SAM Magazine--Denver, Colo., April 2, 2004--Colorado's ski industry generates $2 billion annually and provides 31,000 jobs, according to a report released by Colorado Ski Country USA. The ski industry accounts for more than a quarter of the state's $7 billion tourism revenues. Resorts take in nearly $1 billion themselves, while estimates of reve...

SAM Magazine--Big Bear Lake, Calif., Mar. 26, 2004--A forest fire that burned 400 acres led to the evacuation of Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski areas late Thursday, and Bear Mountain remained closed Friday. By late Friday the fire was under control, though, and both areas will be open on Saturday. Neither area suffered significant damage. The...

SAM Magazine--Boulder, Colo., Mar. 25, 2004--Perkins Miller has become vice president, managing director of Mountain Sports Media, a new position at the company and part of a restructuring effort aimed at developing the group's multi-media capabilities. Miller was most recently editor-in-chief of Skiing Magazine. In his new role, Miller assumes ...

SAM Magazine--Winter Park, Colo., March 25, 2004--Explosives used for avalanche control were stolen from the Winter Park ski area last weekend. On Monday morning, ski resort patrollers found that an undisclosed number of high-explosive Trojan Boosters, cylinders packed with pentaerythritol tetranitrate, had been taken from a locked storage shed...

SAM Magazine--Donnelly, Ida., March 25, 2004--Jim Spenst is joining Tamarack Resort as vice president of operations. Spenst is currently vice president of mountain operations for Copper Mountain Resort, and will remain in that position through the current season. At Tamarack, Spenst will oversee lift operations, the Alpine and Nordic trail syste...

SAM Magazine--Avon, Colo., March 23, 2004--In "Operation Freedom Lodging," Keystone and Breckenridge are offering 1,000 complimentary room nights to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan for R&R. Rooms are available between April 1 and December 16. A soldier from any branch of the military who has served on active duty for more than 30 days...

SAM Magazine--McLean, Va., March 17, 2004--Overall sales for the winter sport market (including specialty and chain stores) increased 1.8 percent in dollars to $1.72 billion for August 2003 through January 2004, according to the SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Retail Audit. Unit sales were ahead 5.8 percent. Growing interest in Nordic and telem...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., March 17, 2004--Booth Creek resort operations revenues rose 2 percent for the first quarter ended Jan. 30, 2004, to $47,315,000, as earlier openings at Sierra-at-Tahoe and the Summit areas in Washington State offset a slower season in the East. Increased snow school, equipment rental, retail and food and beverage sales al...

SAM Magazine--North Creek, N.Y., March 12, 2004--The state comptroller has endorsed a proposal to link Gore Mountain and the North Creek Ski Bowl, create 2,500 new lodging beds and extend passenger train service from Saratoga Springs to North Creek, providing New Yorkers direct train service to the resort. Comptroller Alan Hevesi predicted the d...

SAM Magazine--Denver, Colo., March 12, 2004--Visits to resorts in Colorado were up 3.5 percent over year-ago levels in January and February, according to Colorado Ski Country USA. Areas recorded 4,982,652 visits during the period. Destination visits led the rise. Destination resorts hosted 1,582,555 visits (a 6.1 percent increase over 2002-03) i...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Mar. 10, 2004--Vail Resorts, Inc. reported a net loss for the six months ended Jan. 31, 2004 of $32.1 million, compared to a net loss of $8.4 million for the same period last year. Excluding charges for early extinguishment of debt and mold remediation at the Breckenridge Terrace employee housing, Vail's expected net l...

SAM Magazine--Park City, Utah, Mar. 10, 2004--American Skiing Company (ASC) lost $21.7 million in its fiscal second quarter ended Jan. 31, 2004, compared to a loss of $16.7 million for second quarter of 2003. For the first six months of fiscal 2004, net loss totalled $62.9 million, compared with a net loss of $55.8 million in the corresponding peri...

SAM Magazine--Fraser, Colo., Mar. 3, 2004--Marise Cipriani is repositioning her SolVista ski area again, changing the name to The Granby Ranch and marketing the ski area and its related real estate as an affordable mountain resort community. Cipriani purchased the SilverCreek ski area in 1995, and renamed it SolVista in 2000. The Granby Ranch co...

SAM Magazine--Killington, Vt., Mar. 3, 2004--In their continuing protest against high taxes on second homes, Killington voters approved a proposal to secede from Vermont and join the state of New Hampshire at the town's annual meeting Mar. 2. Vermont's Act 60 and Act 68, passed years ago, set higher tax rates for second-home properties than for ...

SAM Magazine--Ludlow, Vt., March 2, 2004--As of March 1, Tim and Diane Mueller are the proud owners of Crested Butte Ski Resort in Colorado. The Muellers, who own Okemo, Vt., and run Mount Sunapee, N.H., purchased the resort from the Callaway and Walton families for an undisclosed amount, though speculation puts the figure at about $50 million. ...