• Miscellaneous
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Olympic Valley, Calif., Jan. 27, 2023—A mix of snowstorms and sunshine brought travel delays and bluebird days to the NSAA Western Winter Conference, hosted at Palisades Tahoe. See more images in the slideshow below.More than 650 operators and suppliers attended the Jan. 17-18 event, which offered networking opportunities and educa...

• Marketing

SAM Magazine—Big Bear Lake, Calif., Jan. 20, 2023—Alterra Mountain Company has closed on its acquisition of Southern California’s Snow Valley Mountain Resort. Snow Valley will join the operations of Alterra’s Big Bear Mountain Resort, located 11 miles away in Big Bear Lake, which includes the Bear Mountain and Snow Summit ski areas.  “T...

• Area Management
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Brian Head, Utah, Jan. 20, 2023—Development and construction are currently underway for Aspen Meadows, a new master-planned community and expansion at Brian Head Resort.Long Meadows at Aspen Meadows overlooking Brian Head Resort. Photography Credit Mike Saemisch, Brian Head, Utah The project includes expanded skiable terrain, addi...

• Lifts
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Jan. 19, 2023—Vail Resorts experienced gains in visits and ticket revenue and is up substantially in ancillary revenue year-over-year across its North American portfolio for the season-to-date period ending Jan. 8, 2023.  Total skier visits were up 12.5 percent, and total lift ticket revenue, including a portio...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Jan. 18, 2023—An impressive booking pace during December—more than double the pace of the year prior—significantly boosted December and January arrivals at Western destinations, according to the most recent Market Briefing released by DestiMetrics, part of the business intelligence division of Inntopia. Aspe...

• Lifts
• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Montville, N.J., Jan. 16, 2023—SNOW Partners has appointed Dave Belin as its new chief financial officer for all its related businesses, effective Jan. 30, 2023. SNOW Partners is the parent company of growth and conversion program SNOW Operating, ski areas Mountain Creek Resort and Big SNOW American Dream in New Jersey, and technol...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Steamboat Springs, Colo., Jan. 13, 2023—Chris Diamond, former Steamboat Ski Resort president and author of seminal industry text Ski Inc., died Jan. 12, 2023, from pancreatic cancer. He was 76 years old.  Diamond had a long, influential career in the industry. He got his start in 1972, fresh off a tour in Vietnam with the U.S...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Terrebonne, Quebec, Jan. 12, 2023—Quebec ski areas welcomed 6.3 million skier visits in 2021-22, the second highest total in the last 10 seasons and a 2.7 percent increase compared to the previous year, according to financial results released today by the Quebec Ski Areas Association (ASSQ). The organization attributed much of the ...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Carrabassett Valley, Maine, Jan. 12, 2023—Sugarloaf received key approvals from the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection to begin work on its massive, 450-acre West Mountain expansion, which will include a new a high-speed detachable quad, 12 new alpine trails with snowmaking, a...

• Rental

SAM Magazine—Durango, Colo., Jan. 12, 2023—Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) has agreed to become the majority owner of Valle Nevado, Chile, the largest ski resort in the Americas by acreage. The acquisition is MCP’s first international resort and eleventh ski area. Founded in 1988, Valle Nevado is located in the Andes 37 miles from Santiago, ...

• Ski School

SAM Magazine—Beaupré, Québec, Jan. 10, 2023—The Quebec Building Authority (RBQ) cleared four of Mont-Sainte-Anne’s (MSA) chairlifts to reopen on Jan. 8, but not the gondola. The resort closed after an unoccupied gondola cabin detached from the line and fell to the ground prior to opening on Dec. 10, 2022, the latest in a series of lift malf...

• Rental

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 6, 2023—Rollercoaster weather across the country, from recording breaking snowfall in California to 60-degree temps in Vermont, presented operational challenges for mountain resorts across the country.Courtesy of Sugar Mountain Despite some operational disruptions, though, many operators are reporting strong, an...

• Ski School
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 6, 2023—Record-breaking warmth has taken a toll on European mountain resorts over the holiday period and into the new year. A Jan. 6 screen capture from the webcam at the top of Mont Chéry at Les Gets, France.While the season began with cooler temps and mid-December snow in the Alps and elsewhere, rain and high...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 6, 2023—Nearly 1,800 votes were cast in the 16th annual SAM Terrain Park Contest, in which a total of 60 resort-submitted entries from mountain resorts around the globe competed for the top spot in one of the four contest categories: features, events, edits, and—new this year—park crew. The votes have been ...

• Marketing

SAM Magazine—Calabogie, Ontario, Jan. 4, 2023—Early Tuesday morning, a fire engulfed the snowmaking pump house at Calabogie Peaks, shuttering the ski area for the day for safety reasons. No one was injured and no other structures were affected, according to a statement. Calabogie reopened for operations today. “Thank goodness nobody has ...