A-Basin Another First
Arapahoe Basin opened on October 10 for the 2007-2008 ski season. This marks the Basin’s earliest opening in its 61 years of operation and the second year it has been the first area in the country to open.

Opening day tickets were $22-$45, depending on age.


Loon and Summit-at-snoqualmie sold
Booth Creek Ski Holdings, Inc., sold Booth Creek’s equity interests in Loon Mountain, N.H., and the Summit-at-Snoqualmie, Wash., to Boyne USA, Inc. Upon closing of the stock transfer, Loon and the Summit will continue to operate the respective resorts under long-term lease arrangements with CNL Properties, the owner of the assets comprising the two resorts. For more on CNL Properties, Boyne USA and REITs, see page 50.


No Go For Wolf Creek Village
The Colorado Court of Appeals in Denver has ruled against a massive village at the base of Wolf Creek ski area, which was to have been developed independently from the ski area by Billy Joe McCombs. The Court upheld a lower court ruling that voided Mineral County’s approval of the project, which could have resulted in approximately 2,000 units on 288 acres.


Silverton Gets Lease
Silverton, Colo., received a 40-year permit on October 10 from the BLM. Traditionally, BLM doesn’t grant more than one- to three-year leases. While these leases are renewable, they don’t offer the stability of a long-term lease. The ski area’s representation found legislative history that permitted BLM to enter into long-term authorizations, which Silverton took to the BLM, and the Interior Department agreed.

In Colorado, this is the first authorization for skiing and riding on public lands since Beaver Creek. More broadly, this decision sets a precedent that opens public lands to more uses.


New Resort for utah?
A new resort is being proposed in Utah, 18 miles from the Salt Lake City Airport, which would be a first for the Oquirrh Mountains to the west of the city. The resort would be developed by Kennecott Land, part of the Kennecott Utah Copper Company.

The proposed ski area would have a base elevation of 6,200 feet, with lifts reaching up to just over 9,000 feet.

The ski resort is envisioned as being part of a larger development that could include more than 10,000 homes in a mountain community near the proposed resort. Currently, Kennecott is involved in preliminary snow depth studies on the company’s property.


Belleayre To Expand
The State of New York has given the green light to a $400 million project to develop two hotels, 259 lodging units, a conference center, spa and organic golf course upon land adjacent to the state-owned Belleayre Mountain Ski Center.

The agreement to develop the land culminates seven years of legal wrangling between the state, New York City and Crossroads Ventures LLC. At issue was how to best preserve the Catskill-Delaware watershed, the source of drinking water for more than nine million New Yorkers and home to prized trout streams, and allow the project to proceed. In a key concession, Crossroads agreed to shift all proposed development out of the Ashokan Reservoir basin and to adopt a clustered development approach that reduces the total number of developed acres from 573 acres to 273 acres. The project includes construction of green buildings that will obtain certification under the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

In addition, the state will assume ownership of 78 acres of the former Highmount Ski Center, which will be integrated into Belleayre.


Obituaries
Stanley Christopher “Chris” Haynes died after the first snowfall, September 29, 2007, at his home in Truckee, Calif. Haynes had a 33-year long career in the snowmaking field working at Vail and Beaver Creek in Colorado, Sun Valley, Idaho, and, until 2005, at Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif.

Dr. Eugene Bahniuk, the founder of the original ASTM snow skiing committee in 1972, died last May. Bahniuk was also a driving force behind the first NSAA Rental Shop Guidelines.


People
Ascutney Mountain, Vt., announced the retirement of its GM and patriarch, John Plausteiner, and his wife Lucille, who managed the hotel. As a result, Chet Dunican is the new head of mountain operations and Alan Goldstein is the new hotel manager. Tom Mansfield became controller and Neil Whitney is the new assistant mountain manager.
Angel Fire, N.M., hired Jon Reveal as COO.

In Colorado, Copper Mountain announced that Gary Rodgers is the new president and COO. Kelly Keefer is the new VP of operations and Jesse True takes on VP of sales and marketing at both Copper and Winter Park. Pete Woods became the director of marketing at Copper. . .Breckenridge Ski Resort promoted Brett Howard to marketing director. . .At Beaver Creek, Pete Sonntag was named director of Beaver Creek Ski and Snowboard School. . .Colorado Ski Country appointed Amy Kemp to communications director. . .At Crested Butte, Roark Kiklevich moves to the newly-created position of mountain planner. Ken Stone was appointed VP and chief marketing officer.

At Grand Targhee, Wyo., F. Scott Pierpont has joined the team as the new GM.

In Utah, Michael Goar was named managing director at The Canyons.

In Idaho, Jared Montague is the new sales and marketing director.

Ski Anthony Lakes, Ore., hired a new general manager, Bill Junnila.

In Quebec, Charles Masicotte takes over the helm of Mont Tremblant as president and COO.


Supplier News
At Doppelmayr/CTEC, Jan Leonard has stepped down as president.

Leonard worked in the ropeway business for more than 35 years and oversaw the merger between Doppelmayr and Garaventa/CTEC in 2001. Leonard will continue his association with Doppelmayr CTEC and the industry as an independent ropeway consultant. Replacing Leonard as president is Mark Bee, former executive VP of the company. Bee has 18 years of ropeway experience, first with Von Roll Tramways, and then as president of Doppelmayr USA until the merger.

Also moving on is Peter Geise, president of Areco North America. Geise first started distributing fan-type snowguns with Lenko in 1989 and moved to Areco in 1993. Taking over for Geise is Ed Dietzel and the newly-incorporated Snownet Inc. Snownet can be found at 49C Stump Pond Rd., New Milford, Penn., 18834, (570) 465-7661 ph/fax, (570) 369-2764 cell.

Kaser Srl, manufacturer of belt conveyor lifts, announced the restructuring of the company. Mad River Snow, Inc. will be responsible for sales in the East, the Midwest, eastern Canada and the Rockies. The phone number is (802) 583-6600. Sales in the West, including California, Pacific Northwest, the Southwest, and western Canada will be handled by Seabreeze Trading Corp. The phone number there is (250) 545-6793. Bruno Beinder retired as GM.

Mark Horton has formed an independent sales agency called Annecy to represent York Snow Products, which includes automation, snowguns and Snomax, in the Northeastern U.S. and Ontario, Canada. Annecy also represents HTM and its line of snowmaking equipment in the eastern U.S. Visit www.annecy.us or call (802) 879-5373.