Squaw, Caldwell Settle Lease on KT-22
Yes, Squaw Valley has signed a new 57-year lease for the land atop its famous KT-22, site of the chairlift voted best lift in North America by Skiing Magazine for the phenomenal terrain it serves. The lease extends through the 2064 season, ensuring access for decades to come.

Now, the rest of the story. The lessor is Troy Caldwell, who owns 460 acres that encompass the top of KT-22. Caldwell has been laboring almost single-handedly for 20 years to open a ski area on his land (see “A Dream Come True,” July 2005). Squaw Valley has opposed that development for much of those 20 years, most recently in 2005, when it filed a lawsuit to stop work on Caldwell’s White Wolf from moving forward. As part of the new agreement, though, Squaw has withdrawn all legal actions. Just as important, lease payments give Caldwell the cash to finish work on his area, which he hopes to do in time for the 2009-10 ski season. His use permit limits him to just 25 skiers a day, but hey, it’s a start.


Trading Vail for Omaha
Korby Fleischer, brother of former U.S. Ski Team member Chad Fleischer, has purchased Iowa's Mt. Crescent. And he has big plans for the 300-vertical-foot hill.

Fleischer has been general manager of the Sitzmark Lodge in Vail Village; why trade that for a tiny hill on the Great Plains? “It’s a great opportunity,” he says. “I love Nebraska.” Mt. Crescent is only about 80 miles from where he grew up, and Omaha (recently declared the third-best place to live by Kiplinger Personal Finance magazine) is only 15 miles from Mt. Crescent. There’s no other resort within a hundred miles.

Fleischer plans to bring the same level of service found in Vail to an urban audience. His first order of business will be renovating the area's lodge and installing a restaurant there--one that he hopes, eventually, will set the standard for winter resorts nationwide. He also plans to start a top-notch children's ski school, and a kids' racing program, with Chad’s help.


Liberty on the Slippery Slope
The Christian institution of higher learning founded by Jerry Falwell, Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., plans to install the first artificial-surface Snowflex slope in the U.S. The technology features small, built-in misting devices that lubricate the slope's surface, approximating the slip and grip of real snow. Anticipated opening date is New Year’s 2009.

The center will boast a main ski slope and a beginner slope for ski and snowboard instruction, totaling about 40,537 square feet (one acre). Vertical rise: 110 feet. The facility will have a lodge suitable for parties and other special events, but won’t serve alcohol, of course. Still, says Chancellor Jerry Falwell Jr., “We're breaking the stereotype that Christian education is synonymous with boredom.” Without beer bashes? This could give the sport a bad name.


Sustainable Slopes: More Than Hot Air
The primary focus of the Sustainable Slopes program during 2007-08 was continuing to promote the industry’s Green Power program that supports renewable energy purchases and development by resorts and resort guests. But given the public ennui with (not to mention distrust of) RECs, perhaps the biggest developments lie elsewhere.

A quick review of the program’s 89-page annual report shows that many of the 61 reporting areas took a wide variety of practical steps to protect the environment: they expanded recycling efforts, adopted composting strategies, reduced waste, advanced car pooling and use of shuttles, and cut energy use, both gas and diesel as well as electricity. Several instituted no-idling programs for employees as well as guests. Among the highlights:

Blue Mountain diverted more than 920 tons of waste from its landfill through recycling and composting, a 74 percent reduction in waste, thanks to customized busing stations, indoor multi-sort recycling centers in lodges and rental areas, and outdoor recycling bins. Compostable food and take-out containers replaced disposable ones.

Heavenly replaced older diesel-powered buses in its skier and employee shuttle fleet with five new alternative-fueled buses (three biodiesel and two compressed natural gas). It also composted the yard waste of local residents; Heavenly trail crews use the compost for erosion control. In all, Heavenly diverted 362 tons of organic wastes from landfills.

Bridger Bowl implemented a free bus program that hauled more than 10,000 employees and guests over the course of the season.

Stevens Pass’ fuel reduction programs--including grooming pattern adjustments, employee transit, and overall vehicle fuel conservation efforts--reduced overall diesel, propane, and gasoline fuel use by 10 percent. Its printed business materials use 100 percent post consumer recycled stock as well as non-toxic, soy-based inks.


freestyle terrain notebook Debuts
After a false start last fall, the NSAA Freestyle Terrain Notebook is now available. It hit the NSAA website in August, where resorts can download it, along with editable appendices and PowerPoint versions, so that resorts can tailor the guidelines to their specific operations. Hard copies are also available at the fall education seminars.


Sleeping Giant Reawakens
Sleeping Giant Ski Area, 50 miles west of Cody, Wyo., and at the east entrance to Yellowstone National Park, is preparing to reopen for the coming season. The area launched in 1936 but went dormant in 2003. The Neilson family purchased the area in 2007 and has set about renovating it, investing more than $2.5 million. It’s a community-oriented project. The Giant’s two lifts rise 900 vertical feet with access to 183 skiable acres, with a good mix of green to black terrain. A triple chair, purchased from Mammoth Mountain, is replacing a T-bar in time for the coming season, and the owners are upgrading the base lodge and snowmaking system as well. Eventually, they hope to turn the area over to a non-profit organization.


HawksNest Abandons Skiing and Riding
Hawksnest Ski Resort (N.C.) is shutting down its skiing and riding operations and becoming exclusively a tubing hill--albeit a 20-lane tubing hill, largest in the East. The decision culminates several years of tussling with the nearby town of Seven Devils, which has opposed any and all attempts to expand the downhill experience at the area. Owner Leonard Cottom had been willing to invest up to $5 million in upgrading the multi-season resort. Cottom had temporarily ceased downhilling operations a few years ago and turned the area into a tubing-only operation during a previous run-in with the town fathers. However, he says that this time, the change is permanent. He learned the last time that tubing was highly popular on its own, required only 25 percent of the staff, and created a much more manageable business that was also more profitable. No wonder he’s lost interest in fighting city hall.


Media Consolidate, partner up
“Power through consolidation” is the media theme this year. Storm Mountain Publishing (SMP), which owns Snowboard and Freeskier magazines, is incorporating the websites and subscribers of now-defunct Future Snowboarding magazine. The acquisition includes futuresnowboarding.com and The Drift, a women’s snowboarding magazine. Future’s former subscribers will double Snowboard magazine’s subscriber file, at least temporarily; some defections are inevitable. SMP will maintain the futuresnowboarding.com website, which received more than 400,000 unique visitors per month last winter.

Ski Press and SnoCountry have created a brand-new multi-platform partnership. The companies will offer Internet, print and radio packages, creating a new means of reaching consumers. Beginning Oct. 1, the websites will merge into a completely new co-branded website found at www.skipressworld.com. The partnership expects to double the website’s impressions/page views/unique users, reaching up to 30,000 skiers each day. That will complement SnoCountry’s 90,000 on-air radio snow report broadcasts nationwide over the winter season and Ski Press’s 250,000 copies distributed per issue in the U.S.


Shortswings
The town of Snowmass, one of the wealthiest in skidom, opted not to charge $5 for parking in a formerly free lot, in part to avoid alienating visitors during a tight economy. . . . U.S. Rep. Mark Udall (D-CO) has proposed a bill authorizing the Forest Service to allow a range of year-round recreational activities at ski areas, clarifying a 1986 law that specifically cites Alpine and Nordic skiing but not other activities, such as snowboarding, mountain biking, and concerts.