• Ski School

SAM Magazine—San Francisco, Calif., Oct. 14, 2020—A substantial portion of the assets of Mountain News Corporation have been acquired from Vail Resorts by an investment group led by MNC veteran Chad Dyer and Jon Brelig. The 52-year-old international company provides snow reports, news, and information of interest to skiers and snowboarders thro...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Jackson, Wyo., October 14, 2020—Snow King Mountain Resort secured preliminary US Forest Service (USFS) approval for major capital improvements slated to begin summer of 2021. Big ticket items include two new lifts: an eight-passenger Leitner-Poma gondola, and a Skytrac chair that will serve new terrain.  Snow King has been en...

• Lifts
• Racing

Will worldwide COVID-19 cases double by the end of the year? They could, and there’s no guarantee a vaccine will be available in time to quickly stem the spread of coronavirus. Other items of note in the latest weekly briefing from the Insights Collective: The state of Nevada’s very detailed conference guidelines shed light on how a total reope...

• Miscellaneous

RESORTS Bobby Johnson, Jr., Magic Mountain, Vt. Magic Mountain has hired Robert “Bobby” Johnson, Jr. as director of the Snowsports Learning Center, starting Dec. 5. Johnson is reported to be the first Black leader of a ski school in Vermont, and possibly the country. He began his teaching career at Smuggler’s Notch, Vt., in 1983, and joined...

• Lifts
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Denver, Oct. 7, 2020—Alterra Mountain Company is making leadership changes and creating new hospitality and real estate divisions as the company looks toward its long-term future while navigating the upcoming winter season during the pandemic. The two new divisions join the mountain division, which consists of the company’s ...

• Ski Area Profiles

With the continuation of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the traditional fall education opportunities have moved online. We know it's a busy time, so SAM pulled together a chronological list of all the online educational content for October and November so it's easier to see what important webinars, Huddles and Town Halls might be wor...

• Lifts
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Carlsbad, Calif., Oct. 5, 2020—Media conglomerate American Media Inc. (AMI) is closing four of its sports publications, Powder Magazine, Snowboarder, Bike, and Surfer, according to a variety of industry sources. A report in Adventure Journal, written by former Powder editor St...

• Lifts
• Ski Area Profiles

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Oct. 1, 2020—Vail Resorts underwent what it called “the final step of a restructuring of our marketing organization.” The move cut existing in-resort marketing teams across the company’s 34 North American resorts, and created new teams and responsibilities structured locally, regionally, and centrally, amon...

• Lifts
• Ski Area Profiles

SAM Magazine—Ishpeming, Mich., Oct. 1, 2020—The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame induction Class of 2020 includes eight ski and snowboard athletes and industry professionals. The new inductees will bring the total of honored Hall of Fame members to 441.  The eight inductees include the late Howard Peterson, leader and visionary at the ...

• Ski School
• Ski Area Profiles

There’s a lot going on outside the ski industry that sheds light on the course of COVID restrictions and reopenings. Disney, and Florida, are following a metric-driven options, a variation on the scenario planning approach. Hotels are hosting “home” workers to make up for lost business from traditional sources. Austrian resorts are facing civ...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Portland, Ore., Sept. 30, 2020—The Indy Pass has added Swain Mountain in western New York to its alliance of independent ski areas, bringing alliance membership to a total of 56 resorts. Swain will offer two days of skiing and riding to Indy Pass holders, with no blackout dates for the 2020-21 season.  “We are thrilled to b...

• Ski School

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Sept. 29, 2020—Snowsports Industries America (SIA) is teaming up with SAM for a Town Hall series—held virtually on Zoom—about ski resort planning, preparations, and communication for this winter. The three town halls will focus on how this winter will look in regard to resort operations, capacity, tra...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., Sept. 29, 2020—The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) has released the results of the 2019-20 Climate Challenge. This was the ninth year of the program, in which more than 40 ski areas of varying sizes participated.  “To date,” said NSAA, “these resorts have reduced more than 110,000 metric tons of c...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Sept. 25, 2020—Vail Resorts (VR) reported a net income decrease of 67.2 percent, to $98 million, in fiscal year 2020, on total revenues of nearly $2 billion, as COVID-19 shutdowns ended the winter season prematurely and delayed the opening of summer operations.

• Marketing

SAM Magazine—Ludlow, Vt., September 23, 2020—Resorts are implementing a mix of strategies to manage volume this winter, as most look to get lifts spinning in late November. Pre-booking requirements and reservation systems of varying complexity will be the name of the game for many operations, particularly those in drive markets. However, some r...