SAM Magazine--Portland, Maine, Jan. 15, 2004--Maine ski areas have taken advantage of New England's subzero freeze to make snow ahead of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday. "The Maine ski industry has been able to make snow during every single day in 2004," said Greg Sweetser, executive director of Ski Maine. All areas are opening new terrain for t...

SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., Jan. 1, 2004--Strong sales of junior gear and apparel and a rebound in the sales of snowboard gear during August through November kept retail sales at ski and snowboard outlets nearly flat with 2002, according to the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Retail Audit. Overall, sales for the entire winter sports market (i...

SAM Magazine--Denver, Colorado, Jan. 12, 2004--Visits at Colorado resorts declined nine percent from year-ago totals, according to figures released today by Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA). From the start of the season, Oct. 28, through Dec. 31, 2003, total skier visits were 2,671,532, compared to 2002-03's record 2,942,555. This season's tota...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, Jan. 9, 2004--Park City Mountain Resort will no longer host the "America's Opening" World Cup races in November, which has the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) looking for a new host site. "The challenges of an early season date are extraordinary," said Park City president and GM Vern Greco in explaining t...

SAM Magazine--Boulder, Colo., Jan. 7, 2004--Weather--too much snow, too much rain--dampened visits on some days during the Christmas-New Year's period. But the longer-than-usual holiday (from December 20 through January 4) and determinedly upbeat customers made this a strong, and in some instances record, holiday season for many resorts across the ...

SAM Magazine--Ludlow, Vt., Jan. 8, 2004--Tim and Diane Mueller, owners of Triple Peaks, LLC have entered into a Definitive Purchase and Sale Agreement to buy Crested Butte Ski Resort from the Callaway and Walton families, owners of Crested Butte Mountain Ski Resort, LLC and it subsidiaries. The Muellers signed a Letter of Intent for the purchase...

SAM Magazine--Bozeman, Mont., January 2, 2004--The ownership of the summit of the 11,166-foot Lone Peak, which is home to Big Sky, the Yellowstone Mountain Club and the new Moonlight Basin, is the subject of what is to become a court battle. According to the Billings Gazette, Tim Blixseth, owner of the Yellowstone Club, has filed suit against th...

The East decidedly had it the hardest during Christmas week, but the news gets better out West. Rain on Christmas Eve for southern New England, then temperatures that soared into the 50s and 60s over Christmas and the following weekend, made for a less-than-stellar holiday week for many ski areas in the Northeast. At Ski Bradford, just north of ...

SAM Magazine--Storrs, Ct., December 29, 2003--Marvin W. Kottke, 80, died of a sudden massive stroke on December 26, 2003. Kottke's work in the ski industry is well known after 14 years of preparing the Kottke End of Season Report for the National Ski Areas Association. Though the report has been assembled by RRC Associates since 1994, it still bear...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Dec. 24, 2003--Vail Resorts and Intrawest have reached an "amicable agreement" to divide the remaining developable assets, liquidate remaining partnership inventory, and ultimately to dissolve their Keystone development partnership. The partnership stems from Vail Resorts' purchase of Keystone in the mid-1990s, at which t...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Dec. 17, 2003--A woman and her deceased husband's family won a $17.5 million award yesterday stemming from carbon monoxide poisoning at Vail Resorts' Snake River Lodge and Spa in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, in 2001. The award, the largest personal injury award ever in Wyoming, included compensatory but no punitive damages. Pla...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., December 16, 2004--Vail Resorts, Inc., announced its first quarter numbers last week for the fiscal year 2004 (the quarter ended on October 31, 2003) and the news was mixed. It seems expenses outweighed revenue in quite a few areas, though the company claims it is making headway and that the results were better than antic...

SAM Magazine--Ligonier, Pa., December 16, 2004--A month ago, the owner of Laurel Mountain Ski Resort, George Mowl, announced that he had found a buyer in HomeSpan Financial Group. However, the sale was delayed last week by the untimely death of the president of HomeSpan, John Jones. Both parties claim that the sale will still go through but, in ...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, December 10, 2003--This reporter must first confess that she has absolutely no background in financial matters. So, when American Skiing Company released its first quarter figures today with a caveat about the company adopting Statement of Financial Accounting Standards No. 150, "Accounting for Certain Financial Instr...

SIN--12/10/03--SIA posted its Retail Audit for the August-October quarter on Tuesday, and it shows a 3.9% sales increase over the same quarter in 2002, based on cash register results at 1085 stores. Ý Specialty stores did very well, doubling sales of ski-and-binding "systems" (thanks largely to a 13% drop in average price) and a 73% rise in ...