Intrawest Sells Real Estate at Mammoth
After the sale of Mammoth Mountain to Starwood Capital, Intrawest announced in mid-March that it would sell the majority of its real estate holdings in the town of Mammoth Lakes for $60 million pre-tax profit to the same company. The real estate comprises the future development of over 1,100 residential units and 40,000 square feet of commercial space.

Intrawest retains a 15 percent interest in the joint venture with Starwood and will act as development manager, which will allow Intrawest to earn management fees from the future development.

The proceeds from the sale will be used by Intrawest to pay down debt and the closing took place in two stages—the first by the end of March, the second by the end of April.


New Statutes for Utah and West Virginia
Utah updated its 1979 Inherent Risks of Skiing statute this spring. The bill redefined a skier as a person who, within a ski area, uses skis, sled, tube, snowboard, or any other device to engage in the sport of skiing. The bill also redefined the sport to include special events and competitions and amended the definition of inherent risks to include different snow surfaces, and more natural and man-made objects, such as cliffs and all the toys found in terrain parks.

In West Virginia, the Skiing Responsibility Act was updated based on the Colorado model and redefines many of the inherent risks of the sport to include different types of man-made and natural terrain.


Silverton Opens for Unguided Skiing
As of April 1, Silverton Mountain, Colo., exercised its option to allow 475 unguided skiers a day on its expert-only terrain. To start, the area will be open three days a week and will only allow sliders when avalanche conditions allow. Skiers are required to carry avalanche gear, including beacons, probes and shovels, which they can rent from Silverton for $35, and all sliders have to sign a release. Because of the great conditions in Colorado this year, Silverton may offer skiing well into July.


Steamboat Auctions Summit Properties
In a six-and-one-half-hour auction in mid-March, Grand Summit Resort Properties, a subsidiary of American Skiing Company, sold or put under contract its remaining inventory of 239 fractional and 30 whole units at its Steamboat Grand location. Sales totaled almost $23 million for the absolute auction, which means that the units were sold to the highest bidder, no matter the price. The Steamboat Grand contains 327 rooms in total and the sale represented about 30 percent of the inventory.


U.S. Has Most Expensive Lift Ticket
The U.S. has the world's most expensive six-day lift pass, priced at more than $500, according to the 2005-06 World Lift Ticket Price Survey. The survey, the fifth annual such report from Snow Hunter Ltd., presents a broad review of six-day lift ticket prices from more than 300 ski areas in 30 countries.

For bargain-hunters, Iran is believed to have the cheapest six-day lift ticket in the world, with a pass for the resort of Dizin (which has a good selection of chair and gondola lifts) priced at $32. That’s about fifteen times less than the price of the top U.S. fare.

The 2005-6 World Lift Ticket Price Survey ($90) is divided into three main sections—children, adult pricing for individual resorts and adult pricing for multi-resort passes. It’s available from www.snow24.com, snowhunter@tiscali.co.uk.


Wolf Creek Development Gets Access
A major proposed development at Wolf Creek, Colo., by Texas billionaire Billy Joe “Red” McCombs, got the nod from federal officials for construction of two roads through the Rio Grande National Forest in April to access McCombs’ 288 acres. The ski area itself opposes the development, as do several environmental agencies, who are calling for investigations of the approvals. While the two roads are physically short, the road to build-out will be far longer.


Pennsylvania Resorts Adding Amenities
Whitetail Resort, a Snow Time, Inc. ski area, is getting into the summer business with the purchase of the Whitetail Golf Resort. The course is an 18-hole public course which opened in 2000.

Seven Springs is upping its ante with a proposed $5.4 million casino, which would house 15,000 square feet of slots and 14,000 square feet of dining, seating and lounges. The area is looking to add the casino to one of its existing buildings, but on the far end so it would not interfere with winter operations. The exterior would also be in keeping with the area’s architecture, with plenty of stone and wood. Nemacolin Woodlands also applied for a special resort license from the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board and decisions for both are expected by the end of the year.


Obituaries
Jacques Hébert, chairman of Mont Saint Sauveur International, which operates Jay Peak, Mont Saint-Sauveur, Edelweiss Valley Resort, Mont Avila, Mont Olympia, Ski Mont Gabriel and Ski Morin Heights, died Mar. 17 after a brief illness. He had been involved in managing the company since the 1960s and was an icon in the Quebec ski industry. Under his leadership, the company purchased Jay Peak in 1978, and went private a year ago.

Joe Powers, one of the original designers of the first release bindings, Cubco, died last fall at the age of 97.


People
In Maine, Robyn S. Carey is the new VP of finance at Sunday River.

At Mount Snow, Vt., David Moulton became the new VP of mountain operations. Mathew Zogby will be the new resort communications manager. . . .Over at Smugglers’ Notch, Scott Tobin was named director of vacation sales of the real estate division.

Out at Vail, Colo., a major shift in personnel took place in late February. First, Robert Katz became the new CEO, replacing Adam Aron. Senior VPS and COOs William A. Jensen and Roger McCarthy were named co-presidents of the company’s mountain division. The company also promoted senior VP and CFO Jeffrey W. Jones to executive VP of the parent company. Senior VP and general counsel Martha D. Rehm was promoted to executive VP, and VP of marketing and sales, Christopher E. Jarnot, also became a senior VP of the parent company. All execs from the parent company will be relocated to the Denver area, but the mountain division will not relocate. Also at Vail, William Hall was named VP of the lodging division.

At Angel Fire Resort, N.M., John Yacobellis is the director of golf.

In Utah, Peter Curtis replaces Vern Greco as VP at Powdr Corp. . .Jenni Smith was named VP of planning and resort administration of Park City.

Tamarack Resort, Ida., announced the promotion of Michael Ferensowicz to VP of commercial and strategic partnerships and Nic Stover to VP of construction.

Intrawest, out of Vancouver, appointed Alex Wasilov to the newly-created position of president and COO.


Supplier News
Idealstor was selected by Powdr Corp. to provide secure backup and recovery capabilities for its critical data and will centralize all data from Powdr resorts into its Park City location.

Wood and Wood Signs, Inc., won first place in the Sign of the Times’ commercial monument sign category for Spruce Peak at Stowe’s main entry sign.


Supplier People
Kassbohrer All Terrain Vehicles announced the promotion of Dennis McGiboney to VP of sales and marketing.

Prinoth LLC hired Adam D. Smith at its N.H. office as manager of the parts division. In addition, Peter Craig was promoted to product representative for the mid-Atlantic region.

Rossignol/Quiksilver hired Luke Edgar to oversee all sales and marketing for its snowboard division. Rossignol Canada promoted Pierre Langlois to VP sales and marketing, hard goods division—Canada.

Fischer U.S. named Tim Dyer Alpine product manager.