SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., June 27, 2022—SAM's twelfth Summer Ops Camp—an immersive, hands-on networking and educational event—is heading to Tremblant, Quebec, Sept. 7-9, 2022, for three days of learning about the serious business of summer fun. This year’s camp curriculum will focus on developing a sustainable year-round business mod...

SAM Magazine—South Pomfret, Vt., June 29, 2022—Vermont’s Suicide Six ski area will retire its name this summer due to its negative connotation.A new name has already been determined and will be announced in the coming weeks. “Our resort team embraces the increasing awareness surrounding mental health and shares the growing concerns about t...

• Marketing
• Environment

SAM Magazine—Truckee, Calif., June 24, 2022—Amy Ohran will join Vail Resorts as the new vice president and general manager of Northstar California, effective July 25. She will report to Tom Fortune, VP and COO of the Tahoe Region and Heavenly Mountain Resort. Ohran has been a ski industry leader for 22 years and was previously with Powdr Corp....

• Legal

SAM Magazine—Rangeley, Maine, June 22, 2022—Saddleback Ski Resort has named senior vice president of mountain operations Jim Quimby as the resort’s new general manager, effective immediately. Quimby succeeds Andy Shepard, who stepped down from the role this spring to expand the mountain’s philanthropic mission; Saddleback is owned by the Ar...

• Resort Development

SAM Magazine—Aspen Snowmass, Colo., June 21, 2022—Aspen Skiing Company (ASC) senior vice president of strategy and business development, Rich Burkley, will leave the company to take on the role of CEO at Lake Louise, Alberta, in the coming months.  Burkley joins the Lake Louise team as it moves toward the completion of a major lift, terrain, ...

• Environment

SAM Magazine—Portland, Ore., June 21, 2022—The Indy Pass will now offer two free days of skiing, riding, and cross-country skiing at 100 resorts for winter 2022-23 with the addition of eight new partners—five alpine and three cross country—in the Upper Midwest, New England, and the Pacific Northwest.  Alpine ski areas joining the coalitio...

• Resort Development
• Legal

SAM Magazine—Cambridge, Vt., June 17, 2022—Although the Summer Solstice—the official start of summer—is still a few days away, summer operations are in full swing at resorts across the United States.Sugar Mountain Resort Festivals, barbecues, concerts, clinics, and more fill resort activity schedules. There are, of course, a few exceptions ...

• Resort Development
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, June 16, 2022—The Park City Planning Commission granted an appeal of a previous decision to approve two Park City Mountain (PCM) lift upgrades in a 3-1 vote on Wednesday night, effectively blocking the projects until 2023.  The upgrades were appealed on the basis that the proposed eight-place and six-place chairs...

• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Palisades Tahoe, Calif., June 16, 2022—The Ski California Lift Maintenance and Operations Education (LMOE) Conference drew 329 attendees to Palisades Tahoe for three days of educational sessions, a trade show, and networking.  “The theme of the conference was ‘leadership,’ and we offered several classes on the theme,” sai...

• Resort Development
• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., June 16, 2022—Vail Resorts (VR) is up 32 percent in net revenue and 9 percent in early season pass unit sales as compared to last year, according to its fiscal 2022 third-quarter report (period ending April 30, 2022). The growth comes on the heels of a turbulent winter for the company, which reckoned with weather...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, June 16, 2022—Ski Utah’s 15 member resorts reported a total of 5,829,679 skier visits during the 2021-22 winter season, breaking the record set in 2020-21 by more than a half million visits—an increase of about 10 percent. Utah has set visitation records in three of the last four seasons, with only the pandemic...

• Lifts
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., June 14, 2022—As post-pandemic demand eases and inflation continues to loom large, lodging properties at 17 mountain destinations across seven western states are recording notable occupancy declines for the first time in nearly two years, according to the latest report from DestiMetrics, the Business Intelligenc...

• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Montpelier, Vt., June 13, 2022—Alpine ski areas in Vermont welcomed 3.76 million skier visits during the 2021-22 winter season, up 6.5 percent year-over-year, but 6 percent below the state’s 10-year average, according to the Vermont Ski Areas Association (Ski Vermont), which shared numbers at its annual meeting last week at Sugar...

SAM Magazine—Conway, N.H., June 13, 2022—Visits to New Hampshire ski areas during the 2021-22 winter season for alpine, cross-country, and tubing overall totaled 2,220,102, down 3 percent compared to the 2,295,424 visits in 2020-21. Courtesy of Dave Gibson The overall decline is almost entirely attributed to variable weather, according to Ski...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 10, 2022—Skier visits for the 2021-22 season at the 22 Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) member resorts were up 14 percent year-over-year, and CSCUSA is projecting a new statewide skier visit record—including non-CSCUSA member resorts—edging out the previous record of 13.8 million visits in 2018-19 by a few hundred...