SAM Magazine—Homewood, Calif. Jan. 27, 2025—The saga of Homewood Resort took another turn last week when the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) governing board approved Homewood's revised master plan.Photo credit: Homewood Mountain Resort The plan will allow for major improvements, including a new gondola, replacement lift, mid-mountain lodg...

SAM Magazine—Crested Butte, Colo., Jan. 27, 2025—Lift maintenance workers at Vail Resorts-owned Crested Butte voted for a strike authorization following negotiations in which Vail Resorts has refused to increase their pay, according to the union. Negotiations have dragged on for more than a year.Photo credit: Crested Butte. The 12 lift mainte...

SAM Magazine—Jan. 22, 2025, Ludlow, Vt.—As usual, snow, both manmade and natural, played a major role in shaping business over the three-day MLK holiday weekend. So did operational disruptions. Busy new mid-mountain lodge at Tamarack, Idaho. While a cold snap blanketed nearly the entire country at some point throughout the holiday, the effec...

SAM Magazine—Istanbul, Turkey, Jan. 21, 2025—A predawn fire at a hotel in the Kartalkaya Ski Resort in Turkey killed at least 66, with another 51 injured, Turkey's Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday. The resort is located in Northwestern Turkey's Koroglu mountains, about 185 miles east of Istanbul. The fire ignited at 3:30 a.m. News...

• Lift Operations News

SAM Magazine—Barcelona, Spain, Jan. 20, 2025—A chairlift failure injured more than a dozen people Saturday morning at Astún resort in the Spanish Pyrenees. The bullwheel on a 1985 fixed-grip quad detached, causing the lift to derope on numerous towers, according to liftblog.com’s Peter Landsman.Credit to Meteosojuela La Rioja “Without a b...

SAM Magazine—Olympic Valley, Calif., Jan. 20, 2025—Attendance was up at NSAA’s Western Winter Conference, with more than 670 ski industry folks gathering at Palisades Tahoe, Jan. 14-16, for the education and networking event. Total attendance surpassed numbers for 2024 and 2023. NSAA’s new CEO Mike Reitzell welcomed everyone at a hosted br...

SAM Magazine—Arapahoe Basin, Colo., Jan. 20, 2025—Members of the Arapahoe Basin ski patrol voted 30-22 in favor of unionizing. If the results are certified by the National Labor Relations Board, the Arapahoe Basin Ski Patrol Union (ABSP) will join the Communication Workers of America (CWA) 7781 United Mountain Workers, which will represent ABSP...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Jan. 17, 2025—Vail Resorts reported that season-to-date total skier visits for North America were down 0.3 percent while lift ticket revenue rose 4.5 percent from the beginning of the ski season through Jan. 5, 2025, compared to the prior year period through Jan. 7, 2024. Revenues from ancillary businesses we...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Jan. 16, 2025—December daily rates nudged up a bit, occupancy edged down a bit, and lodging results among the participating properties in 17 regions across seven Western states looked a lot like last year at this time, according to the most recent monthly report from DestiMetrics, part of Inntopia’s business ...

• Snowmaking News

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 15, 2025—Online voting for the videos produced by five chosen resorts competing in the 2025 “I AM a Snowmaker” contest, sponsored by HKD Snowmakers, is now open. Voting ends Wednesday, Jan. 29, at 11:59 p.m. EST.  Since it debuted in winter 2013-14, the annual I AM contest has served as an important recogn...

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Jan. 9, 2025—Members of the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA) have voted to ratify the contract negotiated by the United Mountain Workers union with Vail Resorts on Tuesday. The agreement, reached after 10-months of negotiations for increased wages, ended a nearly two-week strike.  “The roa...

• leadership

SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., Jan. 9, 2024—The Professional Ski Instructors of America and American Association of Snowboard Instructors (PSIA-AASI) has named Jeff Lifgren as its new CEO, following an extensive national search. Lifgren, the former Vail Resorts ski and snowboard school executive sponsor, will start Jan. 13. “We are thrilled t...

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Jan. 8, 2025—Vail Resorts and the Park City Professional Ski Patrol Association (PCPSPA) have reached a tentative contract agreement following a mediated negotiating session on Jan. 7, ending the ski patrollers’ 12-day strike. The union unit will vote to ratify the agreement today. Park City Mountain owner Vail ...

SAM Magazine—Whistler, British Columbia, Jan. 7, 2025—Industry luminary and Canadian Ski Hall of Fame inductee Roger McCarthy died unexpectedly over the weekend. He was 75.Courtesy of Canadian Ski Hall of Fame & Museum "Roger was an authentic leader who connected with his team at every level. That connection resulted in an organizational e...

SAM Magazine—Cambridge, Vt., Jan. 3, 2024—Good snowmaking conditions, timely—and in some cases abundant—snowfall, and high demand from skiers and riders were among the contributing factors that ski areas across North America cited as the catalysts for strong business over the extended holiday period of Christmas to New Years.   WEST Pho...