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SAM Taps Whistler Blackcomb to Host 2025 Summer Ops Camp
SAM Magazine—Whistler, British Columbia, March 18, 2025—SAM’s Summer Ops Camp will be held at Whistler Blackcomb, Sept. 2-4, 2025, offering three days of education, networking, and hands-on learning focused on the future of summer operations at mountain resorts. This year’s camp will also feature a partnership with the Canada West Ski Areas Association (CWSAA), bringing together a dynamic mix of resort professionals from across North America. Whistler Blackcomb has been at the forefront of year-round recreation development, balancing business innovation with environmental sustainability. With a robust lineup of summer attractions—including the Whistler Mountain Bike Park, Peak...
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SAM Magazine—Jacksonville, Fla., July 23, 2020—As summer business returns to mountain resorts, road trips, mask wearing, second-home use, and proactive health programs headline the key trends, according to the weekly briefing sheet from the recently formed Insights Collective (IC), a destination travel think tank. Most means of trans...
SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., July 22, 2020—For the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic began shutting down mountain destinations, lodging properties at Western mountain destinations are seeing an appreciable uptick in bookings and occupancy for the summer months—although they remain at levels well below previous years, according to the...
SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., July 22, 2020—The Professional Ski Instructors of America and the American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI) have partnered with the Professional Mountain Bike Instructors Association (PMBIA) to bring year-round educational opportunities to ski, snowboard, and mountain bike instructors. The par...
Wintersteiger, and its BootDoc and Hotronic division, have prepared detailed suggestions for rental operations and retail bootfitting to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 among staff and customers. Here are links to documents for rental and retail: Best Practices for Rental Best Practices for Retail Want more on rental? Li...
SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., July 14, 2020—A handful of state and regional trade organizations have cancelled their scheduled in-person conferences and trade shows in response to safety concerns amid the ongoing pandemic. Trade Show floor from SANY/PSAA Expo 2019. The Midwest Ski Areas Association (MSAA) board of directors voted to cancel ...
SAM Magazine—Hotham Heights, Vic., Australia, July 9, 2020—Vail Resorts is suspending operations at Hotham and Falls Creek Ski Resorts in Victoria, Australia, due to a new restrictions related to a recent COVID-19 outbreak. The suspension is effective July 9, 2020 and follows the stay-at-home order for the Melbourne metro area. Reopening will b...
SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., July 9, 2020—Mountain resorts in North America that are open for summer operations didn’t really know what visitation would be like over the typically busy 4th of July weekend due to limited/modified operations and rising COVID-19 concerns. As it turns out, several areas were pleasantly surprised with how loud the ...
SAM Magazine—Wausau, Wis., July 8, 2020—Granite Peak Ski Resort has hired industry veteran Greg Fisher as its new general manager and marketing director. Fisher will be responsible for the overall operations of Granite Peak, including overseeing mountain operations, skier services, food and beverage, ski school operations, facilities, and resor...
SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., July 1, 2020—Vail Resorts (VR) took a major step toward its 100 percent renewable electricity goal as a new large-scale wind farm, enabled in part by VR, has come online. VR will purchase 310,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of wind energy annually from the new 82-turbine Plum Creek Wind project, which will address more ...
SAM Magazine—Boulder, Colo., July 1, 2020—Active Interest Media (AIM) has sold SKI, Warren Miller Entertainment, Nastar, and SNEWS to Pocket Outdoor Media (POM). The winter sports-related properties are part of a much larger package of three divisions of AIM—fitness, outdoor, and healthy living—purchased by POM. Both AIM and POM are based i...
SAM Magazine—Washington D.C., June 23, 2020—President Trump issued a proclamation Monday that extends a freeze on several types of immigration visas—including J-1 cultural exchange visas and H-2B temporary worker visas, both vital to the mountain resort industry—through December. The administration cites the pandemic and resulting high unem...
SAM Magazine—Denver, June 22, 2020—As stay-at-home restrictions ease, and lodging properties throughout the western mountain region are gradually opening up more capacity, demand has ticked up slightly. However, according to the monthly DestiMetrics* Market Briefing from Inntopia, aggregated summer occupancy is still limping along, down 85.4 pe...
In SAM’s Snow People, we highlight recent personnel moves that have been made in the mountain resort industry. For even more updates on industry people, be sure to read News & Views in the upcoming July issue of SAM. Resorts Don Finn, Crystal Mountain, Wash. Don Finn started as Crystal Mountain’s director of sales on March 15...
SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., June 17, 2020—Skier visits in the U.S. totaled 51.1 million in the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season, according to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). That represents a 13.9 percent decline from 2018-19, which was the fourth-best season on record. NSAA projected that 2019-20 would have topped the previous ye...
SAM Magazine—Aspen Snowmass, Colo., June 12, 2020—The Mountain Collective pass now includes Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia, bringing the total number of resorts on the pass to 23. Passholders get two days access to each resort on the pass, and 50 percent off daily lift tickets on all additional days, plus a bonus third day at one destinat...
