SAM Magazine—Washington, D.C., June 29, 2012—The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5 to 4 to uphold the health care reforms passed in 2010, commonly known as Obamacare, saying the law was justified under the taxing power of the Federal government. The ruling leaves the law almost entirely intact, and means that companies will have to continue pr...

SAM Magazine—South Lake Tahoe, Calif., June 29, 2012—With an extremely high threat of forest fire at Lake Tahoe, Heavenly Mountain Resort, Northstar California Resort and Kirkwood Mountain Resort have instituted a number of precautionary measures, including banning all smoking on their respective mountains for the summer. “We w...

SAM Magazine—Scranton, Pa., June 27, 2012—Sno Mountain ski resort and Sno Cove water park are in foreclosure and a sheriff's sale is set for July 17, according to the Scranton Times-Tribune. The owners, Sno Mountain LLC, say they are in the process of refinancing the property and hope to complete the process before that time. Nat...

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., June 26, 2012—The Aspen Skiing Co. (ASC) is investing $6 million in a 3MW methane plant that will generate 25 million kW of electricity annually and, in the process, eliminate greenhouse gases equal to three times the company's yearly carbon emissions. In the past, methane emissions from the Somerset, C...

SAM Magazine—June 22, 2012—On the heels of a terrible winter season in California, Rusty Gregory, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area Chairman and CEO, announced yesterday the company will not operate June Mountain this summer and for the upcoming 2012-13 winter season. "June has operated at an annual deficit each year since its purchase ...

SAM Magazine—June 21, 2012—Scott Kaden announced he is stepping down as president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association (PNSAA) to pursue additional, formal education on a full-time basis. Kaden became the PNSAA's third president in July 2000 and his last day will be September 15, 2012. Under Kaden's leadership, PNSA...

SAM Magazine—June 21, 2012—Winter ain't over until it's over. Mt. Bachelor, Ore., announced that it will open for skiing and snowboarding June 29 through July 1, with intermediate and advanced terrain off the summit, snow and weather conditions permitting. Then, on July 6, the area will officially kick-off its summer activities,...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 21, 2012—Summer travel is sizzling in western mountain destinations. On-the-books occupancy for the month of June was up 16.2 percent compared to the prior June as of May 31, according to data from the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). Bookings for the six month period, June through November, are up 17....

SAM Magazine—Hartford, Conn., June 19, 2012—The Connecticut Appellate Court upheld a jury verdict in a case brought against Ski Sundown, Conn., by James Malaguit, who was rendered quadriplegic in a 2006 accident at the ski area. In October 2010, a jury found that the plaintiff was responsible for his own injuries and that the ski area w...

SAM Magazine—June 13, 2012—During its annual meeting, held yesterday at Mount Sunapee, Ski NH released its end-of-season numbers, which were down approximately 21%. New Hampshire hosted 1.9 million skier visits, down from 2.35 million in 2010/11. The state also hosted 96,000 xc visits and 93,000 tubing visits during the 2011/12 season. ...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 11, 2012—Several water districts and the Colorado petroleum industry have filed amicus briefs to support a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado against a 2011 Forest Service regulation requiring winter resorts to grant certain water rights to the Service. The original lawsuit, filed by the National...

SAM Magazine--June 11, 2012--According to NZCity, more than 6,000 skiers and snowboarders flocked to Queenstown's Coronet Peak and Canterbury's Mt Hutt—a record-breaking opening weekend in the South Island. NZ Ski CEO James Coddington says they've never had more than 3,000 people through for opening weekend at Mt Hutt before. ...

SAM Magazine—June 11, 2012—According to published reports, a massive wildfire in New Mexico has damaged ski lifts at Ski Apache. The area fought the blaze, which has burned more than 35,000 acres in the Lincoln National Forest, with its own snowmaking equipment, setting up guns around its base lodge to ward off the flames. That effort, ...

SAM Magazine—Evergreen, Colo., June 8, 2012—Echo Mountain Ski resort will be sold via a sealed-bid auction, with bids due by August 2. Racebrook and its auction affiliate, Sheldon Good & Company, are conducting the sale. Echo, 35 miles west of downtown Denver, is situated entirely on private land. Owner Gerald Petitt paid $800,00...

SAM Magazine—Kelowna, B.C., June 6, 2012—Big White and Silver Star resorts, which had been under a single ownership for a decade, have split apart following the death of former owner Desmond Robert Schumann in April. Schumann, who bought Big White in 1985 and Silver Star Mountain Resort in 2001, is widely credited with making both re...