SAM Magazine—Telluride, Colo., and Revelstoke, B.C., Canada, Aug. 9, 2016—The collection of destinations accessible via The Mountain Collective just grew to 14, for now, with the addition of Telluride, Colo., and Revelstoke, British Columbia.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Aug. 8, 2016—After filing for bankruptcy in February, Echo Mountain owner Nora Pykkonen appears to have found a buyer for the small ski area just outside of Denver.

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Aug. 8, 2016—In revealing its plan to acquire Whistler Blackcomb (see separate report), Vail Resorts (VR) outlined some initial intentions:

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., and Whistler, British Columbia, Aug. 8, 2016—Vail Resorts (VR) is purchasing Whistler Blackcomb, the largest ski resort in North America. In what the company calls a “strategic business combination,” VR will acquire 100 percent of Whistler Blackcomb stock in a cash and stock deal worth a total of about USD$1.056 billion. The transaction is expected to close in fall of 2016.

SAM Magazine—Telluride, Colo., July 28, 2016— Commercial air service to Telluride Airport will resume Dec. 17 following a two-year hiatus, now that Colorado Flights has completed a deal with Great Lakes Airlines to reinstate its service from Denver.

SAM Magazine—Olympic Valley, Calif., July 21, 2016—Industry veteran Casey Blann will be taking the reigns as vice president of mountain operations for Alpine Meadows, as well as overseeing risk management and loss prevention for both Alpine and Squaw Valley.

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, July 21, 2016—Vail Resorts abandoned its effort to trademark the name “Park City” on July 16 in the face of opposition from a long line of critics.

SAM Magazine—Newry, Maine, July 20, 2016—Investigators think they may have discovered why the upper terminal of the Spruce Peak Triple seemed to uproot from the ground at Sunday River on July 10.

SAM Magazine—Taos, N.M., July 14, 2016—Resort industry veteran David Norden has been appointed chief executive officer of Taos Ski Valley and will begin work on July 25. He will oversee all existing Taos Ski Valley resort operations including The Blake, a new slopeside hotel, which is slated to open this winter.

SAM Magazine—Newry, Maine, July 13, 2016—In one of the more unusual lift failures to occur in recent memory, the upper terminal of the Sunday River, Maine, Spruce Peak Triple chairlift “detached” from the ground underneath it.

SAM Magazine—Centennial, Colo., July 11, 2016—Reviving an old concept, the Snöbahn indoor ski and snowboard center in suburban Centennial hopes to entice both new and veteran skiers and snowboarders to its revolving-deck facility. It’s the first of its kind in the Denver area, and it has the backing of some impressive skiing athletes: Bode Miller, Eric Schlopy, and Chris Anthony.

Welcome to this month’s update on happenings about people in the ski industry. Two former colleagues at the Tecnica Group return to the ski biz, inside and outside the Group, and two managers with Vail Resorts ties take on new jobs, inside and outside VR.

SAM Magazine—Northeast Kingdom, Vt., July 8, 2016—There have been several developments and goings on at Jay Peak and Burke Mountain in Vermont since the SEC came to town. Some relate to the SEC’s case against the resorts’ operators for alleged EB-5 fraud, some relate to general operations.

SAM Magazine—Nizhny Novgorod, Russia, July 8, 2016—Ski resorts have been built in war zones (Syria/Israel, Iraq, and Pakistan, for example), or in areas that have become war zones (Bosnia), and some war movies have been filmed at ski areas, but a plan to build a “war themed” ski resort is believed to be a first.

SAM Magazine—Vail, Colo., July 1, 2016 —Vail Mountain unveiled its new Epic Discovery summer mountain experience at a ribbon cutting ceremony June 28. Epic Discovery immerses guests in “learn-through-play” activities that provide big-time thrills, challenge guests physically, and guide them to explore and better understand their natural surroundings. Vail Mountain and Heavenly, Calif., are implementing the concept this summer, and in 2017, Breckenridge will follow.