SAM Magazine-Stevens Pass, Wash., Feb. 20, 2012- Three skiers died in an out-of-bounds avalanche on the back side of Stevens Pass Sunday, including Stevens marketing director Chris Rudolph. The others were professional freestyle skiing judge Jim Jack and local John Brenan. A fourth person caught in the slide, pro skier Elyse Saugstad, deployed an a...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Feb. 17, 2012-Recent shifts in storm systems that brought much-needed snow to many western resorts came too late to boost early season destination travel, with hotel occupancy declining 3.7 percent during the month of January, according to the most recent data from the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). The booking pace ...

SAM Magazine--February 16, 2012--Peak Resorts has announced its plan to build a new 48,000-square-foot main base lodge at Brandywine Ski Resort, Ohio. The new lodge is estimated to be a capital investment of upwards of $5 million that will replace three existing buildings resulting in all skier services being combined in one location. The lodg...

SAM Magazine--February 13, 2012--Two unfortunate incidents took place this past weekend in the ski industry. First, on February 11, three people were injured at Coffee Mill Ski and Snowboard Resort, Minn., when a chair fell from the rope thirty feet to the ground. The ski area was hosting a racing tournament when the accident happened around 1 p.m....

SAM Magazine-San Francisco, Calif., Feb. 9, 2012-Arizona Snowbowl and the U.S. Forest Service gained another court victory today as the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth District affirmed a district court decision upholding the Forest Service's 2005 Record of Decision regarding snowmaking at the Snowbowl, rejecting a suit brought by the Save the ...

SAM Magazine-Amherst, Va., Feb. 8, 2012-Wintergreen Resort is cutting expenses, collecting 2013 membership dues early, and asking its 1,800 members for a $6 million cash infusion to help the resort meet financial challenges stemming from this winter's warm weather and below-average snow, according to several news sources. Wintergreen Partners In...

SAM Magazine--February 3, 2012--Peak Resorts, the parent company of Crotched Mountain, N.H., announced the acquisition of the high speed detachable quad at Ascutney Mountain, which has closed its doors. Crotched will install the 5,000+-foot lift this coming summer. The Garaventa CTEC lift will replace a fixed grip lift and access an additional 2...

SAM Magazine--February 3, 2012--Last night, February 2, the Cache County Planning Commission granted a conditional use permit for the proposed Cherry Creek ski area in northern Utah. The proposal for the new ski area includes 203 acres of terrain, base area and mid-mountain facilities, four lifts, a terrain park, a zipline, three water storage ...

SAM Magazine--January 28, 2012--Yesterday marked the start of the 2011-12 winter season for Utah's newest ski resort Eagle Point. The opening signifies that every Utah ski and snowboard resort is open for the season. A fresh blanket of snow during the past 24 hours added two to eight inches to resort snow totals. This snowfall, in addition to the p...

SAM Magazine--January 25, 2012--After filing for bankruptcy two years ago, the assets of Moonlight Basin, Mont., were sold last week to the estate of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. According to the Wall Street Journal, Lehman began lending to Moonlight in 2007 under a $100 million credit agreement between the area and the Lehman Brothers Commercial ...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Jan. 25, 2012-The meeting of the terrain park task force of the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) F27 Snow Skiing Committee at the Denver Convention Center yesterday failed to produce the anticipated fireworks. There was general agreement that most of the variables in terrain park jumps are user-generated, and t...

From January 17-19, ski areas and suppliers alike descended on Squaw Valley, Calif., for the NSAA Western Conference and Trade Show. Understandably, the number of attendees was off by about 150 over previous years, but that didn't stop those who did attend from taking part in informative sessions and a little trade show shopping. Sixty-two resorts ...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Jan. 24, 2012-What a difference a week makes. Winter returned across most of the U.S. in the past seven days, bringing several feet of snow to the snow-starved Lake Tahoe areas and padding snow depths across the Rockies. Eastern areas also received fresh snow, adding to base depths there as well. Clearing the decks at Mt. Ro...

SAM Magazine--January 20, 2012--Colorado Ski Country USA's (CSCUSA) 22 member resorts reported a decrease in skier visitation for the beginning of the 2011/12 ski season. Skier visits at CSCUSA resorts were off by 10.65 percent during the first period of the ski season, defined as opening day of the season through December 31, 2011, compared to the...

SAM Magazine-Woodbury, Conn., Jan. 18, 2012-Terrain parks have come a long way over the past decade and Cutter's Camp has been at the forefront of this movement by creating a program where best practices are shared, technology discussed, and ideas exchanged. But freestyle terrain is ever-changing and improving, so we still have much to discuss. To ...