Browse Our Archives

• Personnel Issues

In the wake of #MeToo and Time's Up, resorts must adapt to new standards for personal behavior in the corporate environment. Add a comment It’s getting much harder to shock Americans today. Disturbing news stories of inappropriate, harassing, and abusive behavior in the workplace have become commonplace. Since the shocking allegatio...

• Food & Beverage
• Personnel Issues

A candid tell-all reveals the Mueller family's formula for top-notch staff training in the culinary department—and beyond. Add a comment The Net Promoter Scores (NPS) for Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s culinary experience last season were higher than average. Achieving a score of 33 took time, effort, and a great staff. As the te...

• Diversity
• Business
• Marketing
• Conversion

A global look at the issues of expanding participation in winter sports, and outdoor sports in general. Add a comment For almost two decades now, the flat-lined slideshow in the hotel ballroom has depressed hundreds of mountain resort leaders. The fight to attract, retain, and inspire a new generation of skiers and snowboarders has no...

• Resort Development

The old condo village concept of base area development is dead. In its place? A more vibrant, varied, and locally-influenced model. Add a comment Recent ski industry consolidation and partnerships that have spawned aggregated season passes, such as Alterra Mountain Company’s new Ikon Pass and Vail Resorts’ Epic Pass, are dramatica...

• Ski Area Profiles

Small areas matter, and can thrive—as Snowy Range, Wyo., shows. Add a comment Skiers and snowboarders can appreciate the fine dining, high-speed lifts, and Olympic-size half pipes of modern, high-profile winter resorts. But small ski areas are—and always will be—a storybook experience. Not that it’s an easy existence. From th...

• Marketing
• Regulation
• Public Relations / Publicity
• Business
• Rental
• leadership

As new leaders rise, ski area associations focus on collective action. Add a comment As industry associations evolve across North America, it is clear that success comes not in finding your sweet spot and riding it for the long haul, but rather knowing how to seek out and recognize what your members need and when, and then adapting to...

• Management
• leadership

The SAM Summit Series finale addresses our mentees' burning questions. Add a comment Our final conference call of the inaugural SAM Summit Series gave each participant an opportunity to ask a question about anything related to what was covered during the season-long series. Advisers Jody Churich, Blaise Carrig, and John Rice provide...

• Construction

Major summer improvements, especially new lifts, are happening at resorts across the country. Add a comment   WINDHAM, NY Windham is installing a new high-speed Doppelmayr six-pack and RFID access system, representing a $6.5 million investment for the 2018-19 season. The new six-pack will run from the base area to the summit, r...

• Pub Memo
• Personnel Issues

Staffing for growth and prosperity. Add a comment   Traditionally, the focus of SAM’s September issue is staffing and HR. So it is with this issue. But another theme has permeated this issue, too—the growth of our sports. So much so that we made it our cover story (“Growing Together,” p. 47). The topic of growth manifests...

• News
• Opinion

Opinion and happenings from around the resort world. Add a comment   A LEARN-TO CONUNDRUMIs there a disconnect between top management objectives on learn-to efforts and the profit goals of individual departments that would have to absorb the cost of those efforts? That seems a very likely but largely unaddressed issue. Turns out...

• Business
• Diversity
• Marketing

Forget the pass wars for the moment. What is being done to actually grow winter sports? Add a comment Growing and diversifying the sport are the industry’s number one and two priorities amid an increasing sense of urgency. “People are leaving the sport faster than we’d like, and not enough new people are coming in,” says Rael...

A new rideshare app aims to be good for the environment, the bottom line, and, perhaps, the entire industry. Add a comment Parking and traffic have always been issues on busy days at Snowbird. The limited parking spots at the mountain fill up fast, especially when single occupancy vehicles take many of them. And the environmental impa...

• Energy
• Environment

Squaw Valley aims to boldly go where no other resort has: a backup, battery-powered microgrid. Add a comment Several months ago, Squaw Valley declared an ambitious goal: to become 100 percent powered via renewable energy by the end of this year. Not an easy task, but the resort is moving full speed ahead to meet its goal. Squaw Valle...

• Customer Service

"How do I find a new job in the winter sports industry?" Add a comment THE QUESTION: “I’m looking into a career change, possibly into the ski industry. I have a background in marketing and I’m wondering what opportunities are available at your resort, and if you have any recommendations?” Ski areas often lament that expe...

• Maintenance
• Tools

The all-important nuts and bolts of nuts and bolts—and how to use them properly. Add a comment     There are bolted connections throughout a ski area, and it’s important to understand the mechanics. Tightening a bolt too much or too little—that is, applying too much or too little torque—significantly effects how well...

• New Ideas

A useful surveying app, snowgun tower ladder, and men’s-room baskets. Add a comment     THERE’S AN APP FOR THAT Need a tool to measure the proper grading of a trail, or the takeoff and landing angles of a jump? There’s an app for that, says Brendan Ryan, Peak Resorts VP of projects. It’s called Theodolite, after the...