SAM Magazine--Queensbury, N.Y., August 19, 2013--As of August 15, West Mountain, N.Y., will be operated by Apex Capital and will open this winter. According to the Post Star, the group parted ways with the former ski area owner, Mike Barbone, but will now have full control over the resort. Barbone filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June and, rather...

SAM Magazine--Denver, Colo., August 19, 2013--At the halfway point of summer, lodging properties from 17 participating western mountain resorts are seeing steady crowds this summer and are on pace to be the busiest ever according to the most recent data released by Destimetrics. The measurements are from data collected through July 31 and reflect o...

SAM Magazine—Rutland, Vt., Aug. 15, 2013—Okemo Mountain Resort, Killington Resort, Pico Mountain at Killington and Mount Sunapee Resort have partnered to introduce 4.0 The College Pass for undergraduate and graduate students. For $369 (plus tax) students get unlimited skiing and riding at all four areas. The deal is available for purcha...

SAM Magazine—Big Sky, Mont., Aug. 15, 2013—Yellowstone Club owner CrossHarbor Capital Partners, in partnership with Boyne Resorts, which operates Big Sky Resort, are acquiring Moonlight Basin from Lehman Brothers Holdings, which owned Moonlight through a 2012 bankruptcy sale. The deal is expected to close within the next several weeks. ...

SAM Magazine--Terreboone, Que., August 9, 2013--After 18 years at the helm of the Québec Ski Areas Association (ASSQ), Claude Péloquin will be leaving his position on September 6 to become the CFO at Ski Bromont. Under Péloquin's leadership, the ASSQ established an insurance program, developed a range of professional suppor...

SAM Magazine--Whistler, B.C., August 8, 2013--Whistler Blackcomb Holdings Inc. reported financial results for the three months and nine months ended June 30, 2013. The corporation holds a 75% interest in Whistler Blackcomb. The company reported a 25% drop in skier visits for the third quarter, which went from 332,000 to 249,000, and a 4% decrease f...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., August 8, 2013--Intouch Technology Group, formed in 1993 to develop the Ultima product suite for the wintersports industry and recreational facilities, has joined forces with Trojan Holdings, a New Zealand-based tourism company that operates three ski areas in the southern Alps. As a result of the merger, Intouch appointe...

SAM Magazine--Utah, August 8, 2013--On the heels of the annoucement by Alta, Snowbird, Deer Valley and Park City that each of their season pass holders can enjoy priveleges at any of the four areas, Brighton Resort and Solitude teamed up to offer the Big Cottonwood Pass for $999. The joint pass is valid at both resorts with no blackout dates. The t...

SAM Magazine—Mars Hill, Maine, Aug. 6, 2013—The nonprofit Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC), which has owned the Bigrock Mountain community ski area here since 2000, hopes to turn over the area to the community of Bigrock supporters. MWSC expects the community will fund operations and establish a new non-profit to operate the area, much...

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., Aug. 5, 2013—The Mountain Collective, an alliance of independent mountain resorts—Aspen/Snowmass, Whistler, Alta, Snowbird, Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows, Jackson Hole, and Mammoth—and Protect Our Winters (POW) are partnering in an effort to unite the winter sports community on climate change. The...

SAM Magazine—Killington, Vt., Aug. 1, 2013—Killington is making beginning adult skiers an amazing offer: complete a four-lesson package and receive a new pair of Elan eRise skis—along with discounts on boots and poles, and half-price lessons and lift tickets through the 2014-15 season. The details: the $249 learn-to package inc...

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, Aug. 1, 2013—Qualifying season’s passholders at Alta, Deer Valley, Park City Mountain Resort and Snowbird will receive three free days at each of the other resorts in the group for the 2013-14 season. The free tickets will be honored seven days a week, except for Dec. 21-Jan. 5 and Feb. 15-17. Elig...

SAM Magazine—Big Sky, Mont., July 25, 21013—CrossHarbor Capital, which owns the Yellowstone Club, and Boyne Resorts, which owns Big Sky Resort, have jointly purchased The Club at Spanish Peaks, a 5,700-acre upscale residential development near Big Sky, for $26.1 million. The private community filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2011. I...

SAM Magazine--July 25, 2013--Alpine Mountain Ski and Snowtubing, located in the Poconos in Pennsylvania, will be sold by competitive sealed bid in September. According to the Pocono Record, Alpine was bought two years ago by Appletree Management, which managed the ski area for three years prior. Appletree management stated that it wanted to get bac...

SAM Magazine--July 19, 2013--The following is a letter Laszlo Vajtay, owner of Plattekill Mountain in Roxbury, N.Y., wrote to the Department of Environmental Conservation in opposition of the proposed expansion at neighboring Belleayre Mountain. For more on the story, check out yesterday's headline news story at http://www.saminfo.com/news/neig...

SAM Magazine—Rumford, Maine, July 19, 2013—Ownership of Black Mountain Ski Resort has been transferred from the Maine Winter Sports Center, which has owned the area since 2003, to the resort’s volunteer board of directors, effective Monday. The resort remains a non-profit, but will no longer enjoy the financial support of the Libr...

SAM Magazine—Wrightwood, Calif., July 18, 2013—In response to the development of other multi-area pass deals, a dozen Western resorts have created the Powder Alliance and are offering free lift access to “anytime” passholders from member resorts. The areas are Crested Butte, Colo.; Snowbasin Resort, Utah; Sierra-at-Tahoe, Ch...

SAM Magazine--July 18, 2013--A proposed $74 million expansion of Belleayre Mountain Ski Center, in Ulster County, N.Y., is being opposed by neighboring Greene County lawmakers. In a letter to the State Department of Environmental Conservation, the Greene County legislature claims that using taxpayer dollars for the expansion of the state-owned ski ...

SAM Magazine—Stockholm, Sweden, July 15, 2013—Private equity group Altor is acquiring a majority stake in Rossignol Group from the current owners, Australian bank Macquarie (77 percent) and U.S. sporting goods conglomerate Jarden (17 percent), which also owns K2, Marker, Volkl, and several other brands. The deal values Rossignol at $196...

SAM Magazine—Denver, July 15, 2013—Hot temperatures throughout the western U.S. and increased summer programming have led to growing summer lodging occupancy, according to DestiMetrics (formerly the Mountain Travel Research Program). The June occupancy rate rose 3.9 percent compared to a year ago, and revenue increased by 9.9 percent. P...

SAM Magazine--July 16, 2013--According to published reports, a planned public auction at Tamarack Ski and Golf Resort in Idaho has been postponed for at least two months. The primary lender, Credit Suisse, had planned to auction off building materials and other furnishings today, July 15, and the county sheriff's office was going to sell off th...

SAM Magazine—Missoula, Mont., July 9, 2013—The U.S. Forest Service is considering would-be developer Tom Maclay’s latest proposal to build a destination ski resort on the Bitterroot and Lolo national forests. The Forest Service agreed to a first-stage screening on June 26, and has 60 days to determine if the proposal meets the age...

SAM Magazine—Detroit Lakes, Minn., July 9, 2013—Detroit Mountain Recreation Area supporters plan to initiate a fundraising effort this week to restore the town’s defunct ski area and turn it into a four-season activity center. The area last operated in 2004. Local businessmen formed the non-profit DMRA in 2010. The group conduc...

SAM Magazine—Rumford, Maine, June 27, 2013—The Maine Winter Sports Center (MWSC) will close the Black Mountain ski area here after the town voted to not fund the resort as a recreational resource. More than 3,000 miles to the northwest, at Mt. Sima in Whitehorse, Yukon, a similar story is playing out. In Maine, Andy Shepard, presiden...

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, June 26, 2013—Vail Resorts (VR) has laid off 42 full-time employees at Canyons, many of them at the department manager level or higher, as it consolidates staff at Canyons Resort here. VR signed a lease agreement to manage Canyons just a month ago. In a prepared statement, VR spokeswoman Kelly Ladyga sai...

SAM Magazine—Queensbury, N.Y., June 25, 2013—West Mountain owner East Slope Holdings LP (ESH) filed for bankruptcy protection last week. The move could facilitate a change in ownership to Apex Capital LLC, owned by local stockbroker and ESH staff member Spencer Montgomery. East Slope Holdings sought Chapter 11 protection in federal B...

SAM Magazine—Big Bear Lake, Calif., June 20, 2013—The Snow Summit Ski Corporation board of directors has retained Houlihan Lokey (HL), an international investment banking firm, to market the company, with the possibility of selling it to one of a number of interested buyers. HL will be contacting various potential buyers as part of this...

SAM Magazine--June 20, 2013--Rusty Gregory, the CEO and chairman of Mammoth Mountain, Calif., announced a new leadership team today. The leadership change is effective immediately as the resort hopes to better align the organization to execute key strategies aimed at improving guest experience, communicating the brand and growing visitation to Mamm...

SAM Magazine—Canon City, Colo., June 18, 2013—A 3,200-acre wildfire last week destroyed much of the Royal Gorge Bridge and Park. The iconic suspension bridge survived largely intact, along with several more recent additions, including the park’s skycoaster and zipline. But the park’s aerial tram was destroyed, along with 48 ...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 18, 2013—Warm temperatures and good economic news are nudging western mountain destinations toward a record-breaking summer for lodging properties, based on the latest data from DestiMetrics, (formerly called the Mountain Travel Research Program). Occupancy during May achieved a year-over-year 14.6 percent i...

SAM Magazine—Bartlett, N.H., June 18, 2013—Peak Resorts has realigned management at several areas by promoting three individuals from within the company. Josh Boyd is now president of Boston Mills, Brandywine and Alpine Valley Ski Area, all in Ohio. Boyd has served as general manager of Wildcat Mountain since 2011. He will be relocat...

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., June 18, 2013—The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has cleared Aspen Skiing Co. of any wrongdoing in the avalanche death of longtime patroller Patsy Hileman last Dec. 30. Hileman died in a small avalanche that took her over a cliff at Snowmass in the Hanging Valley Wall area, one of the ...

SAM Magazine--June 14, 2013--The organizers behind Antelope Butte Ski Area, Mont., have realized that the area will not open for the 2013-14 season as they had hoped. Antelope Butte first closed in 2003. Two years ago, locals formed a group called the Antelope Butte Foundation in order to revive and restore the local area. According to the Billings...

SAM Magazine--June 14, 2013--Black Mountain in Maine, owned by the Maine Winter Sports Center, had its request of a $51,700 donation from the town of Rumford voted down on June 13. According to the Sun Journal, the money was to help the area through the summer, get it ready for winter and pay wages for three employees. The defeat was especially ...

SAM Magazine--June 13, 2013--Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) announced today at its 50th Annual Meeting that statewide  visits totaled an estimated 11,445,000 in 2012/13. This estimation shows Colorado being up 3.95 percent compared to the 2011/12 season. Colorado Ski Country’s 21 member resorts hosted an estimated 6.4 million visits d...

SAM Magazine--June 13, 2013--The 2012-13 season in New Hampshire was a success for guests and resort operators alike, reports Ski NH, which represents 33 Alpine and nordic resorts in the state. Alpine resorts recorded a total of 2,276,370 skier and snowboarder visits, a 20.9% increase from the prior winter and a 4.7% increase over the ten-year aver...

SAM Magazine--June 13, 2013--The SnowSports Industries America (SIA) Board of Directors voted during its annual spring meeting to host the 2014 On-Demo/Ski-Ride Fest at Copper Mountain Resort, Colo., after considering industry feedback and recommendations provided by SIA’s On-Snow Demo Task Force. The Demo will be held on February 3, 2014, fo...

SAM Magazine--June 11, 2013--The Utah ski and snowboard industry closed the 2012-13 winter season Memorial Day weekend with a total of 4,031,621 million visits, up over 5 percent from the previous season’s 3,826,130. The 5.4 percent increase marks the sixth time Utah has ended above four million in the last eight years, and a significant incr...

SAM Magazine--June 6, 2013--Registration for SAM's 4th Annual Summer Ops Camp is officially open. The camp, which will take place at Attitash and Cranmore, N.H., September 15-17, will explore the many benefits of the growing opportunities in summer recreation in the mountains. The Summer Ops program is a hands-on educational and networking e...

SAM Magazine--June 6, 2013--New Zealand's Snow Park NZ was sold to Southern Hemishpere Proving Grounds (SHPG), a neighboring vehicle-testing facility, and the future of the ski area looks uncertain. SHPG managing director Tom Elworthy told the Otago Daily Times that is was possible Snow Park could still operate as a venue for events and trainin...

SAM Magazine—Missoula, Mont., June 5, 2013—Would-be resort developer Tom Maclay has submitted a third proposal for a resort on Lolo Peak in the Bitterroot Mountains west of Missoula. This current proposal omits Maclay’s former 3,000-acre ranch, which he lost to Met Life Agricultural Investments via foreclosure earlier this year. ...

SAM Magazine--June 4, 2013--At the Vermont Ski Areas Association (VSAA) annual meeting at Stowe Mountain Resort, the state's resorts celebrated the best season since 2001 with 4,513,041 skier and rider visits, which is also up 16% over last year. The number is the second best on record since VSAA started collecting data in 1992. VSAA also repor...

SAM Magazine--May 29, 2013--Vail Resorts (VR) announced today that it has entered into a long-term lease with affiliate companies of Talisker Corporation for Canyons Resort in Park City, Utah. Vail's history with Canyons has been an interesting one. VR attempted to purchase the area in 2007, but abandoned the effort in 2009 after much legal wra...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., May 28, 2013—Vail Resorts (VR) has named Taylor Ogilvie as general manager of Mt. Brighton, Mich. He will begin his new position on June 10. Ogilvie is originally from the Chicago suburbs and grew up skiing in the Midwest. Ogilvie has been a ski instructor at VR and worked his way up through the ranks....

SAM Magazine—Banff, Alberta, May 28, 2013—Mt. Norquay has received approval from Parks Canada for a long-range improvement plan for summer and winter operations. The plan calls for widening of trails, renovating the Cliff House lodge and adding an observation deck, and creating a cable-assisted summer hiking trail. As part of the lon...

SAM Magazine—Wanaka, New Zealand., May 28, 2013—New Zealand’s Snow Park will not be opening for the 2013 season. The manager of the past three years, the Synnott family, did not renew its lease, and management reverted to Sam Lee, who founded the park in 2002. Lee is now seeking capital with which to reopen the area, known for its...

SAM Magazine—Orlando, Fla., May 22, 2013—CNL Lifestyle Properties is testing the market value of its ski village holdings, which it acquired from Intrawest nearly a decade ago. That foray marked CNL’s entry into the winter resort business; it liked the industry so much that CNL has since become the nation’s largest owner of ...

SAM Magazine—San Clemente, Calif., May 22, 2013—Source Interlink’s GrindMedia division acquired the TransWorld magazine titles on May 20, swapping them with Bonnier Corp. for Source Interlink’s nine motorcycle titles. The exchange gives Source Interlink multiple titles in snowboarding, and Bonnier several titles in cycling. ...

SAM Magazine—Denver, May 22, 2013—Eastern destination lodging results reflected a strong start and finish to the 2012-13 season, outpacing the gains at Western resorts, according to data released by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP). In the East, the final tally for the season, November through April, revealed an aggregated 1...

SAM Magazine--May 15, 2013--The winter season crossed the finish line with a positive outcome for mountain lodging in both western and eastern mountain destinations according to the latest data released by the Mountain Travel Research Program.* In the west, a slow start to the season was reversed with improving snow conditions and economic news thr...

SAM Magazine--May 15, 2013--In its Capital Watch newletter, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced the following: The Forest Service issued the long awaited advertising and sponsorship policy this week. In addition to Monday’s Federal Register Notice on the policy, there is a Directive from the Forest Service Manual and a Q&A...

SAM Magazine--May 15, 2013--The Empire State Development Division of Tourism, which administers the I LOVE NY program, was a co-recipient along with Ski Areas of New York, Inc. (SANY) and the Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA) of the 2013 Tourism Excellence Award for Tourism Promotion at the 7th Annual I LOVE NEW YORK Empire State Touris...

SAM Magazine--May 14, 2013--The state Senate in California passed SB564, a bill that would require ski resorts in that state to prepare an annual safety plan and to post those reports on their websites. The bill by Senator Bill Monning (D), which was passed by a 24-8 partisan vote, is the third attempt in California to legislate safety procedures, ...

SAM Magazine--May 14, 2013--The sale of the beleaguered Snö Mountain, Pa., to a group of investors that will bring back the area's original name, Montage Mountain, was finalized last Friday. Montage first opened in 1983 and was run by Lackawanna County until 2006, when it was purchased by a group that renamed the ski area Snö Mountain...

SAM Magazine--May 14, 2013--According to the Times-Tribune, a judge ruled that a mountainside community can restrict water access to Elk Mountain, Pa. At issue is a 10-acre lake that is connected to the resort's 4-acre snowmaking pond. In 2011, the Village of Four Seasons revoked Elk's right to draw water from the lake and filed suit later ...

SAM Magazine—McLean, Va., May 10, 2013—For the season, August through March, winter sports retail sales grew 3 percent over the prior year to $3.4 billion, according to RetailTRAK data released by SnowSports Industries America and Leisure Trends Group. As has been the case for several years, accessories and apparel led the way. Acces...

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., May 9, 2013—The Environment Foundation, with primary funding provided by Aspen Snowmass employees, has made the largest grant in its 16-year history, donating $50,000 to protect 220,000 acres of Federal land from oil and gas development. The land is at Thompson Divide, outside of Carbondale, Colo. The grant is...

SAM Magazine--May 9, 2013--Whistler Blackcomb Holdings, Inc., the corporation that holds a 75% interest in the entities that operate Whistler Blackcomb, announced its second quarter numbers, as well as numbers for the six months ended March 31, 2013 (all numbers are in Canadian dollars). Total revenue for the six-month period was $182.5 million, 4....

SAM Magazine--May 9, 2013--Summit, the producer of the leadership conference Summit Series, finalized its purchase of Powder Mountain, Utah. Plans for the 7,000-acre resort include a sustainable residential community called Summit Eden, which will become the home base for the organization and its leadership and cultural events. Over the years, Powd...

SAM Magazine—Telluride, Colo., May 9, 2013—In a sign of changing priorities, Telluride Ski and Golf Company will no longer host a pre-Christmas FIS World Cup Ski and Snowboard event, and has bought a boutique hotel in town. Telluride executive vice president Jim Mikula said that the World Cup event consumes a lot of resources and ene...