“Letting George do it”
Sixteen years ago in SAM appeared an open letter from NSAA addressed, “Dear Ski Area Operator,” and signed, “Your good friend, George.” It discussed what NSAA — then a one-year-old association with just over a hundred members — was doing for the whole industry. The letter ended up, “Please don’t say, ‘I’ll save a buck by not joining and let the other areas tackle these problems for me.’ And please don’t say, ‘Let George do it.’ “
Today, the same situation exists, only more so. Incredibly, there are still some important ski areas which are content “to let George do it” and which sit back as non-members to enjoy the industry-wide benefits of NSAA’s work.
Nobody can force an area to join NSAA. Of course! But we do urge members to eyeball the current membership list and spot areas in their region which are sitting back and “letting George do it.” Then it might be in order to have a discussion with these riders of coattails and turn them into paying members.
Every area should bear its fair share of the costs of NSAA’s important work!
A SAM Editorial
Some energy thoughts
What words of wisdom are there on energy that have not been said? Every day in the press you can find someone prominent saying something forceful, profound and authoritative. Trouble is, you can find someone authoritative to back up any position you want to espouse — control, decontrol…real shortage, phony shortage…oil companies disagreeing with each other, disparate views even from within the White House.
Scanning it all, and filtering out the political rhetoric, it is possible to detect the shape of a real picture against which to view our own industry and prepare long-term positions.
First, it seems inescapable that the oil shortage is real. It may be manipulated — and to that extent be phony — but it is an energy source that is no longer able to meet the world’s increasing demands. (As the world’s worse energy gluttons, we really have ourselves to blame, especially as we, as a country, seem to be incapable of voluntary conservation. But that’s another subject.)
Second, it seems to us that the control/decontrol argument is a real phony. Phased decontrol makes sense from every point of view, but unfortunately, the reasons most often advanced to support it are silly. It is not the answer to the oil shortage. At best it might produce a drop in the oil bucket. The Independent Petroleum Association of America projects all of 400,000 barrels a day of increased domestic oil production by October 1981 with phased decontrol, and by 1985 they predict it would be “as much as” 2 million barrels a day. They might better have said, “will only be” 2 million barrels, because the amount is tiny, and doesn’t even meet the increases in demand, let alone make a dent in the demand itself. But this small, though welcome, increase in domestic production that decontrol might bring will require an estimated $265 billion in investment between […] and 1985. Only higher prices for domestic crude will attract that sort of capital investment.
But, back to our own ski world. It seems very clear that gasoline prices will increase. Much of the world has been paying $2 per gallon for some time, and in some places, $3. It hasn’t hurt skiing in these countries, although it must be said that no ski country in the world has as little public transportation serving its ski resorts as the U.S. does. We feel that the wise area is going to be developing some good contacts and contracts with some bus companies!
It is hard to predict how skiers would react to gasoline priced where it pinched the average pocketbook. Up to a point we think there is an economic capability among skiers to pay to get there. Let’s take the skier who likes to ski at an area which involves driving 500 miles round trip. Last season he may have spent $17 for gas for that trip, and maybe he’ll have to spend half as much again this next winter. Frankly, with our market, we don’t think the $8.50 extra will stop him. It might just persuade him to bring another skier along to share the gas expenses.
As we see it, then, we don’t have too much to fear from sharply higher gasoline prices. What we do have to continue to watch is regulatory action such as weekend gas closings. NSAA and the other recreation industries seem to have that one at bay for the time being, but it could always surface again.
It is worth remembering that all petroleum products will cost sharply more, and that means diesel fuel and electricity. Ski areas with substantial snowmaking operations will surely find it profitable to work on the efficiency of their systems. We have been told that some of the larger ones operate at only 25 per cent of attainable efficiency of their systems. If so, it may well get too costly to waste $75 out of every $100 worth of snowmaking energy purchased.
Here again, a secondary danger also lurks, and that is the perception of outrageous energy waste that is inherent in snowmaking. Burning oil to make snow would seem frivolous in the extreme to 90 percent of the population if a real oil delivery shortfall occurred — especially if it were #2 heating oil in the middle of a cold wave.
So, to summarize our inexpert opinions, we would urge our readers to: 1) develop whatever bus transportation plans you can; 2) develop and maintain effective contacts with all levels of government — town, county, state and national — to make sure they understand the impact of your area on the economy of your region; 3) develop your own energy conservation programs, not just to impress government with your sincerity, but also because you’ll be saving yourself buckets of money as fuel costs spiral; 4) be immediately responsive to calls for help from NSAA, which will play an ever-more-important role in making sure we at least get fair treatment from government in an energy-short world.
A SAM Editorial
Assembly program scores bullseye
Congratulations are overdue from us to all concerned with the High School Assembly Program, “Inside Skiing.” It is outstanding!
Originally funded in 1978 by SIA, the program was put together by Rick Trow Productions under the guidance of SIA Marketing Director, David Ingemie. It is a 35-minute multi-media show presented by a live actor to large groups of students across the country.
The pacing is excellent, and the whole tone is right on target. It is emphatically not “hype,” but it still does a marvelous job of selling the sport to the high school and junior high age groups. It is not full of deep powder and freestyle cliches but, in a natural and uncondescending way, it shows the fun of skiing, the excitement of learning, the exhilaration of achieving even modest skills. The whole project is geared to motivating the new skier, and an important part is the scheduling of a ski trip on a specific day at a not-too-distant ski area.
After the show, each student is given a copy of a newspaper that reinforces the desire to try skiing. Stuffed inside the newspaper is a sheet that bears the sponsor’s message and gives details about the upcoming ski trip to a ski area.
Sponsors may be ski shops or ski areas, and the cost is partially underwritten by SIA. Over 1,000 assemblies are scheduled for this coming fall and winter, which is up from 200 this past year. It is also close to the 1,200 limit that has been imposed.
We think this whole program is first-rate. Areas wanting more information can call Rick Trow Productions at (800) 523-2310; in Pennsylvania, 215-659-8300.
A SAM Editorial
A defamatory article
The March 4 issue of the Chicago Tribune contained an article by Len Ackland, syndicated and picked up by other newspapers, headlined, “Forest Service cover-up in Vail ski disaster.” It is a shabby, unprofessional piece of reporting, and unfortunately it reflects badly on our whole industry, and not just on Vail and the Forest Service.
At its best, investigative reporting uncovers wrongdoing such as police corruption, vote fraud or perhaps a national scandal on the scale of Watergate. At its worst, it is a cheap shot designed to fill space between the ads on a slow-news Sunday. The Tribune’s piece, which according to them resulted from a two-month inquiry, uncovered nothing new. It appears to have been inspired by a sensationalist article entitled, “How Safe is Your Ski Lift? — a Shocking account of the chances you take to get to the top” that appeared earlier in the skinmag, Viva.
We do not intend to comment substantively on the Tribune’s charges, because to do so would anticipate a report currently being prepared. Rather, we will simply quote from the Forest Service release on the subject:
“We have been unable to determine the basis for the charges made by the Chicago Tribune in its Sunday issue, March 4, 1979. Our complete investigative report was made public on June 4, 1976. Its completion was announced by a national press release. Additional information was brought to light in depositions taken in later court actions. Neither of the investigative reports nor the depositions bear out the Chicago Tribune allegations. Therefore, we have turned to the Office of the Inspector General of the U.S. Department of Agriculture to make a full review of the accusations.”
The review should prove useful. But in the meantime, we feel the Tribune has discredited itself rather than discredited the Forest Service, its safety programs or our industry’s most indefatigable worker for ski lift safety, Chuck Dwyer, the Forest Service’s chief tramway engineer.
Our industry is not above criticism in matters of lift safety, heaven only knows, but we hope the Chicago Tribune’s batting average improves in the future. They didn’t get much for their two-month inquiry!
A SAM Editorial
Mountains and the Quality of Life
Proposed: That the “me, too, piece of the pie” and the “woe is me if we don’t get it” attitudes which ultimately will proliferate during the energy shortage are beneath the dignity of the ski industry. As a maturing, articulate industry we should refrain from a defensive posture, which is easy to assume, and aggressively and confidently attack the problem of energy shortage as it relates to skiing through an intense educational campaign directed at legislators, oil companies and the American public.
The premise of the campaign: That outdoor recreation, and specifically that which is conducted near wilderness settings, is important in the lives of the American people who are, statistically, urban. The need to so recreate is as important as food, clothing and shelter in the modern world where the majority live their lives indoors. The importance of outdoor recreation in our lives should be reviewed from the following perspectives:
- Health benefits — physical, mental, social psychic.
- Moral benefits — educational, aesthetic.
Mountains in the lives of people have been annotated throughout history. Today one way of enjoying mountains is to ski. We know that some 14,000,000 Americans enjoy winter recreation directly related to mountains and skiing. Other millions enjoy warm-weather recreation related to mountains. The positive attributes gained from the mountain experiences of skiing, hiking and backpacking, to name a few, are not paralleled by those found in bowling alleys and baseball fields. There are obvious problems connected with moving 14,000,000 Americans a year in the winter to the mountain wilderness; but the commensurate rewards are great and the risk of well-being to these persons, if denied opportunities to pursue their favorite recreation, is even greater.
This country is dependent on transportation for its existence. Energy officials have been saying recently: “Well, we’ve become dependent on the automobile; but that’s only taken the last 60 years.” The implication is that this dependency is going to change. It’s time that officials connected with making determinations on how energy is to be allocated examine the over-all social fabric of this country, study the fact that 60 years ago only a small percentage of the population were “white collar workers” who sat at desks; today most of the middle class is in this category. The very process of living years ago required physical chores and energies beyond what we expend today. Exercise then was something which was part of a daily routine and not generally pursued incidentally; exercise in the lives of people today is mandatory.
When it has been determined that outdoor recreation is important in the lives of American people, then it is necessary to allocate funds so that outdoor recreation of whatever choosing continues to be available through transportation. Perhaps in the process other products must be examined in the light of their contributions to this society. Will the country collapse if the petroleum products used in Barbie dolls and children’s war toys be turned over for use in outdoor recreation?
Alarming is a comment made at a conference recently held in Vermont on the state of tourism in rural America. The main issue was energy. A representative of the travel-recreation industry commented that Eastern ski resorts should immediately start working the Canadian market to fill their ski slopes in the event that the Americans can’t get to the resorts.
If we in the ski industry have as our only concern the
