SAM Magazine-Keystone, Colo., Aug. 17, 2006-White River National Forest Supervisor Maribeth Gustafson has signed a Decision Notice approving the Upper Independence Cat Skiing proposal at Keystone Resort. Gustafson stated in the Decision Notice, "I believe that the EA has adequately and clearly addressed the issues relevant to the proposal and do...

SAM Magazine-Snowmass Village, Colo., Aug. 17, 2006-The Snowmass base village partnership (Intrawest Corporation and Aspen Skiing Company) has signed a letter of intent with WestPac Investments for the purchase and development of both residential and commercial components of the $400 million Snowmass Base Village. The LOI could evolve into a bindin...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Aug. 11, 2006-Fortress Investment Group is buying 100 percent of Intrawest Corporation for $35 a share. The total value of the transaction, including the existing debt of Intrawest, is approximately $2.8 billion. Fortress is a global investment and asset management firm with approximately $23 billion in equity capit...

SAM Magazine-Teton Village, Wyo., Aug. 10 2006-Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) will replace its original 60-passenger tram with a new 100 passenger state of the art Doppelmayr/CTEC aerial tramway. Like its predecessor, the new tram will be a gig back reversible and rise 4,139 vertical feet from the base in Teton Village to the summit of Rendezv...

SAM Magazine--Sandpoint, ID, August 2, 2006--Schweitzer Mountain Resort has announced that Tom Chasse, president and managing director of Attitash, N.H., has accepted the position of president and CEO of Schweitzer effective August 14, 2006. Chasse has been with Attitash for 14 years, eight of them as managing director. In all, he has worked in ...

SAM Magazine--Vail, CO, August 1, 2006--Vail Resorts Inc. announced that the company will offset 100 percent of its energy use by purchasing nearly 152,000 megawatt-hours of wind energy for its five mountain resorts, its lodging properties, all of its 125 retail locations and its new corporate headquarters in Broomfield, CO. By purchasing renewable...

SAM Magazine--August 1, 2006, Killington, VT--Killington's long-awaited ski village suffered a setback when its developer pulled out of the project. According to the Rutland Herald, Centex Destination Properties, who signed on a year ago to build out a village at the base of Killington that would have included 1,400 vacation homes and condominiums,...

SAM Magazine-Boulder, Colo., Aug. 1, 2006-Storm Mountain Publishing Company (SMP), parent of Freeskier magazine, has crafted a long-term partnership agreement with Global United Publishing (GUP) to publish Snowboard magazine. GUP had said earlier that it would not publish its September issue due to financial constraints. The parties expect to final...

SAM Magazine--August 1, 2006, Middlefield, CT--Powder Ridge Ski Area in Connecticut may have a new lease on life after the town of Middlefield's board of selectmen reached an agreement to purchase 300 acres of land the area sits on for $3.6 million. Powder Ridge owner Ken Leavitt had approached the town several times about buying the land and l...

SAM Magazine--Wolf Creek, Colo., July 14, 2006--The Regional Office of the Forest Service upheld the Rio Grande National Forests' April 3rd decision to allow two access roads across Forest Service land that will access developer Red McCombs' proposed village site at Wolf Creek Mountain. Administrative appeals had been brought by Colorado Wild, t...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Utah, July 14, 2006-The board of directors of American Skiing Company (ASC) has retained investment advisors to initiate a strategic review of business options for the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corporation, including the potential sale of the resort. "Steamboat's status as a world-renowned destination resort, combined with...

July 12, Great Britain (Snow Hunter)--The UK's annual Ski Industry Report has been published by leading tour operator Crystal. The Report notes that the British ski market recorded one of its strongest periods of growth last winter, with seven per cent more UK skiers taking a ski holiday abroad than the previous winter. More than 1.15m ski holi...

SAM Magazine-Scranton, Pa., July 11, 2006-Snow Mountain LLC, a consortium of Philadelphia investment bankers, developers, and accountants, has agreed to purchase Montage Mountain Ski Resort from Lackawanna County. Sno Mountain LLC will pay a reported $5.1 million for the resort. Last month the group offered $4.1 million, but increased its offer ...

July 10, France (SnowHunter)--The first half of Compagnie des Alpes' fiscal year (October to March) combines the positive figures of the ski operations with the normally negative figures for the group's growing clutch of leisure parks, since most of the major sites are closed during this accounting period. However, first-half sales up to end Dec...

July 10, Italy/Switzerland (snowHunter)-- For the coming winter season 2006/2007, there'll be a re-launch of the 'International' ski area of Breuil-Cervinia and Valtournenche in Italy and Zermatt in Switzerland with the construction of six new lifts and an increase in the artificial snowmaking cover and therefore a total of 24 lifts in the Breuil...