bug to other ski centers. Details are available from Dave Langlois, Killington Ski Area, Killington, Vt. 05751.
The survey of ski thefts concluded that large resorts are more a target of the ski thief than small day areas, and that since the west has a higher proportion of destination resorts than other parts of the country, so they also account for a large (47 percent) portion of thefts occur in the immediate vicinity of the day lodge.
More information on the survey is available on request from Inter-Ski Services, P.O. Box 3635, Washington, D.C. 20007.
Alpine Slide adds products
Alpine Slide Corporation has been consolidated into a new corporate entity called Inventex Corporation according to board chairman, Stig Albertsson, who is also the owner of Bromley ski area in Vermont.
Commenting on the consolidation, Inventex president Claudio Elia, states, “This change signals our desire to expand the scope of activities of our company while continuing to capitalize on our main business, Alpine Slide.”
products and services in recent months including a recreation-oriented water slide, a line of over-snow grooming vehicles, another summer slide similar to the Alpine Slide, and Transmobile, a monorail system for transporting people horizontally between points, as well as up and down mountainsides.
“In addition,” says Elia, “we have other products – both domestic and foreign, under active consideration. As yet they are not in the field such as our other products.”
“Our Mountain Equipment Division represents our most visible expansion since the recent consolidation,” reports Elia. The company has exclusive northeast distribution rights for Miller W’s Kool-Kat and is currently on a demonstration circuit in its territory.
Inventex’s Mountain Equipment Division Manager, Jay P. Murphy, indicates that extensive research preceded the acquisition of distribution rights for the heavy-duty snow grooming equipment. Comments Murphy, “response by ski areas suggests this can become one of our most productive divisions.”
Inventex not only sells its summer sliding systems, but recently formed Inventex Management Corporation to actively pursue opportunities for leasing, financing and off-site management of the products they sell.
Ski market research studies are available
The Graduate School of Business Administration of the University of Colorado is the source of a large amount of ski industry research. Under Dr. Charles Goldener, they handle the annual NSAA Economic Analysis of North American Ski Areas, and they also conduct other studies of interest to ski area marketing executives.
Among the current studies available are:
| Study | Price |
|---|---|
| 1977-78 NSAA Economic Analysis | $30 |
| The Vail Skier–1977-78 | $15 |
| The Airline Skier–1977-78 | $15 |
| The Colorado Skier–1977-78 | $25 |
| The Aspen Skier–1977-78 | $15 |
| Bibliography of Skiing Studies | $10 |
To order copies, send check payable to “Business Research Division” to: Business Research Division, Graduate School of Business Administration, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309.
