SAM Magazine--March 2, 2010--Woodbury, CT--Time is running out to send in nominations for the SAMMY Leadership Awards. Nominations close on March 15, 2010. Nominees for the SAMMY Leadership Award can come from both the resort side of the industry and the supplier side. The SAMMYs honor people who, at mid-career, demonstrate the innovation, leade...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 27, 2010-Fortress Investment Group and its lenders have agreed to a framework for restructuring $1.2 billion in debt for Intrawest, Bloomberg News is reporting. The new plan is said to call for $1.2 billion of debt to be split into a senior tranche of $800 million and a mezzanine tranche of $400 million. The le...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 26, 2010-Nordic combined gold medalist Billy Demong (Vermontville, N.Y.) will be the flag bearer for the 2010 U.S. Olympic Team at the Closing Ceremony. Demong, who earned the first-ever gold medal for a U.S. skier in Nordic combined, was selected for this honor by his Olympic teammates. Demong becomes the four...

SAM Magazine-Squaw Valley, Calif., Feb. 25, 2010-C.R. Johnson, 26, died yesterday while skiing at his home mountain, Squaw Valley, after he fell several hundred yards through exposed rocks. Ski Patrol were on the scene within minutes, but efforts to revive Johnson failed. He was reportedly wearing a helmet. Johnson was a pipe and park legend. He...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 24, 2010-For the first time, TV audience measurer The Nielsen Co. has been tracking audience ratings for individual Olympics events, and skiing came out on top during the first few days of the Games. Freestyle skiing, in particular the moguls events, achieved an average of 26.9 million viewers during prime time...

SAM Magazine-Whitefish, Mont., Feb. 24, 2010-In response to a large increase in after-hours uphill traffic, Whitefish Mountain Resort will restrict uphill traffic within the resort's Special Use Permit boundary to a single route on the mountain, as well as limit the hours when the activity is allowed, starting Mar. 1. As traffic has increased, r...

SAM Magazine--February 23, 2010--The Ski Maine Association reports that Maine ski and snowboard areas posted good numbers over the February school vacation week. Snowmaking was the hero, sustainibng the industry as snow storms tracked south, through the mid Atlantic states. According to Shawnee Peak's owner, Chet Homer, "with our conversion to h...

SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., Feb. 23, 2010-Winter Trails on Jan. 9 attracted approximately 10,700 participants, nearly all of them new to winter sports, according to program director Mary Jo Tarallo. The free learn to snowshoe and cross country ski program was a chief Nordic component of Learn a Snow Sport Month. Some of the largest events took pla...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 18, 2010-The lenders who have threatened to auction Intrawest's debt have postponed any such action for a week, according to Reuters. The auction, originally set for Feb. 19, has been rescheduled on Feb. 26. Intrawest and its parent company, Fortress Investment Group, have been negotiating with creditors for month...

SAM Magazine-Truckee, Calif., Feb. 17, 2010-East West Resort Development, an affiliate of East West Partners which has built luxury resorts in the Tahoe area, filed for bankruptcy yesterday. The filing primarily affects three Tahoe-area properties: Old Greenwood, Gray's Crossing and the Northstar Highlands, along with Tahoe Mountain Club. It doe...

SAM Magazine-Aviemore, Scotland, Feb. 17, 2010-Despite the fluctuating weather conditions in Vancouver for the Olympic Games, most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere is reporting great ski conditions, according to www.Skiinfo.co.uk. Mt. Washington, B.C., not far from the Games sites, currently reports the greatest reported snow depths (15...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., Feb. 17, 2010- Reservations and occupancy in mountain resorts continued to edge up in January, though they remain slightly behind last year's low figures, according to the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). The report is based on reports from more than 200 resort properties in 15 resorts across Western North Ameri...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Feb. 9, 2010-Intrawest today announced a definitive purchase agreement to sell its interests in Sandestin Golf and Beach Resort to the Becnel family of Destin, Florida. Specific terms of the agreement were not disclosed; the transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2010. The purchase agreement inc...

SAM Magazine-Louisville, Colo., Feb. 8, 2010-Olympic bronze medalist Jimmie Heuga, a star of the 1964 Olympic Winter Games and one of the U.S. Ski Team's greatest ski racers, died today, on the eve of the Olympics in Vancouver and 46 years to the day after he won his medal. Heuga was 66. "Jimmie Heuga was a champion in every sense of the word," ...

SAM Magazine--Squaw Valley, Calif., February 2, 2010--Late last week, Squaw Valley USA announced that it has completed the acquisition of The Village at Squaw Valley, a four-season mountain resort village at the base of the ski resort, from Intrawest. The Village was started in 2002 and was developed by Intrawest. Last week's transaction include...