Kirkwood to install wind farm
Kirkwood ski resort is partnering with its utility provider, Mountain Utilities, to build a 20-turbine wind energy farm for the resort and local residents.

The wind farm would be capable of generating over 20 percent of the total winter demand by commercial and residential operations. Kirkwood hopes to have the turbines, which will be installed by Synergy Power Corporation, up and running by 2009.


Yellowstone goes to wife in settlement
Founder Tim Blixseth has agreed to transfer his 50 percent interest in the private Yellowstone Club ski and golf resort in Montana to his wife, Edra, as part of an impending divorce settlement, according to the Wall Street Journal. This will give Edra full ownership of the resort. Neither of the Blixseths are commenting on the settlement as the details are confidential.


Jiminy Goes Cellular
First a wind turbine, now a cell tower. Jiminy invested $20,000 in partnership with a tower leasing company to bring cell coverage to the previously blacked-out resort by erecting a 140-foot tower not far from the resort’s wind turbine. Verizon Wireless has already signed on to offer service, which should start by mid September, and other carriers will likely follow suit.

The technological advance comes none too soon. Lack of service has kept potential conference business away, and led one group to cancel a $100,000 booking—sales types in particular are horrified by the prospect of, say, 48 hours without cell service. So are many of the resort’s other paying customers, from e-mailing executives to texting teens.


Jay Peak Sold
After nearly 25 years of leading Jay Peak as president and CEO, Bill Stenger, along with a group of private investors, has purchased Jay Peak from Mont Saint Sauver International (MSSI) in late June. Stenger has been working on the sale and transition since last fall. MSSI owns and operates several Canadian-based resorts and had owned Jay since 1978.

Initial plans call for new lifts, improved snowmaking and more than $100 million in base-area capital investment over the next several years. A new 57-suite slopeside hotel is already underway, with completion set for late 2009.


Obits
Einar Aas, 74, died July 13, following a prolonged illness. Aas, originally from Norway, came to North America in 1960 and started his ski industry career teaching skiing at Gray Rocks. In 1964, Aas moved to the Berkshires where he was a school teacher and a ski instructor at SkiButternut. For the rest of his life, Aas continued at SkiButternut and headed up the ski school, became snowsports director and took charge of the rental shop.

George Bauer, publisher of Ski Magazine from 1977 until 1992, died July 13. Bauer held the publishing position longer than any other during its 72-year history. Bauer was also inducted into the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame in 1991.

Albert “Bill” Currier died July 26 at the age of 89. For over 55 years, Currier engineered, inspected and repaired chairlifts out of his New Hampshire shop. He was also the first ski patroller and ski instructor at Temple Mountain, a position he started in 1943.

Margaret Moss Schoenknecht, 90, died July 29. In 1947, Schoenknecht, with husband Walt, opened Mohawk Mountain in Connecticut, and Mount Snow in 1955. The two ran both resorts successfully for many years and only at age 81 did Schoenknecht give up skiing.


People
Sunday River, Maine, hired Brent Larson as mountain manager.

At Killington, Vt., Patricia Ryan moves up to sales and marketing director.

Cranmore, N.H., welcomes Krissy Fraser as group sales manager.

In Pennsylvania, Seven Springs promoted Eric Mauck to CEO. . .Scott Bender joins Hidden Valley as VP of resort operations.

Vail Resorts appointed Derek Koenig to senior VP and chief marketing officer. . .Aspen Skiing Company, Colo., promoted Bob Bayless to director of worldwide sales. . .Crested Butte hired Chris Corliss as mountain manager. Also at Crested Butte, Nick Herrin is the new mountain schools director.

At Jackson Hole, Wyo., Tim Mason was promoted to VP of operations.

At Deer Valley, Utah, Thomas Cooke is the lodging department’s director of marketing and Tracy Mullen is the director of sales. . .At Powdr Corp., Jennifer Botter is the new CFO.

Mt. Bachelor, Ore., welcomes Alex Kaufman as its director of marketing.

Mountain High, Calif., reorganized its mountain operations and promoted Ben Smith to mountain manager; and Ken Showalter became assistant mountain manager. . .Alpine Meadows and Homewood Mountain Resorts have announced Chris Patrick as the new director of food and beverage. . .At Mammoth, Oren Tanzer was promoted to director of youth action sports marketing.


Supplier News
Snownet Inc., distributor of Areco products, welcomes Kent Young as service/sales rep for the Midwest region. His cell phone number is (440) 554-1107.

Prinoth announced the appointment of Les Larsen as regional manager of its Salt Lake City regional distribution center. In addition, Allan Graves is the new regional manager for the Calgary regional distribution center.

Maynard Russell has joined the Chairkid North America group, as a sales agent in the New England territory.

Axess/North America, a Park City, Utah-based subsidiary of Axess AG, Austria, has reached agreements with Squaw Valley USA and Alyeska Resort to purchase the new AX 500 EZ-Gate RFID System for installation this past summer.

At Mountain Sports Media Greg Finn was promoted to VP of sales for the company.

At Elan Snowboards, Alex Klinger is the new division manager. Klinger replaces Primoz Plenstenjak who moved up to COO.


Correction
In the July 2008 edition of SAM, we incorrectly reported that Aspen Skiing Company selected SkiData for the resort’s new ticketing and point-of-sale system. The system is the result of a new partnership between Resort Technology Partners (RTP) and SkiData. RTP will provide the RTP|ONE ticketing and point-of-sales operations while SkiData will provide the Freemotion access gates. Additionally, we incorrectly identified Buttermilk as Butternut.