Helmet Law Narrowly Defeated
A proposal to require New Jersey ski areas to provide children under the age of 14 with helmets was narrowly defeated last month in the Law and Public Safety Committee of the state Assembly. That defeat came at the eleventh hour and without any of the seven committee members directly voting against it. The bill needed a simple majority to be sent to the Assembly floor and got three yes votes, three abstentions and one legislator was absent.
Getting the bill passed is the personal quest of Dr. Norman San Agustin, a surgeon whose daughter, Nikki, died of head injuries after a skiing accident at Hidden Valley in 1988. She was 12.
After the committee defeat, San Agustin was reportedly upset, but vowed to press for the bill’s reintroduction during the next session of the Assembly. That’s likely to take place toward the end of the winter under a New Jersey government headed by a new governor who will be working with a new Legislature.
Vail and ASC First-Quarter Numbers
Both American Skiing Company (ASC) and Vail Resorts are blaming September 11, little early snow and the economic downturn for less-than-stellar first quarter numbers.
At ASC, total revenues were $23.1 million for the first quarter of fiscal 2002 compared to $48.1 million during the same period last year. Resort revenue was $20.3 million compared to $20.9 million last year. Real estate revenue was $2.8 million compared to $27.2 million in 2001.
The net loss for the first quarter was $65.5 million compared to a loss of $24.2 million last year. Finally, total EBITDA was a loss of $21.2 million compared to an EBITDA loss of $16.2 million during the same period last year.
ASC expected the decline in real estate revenue and blamed warm weather from coast-to-coast during the early season for revenue drops.
At Vail Resorts, numbers were also down compared to first-quarter figures in 2000. Resort revenue decreased 5.4 percent to $57.4 million compared to $60.7 million last year. Total revenue, however, grew 5.5 percent to $74.3 million versus $70.4 million last year. Resort EBITDA was a loss of $24.6 million compared to a loss of $18.6 million during the same period last year. Finally, the net loss for the quarter was $24.4 million compared to $21.2 million last year.
The two bright spots were real estate revenue, which saw an increase of 76.7 percent from $9 million last year to $15.9 million this year. And technology revenue grew from $0.7 million last year to $1.1 million for this quarter.
Vail, which relies more heavily on destination travelers, cited the September 11 terrorist attacks as the reason for many of the decreases in numbers and expects their impact will be felt throughout the rest of the season. But Mother Nature took some of the sting out by providing lots of early-season snow.
Bolton Valley Files for Chapter 11
In an effort to make sure it can meet its payroll and that the ski area remains open this season, representatives of Bolton Valley, Vt., appeared in bankruptcy court last month to file for Chapter 11 protection against creditors. They did that despite the fact prospects for Bolton were strong, according to CEO Ned Hamilton. The ski area sold more than 3,000 season passes, and bookings for the summer of 2002 were more than double those from last summer.
But, according to management, the downturn in the economy and a lack of snow (Bolton, like many of its New England neighbors, is usually open for Thanksgiving) have combined to force the action. Cash flow has suffered and Bolton does not want to lay off workers or shorten hours. “Our intent is to do whatever we can to protect the more than 300 good jobs in this small community,” said Hamilton, who has owned the resort since 1998, when he and a group of investors bought the embattled ski area from the Lyndonville Savings Bank. He added Bolton Valley wanted to honor the season passes and will pay its debts to the “maximum extent possible.”
| Date | Event | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Jan. 14-16 | NSAA Western Conf./Trade Show | The Canyons, Utah |
| Jan. 28-30 | NSAA Eastern Conf./Trade Show | Killington, Vt. |
| Jan. 28-Feb. 3 | Take Your Daughter to the Snow Week | Participating Resorts |
| Jan. 29-Feb. 2 | SIA Snowsports Show | Las Vegas, Nev. |
| Feb. 8-24 | Winter Olympics | Utah |
| Feb. 23 | Sustainable Slopes Outreach Day | Participating Resorts |
| May 22-25 | NSAA National Conference/Trade Show | New Orleans, La. |
Ingrid Polletin Dies
In November of this past year, Inrid Polletin succumbed to cancer. Born in Innsbruck in 1940, Polletin grew up in war-torn Austria. She studied tourism and languages which eventually led to her role as managing director of trade shows at Congress Innsbruck, where the bi-annual Interalpin show is held. Long regarded as one of the top trade fairs for ski area equipment and technology, Interalpin has become an international presence.
Tenney Finally Sold
After several failed attempts by a local group to buy Tenney Mountain, N.H., the owners decided to put the area on the auction block. A few days before the bidding was to begin, an out-of-state buyer signed an agreement to purchase the ski area.
Neither the identity of the new owner nor the purchase price were revealed at presstime. What is known is that the new company plans to develop the 385 acres of developable land surrounding the area. It was also announced that the new owners, who have no ski resort experience, will keep Tenney closed this year, but plan to reopen for the 2002-2003 season.
Papé vs. Powdr Just Beginning
An Oregon judge last month finally heard the arguments of Randall Papé claiming Powdr Corp. didn’t pay a fair price for Mount Bachelor stock when it took control of the ski area in May. The judge then heard Powdr’s arguments and adjourned court, not saying when he would render a decision. Case observers say it’s likely the battle could go on through the winter.
It all started in May 2001 when Mount Bachelor’s board agreed to accept Powdr’s offer and a majority of stock holders went along. But Papé was one of the dissenters and a competitor in the bidding war.
In the meantime, Powdr Corp. has trimmed some $1.3 million from Bachelor’s operating budget, including about an eighth of the peak-season workforce, to bring cash expenses in line with the spending formulas at Powdr’s four other resorts in California and Utah.
Berthoud Goes With Snowcat
Berthoud Pass got its federal approval to run snowcat skiing starting last month in place of running its lifts. The ski area decided in August to mothball the lifts this season, citing the impossibility of competing “with the deep discounts offered by Vail Resorts, Copper Mountain and Winter Park.” With 1,700 acres of terrain and typically getting more than 425 inches of snow just 50 miles west of Denver, management is hoping to attract significant business. The plan was to operate one snowcat six days a week and charge $185 per skier or snowboarder. The price includes breakfast, powder ski demos, guide service and instruction, lunch and afternoon refreshments. In the meantime, the ski area’s lifts will continue to be licensed with the Colorado Tramway Safety Board to maintain their operating status with an eye on someday turning them back on.
Big White Purchases Silver Star
The owners of Big White Ski Resort in British Columbia have purchased nearby Silver Star Mountain Resort from Judd Buchanan. Buchanan will remain, however, to run two hotels and other on-mountain business interests, which were not part of the purchase.
Claiming that a new lift hasn’t been installed in at least 10 years at the ski area, the new owners will first review the uphill transportation at Silver Star and then look at real estate development.
Last season, Big White recorded 525,000 visits and Silver Star received in the neighborhood of 300,000.
CSCUSA Program to Help Smaller Areas
Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) debuted a new pass program this season called the Colorado Gems Card. The program invites skiers to discover the “heart and soul” of Colorado through discounts at Arapahoe Basin, Loveland, Monarch, Powderhorn, Ski Cooper, SolVista and Sunlight. The program is clearly designed to boost skier visits at some of Colorado’s smaller areas in the face of the season pass wars among the giants.
The discounts range from $7 to $10 off daily adult tickets, $5 off daily child or senior tickets. Incentives are awarded to skiers who use the card at all seven areas.
NSP Launches Safety Program
This season, the National Ski Patrol will initiate a new nationwide skier/rider safety program modeled after Vail’s Yellow Jacket campaign. The program is designed to provide guidelines to ski areas on creating a safety task force to promote Your Responsibility Code. Vail Ski Patrol Director Julie Rust will coordinate the program with NSAA.
Sales of Skis and Snowboards Up
The first retail audit of the season, conducted by the Snowsports Industries America, showed sales at specialty ski and snowboard shops were up 4.6 percent in sales, but down 2.5 percent in units for the period August through October when compared to the same period last year.
All equipment was up 3.5 percent in sales to $112.4 million, but alpine gear sales were down slightly by 1.8 percent. The biggest gain came in nordic where sales increased 66.4 percent to $2.4 million. Snowboard sales grew 16.4 percent to $30.9 million last year.
Apparel and accessories each had gains of 7.1 percent and 3.8 percent respectively. Of the accessories, snowshoes showed the biggest gain, climbing 211 percent to $1.1 million in sales.
Cross Country Skier Creates Reader Poll
Cross Country Skier magazine has jumped into the “best of” fray with a poll to let readers pick their favorite place to cross-country ski. The program, sponsored by Alpina Sports Corporation, will launch with the January 2002 issue where readers can rate resorts based on trail quality, grooming, scenery, food, staff friendliness, etc.
Obits
Joe Riemer, one of four new owners of Sugarbush Resort, Vt., died on Thanksgiving. He was 53. Riemer, an investment banker and part of the local team that purchased the resort from American Skiing Company, was battling pancreatic cancer.
Regine Cavagnoud, Super-G overall World Cup winner and World Champion last season, died as a result of a training accident in October. The pride of the French team, Cavagnoud collided with German ski coach Markus Anwander as he crossed her path on a training course in Austria. Apparently Cavagnoud was making an unscheduled fifth run on the course and, for some reason, Anwander was unaware. She suffered injuries to her brain, lungs and liver. Anwander was in a coma but is expected to make a full recovery.
People
Mountain Sports Media named Perkins Miller to become editor-in-chief of Skiing magazine, replacing Rick Kahl. Miller leaves behind his position as general manager of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee’s Internet site. The multi-media company made three other appointments as well: Aimee Kauker was promoted from promotions director to account supervisor for national sponsorships of Warren Miller Entertainment, Chris Burgner was hired to become special events manager and Heather Roberts was named account manager.
Mountain Sports Media inducted the U.S. Army’s 10th Mountain Division into its Hall of Fame. Former 10th members Pete Seibert of Vail and George Gage of Telluride received the award on behalf of the division.
Whistler/Blackcomb, B.C., appointed Christina Allsop its destination media relations officer.
Big Bear Mountain Resort, Calif., has rehired former employee Genevieve Paquet-Gunnarson to be the new director of marketing. Paquet-Gunnarson replaces Greg Ralph. Big Bear also hired Brad Farmer to the position of public relations and communications supervisor. He moves to Big Bear from a position as the marketing and events coordinator at Bear Valley Mountain Resort. . .Mountain High Resort appointed Todd Proffit to build media exposure.
Mark Poernet, a former head coach of Winter Park Freestyle, was hired by Big Mountain, Mont., as head coach for their freestyle team. The resort also named Rex Rupp the new snow ambassador supervisor and appointed Pete Costain to be special events manager.
Vail Resorts appointed Edward Mace to become president of Rockresorts International, the company’s new lodging division, and named Richard Lesman, a former executive with American Trans Air and US Airways, vice president of marketing and sales. Kristin Yantis has left the PR department at Vail Resorts to become director of public relations at the Ritz Carlton at Bachelor Gulch. . .Loveland Ski Area, Colo., hired Kevin Wright as its marketing director to replace Scott Fortner who became marketing director at Durango Mountain Resort. . .Jack Buchheister said he would retire as president of the National Sports Center for the Disabled after 38 years with Winter Park.
The Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) in New York has made several appointments: Kurt Wissell was named assistant manager at Gore Mountain, Ingrid Campbell is the new marketing manager at Whiteface Mountain, Marilyn Kurtz is manager of the Lake Placid ORDA Store, Steve Davey was named corporate development assistant, Michael Fudzinski was named ORDA event coordinator and Mike Kirchner was appointed director of snowboarding at Whiteface.
Julie Howell was hired by the Vermont Ski Areas Association to become the new director of marketing for Ski Vermont. . .Mount Snow promoted Donna Gold to become vice president of human resources and Jenna Prescott vice president of retail, rental and repair as well as summer operations. . .Jay Peak appointed Jake Webster vice president of operations and development and promoted Chris Veillon to director of marketing. And Jay Peak President Bill Stenger has been appointed executive vice president of sales and marketing of Mont Saint-Sauveur International, which owns Jay Peak. . .Sugarbush Resort appointed Bill McGinty the area’s new ski and snowboard school director.
Richard Remington was named seasonal ticket manager for Cranmore Mountain Resort, N.H. . . Ragged Mountain hired Don Hart to become executive chef, a newly created position. Ragged Mountain also appointed Eric Webster to develop snowboard programs. He will also be responsible for snowboard at Blue Hills, Mass. Ragged also appointed John Barker to become the new ski school director.
The Homestead, Va., named Michael Valach to director of their outdoor activities program.
The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association appointed Jeanne Jackson, formerly CEO of WalMart, to its Team Foundation board of trustees.
Mark Mueller was named executive director of the American Avalanche Association and the American Avalanche Advisory Fund.
Supplier News
Skis Dynastar was poised to join a trend in selling branded technical outerwear beginning last month. Salomon and Rossignol have already been selling soft-goods lines, as has Nordica, through parent company Benetton, for a number of years. And Head USA has been licensing its name to an outerwear manufacturer for some time. Völkl will test a technical clothing line this year.
A new venture in materials and equipment testing and inspection, Aerial NDT Inspection, has opened its doors with services available throughout North America.
Pat Malendoski and Planet Design and Consulting, Inc., have been contracted by the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to design and build the Olympic Superpipe at Park City, Utah.
Mad River Snow became partners with Techno Alpin of Italy to provide sales, service, engineering and installation services in North America.
The longtime producers of the Chicago Ski & Snowboard Expo, ALACO Productions, have sold the Windy City show to Ski Dazzle—The Los Angeles Ski Show & Snowboard Expo.
Dodge-Regupol, Inc. acquired certain assets of Kraiburg Flooring, a manufacturer of recycled rubber surfacing, and hired its owner, Matt Koch, as western regional sales manager. At the same time, Dodge-Regupol refurbished its manufacturing plant and purchased new warehouse and production facilities, expanding capacity by more than five times.
Frommers.com, The Independent Traveler, Yahoo! Sports, AlpsEurope and SkiMaps have chosen SkiMatcher.com to help their users plan ski vacations online.
The New England division of the Environmental Protection Agency now has an Online Technology Trade Show at www.epa.gov/region01/steward/ceitts/ to help with planning and selection of the newest technologies for treating stormwater and wastewater.
Supplier Personnel
Mario Lajoie was appointed regional manager for the Northeast and Eastern Canada for Bombardier and Brian Sweeney was appointed team leader for the parts department. Isidore “Bib” Simard is retiring from the company.
Tim Petrick has added K2’s in-line skate division to his duties as vice president and general manager of K2 skis.
Design Workshop hired Jim Haswell, a landscape architect, to join the Denver office.
Edwards Rudis was promoted to CEO of Smarte Carte, Inc.
Winterstick Snowboards hired Ernie D’Angelo to become vice president of sales and marketing.
Redfeather Snowshoes promoted Allan Kettlehut to be president and chief executive officer. Kettlehut had been general manager of the snowshoe manufacturer and director of operations.
Brad “Schultz” Greenberg, who was sales manager at Volant, has moved to Toronto to lead the Volant Ski Division for the company’s new owner, Gen-X Sports.
Alpina hired Frank Thibodeau as brand development manager.
Skis Dynastar has promoted sales associate E.J. Riordan to become customer service manager.
Corrections
Please note the following corrections to the 2002 November Product and Supplier Directory:
- The listing for Cooper Turbocompressor was cut off. Their contact information should have read: Kevin J. Casserly, Senior Sales Engineer, Cooper Turbocompressor, 3405 Peachwillow Lane, Walnut Creek, CA 94598-1715, Tel: (925) 279-3008; Fax: 279-3009, [email protected]
- The Website and home office contact for Erbschloe Fun Construct should have read: www.erbschloe.com, Contact: Klaus W. Kuehn
- The contact phone number for D. Moore at Aquatrols should have read: Tel: (801) 942-2327
- The email address for Mountain Wire Rope Service should have read: [email protected]
