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• Business
• History

An update of the Ski Area Ownership Timeline first published in March 2009. Add a comment CLICK HERE to download a pdf of the Ski Area Ownership Timeline. \...

• Ski Area Profiles
• Maintenance
• Personnel Issues

Sugar Bowl's maintenance building is a model of cleanliness and efficiency thanks to an in-house competition. Add a comment It’s always a struggle to keep our maintenance shop clean. But this spring, we hit upon a contest idea that went beyond that, and led to a reorganization and clean-up that has changed the culture of the shop as...

• Resort Development
• USFS
• Legal

Expanding on public lands takes patience and compromise...and more patience. Add a comment In the annals of American ski area development, there has been no shortage of bold and imaginative ideas. There was Mineral King, Walt Disney’s proposed resort spreading over a series of lift-linked bowls in California’s Sierra Nevada. And F...

• Environment
• Snowmaking

Copper Mountain expanded its snowmaking system with very little environmental impact. Here's how. Add a comment How do you install snowmaking or other facilities in sensitive environmental areas? The imperatives for environmental protection, in both legal and public relations terms, make that question a key one. And in 2010, Copper Mo...

• New Products
• New Ideas

From great new activities for guests to reaching out through social media, here are some products worth checking out. Add a comment SAM Magazine rounded up twelve new products for mountain operators that will save money, thrill guests, and help provide a better experience for customers. Stay tuned for more new products in the November...

• Conversion
• Marketing
• Ski School

As Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month continues to grow, see how resorts across the country are promoting the program. Add a comment Jim Mullins, marketing director at Mt. Shasta Ski Park in northern California, sells skiing to first-timers the same way he used to sell cars: enthusiastically. “I was a Honda dealer for 25 years,” Mul...

• Construction
• Lifts
• Resort Development
• Buildings & Grounds

Creative and fun ways to get up and down the mountain--any time of year--are gaining in popularity. Add a comment New lifts to get guests up the mountain, and exciting new ways to get them down, headline the construction season. HOLIDAY VALLEY, NEW YORKA $2.5 million Sky High Adventure Park is part of a planned expenditure of $5.3 mi...

• Customer Service
• Mountain Spy
• Social Media

In this Mountain Spy segment, Liz Eren takes her questions to Facebook to see how well resorts are monitoring these important media outlets. Facebook is all about response time and quick information—some resorts get that, others don’t. Posing as “Amanda,” Liz asked four different questions of resorts across the continent. Add a comm...

• Opinion
• Terrain Park
• Regulation

A SAM editorial. Add a comment The ASTM F27 Committee on Snow Skiing is poised to start considering standards for the design and construction of terrain park tabletop features. The committee's vote on expanding its jurisdiction was set to take place in August and September. As a result, there has been quite a bit of wariness on the p...

• Opinion
• Regulation
• Finance

David Eldredge of Wachusett Mountain on debit card swipe fees regulation. Add a comment Relief was just three weeks away when the Federal Reserve caved to special interests, and businesses learned their heartburn over debit card swipe fees would continue until October. Even then, relief won't be complete. Under the Wall Street reform...

• Industry Reports
• News
• Obituary
• People

POWDERHORN SOLD... NEW RECORD FOR SKIER VISITS... OBITUARIES... PEOPLE... SUPPLIER NEWS Add a comment POWDERHORN SOLDPowderhorn Resort, Colo., was sold at a live auction Aug. 4 for $2,083,950. The auction consisted of six lots—two sold to one bidder for $1.4 million and the other four to separate buyers. The first lot was the ski ar...

• Business
• Ticketing

A strong finish to the 2010-2011 season helped boost season's pass sales for 2011-12. Add a comment There is a big difference between a hangover and a halo, and it has nothing to do with alcohol.A “hangover,” says Greg Ralph, sales and marketing director at Monarch, Colo., is a ski season that ends with a whimper: a rainstorm, big...

• Personnel Issues
• Human Resources

No joke: the ski industry can learn a thing or two about hiring from the amusement park business. Add a comment It's a common problem at resorts everywhere: the rush for high-season help forces managers to act quickly to fill positions, without thinking as deeply as perhaps they should about how an individual might actually fill a nic...

• Personnel Issues
• Safety
• Risk Management
• Research

A combination of fitness training and proper nutrition can drastically reduce employee injuries and illness. Add a comment The rising costs of employee illness and injury at winter resorts in Canada has prompted an applied research study by Dr. Delia Roberts, FACSM of Selkirk College, Castlegar, British Columbia. The goal is to establ...

• Buildings & Grounds
• Business
• Resort Development

Resort profits can improve with operational efficiencies. Add a comment As many resorts approach build-out within their boundaries, a new phenomenon is starting to shape the industry. For many resorts, there are simply fewer and fewer opportunities to “get bigger.” This situation creates an opportunity, if not the necessity, to re...

• Environment
• Energy

Keeping Things Cool from the Outside In Add a comment Historically, reach-in commercial refrigerators and walk-in coolers have been highly inefficient. Cooling energy is lost to the ground and adjoining areas, raising energy consumption.You can’t eliminate that cooling loss, but you can keep energy consumption down, by taking cold a...

• News
• Opinion
• Business
• Weather
• Legal

FOUR MORE YEARS?... FALLOUT IN SUGARLOAF... LEHMAN BROS. TAKES OVER MOONLIGHT--FOR NOW... TAMARACK MAKES LIKE A PHOENIX... WHO SAYS ALL TAXES ARE BAD?... BATHROOM HUMOR... OUT-OF-CONTROL PEE-ER CRASHES OFF USST... SHORTSWINGS Add a comment FOUR MORE YEARS?We don’t really trust weather forecasts more than 48 hours into the future, bu...