SAM Coverage
Ski Area Profiles
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Alterra Names Rusty Gregory as Chief Executive Officer
SAM Magazine—Denver, Feb. 7, 2018—Longtime Mammoth Resorts leader Rusty Gregory has been named Alterra Mountain Company’s chief executive officer. Gregory has been a member…
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Business Mogul and Ski Area Owner Ian Cumming Dead at 77
SAM Magazine—Jackson, Wyo., Feb. 4, 2018—Snowbird majority owner and former Powdr Corp. owner Ian Cumming died Friday at his home in Jackson, Wyo. He…
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Alterra Mountain Company Teases New Ikon Pass
SAM Magazine—Denver, Jan. 25, 2018—Alterra Mountain Company, the recently-named joint venture that curated a dozen North American mountain resorts last year, unveiled the name…
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NSAA Western Winter Conference and Tradeshow 2018
If it seemed that there were a lot of folks attending the NSAA Winter Conference and Trade Show at Snowbird, Utah, Jan. 15-18, well,…
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Events: What’s the Value?
Hosting events, especially in summer, can have a bunch of benefits. In mid-September, 10,000 athletes swarmed over Killington, Vt., for the Spartan Race, a…
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Lift Malfunction at Tussey Mountain Under Investigation (UPDATED)
SAM Magazine—Harris Township, Pa., Dec. 18, 2018—Not long after Tussey Mountain, Pa., opened for the season on the morning of Saturday, Dec. 16, its…
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Burke Mountain Employee Dies in Utility Vehicle Accident
SAM Magazine—Burke, Vt., Dec. 18, 2017—An investigation is underway to determine what caused a 1986 LMC 1500 tracked vehicle to rollover Sunday evening on…
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Revamp Your Recruiting Strategy
How one ski area went from struggling to meet staff quotas to selecting applicants off a waiting list. Staffing a ski area for winter…
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Speak Out :: Minimum Wage War
As the minimum wage continues to increase in several states, and even fast-food restaurants are offering higher wages, how are winter resorts being affected—and…
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Unlikely Power
Aspen has long been at the forefront of environmental initiatives and its latest venture, involving methane, is impressive. Mike Kaplan, the dapper chief of…
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One for the Books
Vail celebrates its 50th birthday with a brand-new gondola that is ground-breaking in many ways. Vail’s new 10-passenger Gondola One, the main lift out…
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Look, Ma, No Wedge!
See why Welch Village threw out its old instruction methods. Beginner conversion is what we do in the Midwest. If we don’t work hard…
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Teaching, Naturally
Terrain-based teaching is changing the way some resorts are converting newcomers into lifelong enthusiasts. It was mid-November 2012, a few short weeks before Camelback…
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Climb Any Mountain
A Nevada base-area community needed to get its population to the slopes and found a solution in a unique transportation system. Aerial lifts are…
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Why Is Change Hard?
The second profile in our terrain-based teaching series. Here we take a look at how Jay Peak converted employee culture. This past season Jay…
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New Vision for Night Lights
When Steamboat decided to offer night riding, the resort found a system that is low impact and maximum fun. When the lifts stop spinning…
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Little Areas That Could
There’s a lot happening at four smaller Maine hills. As the 2013-14 season begins, four Maine ski areas—Mt. Abram, Bigrock, Black and Camden Snow…
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On the Hill: Alyeska Spring Training – Extreme Tram Evacuation
In this first installation of SAM’s Field Report series, we interview Michelle Cosper from Alyeska Resort about their off-season training routines. Last week SAM…