record visits for ski areas
Preliminary results from the Kottke Report came in at a record-breaking 60.1 million visits, which is 9.1 percent over last season and a two percent increase over the previous record of 58.9 million visits in 2005/06. Broken out, the Northeast jumped 19.3 percent over last season with 14.07 million visits. The Midwest went up 12.3 percent to 8.09 million visits. The Rockies were up 9.9 percent with 21.33 million visits, the Pacific West posted a 1.4 percent gain with 11.37 million visits and the Southeast was down 1.3 percent to 5.21 million.

The number of visitors increased, to about 11 million, and season passes accounted for a slightly lower percentage of visits, so both paid tickets and ticket revenue rose. However, lessons rose only 2 percent even with the 10 percent increase in visits.


Obits
Nick Badami, a visionary leader who helped make Park City Mountain Resort a world-class resort, died June 4 at his house in Tucson, Ariz., surrounded by family. He was 87.

Tom Richardson, retired president of Poma of America and a former president of the Aspen Skiing Corp., died in early June in Grand Junction, Colo. Richardson leaves behind his wife of 45 years, Lynette.

Andrew “Drew” Judycki, 60, owner of Red River Ski Area, N.M., since 1984, died in late May. Drew originally worked at Red River as a patroller, then as ski school supervisor. From there, he worked his way through the ranks and eventually became owner and GM.

James F. Trees, 69, financier, rancher and conservationist, died in early June. Trees formed and ran BrianHead Resort, Utah, from 1992 until his death.


People
Richard Wiseman is the new president of Bromley Mountain.

Angel Fire Resort, N.M., hired John Kitts as CFO; Linda Howell becomes director of sales; William Baker comes on as golf director; Helio Sanchez is the new development manager; Dan Cahall is the new resort chef and Mike Liddle returns to head up real estate operations.

Melanie Mills is the new president of Colorado Ski Country USA. . .Rob Perlman became VP of sales and marketing at Steamboat.

Mt. Bachelor, Ore., named Dave Rathbun president and GM.

Kirkwood Resort in California announced that Allison Grant is the new director of HR and risk management.

Alyeska Resort announced that Michael Flynn was selected as food and beverage director.

At Whistler/Blackcomb, Christina Moore has returned from maternity leave. Michelle Leroux becomes media and interactive communications specialist and Amber Turnau joins the resort’s PR team on a permanent basis.


Supplier people
K2Sports reorganized its sales team: John O’Connor was promoted to U.S. sales director; Ben Wallace became national sales manager for K2 skis; Kevin Lewis takes over the sales of Line skis; and Armand LaPorte was promoted to international sales manager.


Supplier News
SkiData of Austria announced that Aspen Skiing Company will switch over to its ticketing system by 2009/2010. Aspen is investing $5 million in software from RTP and scanning gates from SkiData for all four of its mountains, including Butternut, Aspen, Snowmass and Aspen Highlands.

Johnson Controls was recognized by Ethisphere Magazine for a second consecutive year as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies in the automotive category.