Banner Elk, N.C., Oct. 30, 2012—Trick or treat, Superstorm Sandy has brought more than a foot and a half of snow to resorts in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic states, prompting a few to open for the season. Sugar Mountain and Cataloochee, N.C., will open on Halloween, Oct. 31. This marks the earliest-ever opening for Sugar, and Cataloochee&rsq...

SAM Magazine--October 22, 2012--Jim Spring, founder of Leisure Trends Group (LTG), died early Monday morning while battling throat cancer. Spring founded LTG in 1989 and over the past 23 years developed and led the company to become one of the authorities in the sporting goods and specialty retail industries. Spring started his career in the ind...

SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., Oct. 22, 2012—The ASTM F24 Amusement Rides and Devices Committee approved the first version of the Aerial Adventure Course Standard, which includes zip lines, ropes courses, challenge courses, aerial trekking courses, and canopy tours. This new standard establishes criteria for the design, manufacture, inst...

SAM Magazine—Union Dale, Pa., Oct. 22, 2012—Elk Mountain and its neighboring resort community, the Village of Four Seasons, have been squabbling over property issues. The latest tiff: the Village has lodged a lawsuit against the ski resort, charging that the resort wrongly claimed and transferred a section of the village's property ...

SAM Magazine--October 21, 2012--Ski Utah announced the launch of the new Ski Utah magazine and a redesigned website. The inaugural magazine is a different product more focused on imagery, polished writing, insider tips and more. “After years of producing a factual vacation planner, it was time to re-invent the wheel and feed the dream and asp...

SAM Magazine--October 17, 2012, Jay, VT--Jay Peak Resort today announced that it is lowering the prices of all its lift tickets. For example, a single-day lift ticket last year was $75, but will be $64 this season. Ten dollars will be taken off each additional day purchased.  The move comes while the area undergoes a $500 milion renovation....

SAM Magazine--October 17, 2012--Sunshine Village Ski and Snowboard Resort has named Dave Riley as senior VP and COO of the Banff resort.  Riley was most recently CEO at Telluride and before that president of Mt. Hood Meadows....

SAM Magazine--October 17, 2012--Sno Mountain, Pa., filed for involuntary Chapter 11 on October 15. In late August, the state of Pennsylvania filed a lien against the area for $516,503, most of which was for unpaid taxes. The area disputed the lien claiming that it only collected sales tax on rentals, so it did not owe  taxes for all other sale...

SAM Magazine—Arapahoe Basin, Colo., Oct. 17, 2012—Arapahoe Basin Ski Area opened today at 9 a.m., marking the start to the ski and snowboard season. The Black Mountain Express started at 9:00 a.m. and began serving the intermediate High Noon trail at mid-mountain. The area also has six features in the High Divide Terrain Park. Temperatu...

SAM Magazine—Denver, Oct. 15, 2012—Reservations for the fall and winter season through March 2013 are up .5 percent from year-ago levels, with future customers reluctant to book far in advance, according to the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). In addition, the pace of bookings during September was below the level of a year ago....

SAM Magazine--October 12, 2012--After a shaky 2011/12 season, Bear Valley Mountain Resort, Calif., has said that it will reopen this year. Typically, Bear Valley hosts 140,000 skier visits, but last season saw only 75,000. Also at issue was whether the resort would file a new operating plan with the U.S. Forest Service by October 15. According to M...

SAM Magazine—Breckenridge, Colo., Oct. 10, 2012—Two appeals were lodged against the Forest Service decision to allow Breckenridge’s Peak 6 expansion, giving the agency 45 days to respond. The proposed expansion would add 413 acres, much of it designated as intermediate, a six-pack chairlift, fixed-grip chair, and 143 acres of hike...

SAM Magazine—Ligonier Township, Pa., Oct. 10, 2012—State-owned Laurel Mountain Ski Resort will remain closed for at least another year. The 64-acre facility has been closed since 2005 despite efforts to reopen it. Seven Springs Mountain Resort has agreed to operate the area, and has been assessing the infrastructure needs, which incl...

SAM Magazine--October 9, 2012--Actor Bruce Wilis has handed over the reins of his small Idaho ski area, Soldier Mountain, to a nonprofit group. The actor announced last April that he was looking for a new entity to run Soldier, which includes two chairs and one rope tow on permitted Forest Service land, at the same time he announced the sale o...

SAM Magazine—Taylors Falls, Minn., Oct. 8, 2012—Wild Mountain, Minn., was the first resort to open for the winter season, as it began operations on Sunday, Oct. 7, with skiing, snowboarding, alpine sliding and go-karting. Opening day offered two slopes, a beginner run and a terrain park, served by two rope tows, with up to 24 inches ...