SAM Magazine--October 6, 2009--Loveland Ski Area will be the first ski area in North America to open for the 2009-2010 ski season when Chair 1 starts turning at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow, Oct. 7. This will mark the earliest opening for Loveland in 40 years. And that is enabling the area to reclaim the distinction of being the first area to open for the wi...

SAM Magazine-Wrightwood, Calif., Oct. 6, 2009-Wth Loveland and Arapahoe Basin opening this week, snowmaking is underway at other resorts, from Mountain High to Vail, as cold temperatures and snowmaking improvements have helped fuel an early start. Mountain High Resort, California  Vail Mountain, Colorado  Crews began making snow at M...

Las Vegas, Nev., Oct. 6, 2009-The Las Vegas Ski & Snowboard Resort, located only 45 minutes from the Las Vegas Strip, is opening for the "winter" season on limited terrain at noon on Oct. 7. This makes the resort the second in the U.S. to open for the season, after Loveland, Colo. Unseasonably cold nighttime temperatures and aggressive snowmakin...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, B.C., October 1, 2009--Intrawest announced that starting this season, the company will recommend that all visitors at all of its North American resorts wear helmets. In addition, there will be mandatory helmet requirements for all youth participants in ski and snowboard school programs, as well as students participating in ...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Sept. 28, 2009-In a dramatic shift in its environmental program, Vail Resorts (VR) has joined a collaborative conservation partnership-"Treasured Landscapes: The Hayman Restoration Partnership - Working Together for Healthy Forests and Clean Water"-with the National Forest Foundation (NFF) and the USDA Forest Service, and ended...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., Sept. 24, 2009-Vail Resorts reported net income of $49 million for fiscal 2009, down 52 percent from $103 million in 2008. For the year, skier visits fell 5 percent, and ticket revenue was off 8 percent. On the bright side, season pass sales rose by 12 percent, and pass revenue was up 22 percent. CEO Rob Katz said...

SAM Magazine--Carrabasset Valley, Maine, September 24, 2009--Sugarloaf and Sunday River have partnered with three small Maine ski areas to introduce new people to skiing and snowboarding. Lost Valley, Titcomb Mountain and Camden Snow Bowl will offer the $89 Maine Learn to Ski and Ride Card, which is good for three days. On the first day, card carri...

SAM Magazine--Killington, Vt., September 24, 2009--Killington customers can ski or ride at the area for $50 with the new K50 tickets. With 17 blackout dates, skiers and riders may purchase up to four K50 tickets for $50 each by October 15, 2009. Regular window rates are $82 on Saturdays and peak days and $77 the rest of the time....

SAM Magazie-Denver, Sept. 24, 2009-Warren Miller Entertainment is suing Level 1 Productions for including Warren Miller in Level 1's "Refresh." WME claims that Miller, 84, sold the right to his voice in a 1995 deal with WME. That deal, according to an article in the Denver Post, gave Warren Miller Entertainment "exclusive right, in perpetuity, in a...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., Sept. 24, 2009-Lucy Kay is leaving her position as vice president and chief operating officer of Breckenridge Resort, effective Oct. 7, 2009, and will be replaced by Patricia Campbell, currently vice president and COO of sister resort Keystone. Vail Resorts will conduct an internal search for a successor to Campbell ...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., Sept. 21, 2009-While destination resort business in August continued the recent pattern of steep year-to-year declines in visits, future reservations for the fall and early winter increased for only the third month of the past 12, signaling a possible turning point for destination travel, according to data compiled by th...

SAM Magazine--September 21, 2009--InTheSnow magazine has launched a ski news iPhone application. The app is available worldwide to download free from The Apple store and will contain news from all over the world and summaries of the best holiday offers, all updated daily. InTheSnow's news app is edited by Patrick Thorne, a professional ski write...

SAM Magazine--September 21, 2009--According to published reports, Lehman Brothers Commercial Bank filed papers in Montana seeking a foreclosure on Moonlight Basin. The filing asks that the ski area be sold so that the lenders can recoup $78 million in principal and $8.3 million in interest. Lehman is also seeking the right to bid on the property....

SAM Magazine-Georgetown, Colo., Sept. 21, 2009-Cold temperatures and natural snowfall have arrived earlier than expected to the Colorado high country, allowing Loveland Ski Area to officially kick off snowmaking for the 2009-2010 ski season. Loveland started making snow today on three trails that form a top-to-bottom run of 1,000 vertical feet. "Th...

SAM Magazine-Geneva, Switzerland, Sept. 17, 2009-Favorable weather on weekends and holidays trumped the economic slowdown in Europe for Swiss resorts last season, as they reported a 2.2 percent gain in visits from the year prior, and 7.3 percent compared to the previous four seasons. Total skier visits reached 29.3 million. Visitation was up primar...

SAM Magazine--Augusta, Maine, September 11, 2009--On September 9, Governor John Baldacci joined Saddleback Maine to announce Saddleback's new PEAK (Promoting Education and Activity for Kids) Program that rewards Maine's honor roll students with a $49 season pass to the ski area. The program is designed to encourage Maine students to perform well in...

SAM Magazine--St. Louis, Missouri, September 11, 2009--Peak Resorts announced that Matt Grenier has been named general manager of Paoli Peaks Resort in Paoli, Indiana. Grenier replaces Sean Burton who has left to pursue other interests. Grenier was formally the human resources manager at Snow Creek Resort....

SAM Magazine--Sundance, Utah, September 11, 2009--Beginning December 21, 2009 (weather permitting), Sundance will offer night skiing on the majority of the resort's front mountain for night skiing each Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday throughout the season....

SAM Magazine--Bretton Woods, N.H., September 11, 2009--Organizers of Learn a Snow Sport Month (LASSM) announced that extreme skier and snow sports ambassador Glen Plake will be the official national spokesperson for the initiative that takes place in January 2010. Learn a Snow Sport Month is a public awareness program organized by numerous snow sp...

SAM Magazine--Bolton Valley, Vt., September 11, 2009--Bolton Valley Resort announced the construction of a wind turbine that will be operational in late autumn. This will be the first wind turbine at a Vermont ski area. The 121-foot turbine will be located near the top of the resort's Vista Quad lift in an existing clearing adjacent to the ski p...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo. - Sept. 4, 2009-Vail CEO Rob Katz introduced a variety of value-oriented moves to be unveiled at the company's five areas this winter. Katz appeared at headquarters of Specialty Sports Ventures (SSV) for the kick-off media event for the annual blockbuster Labor Day retail sales events, held by SSV, co-owned by Vail, and r...

SAM Magazine-Lynchburg, Va., Sept. 2, 2009-The 40,000 square-foot slope at the Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre here opened Aug. 29, with 3,000 people attending the grand opening. The Centre, part of the sports facilities of Liberty University, itself founded by noted religious leader Jerry Falwell, provides a year-round arena for skiing and riding...

SAM Magazine-South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Sept. 2, 2009-A 51-year old man died yesterday after he fell from a chairlift. A zipline cable below the chairlift apparently snapped up toward the chair, hit the man and knocked him to the ground 50 feet below. It is not known whether the cable or the fall caused his death. The man was on his honeymoon at ...

SAM Magazine-Toronto, Ont., Sept. 1, 2009-Peter Cowley is the new general manager and executive vice president of Horseshoe Resort in Barrie, Ont. With more than 23 years experience with Intrawest, Cowley has worked in almost all areas of the hospitality industry. Most recently, Cowley worked as a consultant for various resort and real estate...

SAM Magazine-Thombery, Ontario, Sept. 1, 2009-On the afternoon of Aug. 20, an F2 tornado blew through this ski and snowboard clubon Georgian Bay, carving a path of destruction from the area down to and including the area's remote pumphouse on the bay. The tornado passed through three of the area's chairlits, grazed a fourth, and removed the roof an...

SAM Magazine-Cody, Wyo., Aug. 31, 2009-After several years of dormancy and two years of renovation and expansion, Sleeping Giant Ski Area will reopen for the 2009-10 season. The community-oriented, 180-acre area, closed since 2004, is located just outside the East Entrance to Yellowstone National Park. It is owned and operated by the non-profit Yel...

SAM Magazine-Breckenridge, Colo., Aug. 31, 2009-A petition seeking to effectively legalize the possession of small amounts of marijuana by adults in the town of Breckenridge received enough support to place the issue before voters on Nov. 3. The measure would repeal local penalties in the Breckenridge Town Code for the possession of up to one ounce...

SAM Magazine-Durango, Colo., Aug. 31, 2009-In a move that reflects the growing popularity of "sidecountry" terrain-inbounds, ungroomed, off-piste acreage-Purgatory at Durango Mountain Resort is adding 125 acres and 1,200 vertical feet of expert tree-skiing terrain. This expands the resort's total skiable terrain by 10 percent, to 1,325 acres, and i...

SAM Magazine-Aspen, Colo., Aug. 31, 2009-With the economy weak and destination travel down, major resorts are rolling back season's pass prices, to levels not seen in up to a decade. And resorts everywhere are touting the value of their pass prices. Many of the deals require an early purchase in return for the deals and perks. At Aspen/Snowmass,...

SAM Magazine--August 27, 2009--The Olympic Regional Development Authority has named Bruce McCulley the new general manager for Whiteface Ski Center. McCulley is replacing Jay Rand, who will become the new executive director of the N.Y. Ski Educational Foundation. McCulley has worked at Whiteface since 1981, starting as a lift operator and snowma...

SAM Magazine--August 27, 2009--According to published reports, and Idaho judge dismissed Bank of America's bid to take possession of two lifts, a snow plow, a shuttle bus and a Mack truck (all estimated to be worth $4.3 million) from Tamarack Resort. The judge ruled that the request should be part of a separate litigation by another bank. The be...

SAM Magazine-Reno, Nev., Aug. 19, 2009-After more than 30 years of stimulating snowfall in and around the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Nevada Cloud Seeding Program closed for good this month as a result of budget cuts. The program needed $550,000 to keep it going. "It's not really good for the ski resorts or anyone worried about water supplies in Lake ...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., Aug.19, 2009-Although the Federal Reserve recently reported that the "economy is leveling off," data gathered and analyzed by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) shows that destination travel continues to struggle. July's lodging business followed the winter pattern: occupancy was down 13.3 percent compared t...

In every issue of SAM we run a section called "SAM on the Road"-- a photo wrap up of happenings in the industry. Now, with the help of a helmet cam, SAM on the Road will be... in Action. This video is second in a series of resort profiles featuring summer attractions across the country. These profiles will also be covered more in-depth in our Summe...

SAM Magazine--August 17, 2009--Big Sky, Mont.--The Big Sky sales team received a phone call from the White House a few weeks ago to find out if it was available to host a special unnamed guest the evening of August 14. And so it was that the Summit Hotel at Big Sky hosted the President of the United States and the First Family for a night's rest be...

SAM Magazine--August 12, 2009--The operators of Ski Denton, Pa., and owners of Swain Recreation Center, LLC reached an agreement to lease Swain Resort, N.Y., with the intention of completing an acquisition of the resort as soon as feasibly possible. Ski Denton owners Scott and Jodi Carts and Shawn and Celeste Schoonover will continue ski operati...

SAM Magazine-Portland, Maine, Aug. 5, 2009-Maine ski areas posted their second-best season on record in 2008-09, with 1,366,752 ski/snowboard visits. The previous 2007-08 season set an all-time record with 1,401,043 visits recorded. Early season snowfall and extensive snowmaking systems allowed Maine to maintain strong numbers in spite of the ti...

SAM Magazine-Olympic Valley, Calif., Aug. 4, 2009-Squaw Valley USA has named Mike Livak as senior vice president and general manager, starting in early September. He will report to chairwoman and CEO Nancy W. Cushing. Livak succeeds Ernst Hager, who is retiring after working at Squaw Valley on and off since the early 1970s. Hager will continue to a...

In every issue of SAM we run a section called "SAM on the Road"-- a photo wrap up of happenings in the industry. Now, with the help of a helmet cam, SAM on the Road will be... in Action. This video is second in a series of resort profiles featuring summer attractions across the country. These profiles will also be covered more in-depth in our Summe...

SAM Magazine-Whistler, B.C., Aug. 2, 2009-The Ministry of Forests & Range and the Whistler Fire Department have declared Blackcomb Mountain safe to re-open to guests. The Crystal Ridge fire, located on Blackcomb Mountain, was 85 percent contained by this morning. It is in an isolated area that does not interfere with the summer operating area on Bl...

SAM Magazine-Cody, Wyo., July 31, 2009-Sleeping Giant Ski Area, which plans to reopen by Thanksgiving after several years in mothballs, has hired Hamilton Bryan as executive director. Bryan's duties will include overall management of Sleeping Giant as well as fundraising, marketing and strategic planning. Bryan was owner-operator of the UXU Dude...

SAM Magazine-Whistler, B.C., July 31, 2009-A wildfire started by a lightning strike Thursday afternoon at Blackcomb Mountain led to the evacuation of mountain. The fire, which covered about 75 acres as of Friday afternoon, has been burning since approximately 3 p.m. local time Thursday near the Crystal Chair, according to a Whistler Blackcomb spoke...

SAM Magazine--July 28, 2009--American Eagle announced that it will add a second daily flight between Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and Santa Fe Municipal Airport in New Mexico. This is good news for Ski Santa Fe, Taos Ski Valley, Angel Fire and Red River Resorts, as the new service will kick in before the ski season starts. In addit...

SAM Magazine--Snow24--July 28, 2009--The Compagnie Des Alpes (CDA), the world's largest ski lift operator with more than a dozen leading French ski areas, has released its third quarter results, which include the last month of the 2008-09 ski season--April 2009. The group reported record business with ski-lift ticket sales up 38 percent, thanks ...

In every issue of SAM we run a section called "SAM on the Road"-- a photo wrap up of happenings in the industry. Now, with the help of a helmet cam, SAM on the Road will be... in Action. This video kicks off a series of resort profiles featuring summer attractions across the country. These profiles will also be covered more in-depth in our Summe...

SAM Magazine--July 21, 2009--The purchase of the Yellowstone Club by Cross Harbor Capital Partners, LLC, was completed on July 17. Boston-based CrossHarbor, which includes several members of the private ski and golf club in Montana, will manage the property with Discovery Land Company. "Today the Club emerges from Chapter 11 as a well capitaliz...

SAM Magazine-Telluride, Colo., July 14, 2009-While Telluride Ski Resort is keeping its base 2009-2010 season pass pricing the same as last season, those who buy early can receive substantial discounts. For example, if four adults purchase season passes (the 4Pass) together during the annual Pass Sale Aug. 3 to Oct. 30, the price drops to the 2007 r...

SAM Magazine-Bariloche, Argentina, July 13, 2009-Catedral ski area in Bariloche, Argentina, the biggest ski area in South America, is selling an online ski pass this winter enabling guests to purchase ski passes wherever they are with a credit card. The online ski pass then automatically downloads to a KeyCard or Proximity Card electronic lift tick...

SAM Magazine-Mount Prospect, Ill., July 13, 2009-According to data in the NSGA Sports Participation survey, there were 6.5 million Americans age 7 or older who skied more than once in 2008, along with 5.9 million snowboarders. Those figures represented increases of 1.9 percent and 15.6 percent, respectively, from 2007. Snowboarding was one of six s...

SAM Magazine-London, England, July 13, 2009-The Snow Train, which operated an overnight sleeper service between London and the French Alps, has been discontinued by operator Rail Europe for the coming winter. In operation for 20 years, the service was famous for its high quality staff and low quality rolling stock. It had been reported to be doing ...

SAM Magazine-Bend, Ore., July 9, 2009-Mt. Bachelor has introduced innovative, season-long, conditions-based pricing for single day tickets for 2009-10. The area has also released its season pass programs, including a payment plan to spread payments over several months, along with a guide that points out the most appropriate pass and day-ticket choi...

SAM Magazine-North Woodstock, N.H., July 7, 2009-New Hampshire ski resorts hosted 2,289,426 alpine skier and snowboarder visits in 2008-09, a slight decline of 3 percent from the record winter of 2007-08, as consistent snowfall and cold temperatures trumped a weak economy. The 2008/09 season was the third-best year since statewide skier visits were...

SAM Magazine--July 1, 2009--www.Skiinfo.com reports that summer ski and southern hemisphere resort openings takes the world tally past 60 choices in a dozen countries www.skiinfo.com reports that all three of the glacier ski areas that are still opening each year for summer skiing in France are now open, following Val d'Isere's summer snow o...

SAM Magazine-Red Lodge, Mont., June 30, 2009-Red Lodge Mountain Resort has named Jeff Schmidt as its new general manager. Schmidt joined Red Lodge in 2008 as director of mountain operations and has 24 years experience in the ski industry. Having grown up in Billings, Mont., Schmidt spent much of his youth skiing at Red Lodge and is familiar with...

SAM Magazine-Londonderry, Vt., June 29, 2009-Magic Mountain is selling shares of the mountain, offering ownership opportunities to the resort's skiers, snowboarders and enthusiasts. Modeled after the Mad River Glen ski area co-op, the move aims to increase customer loyalty and fund significant upgrades to the resort. The resort is establishing a...

SAM Magazine-New York, June 23, 2009-New York State surpassed four million skier visits over the 2008-09 season, a record-breaking number for the state that made it the fourth most popular ski state last winter, behind Colorado, California, and Vermont. To support the state's resorts last winter, New York State's Division of Tourism partnered wi...

SAM Magazine-Telluride, Colo., June 18, 2009-Telluride Resort will be the sole U.S. stop of the LG FIS Snowboard World Cup and will feature an SBX and PGS competition during what will be the second in a series of five Olympic qualification events for the two sports. "We're thrilled to bring the World Cup to Telluride," said Telluride Ski & Golf ...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Utah, June 18, 2009-Rossignol has named Tim Petrick vice president of global sales and marketing, effective July 1. Petrick will oversee the worldwide strategic direction of the Dynastar, Lange, Look and Rossignol ski and snowboard brands, working from Rossignol's global headquarters in France. Petrick had been vice presiden...

Snow Hunter--Massachusetts. June 16, 2009--Massachusetts' Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort was the first ski area to erect a wind turbine, one of the largest ever built by a private company, but now a second New England ski resort will construct a big turbine to generate power itself. The smaller Berkshire East ski area will build a smaller windmill g...

Snow Hunter, June 17, 2009--The International Ski Federation has launched a campaign to help get more children around the world in to snow sports. Their 'Bring Children to the Snow' - SnowKidz - is aimed at children aged 4-14, and their parents. The campaign uses some 'approachable super heroes' figures who take care of children and youngsters a...