I am not in the least embarrassed to say how proud we are of our 40 years of service to this crazy industry we love. We’re proud in these days when survivorship earns big ratings to be even more than a survivor among ski industry trade publications: we’re a thriver. And in those 40 years we’ve seen a number come and go. Mostly go. So thanks, SAM readers.
I think Editor Jennifer has put together a challenging 40th editorial section. It’s not for the lazy, but is designed to make you think, starting with Jim Spring’s piece on page 47. Jim was once editor of this publication, until the lifestyle he coveted persuaded him that counting was more rewarding than scribbling and he became a researcher. His take on our continued dependence on baby-boomers is sobering, especially in the context of the daunting task he points out of luring echo-boomers from their computer games.
Jeff Harbaugh, the ski and snowboarding world’s premier decoder, translator and de-mystifier of those dense corporate reports (catch his Harbaugh Report on SAM’s Website), takes a big, overhead view of the ski resort industry. He sees good and bad, but most of all, he worries about a false sense of security.
We’re delighted to welcome Ford Frick to the list of SAM contributors. His long-range studies on the implications and impacts of ski resort development have provided seminal and significant direction to our industry. His thoughts here on the proliferation of mountain villages are deceptive: they are delightful to read, but they pack a wallop.
Jerri Tranquilli’s fascinating review of 40 years of managing safety issues in the ski resort field is revealing. You come away feeling we seem to have managed some things quite well.
Fifteen years ago, Ted Farwell wrote an eerily prescient article for our 25th Anniversary issue speculating on what the ski resort scene might be in 2001. Hey, that’s now, and Ted brings us current. We still don’t have the research we need, he says.
And then our snowmaking futurist, Slavko, charmingly propels us 10 years hence, welcoming us to the fantastic snowsports that technology has enabled in Brazil, South Africa, Saudi Arabia and elsewhere in 2011 and beyond.
I also call your attention to the inspiring (one supposes also perspiring) adventures of one of our industry’s great leaders, Phil Gravink, who describes, starting on page 56, the bicycle trip he and wife Shirley took around the world.
As we mark our 40th year of SAM, I’m equally proud to say that our new baby, Stable Management, has had its first birthday and is growing fast. For those unfamiliar with it, we took the SAM model and transferred it to the equine field, which in some ways is quite like the ski world when we started SAM—that is, full of small, owner-operated businesses and people passionate about the sport and business they are in. Cross-over possibilities? You bet! There are lots of mountain resorts that successfully offer riding—on horses, that is!
