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• People
• Skiing
• Snowboarding
• Management

Some Industry heavy-hitters, and past SAMMY Award winners, talk about their journey, guilty pleasures and best days. Add a comment To kick off our celebration of 20 years of the SAMMY Awards, 2016 SAMMY winner Halley O'Brien checked-in with a few past honorees to see where they've been since their SAMMY, what they're up to now, and ho...

• New Ideas

Wheels on snowmobiles, inexpensive coffee timer, and an easy way to blow snow off a conveyor. Add a comment  POP A WHEELEY When winter ended at The Remarkables in New Zealand, it was time to pack everything up for the warm season. To get snowmobiles from snow to storage, the machines must run across dirt, concrete, and stone—s...

• History
• Business
• Area Management

Excerpts from Chris Diamond's must-read new book. Add a comment In his new book, “Ski Inc.,” former Steamboat president and COO Chris Diamond provides a window into what he experienced leading resorts from Vermont to Colorado, with insights and stories that can only come from someone who was sitting at the table. His book details ...

• Customer Service
• Mountain Spy
• Weather
• Snowmaking

THE QUESTION: I’M NEW TO THE SPORT, AND IT SEEMS EVERYONE REPORTS THEIR BASE DEPTH. HOW DO YOU MEASURE IT? Add a comment We asked a version of this question via Twitter—coming from SAM, asking resorts on social media how they measure their base depth. Alas, after garnering a handful of responses we got unceremoniously ca...

• Rental
• Retail
• New Products

The broadening scope of the rental shop customer has manufacturers enhancing the quality of their products. Add a comment If there is a unified message about the rental market coming from equipment manufacturers, it is that better rental gear, even for entry-level skiers and riders, makes sense. That’s why several of the major renta...

• Summer
• Research

As the data and trends show, summer can no longer be called the "off season." Add a comment Summer tourism in mountain resorts has been going gangbusters for the past decade. But to truly understand the scope of the change and its potential to continue into the future, you have to step back and take a longer look. Much longer. Consid...

• Summer
• Finance
• Resort Development

Bogus Basin's new summer operations will make its winter passholders very happy. Find out why in the SAM interview. Add a comment Bogus Basin is the second largest ski area in the state of Idaho. Its 2,600 skiable acres exceeds that of Sun Valley and is not far behind that of Schweitzer. But for all intents and purposes, Bogus is a co...

• Customer Service
• Guest Services

Plan ahead and wow your guests during periods of peak demand. First in a series of articles about using Net Promoter Scores to enhance the guest experience and loyalty to your resort. Add a comment Given the relative brevity of ski season, properly managing the guest experience each and every day is critical to achieving high lev...

• Lifts
• Construction
• Customer Service

This year saw an uptick in resort lift installations and upgrades, all aimed at enhancing the guest experience. Add a comment Resorts continued to install new lifts at an accelerating pace this past summer as the industry rebounds from an all-time low two years ago. Twenty-nine new lifts went in across North America this past summer a...

• News
• Opinion

Perspective and Views Add a comment Just Hanging OutIn late November, a Pittsfield, Vt., woman who was stranded in a gondola cabin at Killington for five hours on Oct. 1, 2011, was awarded $750,000 by a Rutland County Civil Court jury. This decision should terrify resort operators for several reasons. She suffered no physical injuries...

• Summer
• USFS
• Regulation

Follow the screening criteria to smooth the way to approval. Add a comment The Recreational Opportunities Act of 2011 allows winter resorts on Forest Service land to develop a range of off-season activities, within limits. The Act focuses development in human-powered and low-impact activities, and activities that are consistent with t...

• Human Resources
• Personnel Issues
• leadership

Stimulate your staff to help manage the inevitable burnout that happens during a long season. Add a comment To the outside world, it may seem preposterous: the idea of someone working in an amazing resort setting suffering from burnout. After all, aren’t we the lucky ones? We get to be outside and on snow—a lot. We get to gaze out...

• Human Resources
• Personnel Issues

High school-age employees are the backbone of many ski areas. Add a comment When it comes to staffing at ski areas, a surprising number of resorts, including many in the Midwest, rely heavily on high school-age employees—and embrace all that they bring to the table. From ski school to food service to lift operations, teens provide f...

• Marketing
• Ticketing

To attract the college crowd, the price must be right. Add a comment Give us a D! Give us an E! Give us an A! Give us an L! College students are the next generation of skiing and snowboarding families, and ski resorts around the country, not surprisingly, are anxious to lure them in. But the college crowd is a discerning lot. And, as...

• Industry Reports
• News

New Ownership at Magic Mountain... Mount Snow EB-5 funds Released at Last... People... Supplier News... Awards... Obituaries Add a comment NEW OWNERSHIP AT MAGIC MOUNTAIN Vermont’s Magic Mountain has begun a new chapter. Ski Magic LLC, a locally based ownership and operating group, acquired the classic New England ski area in late ...

• Opinion
• Snowmaking
• Business

Snow brings people. And people bring their wallets. The contents of those wallets drive the economies of most ski area communities, small or large. People spend money in restaurants, hotels, and retail shops. When these establishments are busy, they often need help from local service people to keep everything running. As a result, electricians, plu...

• Pub Memo
• Terrain Park
• People

Publisher Olivia Rowan touches on the Terrain Park Contest, Cutter's Camp and the SAMMY Leadership Awards. Add a comment SAM by the NumbersThe number of years we’ve been running our annual Terrain Park Contest. This year’s winner for Best Feature is Snowshoe Mountain, W. Va. We should note it was a close race for best feature. Sno...