• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Newport, Vt., July 11, 2018—Vermont attorney general T.J. Donovan said in a press conference today that the state has settled its civil lawsuit against former Jay Peak owner Ariel Quiros and former Jay Peak CEO Bill Stenger. The case has been pending since 2016 after the two men were accused of misappropriating millions of dollars ...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Woodbury, Conn., July 12, 2018—The SAM Summer Ops Camp has added several sessions that reflect the needs of summer ops 2.0, the next evolution of this growing business. Focused on programming, operations, marketing and risk management, these sessions can help winter resorts become more knowledgeable and sophisticated about summer o...

• Lifts
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Government Camp, Ore., July 11, 2018—R.L.K. and Company, operator of Timberline Lodge and Ski Area, has purchased Summit Ski Area in Government Camp, Ore., which is located on Mt. Hood less than six miles from Timberline. Included in the sale is Snow Bunny, a snow play area and parking lot, approximately 1.5 miles east of Governmen...

• Marketing
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Steady Brook, Newfoundland, Canada, July 9, 2018—The Newfoundland and Labrador government, which owns and operates Marble Mountain Ski Resort, has issued a request for proposals (RFP) from potential private investors, operators, or even new owners for the resort. According to reports, Marble Mountain hasn’t turned a profit in yea...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Government Camp, Ore., June 25, 2018—Industry veteran Mike Quinn has been hired to lead Mt. Hood Skibowl as its new vice president and general manager. This is a return to Skibowl for Quinn, who served as the resort’s operations manager from 1992 to 2000. He brings 32 years of ski industry experience to his new position. Most re...

SAM Magazine—Flagstaff, Ariz., June 25, 2018—The threat of wildfires in the west has prompted the U.S. Forest Service to close access to several areas of public lands, including access to some businesses that operate through permits in public lands. This includes Arizona Snowbowl, which was ordered to close summer operations a few days before M...

• Lifts
• Terrain
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 25, 2018—Alterra Mountain Company is gradually covering all its competitive bases, the most recent being a pass partnership with Thredbo, Australia. This is the first resort outside of North America to be included on the Ikon Pass, and inserts the company into a market that, until now, was only occupied by Vail Resorts...

• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Eagle, Colo., June 21, 2018—A jury ruled in favor of Vail Resorts on June 20 in the wrongful death trial of 13-year-old Taft Conlin, who was killed in an in-bounds avalanche at Vail in 2012. Vail’s ski patrol had closed the upper Prima Cornice run, but a lower entry to the slope had remained open. Conlin had entered and climbed up toward the cornice when the avalanche occurred. Conlin’s parents, Dr. Louise Ingalls and Dr. Stephen Conlin, had sued the ski company for negligence, saying the resort had violated Colorado’s Skier Safety Act because it did not close the run properly.

• Terrain
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Wrightwood, Calif., June 21, 2018—Colorado’s Monarch Mountain—one of the pioneers in season pass partnerships—has joined the Powder Alliance, becoming the 20th mountain resort to be a part of the reciprocal pass partnership.

• Racing
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

Snow People is where we highlight recent happenings to prominent people in the mountain resort industry.

• Resort Development
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Waltham, Mass., June 21, 2018—BEWI Productions, Inc., the organizer of the Colorado Ski and Snowboard Expo, has partnered with Sun & Ski as the exclusive retailer for this year’s event, Nov. 16-18 at the Colorado Convention Center. Sun & Ski has recently expanded to Colorado, opening shops in Avon and Dillon, with more lo...

• Resort Development
• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 20, 2018—It didn’t take long for Alterra Mountain Company to answer Vail Resorts’ recent plans for new acquisitions. Alterra has entered into an agreement to purchase Solitude Mountain Resort in Utah, which would bring the company’s total to 13 destinations throughout North America, including CMH heli-skiing oper...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., June 20, 2018—Registration is open for SAM’s ninth annual Summer Ops Camp, a series of seminars, workshops, and site visits that explore the state of the art in summer operations. Camp also provides a great opportunity to get hands-on with a wide range of summer activities, and to explore product offerings with a d...

• Lifts
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Montpelier, Vt., June 18, 2018—The Vermont Ski Areas Association (VSAA) reported 3.97 million skier visits at its member resorts during the 2017-18 season, a year-over-year increase of 1.2 percent, but just below the state’s 10-year average. Those visits helped generate $1.6 billion in economic activity during the winter season i...

• Lifts
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, June 18, 2018—Despite limited help from Mother Nature during the 2017-18 ski season, Utah ski areas posted their sixth-best season in terms of skier visits. Starting Nov. 21 at Brighton Resort and ending May 13 at Snowbird, visits for the season totaled 4,145,321—down 9.6 percent from last season’s all-tim...