High Tech Parking Lot Ticket Scalping
If you're still patrolling your parking lots for illegal ticket sales, you might have to widen your net...to the Internet, that is. Early this year, a new website, www.slopexchange.com, debuted and has mountain resort operators concerned.

In an e-mail to the Ski Areas of N.Y., the creator of the website explained the service like this: “Personally, my absolute two favorite things to do in the world are ski and snowboard. But I'm just a lowly internet entrepreneur, so my means are limited. It occurred to me: sometimes I know people who buy full day lift tickets and only use them for 3 or 4 hours. I should try to buy the leftover time on those people's lift tickets cheap, so I can get a few hours of skiing in inexpensively. So I created a website called SlopeXchange that lets people do just that--find each other for sharing day passes and multiday passes. I added mobile functionality to the site, so people can also use their smartphones to sell their tix while they are on the mountain. I just did my soft launch last month, so still building up awareness. My main goal is just to help the large community of people like me --who love to ski or board, but don't have unlimited means to do it!”

At presstime, the National Ski Areas Association was looking into the legality of this.


Enough With the Report Cards Already
It probably wouldn’t be so bad if the report cards being issued to resorts so liberally these days actually measured performance in a useful way. But the grading systems employed by the Ski Area Citizens Coalition (SACC) and the California Ski and Snowboard Safety Organization (CSSSO) simply reflect the agendas of the graders, and do more to mislead than inform.

The SACC’s 11th annual report bemoans the season’s terrain and facility additions, which largely determines a resort’s grade--as if expansion is the only, or most important, measure of a resort’s environmental performance and activity. Rightly, most resorts that receive bad grades view the marks as irrelevant.

This latest report damns relatively low-impact resorts, such as Arizona Snowbowl, Ariz., and Monarch, Colo., for their relatively modest efforts to modernize their facilities--such as Snowbowl’s addition of snowmaking for the first time, and a small terrain expansion. Monarch and Eldora, Colo., are both panned for their plans to expand, even before they get approval to actually do so.

The self-proclaimed California Ski and Snowboard Safety Organization (CSSSO), headed by individuals critical of resort safety practices, released a "Family Safety Report Card" in an effort, it claims, to prod California areas to become more proactive regarding skier/rider safety. The assumption is that resorts are generally negligent in this regard. The report is largely based on the observations and opinions of a team led by former ski patroller Dick Penniman, who has been a frequent plaintiff's witness in lawsuits against ski resorts. And the organization was founded by Dan Gregorie, who has been crusading for more information on resort injuries ever since his daughter died in a 2006 snowboard accident at Alpine Meadows.

Some areas that received the lowest grades from CSSSO have said they will address the issues identified in the report, but many of the items are things resorts are aware of and attend to regularly, such as marking bare spots on the slopes and padding lift towers. Despite some media pick-up, the report had little impact on current participants, who are generally aware of most obvious risks in sliding downhill.


Getting a Charge at Mountain Resorts
It’s the old chicken-or-the-egg question: which come to resorts first, electric cars carrying guests, or the charging stations they need to get back home? Four areas have answered by installing the charging stations, making them part of the thin grid of such stations stretching across the country.

Crystal Mountain, Mich., was one of the first, electrifying customers in summer 2011. (CEO Jim MacInnes is a strong proponent of alternative energy--MacInnes drives his Chevy Volt to work every day.) Stevens Pass, Wash., was also early to the game, starting in June 2011. Since, it has seen hundreds of happy users and usership is increasing. Mt. Abram, Me., and Windham, N.Y. have jumped on board, too. All offer two to four charging stations, and most are free to guests.


Training Terrain-Based Teachers
Terrain-based teaching is the hot topic in snowboard (and ski) instruction. But how do you implement it? One place to start: USASA Experience/Level 100 Coaches clinic, created by Burton and the U.S.A. Snowboard and Freeski Association (USASA). Their goal is to train coaches and instructors in Burton’s terrain-based freestyle model, which has been implemented at Mountain Creek, N.J., and the Burton Academy at Northstar-at-Tahoe, Calif., where retention rates have been as high as 65 percent.

The first clinic was held at Boreal, Calif., in mid-February. The partners expect to schedule more sessions at resorts across the country to spread the gospel far and wide.

Along more traditional lines, PSIA/AASI point out that established teaching methods are suited to terrain-based programs, too. But when it comes to revising its methods (or manuals), don’t hold your breath.


Bear Mountain Endures Trying Month
The high-profile manhunt for Christopher Dorner, the ex-L.A. cop who went on an anti-cop vendetta and killed four policemen before he was trapped in a mountain cabin were he committed suicide, captivated the nation for several days in February. For Bear Mountain, where the manhunt was centered for most of the ordeal, it was more than captivating--it was all-consuming.

After a resort employee came upon a smoldering truck on Thursday, Feb. 7, police quickly identified it as Dorner’s. They had a command post set up in the resort parking lot within hours, and the resort and town were swept up in the tension and fear of the manhunt.

Still, aside from closing Bear Mountain on the afternoon of Feb. 7, Bear and sister resort Snow Summit remained open. With news reports of the dragnet showing the 18-inch snowstorm taking place on the mountain, weekend crowds were fairly robust--up about 20 percent from the prior year. As each day passed with no sign of Dorner, guests and employees became less apprehensive and nervous. The police contingent, which started at 150, shrunk to 50, then 30. But nagging doubts persisted.

With reason, as it turned out. For several days, Dorner holed up and hid in a vacant condo across the street from the command center.

Once the ordeal was over, residents breathed a collective sigh of relief. Even so, it took several days for emotions to settle down. Several groups cancelled weekend trips even after the fiery conclusion, because it took days to positively identify Dorner’s body, and many people feared he was still loose.

The Dorner episode followed, and overshadowed, an earlier tragedy, which had seemed horrible enough at the time: a busload of visitors from Mexico struck two other vehicles and flipped over on Feb. 3, killing 8 and closing the road to Big Bear for a day.

“We’re looking to put it all behind us,” marketing chief Chris Riddle told SAM. Having survived all that, dealing with the usual vagaries of weather should seem a breeze.


Enterprises To Go Where No One Has Before
Powdr Corp. is mostly about winter sports, but the company also includes Woodward Camps and Outside Television. This collection has led to the creation of Powdr Enterprises, whose task is to develop synergies among them.

Enterprises will bring some new elements--think events--to the table, too, to help draw out the synergies. These events can serve to increase visits to Powdr resorts and Woodward camps, and also create content for Outside TV. Enterprises will develop and own these, not just host them, which guarantees an event can’t pick up and move elsewhere, or outside the company. (Contrast that to the X Games, which ESPN may move out of Aspen, where they have been a key piece of the resort’s image and business for the past decade).

Powdr is bringing in Wade Martin as president of Enterprises to make it all happen. Martin played a key role in developing the Dew Tour and Red Bull Signature Series, among other events. So he has the necessary chops.

“We’re going to create events and properties that didn’t exist before, but all of it should support the core business. We have a dual role: run events, which are good in and of themselves, but also bring more people to the resorts,” Martin told SAM. Enterprises also has the media to then broadcast the events and keep its audience in the loop.

In short, this is a business built to make itself heard in a fragmented social media world.