SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, June 15, 2006--American Skiing Company (ASC) released its third quarter figures and the news was good on a quarter to quarter comparison, but the company's debt load still runs high. Net revenues for resort operations for the 13 weeks ended April 30, 2006 were $132.8 million, compared to $132.3 million during the s...

SAM Magazine-North Woodstock, N.H., June 14, 2006-New Hampshire and New Mexico both saw visitor numbers drop for the 2005-06 season. Weather challenged skiers and riders in the two states. N.H. visits dropping 10 percent from last year's near-record level, to 2,021,098. New Mexico visits tumbled more than 50 percent, to 416,617 visits, down from 95...

SAM Magazine-Homewood, Calif., June 14, 2006-JMA Ventures, the company that built Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, has purchased Homewood Mountain Resort. The resort occupies 1,260 acres on Tahoe's West Shore. The move comes after 4th District Congressman John Doolittle, R-Roseville, blocked a possible sale of the property to the U.S. Forest Se...

SAM Magazine--June 1, 2006, Donnelly, Idaho--The newest four-season ski area, Tamarack in Idaho, announced the closing of a $250-million senior credit facility arranged by Credit Suisse. The financing allows for reinvestment of the proceeds from real estate sales against a pre-approved business plan for a period of five years, provided that certain...

SAM Magazine--Marco Island, Fla., May 25, 2006--The National Ski Areas Association announced that, based on prelimary estimates, national skier visits for the 2005/06 season will set an all-time record at 58.8 million visits. The previous record was set in 2002/03 with 57.6 million visits. Confirmation of the record will be made once all resorts...

SAM Magazine--Marco Island, Fla., May 25, 2006--The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) got a new chairman when Vail COO Bill Jensen was elected to the position during the national trade show and convention in Marco Island, Florida. Jensen most recently served as vice chairman and will replace outgoing chairman, David Crowley from Wachusett Mount...

Newry, Me., May 26, 2006-Dana Bullen has become president and managing director of Sunday River resort in Newry, Maine, effective immediately. He has served as GM of the resort since September 2004 and brings more than 20 years of ski industry and resort management experience to the job. Bullen, who spent several years working his way through the r...

SAM Magazine-Salt Lake City, May 16, 2006-Utah resorts achieved their third consecutive record-breaking year for skier visits in 2005-06 as they topped 4 million for the first time. Utah skier days are at 4,045,030, up 3.8 percent over the previous season, with Snowbird sure to add a few thousand more before it closes at the end of May. Visits to U...

SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., May 16, 2006-Overall sales for the winter sport market (including specialty and chain stores) rose 4 percent, to $2.3 billion for the August 2005 through March 2006 period, compared to $2.2 billion a year earlier, according to the SIA Retail Audit. Unit sales were up 6 percent. For the season, strong sales through December...

SAM Magazine--May, 15, 2006, Oregon--The Pacific Nortwest Ski Areas Association announced that Oregon is on track for a record-breaking year and Washington had its second best. On the heels of one of the worst seasons in memory in 2004/05, great snow conditions allowed areas in the Pacific Northwest to rebound nicely. Oregon still has three areas i...

SAM Magazine--Blakeslee, Penn., May 12, 2006--Peak Resorts announced that Jesse Boyd will take on the GM position at Big Boulder and Jack Frost ski areas. Peak Resorts took over the operation of both areas during the winter of 2005-06 under the direction of Dave Grenier, executive VP of Peak Resorts. Grenier will continue to be involved with Jesse ...

SAM Magazine--May 12, 2006, New Hampshire--Wildcat Ski Mountain in Pinkham Notch, N.H., is up for sale again. The area features 225 acres of sliding on 47 trails and 2,112 feet of vertical. Accessing the terrain are three triples and a quad. The area operates on a 40-year extendable lease and there are 37 years remaining on the current lease. ...

SAM Magazine--May 10, 2006, Vancouver, Canada--Thanks to the sale of real estate holdings at Mammoth Mountain, Intrawest saw its total company EBITDA for the third quarter jump to $136.5 million, up from $109.5 million for the same period last year. (EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, income taxes, non-controlling interest, depreciation an...

SAM Magazine--May 8, 2006, Portland, Maine--Maine's assumption of risk law was tested last week when a tuber brought her case all the way to the state's Supreme Court. The Court threw out the lawsuit and upheld the definition of skiing which includes "sliding downhill on snow or ice on skis, toboggan, sled, tube, snowboard..." In its decision, t...

SAM Magazine--May 8, 2006, Missoula, Montana--It's back to the drawing board for the proposed Bitterroot Resort in Montana. According to published reports, the Forest Service rejected, for the second t ime, a proposal by rancher Tom Maclay to develop Forest Service land above his ranch into a ski resort. Last year, the resort submitted a proposa...