SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., April 17, 2009-Vail Resorts today reported that visits to its five resorts were off by 6.2 percent and lift ticket revenue down by 8.7 percent for the season to date through April 12, compared to last year. Room nights booked through VR's central reservations and directly at the company's owned and managed properties...

SAM Magazine-Carrabassett Valley, Maine, April 17, 2009-Sugarloaf is offering its guests the opportunity to decide what lifts will run for the remainder of the year, through its online community and via Twitter. Starting on Monday, April 20, Sugarloaf will scale back its operations to two daily lifts through the remainder of the season, which is...

SAM Magazine--Woodbury, Conn., April 16, 2009--SAM Magazine is proud to announce the recipients of the 12th annual 2009 SAMMY Leadership Awards and the third annual SAM Diversity Award. They are: 1) Alan Henceroth, COO at Arapahoe Basin, Colo. Alan first entered the ski industry working at Keystone Resort for five seasons and transitioned over ...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., April 13, 2009-Vail Resorts, Inc. (VR) will require all employees to wear helmets when skiing or riding on the job at each of its five mountain resorts-Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly-for the 2009-10 season. Helmets will be provided to every employee next fall as part of their standard uniform...

SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., April 13, 2009-Snow sports market sales declined 16 percent overall in February 2009 compared to February 2008, the largest year-over-year decline this season. Equipment sales were particularly hard hit in February as consumers hesitated to purchase big-ticket items like skis and snowboards. The dropoff in sales of alpine ...

SAM Magazine-Nederland, Colo., April 3, 2009-Jim Spenst is the new general manager at Eldora Mountain Resort. Spenst was vice president of operations at Tamarack Resort in Idaho from 2004 to 2008, and worked in a variety of capacities at Copper Mountain from 1973 to 2004, including vice president of operations from 1998 to 2004. Spenst grew up i...

APRIL FOOLS!...

SAM Magazine-Innsbruck, Austria, March 27, 2009-With great fanfare, PRINOTH unveiled its new European groomer, the Beast, on a clear night in the Austrian Alps in front of 600 spectators from around the world. Attendees of the event, which was themed "Beauty and the Beast," were treated to a visual extravaganza that included a helicopter shooting o...

SAM Magazine-Concord, N.H., April 1, 2009-After extended contemplation and study, 100 acres of the upper portion of the dormant Mittersill ski area has joined the system of state lands as part of Cannon Mountain Ski Area. The move is part of a land exchange that transfers the 244 acre Sentinel Mountain Forest, including approximately ¼ mile of t...

SAM Magazine- Alta, Wyo., April 1, 2009-Grand Targhee Resort has become the first winter resort to register its complete emissions inventory with the Climate Registry. The move establishes a baseline for measuring the resort's carbon footprint, which can be used to accurately and comprehensively manage the resort's emissions. The Climate Registr...

SAM Magazine-Boulder, Colo., March 31, 2009-Mike Federle is the new group publisher of the Bonnier Mountain Group where he will head up SKI and Skiing magazines and SkiNet.com, plus Warren Miller Films. He replaces Jamie Pentz, who was ousted in early February. Federle brings more than 25 years of sales experience to the task, including a succes...

Time is running out to send in nominations for two important industry awards: the SAMMY Leadership Award and the Diversity Leadership Award. Both awards close at the end of this week, April 3rd, 2009. Nominees for the SAMMY Leadership Awards can come from both the resort side of the industry and the supplier side. The SAMMYs honor people who, at...

SAM Magazine-Winter Park, Colo., March 28, 2009-Winter Park and Copper Mountain have slashed the price of the areas' joint Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus. The pass, which cost $439 this winter, is now offered for $399. The pass includes unlimited access at Copper and Winter Park and six days at Steamboat, as it did last eyar. In addition, consumers...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., March 28, 2009-Not only is Snowsports Industry America's annual trade show moving to Denver after 37 years in Las Vegas, the organization is changing the name of the event to the SIA Snow Show. "With our move to Denver we have the opportunity to put the 'snow' back in snow sports and return to the core of our sport, s...

SAM Magazine-Corvara, Italy, March 26, 2009-World-renowned big-mountain freeskier Shane McConkey died today while ski-BASE jumping in the Dolomites. He was working on a new film with JT Holmes and a crew from Matchstick Productions. Details of the accident are not clear; McConkey had planned to do a double backflip off the Val Scura couloir on Sass...