SAM Magazine-Lakewood, Colo., April 30, 2009-The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) has honored nine member resorts with its annual Heads Up National Ski Area Safety Awards, in recognition of the resorts' programs to educate employees and guests about skiing and snowboarding responsibly. The 2009 winners are: • Best Overall Safety Program...

SAM Magazine--April 28, 2009--The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced the winners of the 2008/09 Marketing and Guest Service Awards. The awards are presented annually to ski resorts of all sizes nationwide for their successful marketing and guest service programs that ultimately help grow winter sports. This year's categories recogn...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Utah, April 24, 12009-Globally and in North America, the Rossignol Group is focusing on its core competencies, streamlining many of its departments and systems, and reducing its workforce by 30 percent, North American president Francois Goulet told U.S. and Canadian employees on April 22. "Those necessary reductions, whil...

SAM Magazine-Lyndonville, Vt., April 24, 2009-The Resort Industry Leadership Institute (RiLi), created to help resort executives prepare up-and-coming managers in their ranks for future leadership positions, returns to Lyndon State College for its third season June 3-5. The program consists of several parts. Workshops develop leadership flexibi...

SAM Magazine-Mammoth Mountain, Calif., April 24, 2009-Mammoth opened up sales of its Mammoth Value Passes (MVP) to the public on April 1, and all 38,000 sold out before the May 1 deadline. "We saw incredible demand for this product this April," said Joani Lynch, director of communications for Mammoth. "This is a good indicator for Mammoth next s...

SAM Magazine--April 22, 2009--A part of Colorado ski history will exist no more as the Ski Train to Winter Park was sold to Canadian National Railway. According to the Denver Post, the train will be moved north of the border before summer operations begin. The train was started in 1940 and has serviced Winter Park year-round since....

SAM Magazine--April 21, 2009--Mountain High, Calif., announced yesterday that it closed five percent up from the previous season, making it the fourth best season in the area's history. The season was not without its challenges: a bad economy coupled with lack of natural snow in the early season worried management at first. But, thanks to more p...

SAM Magazine-Carrabassett Valley, Maine, April 17, 2009-Sugarloaf is offering its guests the opportunity to decide what lifts will run for the remainder of the year, through its online community and via Twitter. Starting on Monday, April 20, Sugarloaf will scale back its operations to two daily lifts through the remainder of the season, which is...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., April 17, 2009-Vail Resorts today reported that visits to its five resorts were off by 6.2 percent and lift ticket revenue down by 8.7 percent for the season to date through April 12, compared to last year. Room nights booked through VR's central reservations and directly at the company's owned and managed properties...

SAM Magazine--Woodbury, Conn., April 16, 2009--SAM Magazine is proud to announce the recipients of the 12th annual 2009 SAMMY Leadership Awards and the third annual SAM Diversity Award. They are: 1) Alan Henceroth, COO at Arapahoe Basin, Colo. Alan first entered the ski industry working at Keystone Resort for five seasons and transitioned over ...

SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., April 13, 2009-Snow sports market sales declined 16 percent overall in February 2009 compared to February 2008, the largest year-over-year decline this season. Equipment sales were particularly hard hit in February as consumers hesitated to purchase big-ticket items like skis and snowboards. The dropoff in sales of alpine ...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., April 13, 2009-Vail Resorts, Inc. (VR) will require all employees to wear helmets when skiing or riding on the job at each of its five mountain resorts-Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly-for the 2009-10 season. Helmets will be provided to every employee next fall as part of their standard uniform...

SAM Magazine-Nederland, Colo., April 3, 2009-Jim Spenst is the new general manager at Eldora Mountain Resort. Spenst was vice president of operations at Tamarack Resort in Idaho from 2004 to 2008, and worked in a variety of capacities at Copper Mountain from 1973 to 2004, including vice president of operations from 1998 to 2004. Spenst grew up i...

SAM Magazine- Alta, Wyo., April 1, 2009-Grand Targhee Resort has become the first winter resort to register its complete emissions inventory with the Climate Registry. The move establishes a baseline for measuring the resort's carbon footprint, which can be used to accurately and comprehensively manage the resort's emissions. The Climate Registr...

SAM Magazine-Concord, N.H., April 1, 2009-After extended contemplation and study, 100 acres of the upper portion of the dormant Mittersill ski area has joined the system of state lands as part of Cannon Mountain Ski Area. The move is part of a land exchange that transfers the 244 acre Sentinel Mountain Forest, including approximately ¼ mile of t...

SAM Magazine-Innsbruck, Austria, March 27, 2009-With great fanfare, PRINOTH unveiled its new European groomer, the Beast, on a clear night in the Austrian Alps in front of 600 spectators from around the world. Attendees of the event, which was themed "Beauty and the Beast," were treated to a visual extravaganza that included a helicopter shooting o...

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SAM Magazine-Boulder, Colo., March 31, 2009-Mike Federle is the new group publisher of the Bonnier Mountain Group where he will head up SKI and Skiing magazines and SkiNet.com, plus Warren Miller Films. He replaces Jamie Pentz, who was ousted in early February. Federle brings more than 25 years of sales experience to the task, including a succes...

Time is running out to send in nominations for two important industry awards: the SAMMY Leadership Award and the Diversity Leadership Award. Both awards close at the end of this week, April 3rd, 2009. Nominees for the SAMMY Leadership Awards can come from both the resort side of the industry and the supplier side. The SAMMYs honor people who, at...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., March 28, 2009-Not only is Snowsports Industry America's annual trade show moving to Denver after 37 years in Las Vegas, the organization is changing the name of the event to the SIA Snow Show. "With our move to Denver we have the opportunity to put the 'snow' back in snow sports and return to the core of our sport, s...

SAM Magazine-Winter Park, Colo., March 28, 2009-Winter Park and Copper Mountain have slashed the price of the areas' joint Rocky Mountain Super Pass Plus. The pass, which cost $439 this winter, is now offered for $399. The pass includes unlimited access at Copper and Winter Park and six days at Steamboat, as it did last eyar. In addition, consumers...

SAM Magazine-Corvara, Italy, March 26, 2009-World-renowned big-mountain freeskier Shane McConkey died today while ski-BASE jumping in the Dolomites. He was working on a new film with JT Holmes and a crew from Matchstick Productions. Details of the accident are not clear; McConkey had planned to do a double backflip off the Val Scura couloir on Sass...

SAM Magazine-Tannersville, Pa., March 23, 2009-Camelback Mountain Resort, in its 46th year, will set a new mark for length of season on Wednesday, its 124th day of operation. The old record was set in 1992-93. To celebrate the milestone, Camelback will offer a special $12.40 lift ticket on Wednesday. Camelback anticipates it will close temporari...

SAM Magazine-Squaw Valley, Calif., March 19, 2009- Squaw Valley is cutting season pass prices for the 2009-10 ski and snowboard season by up to $1,000 in honor of the 60th Anniversary of the ski area's founding and the 50th Anniversary of Squaw Valley hosting the 1960 Winter Olympics. Coined the "50/60 Pass," the restructured season passes go o...

SAM Magazine-Telluride, Colo., March 19, 2009-In the wake of additional spring snowfall, several resorts, among them Telluride, Mount Washington, B.C., and Belleayre, N.Y., are extending their seasons. Telluride will keep the Coonskin and Plunge lifts open for an additional week after the scheduled resort close, April 5. Only terrain off the Plu...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., March 18, 2009-Western destination lodging reservations were down 16.3 percent through February, according to the latest data from the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). In addition, average daily room rates were down 7.6 percent. MTRiP data cover 216 properties in 15 destination resorts in Colorado, Utah, Califor...

SAM Magazine-Kiltarlity, Ireland, March 17, 2009-Recession, what recession? U.S. ski areas are selling 19 of the 20 most expensive six-day lift tickets on the planet, according to the World Ski Lift Ticket Price Report (2009). This annual study compares six-day, peak-season prices from more than 600 ski areas in 40 countries worldwide. The repor...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., March 12, 2009-Skier visits at Colorado Ski Country USA's 22 member resorts in January and February were off by 5.8 percent compared to the same period last year. As such, visitation is up slightly compared to the five-year average for the period, and those five years include three years that were the highest on record. ...

SAM Magazine-Are, Sweden, March 11, 2009-Lindsey Vonn added yet another landmark to an already historic season for U.S. ski and snowboard competitors as she took her 21st career win in the downhill at the Audi FIS World Cup Finals. She then won her fifth super G in a row to extend her dominance of the women's tour. Her victories were the latest in ...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., March 11, 2009-Vail Resorts second quarter results for fiscal 2009, ended Jan. 31, show resort revenue (mountain operations and lodging) of $299.6 million compared to $314.5 million a year earlier, a decrease of 4.7 percent. Lodging bookings were down 14.9 percent. But total revenue, including real estate sales, came...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., March 11, 2009-Vail Resorts will adopt a companywide wage reduction plan to reduce labor costs while preserving as many jobs as possible. Employee salaries will be reduced on a sliding scale, from 2.5 percent for seasonal employees to 10 percent for executives. This wage reduction plan, combined with certain other ad...

SAM Magazine-Gilford, N.H., March 11, 2009-More and more resorts are selling next year's passes at this year's prices. Gunstock, N.H., is one of the latest to make this offer. In addition, seniors will be given a break, with pricing the same as children. Unlimited season passes are $329 for adults and teens (13-64); seniors (65+) and children (6...

SAM Magazine-Reno, Nev., Mar. 6, 2009-A ski patroller working avalanche control routes at Squaw Valley was killed due to trauma sustained after being caught in an slide last Tuesday. Andrew Entin was partially buried by the avalanche, but injuries sustained during the incident were severe enough to kill him, according to Squaw officials. Entin was ...

SAM Magazine-Snowbird, Utah, Mar. 6, 2009-High winds derailed the Peruvian Express chairlift at Snowbird on Wednesday, when wind gusts topped 70 mph. According to the resort, wind caused a misalignment in the way one of the chair grips attached to the haul rope, shutting the lift down after the misalignment was detected by one of the tower sheave s...

SAM Magazine-Boulder, Colo., Mar. 6, 2009-Resorts are looking to lock in customers for next winter as well as get new customers this season with a variety of season pass deals, including discounted rates on next year's offerings and affordable spring passes. Both Massachusetts' Jiminy Peak and Minnesota's Wild Mountain are pushing season pass of...

SAM Magazine-Donnelly, Idaho, Mar. 2, 2009-Tamarack Resort, which has been in receivership since last fall, is shutting down after the close of business on Mar. 4. The area has been operating on funds provided by the lender group that has been attempting to foreclose on the resort, and that group has agreed to provide only limited funding for the n...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Mar. 2, 2009-Hugh Smythe, Intrawest's senior vice president of mountain resorts, is retiring on Mar. 12. He will remain an advisor to the company. Smythe, a 43 year veteran of the ski industry,has been with Intrawest since 1986, including 20 years as president of resort operations. Currently, he oversees the managem...

SAM Magazine-Whitefish, Mont., Feb. 27, 2009-On Feb. 24, the nearly 8,000 season pass holders at Whitefish Mountain Resort surpassed 1 billion vertical feet of skiing and snowboarding, as tracked by the resort's "Big Vertical" program. Resort officials were ecstatic to have an unfathomably large number to talk about-and a positive one at that. "...

SAM Magazine-McCall, Idaho, Feb. 27, 2009-Yes, even before many areas begin to sell next year's passes, Brundage is ending the first phase of its advance sales. This is the last week for customers to save up to $160 on the purchase of a 2009-10 season's pass. Prices currently range from $79 (ages 7 to 11) to $289 (adults ages 18 to 69); they rise i...

SAM Magazine-Bend, Ore., Feb. 27, 2009-Mt. Bachelor is one of the most recent resorts to partner with SOS Outreach, the Colorado-based organization that builds character and confidence for underserved youth through snowsports. The five-day program emphasizes core values and positive adult interaction. Clothing, equipment and lift tickets are provid...

SAM Magazine-West Lebanon, N.H., Feb. 24, 2009-Nordica has issued a recall for approximately 4,500 pairs of the company's XBi ALU skis. The skis were produced and sold between August 2006 and December 2008. There are concerns that the binding plates could fail, causing a loss of control. The recall involves the XBi binding component, which was used...

SAM Magazine-Krippenstein, Austria, Feb. 24, 2009-The snow just keeps falling across Europe as some areas are seeing record snowfall. In Austria, storms have been pounding most parts of the country with an additional meter expected for the week. "It's been amazing, says Kästle Skis president Siegfried "Sigi" Rumpfhuber. "One of the best seasons ...

SAM Magazine-Woodbury, Conn., Feb. 24, 2009-Cutter's Camp has opened registration for both of this year's sessions, at Mount Snow, Vt., and Timberline, Mt. Hood, Ore. Space will be filled on a first-come basis. Registration is processed on the SAM website at www.saminfo.com/events/register.php. For the past six years, Cutters Camp has hosted ter...

World Snow Resort News--February 12, 2009--Recent snow in urban areas has led to ski instructors working indoors year-round in the growing number of indoor snow centers in Europe to come outdoors to see the recent snowfall in parking lots and ride them as well. Britian's SNOzone! staff enjoy their lunch break from indoor snow.  Back on Eur...

SAM Magazine-Wellington, N.Z., Feb. 9, 2009-With travelers worldwide staying closer to home, Tourism New Zealand is mounting an early run of TV commercials in Australia to promote New Zealand's ski resorts. The move is aimed at promoting early bookings, and marks the first time that New Zealand has gone into Australia with ski ads this early. The c...

SAM Magazine-Copper Mountain, Colo., Feb. 9, 2009-Woodward at Copper, a year-round training center that focuses on terrain park and pipe progression for skiers and snowboarders, will open Feb.28. The center's main facility, The Barn, is an evolution of Pennsylvania's highly successful Camp Woodward. The 20,000 square foot indoor complex houses Snow...

World Snow Resort News--February 6, 2009--Although the snow arrived a few days later in Scotland than the south of England, domestic resorts have received up to two feet of fresh snow over the past 36 hours, which falling on top of an established base has led to extremely good powder and what Nevis Range describes as, "Near alpine conditions." C...

World Snow News--February 6, 2009--Statistics published by tour operators, ski resorts and even airlines continue to reflect increased sales this winter, contrary to mainstream media reports. Figures released by easyJet indicate a 17 percent increase in customer bookings in a bid to escape the UK for destinations across Europe in December 2008, ...

SAM Magazine-Duluth, Minn., Feb. 5, 2009-A move by Duluth to obtain $6 million as part of the economic stimulus package being debated in Congress to improve the city's water supply is drawing fire from privately-held resorts in the region, as the money would pay for a new source of water for city-owned Spirit Mountain's snowmaking system. The new s...

SAM Magazine--Grand Junction, Colo., February 2, 2009--On January 26, Leitner-Poma of America and Prinoth held the grand opening ceremony for their new 90,000-square-foot facility adjacent to the Grand Junction Regional Airport. Colorado Governor Bill Ritter attended the opening and said a few words to the crowd, praising Leitner Technologies for b...

SAM Magazine - Incline Village, NV., February 3, 2009 - The snow is falling and jobs in the ski industry are hot. At least that's the experience of educators at Nevada's Sierra Nevada College. The private, four-year residential college on the shores of Lake Tahoe has seen a huge increase in enrollment in its Ski Business and Resort Management (SBRM...

SAM Magazine - Vail, Colo., January 29, 2009 - A suspect in the 1998 arsons on Vail Mountain has been seen in Canada. Rebecca Rubin, who participated in the fiery eco-terrorism attacks on the Colorado ski area that burned the Two Elk Lodge and other structures including lift shacks and ski patrol rooms, has been seen near Vancouver, British Columbi...

SAM Magazine--January 27, 2009--Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort has entered into a long-term capital partnership with CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust (REIT) focused on lifestyle properties. Through a sale leaseback agreement, CNL Lifestyle Properties has acquired all of the resort's fixed assets for a total of $27 millio...

SAM Magazine - Denver, Colo., January 23, 2009 - Colorado skier visits dipped slightly says Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA). The industry organization, which represents 22 resorts in Colorado, reports total skier visits down 7.7 percent during the first period of the 2008-2009 ski season, defined as October 15, 2008 through December 31, 2008. How...

SAM Magazine-Boulder, Colo., Jan. 23, 2009-In a report that has long-term implications for western resorts already battling a plague of beetles and beetle-killed trees, a Colorado University scientist says that there is a trend of increasing tree deaths across the west. The deaths encompass a variety of species-not just the lodgepole beetle-killed ...

SAM Magazine-Crested Butte, Colo., Jan. 22, 2009-The U.S. Geological Survey has made public the agency's Snodgrass report after a lengthy review process by the US Forest Service and provides the basis for Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) to revise its Master Plan. Both CBMR and the US Forest Service conducted in-depth geological hazards inve...

SAM Magazine-Aspen, Colo., Jan. 22, 2009-As this year's ESPN Winter X Games ramp up in Aspen, the Aspen Skiing Company has reached an agreement that will keep the Winter X Games in Aspen/Snowmass through 2012. Winter X has been in Aspen since 2002. Winter X began at Snow Summit Mountain Resort, Calif., in 1997 then moved to Crested Butte, Colo....

Denver, Colorado, Jan. 22, 2009-A combination of factors including timely snowfall, discounted lodging, incentive packages, and aggressive marketing campaigns helped destination resort minimize their losses over the holidays, according Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) data. As a result, "While the results are not as good as previous years, ...

SAM Magazine-Avon, Colo., January 21, 2009 -SkiData AG, a provider of RFID access controls, has acquired a 25 percent ownership in Resort Technology Partners, LLC (RTP), a major provider of integrated point-of-sale and Internet software for the resort, recreation, and attractions industries. The investment will strengthen and expand the existing...

SAM Magazine-Vienna, Austria, Jan. 21, 2009-The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has criticized Sochi, the 2014 Olympic site, and other Central and Eastern European ski resorts over their development plans, claming they will irreparably damage some of Europe's last pockets of wilderness. In addition, the WWF claims that many of the resorts are unsustainab...