SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Jan. 4, 2017—When we asked a handful of ski areas across North America how they fared during the Christmas holiday week, the following are just some of the adjectives used to describe it: “fantastic,” “excellent,” “wonderful,” “nuts,” “spectacular”—even “perfect.” From coast to coast, Santa brought snow, and people followed—in record numbers.

SAM Magazine—Stowe, Vt., Jan. 4, 2017—Growth through acquisition continues for Inntopia. The software as a service (SaaS) e-commerce company has acquired Denver-based DestiMetrics, which has been supplying lodging metrics and market intelligence to North American travel destinations, including the mountain travel industry, since 2004. This is the second acquisition for Inntopia since October, when it acquired database and CRM firm Ryan Solutions.

SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Jan. 4, 2017—After its inaugural attempt in Jan. 2016 fell short, organizers for this year’s shot at breaking the Guinness World Record for the largest ski and the largest snowboard lessons are giving it another go. On Friday, Jan. 6, more than 80 different ski areas across the U.S. and Canada will simultaneously hold individual events to try and break the record—and help generate enthusiasm for Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month.

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Jan. 4, 2017—Vail Resorts has more capital enhancements planned for three of its Colorado resorts—Vail, Keystone, and Breckenridge—highlighted by a new high speed six-passenger lift at each of the properties, all scheduled to be installed in time for the 2017-18 ski season. Each new lift will increase capacity by up to 25 percent compared to the lifts they’re replacing. All installations will be done by Leitner-Poma, and are subject to U.S. Forest Service approval.

SAM Magazine—Granby, Colo., Dec. 31, 2016—A Texas mother, 40-year-old Kelly Huber, died and two young daughters were hurt after they fell about 25 feet from a quad chairlift Thursday morning Dec. 29 at Ski Granby Ranch. One daughter remains in serious condition after being transported by Flight for Life helicopter to Children’s Hospital in Denver.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Dec. 20, 2016—Golf clubs and bicycles got some additional use during an unseasonably warm November, which appears to have had an adverse effect on lodging bookings at western mountain destinations, according to a recent report by DestiMetrics. As of Nov. 30, actual bookings made in November for arrivals during the six winter months (November through April) were down 7.9 percent compared to bookings made in November 2015 for the same months last winter. November bookings for November arrivals were down a dramatic 25.9 percent and down 15.3 percent compared to the same time last year, as several resorts delayed their planned openings due to the warm weather.

SAM Magazine—Woodbury, Conn., Dec. 20, 2016—This spring, Cutter's Camp will celebrate 15 years of gathering freestyle terrain professionals for educational seminars and hands-on workshops. Timberline, Mt. Hood, Ore., will once again host the longer-camp format, May 16-20, 2017. Mount Snow, Vt., will host the return of an eastern camp and the debut of the new “Fall Refresher” format, Nov. 6-8, 2017.

SAM Magazine—Gatlinburg, Tenn., Dec. 20, 2016—Gatlinburg Sky Lift, a Boyne Resorts-owned scenic chairlift attraction in Gatlinburg, Tenn., was in the path of the wildfire that spread through the popular resort town on Monday, Nov. 28. The chairlift’s upper section and upper terminal experienced significant damage, the degree of which is being evaluated. The facilities on the upper viewing deck, including the gift shop, are a total loss. The street-level building that houses ticket sales, offices, and a maintenance shop, as well as the lift’s bottom terminal, were completely unharmed.

SAM Magazine—Wildwood, Mo., Dec. 13, 2016—Any EB-5 program turmoil, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services backlogs, questions, and delays are, for now, in the rearview mirror for Peak Resorts and its flagship property, Mount Snow, Vt. Earlier today, the USCIS approved the first I-526 petition submitted by an investor in Mount Snow’s EB-5 offering, immediately releasing the $52 million of investor funds that have been sitting idle in escrow for more than two years, delaying some projects and forcing Peak to find alternate funding sources.

SAM Magazine—Jackson, N.H., Dec. 12, 2016—The Northeast’s biggest cross-country ski center just got bigger, thanks to the completion of a $500,000 capital expansion project. New for this season, the Jackson Ski Touring Center added four new trails totaling six kilometers in length, and also built eight new trail bridges. It is the most extensive expansion in the facility’s 44-year history.

SAM Magazine—Harbor Springs, Mich., Dec. 12, 2016—The Main Lodge hotel at Boyne Highlands Resort, Mich., experienced a significant structure fire that began early Sunday morning, leaving 11 people with reportedly non-life threatening injuries, and one in critical condition. There were approximately 113 registered guests occupying 64 rooms Saturday night.

SAM Magazine—Stowe, Vt., Dec. 6, 2016—It’s fairly common for a mountain resort to be breastfeeding-friendly, but Stowe has taken it one step further by installing a Mamava lactation suite in its Spruce Camp Base Lodge—the first ski resort in the nation to do so.

SAM Magazine—Truckee, Calif., Dec. 6, 2016— Nadia Guerriero is the new vice president and general manager at Northstar California Resort, effective immediately. She replaces Beth Howard, who became COO at Beaver Creek, Colo., in October.

SAM Magazine—Rutland, Vt., Dec. 1, 2016—What goes up must come down, and if it doesn’t, it’ll cost you. A Pittsfield, Vt., woman who was stranded in a gondola cabin at Killington for five hours was awarded $750,000 by a Rutland County Civil Court jury on Wednesday.

SAM Magazine—Killington, Vt., Dec. 1, 2016—A reported 30,000 spectators came out to see the first FIS World Cup ski racing event held in the eastern U.S. in 25 years, and the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association thinks that enthusiasm will buoy future growth of alpine ski racing. USST member and World Cup and Olympic champ Mikaela Shiffrin was the big draw for the slalom and GS events, held Nov. 26-27, and she didn’t disappoint, winning the slalom and placing fifth in the GS.

SAM Magazine—Big Bear Lake, Calif., Nov. 28, 2016—Industry leader and former chairman and CEO of Snow Summit Ski Corporation, Richard “Dick” Kun, died at his home Sunday after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease. He was Big Bear Lake's most iconic and influential businessman of the past half century, and one of the nation's most innovative and successful ski resort developers. 

SAM Magazine—Stowe, Vt., Nov. 28, 2016—Barry Pius will take over as Stowe Mountain Resort’s president and CEO following the retirement of Robert McEleney, who has held the position since 2007. McEleney will step down Nov. 30.

SAM Magazine— Londonderry, Vt., Nov. 23, 2016—Having been through its fair share of ownerships and plenty of uncertainty about the future, Vermont’s Magic Mountain has begun a new chapter. Ski Magic LLC, a locally based ownership and operating group, completed its acquisition of the classic New England ski area Tuesday, and plans to make immediate improvements.

SAM Magazine—Waterville Valley, N.H., Nov. 23, 2016—New Hampshire governor-elect Chris Sununu will resign as CEO of Waterville Valley Resort and relinquish his position on the board of directors, effective Dec. 31, 2016. His gubernatorial term begins Jan. 4, 2017. Tim Smith has been promoted to president and GM of the resort, and will report to the Waterville Valley Holdings board of directors.

SAM Magazine—Whistler, B.C., Canada, Nov. 23, 2016—Vail Resorts-owned Whistler Blackcomb broke the news to 60 employees last week that their jobs are being eliminated by May 1, 2017. The layoffs affect IT, marketing, and finance. Two executives will be out of the job as of Dec. 2—senior VP of marketing and sales Stuart Rempel and CFO Jeremy Black.

SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Nov. 22, 2016—Less than a week ago, the news about resort openings was a little bleak, with only a handful of areas able to start their season and several others postponing until winter weather showed up. Since then, temps have dropped, snow guns have fired up, and natural snow has accumulated at mountain resorts from coast to coast. For a majority of the continent, winter has arrived.

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Nov. 22, 2016)—Snowsports Industries America just released its annual Snow Sports Market Intelligence Report, detailing the performance of snow sports-related retail sales in North America.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Nov. 18, 2016— As of Oct. 31, advance reservations are up 6.6 percent and revenues are up 13.3 percent for the six months that includes arrivals from November through May compared to the same time last year, according to research firm DestiMetrics. Cooler weather and stories of snow falling in the mountains have traditionally been drivers for winter vacation bookings, but the absence of those drivers during a mild autumn didn’t negatively affected bookings at western mountain destinations for the 2016-17 winter season.

SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Nov. 17, 2016—A handful of North American ski areas plan to open in the next couple days, but winter weather remains elusive for much of the continent. Even resorts that still list tomorrow as their opening day haven’t published details about what will be open and when, which is a testament to the marginal conditions many are experiencing.

SAM Magazine—Boston, Mass., Nov. 16, 2016—Thousands of snowsports enthusiasts nationwide have attended a handful of pre-season ski shows in search of great deals, info on what’s new, and of course, stickers.

SAM Magazine—Boston, Mass., Nov. 15, 2016—The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Hall of Fame class of 2016 includes 10 individuals who have all had a major impact on the industry.

Sam Magazine—Copper Mountain, Colo., Nov. 11, 2016—In another partnership between two unaffiliated resorts, Powder Mountain in Utah and Copper Mountain in Colorado are offering three free days of lift access to each other’s season passholders. This reciprocal benefit comes at no extra cost.

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, Nov. 11, 2016—The retail buying shows, which have gone through some schedule changes lately, are poised for more. The Outdoor Retailer (OR) winter and summer shows will move to new dates in 2018, and each show will split into “early” and “late” shows.

Welcome to the November edition of Snow People, our monthly roundup of happenings to prominent ski industry and supplier personnel.

SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Nov. 9, 2016—At the beginning of this week, nearly ten more North American ski areas—from Alberta, Canada, to New Mexico—had planned to open for the season on Thursday, Friday, or Saturday. Now, only two remain—Loveland, Colo., and Mammoth, Calif.

SAM Magazine—Dover, Vt., Nov. 4, 2016—When Arapahoe Basin opened for the season on Oct. 21, it was cold and snowy in many parts of the country. It seems that more ski areas were bound to also open shortly after. Right? Not if Ma Nature had anything to say about it. Which she did.

SAM Magazine—Seattle, Wash., Nov. 3, 2016—For the last few months, political advertisements have flooded the media, taking up most of the advertising inventory at premium rates. An unusual victim of this ad frenzy was the Ski Dazzle Seattle Ski and Snowboard Show, which was cancelled because the promoters couldn’t afford spots on TV, radio, and in newspapers. The event was scheduled for Nov. 5 and 6.

SAM Magazine—Kansas City, Mo., Nov. 3, 2016—CNL Lifestyle Properties has entered into a purchase and sale agreement for its portfolio of waterparks, amusement parks and small family entertainment centers, along with its 15 ski resorts.

SAM Magazine—Wildwood, Mo., Nov. 3, 2016—Peak Resorts, has completed its previously announced private placement of its Series A cumulative convertible preferred stock and warrants to purchase common stock to CAP 1 LLC, a family client of Summer Road LLC.

SAM Magazine—Rangeley, Maine, Oct. 27, 2016—The ongoing ownership conundrum of Saddleback Mountain, Maine’s third-largest ski area, could be coming to an end. A group of local business owners and Saddleback season passholders have formed Saddleback Community Mountain Resort LLC, with the intention of purchasing the ski area from the Berry family and turn it into a community owned non-profit enterprise.

SAM Magazine—Waterville Valley, N.H., Oct. 27, 2016—The affordable housing crisis in western resort towns has been well documented, but resorts in the East aren’t immune to the issue. To combat what has been “a long-standing challenge,” Waterville Valley, N.H., partnered with General Properties, LLC, to invest in a property, The Snow Star Inn, which will provide workforce housing.

SAM Magazine—Killington, Vt., Oct. 25, 2016—Killington opened for the 2016-17 winter season today at noon, kicking things off in the East. Today was just for Killington season passholders; the resort plans to open to the general public at 9 a.m. Wednesday.

SAM Magazine—Kellogg, Idaho, Oct. 24, 2016—Idaho ski areas are a hot commodity for individual business owners as of late. Less than a month after Shay Butler purchased Pebble Creek Ski Area in Inkolm, Seattle-area businessman Tryg Fortun bought Silver Mountain for $5 million from Jeld-Wen Holdings.

SAM Magazine— Girdwood, Alaska, Oct. 24, 2016—After seven years as Alyeska Resort’s mountain services manager, Brian Burnett has been promoted to ski area general manager. His new responsibilities include general oversight of ski patrol, snow safety, lift crews, tram operations, mountain maintenance projects, mountain learning center, rentals, mountainside budgeting, CIP management, and guest relations.

SAM Magazine—York, Pa., Oct. 19, 2016— Snow Time Inc., the parent company of Pennsylvania’s Roundtop Mountain Resort, Liberty Mountain Resort, and Whitetail Resort, has made several key staffing changes.

SAM Magazine—Summit County, Colo., Oct. 19, 2016—Thanks to snowmaking efforts that began on Oct. 3, Arapahoe Basin now plans to open for skiing and snowboarding on Friday, Oct. 21.

SAM Magazine—Burlington, Vt., Oct. 18, 2016—In a blow to the status of the SIA Snow Show in Denver, Jan. 26-29, 2017, Burton has said it will not exhibit at the show. Burton had vastly reduced its presence two years ago, but is now exiting the show altogether.

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Oct. 18, 2016—In an effort to solidify its identity, Powdr has undergone a company-wide rebrand that spotlights its transformation into an experiential adventure lifestyle organization with a diverse portfolio.

SAM Magazine—Whistler, B.C., Oct. 18, 2016—Vail Resorts has officially closed on its billion dollar acquisition of Whistler Blackcomb, which is now the tenth destination resort in the company’s portfolio. Both entities are coming off of their most successful winter ever in 2015-16, when each drew record skier visits and saw double-digit revenue growth.

SAM Magazine—Durango, Colo., Oct. 18, 2016—Less than a month after acquiring Hesperus, one of Colorado’s smallest ski areas, James Coleman has acquired the state’s largest snowcat skiing operation with access to more than 35,000 acres of permitted terrain located just outside of Purgatory Resort near Durango. Coleman is the managing partner of a group that owns Purgatory, Sipapu Ski and Summer Resort, N.M., Pajarito Ski Area, N.M., Arizona Snowbowl, Ariz., and Hesperus.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Oct. 17, 2016—The month of September continued the strong gains in aggregated occupancy and revenue that western mountain lodging destinations have seen all summer. Actual occupancy for the month was up 10.4 percent and revenues jumped 19.6 percent as of Sept. 30, according to the most recent report by DestiMetrics. This has been the story all summer, with aggregated occupancy for the season up 6.5 percent and revenues up 14 percent, including on-the-books figures for October.

Welcome to the October edition of Snow People, our monthly roundup of happenings to prominent ski industry and supplier personnel.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Oct. 17, 2016—The six properties owned by Resorts of the Canadian Rockies— Nakiska in Alberta, Fernie, Kimberley, and Kicking Horse in B.C., and Mont-Sainte-Anne and Stoneham in Quebec—are now accessible to M.A.X. Pass-holders. That brings the total number of resorts on the pass to 38.

SAM Magazine—Boswell, Pa., Oct. 14, 2016—For the first time in 11 years, Laurel Mountain in Pennsylvania will open for skiing and riding this winter. Thanks to a $6.5 million grant from the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources in 2010, several necessary upgrades to the resort’s infrastructure are nearing completion.

SAM Magazine—Donnelly, Idaho, Oct. 14, 2016—Less than a week before a scheduled auction that would have sold off several of Tamarack Resort’s critical assets necessary for operations, including chairlifts and an unfinished mid-mountain lodge, a group of local homeowners swooped in and acquired “substantially all of the assets of NewTrac,” which owned a bulk of the property at the resort.

SAM Magazine—Denver, Oct. 6, 2016—In the aftermath of a chairlift incident in West Virginia last February, Outside Magazine’s website has cast a skeptical eye on the lift infrastructure at ski resorts in the U.S. The story, published Oct. 4, puts a spotlight on the age of currently operating lifts and questions their safety, even as it acknowledges that “mechanical lift failures remain exceedingly rare in the United States.”

SAM Magazine—Inkom, Idaho, Oct. 4, 2016—Nobody ever said you have to have ski resort operations experience to own a ski area. The latest example of that is Shay Butler, who is acquiring Pebble Creek Ski Area in Idaho. Butler is the man behind the popular YouTube channel called “Shaytards,” which has nearly five million subscribers.

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Oct. 3, 2016—Vail Resorts, Inc. has reported net income of $149.8 million for fiscal 2016, an increase of 30.5 percent compared to fiscal 2015, and EBITDA of $452.6 million, an increase of 29.5 percent. VR expects an even better year in fiscal 2017, as its guidance range is for EBITDA of $480 million and $510 million, excluding results from Whistler Blackcomb. VR revealed its purchase of WB in August.

SAM Magazine—Greenwood, Maine, Oct. 3, 2016—Mt. Abram in western Maine will open six new trails this winter, and each trail will be covered with snowmaking. The new terrain consists of two expert trails, two terrain parks, one race trail, and a short connector trail.

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Oct. 3, 2016—SnowSports Industries America (SIA) has made some big moves as of late—both physically and organizationally. The move from its office outside Washington D.C. to its new home in Park City is complete, and the non-profit trade association recently added four new staff members.

SAM Magazine—Salzburgerland, Austria, Oct. 3, 2016—Zell am See in Austria’s Salzburgerland has built a new lift that will allow it to re-open terrain not used for more than three decades. The lift, the first stage in a two-year plan to (re)connect Zell am See to the Saalbach- Hinterglemm-Fieberbrunn, will make Zell am See part of one of Austria’s largest ski areas.

SAM Magazine—White Haven, Pa., Sept. 29, 2016—Nearly 20 member ski areas are again participating in the Pennsylvania Ski Areas Association First-Time Ski and Snowboard Program, which offers $49 advance-purchase learn-to packages valid any day—including weekends and holidays—during the 2016-17 season. The package includes a beginner lift ticket, beginner group lesson, and rental equipment.

Since April, the news about Vermont’s Jay Peak has been heavily focused on the alleged indiscretions of its two former principals and the ensuing legal situation. What many headline-readers may not realize is that Jay has been operating daily—and business is strong.

SAM Magazine—Durango, Colo., Sept. 23, 2016—The investment group led by James Coleman has acquired Hesperus Ski Area, a small, family-oriented hill located 11 miles outside of Coleman’s hometown of Durango. Hesperus is the fifth ski area in the group’s portfolio, which also includes Purgatory Resort, Colo., Arizona Snowbowl, Ariz., Sipapu Ski & Summer Resort, N.M., and Pajarito Mountain, N.M.

More than 160 summer operations managers, vendors, and schemers gathered at the Canyons Grand Summit in Park City, Utah, to explore the state of the art in summer activities at SAM’s Summer Ops Camp, Sept. 14-16.