The big news in the ski world revolves around the Haskell Hearings in Washington. Colorado’s Democratic Senator, Floyd Haskell, had it in his head that ski resorts were milking the public by operating as monopolies and using public lands to do it. For him, it appeared to be good politics because a lot of Colorado skiers were complaining about high lift tickets. With this in mind, he held hearings on legislation he proposed. NSAA orchestrated a response, sending the likes of Sherman Adams (Loon Mountain., N.H.), Tom Corcoran (Waterville Valley, N.H.), Darcy Brown (Aspen, Colo.), Garry Mitchell (Colorado Ski Country), Jim Branch (Snow Engineering) and John Fry, Ski magazine editor, to testify. The issue churned around for a year or so before petering out. Mostly the industry learned a lesson about not taking its public image for granted.
NSAA was engaged in some high-profile promotional activities. First there was the NSAA/Coca Cola “Introduce a Friend to Skiing” program in which participating areas agreed to give a free lesson or beginner lift ticket to a person who had bought a lift ticket or a lesson and produced eight proofs-of-purchase of Coca Cola. It never went anywhere, but did get some promotional value. NSAA was also touting the Buddy Hackett Public Service Announcement, saying it had reached an estimated 104 million viewers. For doing his PSA free, NSAA invited Buddy to the convention at the Broadmoor, where, quite a few sheets to the wind, he made a somewhat embarrassing speech at the banquet.
The long-delayed Beaver Creek development looked more on track with the announcement by Colorado Governor Richard Lamm that the state had withdrawn its objections. In late 1972, Colorado voters had torpedoed the 1976 Colorado Olympic Winter Games and in 1975, Governor Lamm had announced his moratorium on ski area development in Colorado.
Two major destination resorts changed hands: Big Sky, Mont., and Steamboat, Colo. The Montana Resort, which had originally been developed by a group headed by TV news star, Chet Huntley, was bought by Everett Kircher, of Boyne Mountain, Mich. Steamboat, which had been owned by the Texas steel conglomerate, LTV, was sold to an investment syndicate headed by Ware Travelstead.
The independent instructor issue was hotly debated in SAM over several months. The Haskell hearings had amplified the debate, because a gadfly Aspen instructor, Don Lemos, had convinced the senator to introduce legislation prohibiting the Forest Service from granting exclusive ski school concessions to the ski area operator. The arguments on each side, needless to say, parallel those current today.
Another current debate in 1976 concerns Ski Brakes—Yes or No. NSAA’s 2nd VP (and future chairman) Phil Gravink hopes that more testing the following season might enable NSAA to take a stand on their use.
At Seven Springs Mountain Resort in Pennsylvania, owner Herman Dupre gets ready to market the snowmaking system he has developed for which he claims a 1.5 to 1 or less air/water ratio. The system uses 40-foot towers and an external mix nozzle. This would later make its mark as the HKD (Herman K. Dupre) system.
10 Years Ago in SAM
While the world was mesmerized by the Gulf War, ski areas were also fixated on an internal problem: Almost two years after NSAA and SIA merged and became United Ski Industries Association (USIA), member ski areas were unhappy. A survey conducted by SAM found over a quarter were undecided on whether to even retain their membership. USIA’s national marketing was the problem. Only 16 percent rated the program as good or excellent; 38 percent rated it as poor or terrible. Evaluating the importance of ten association activities, areas ranked the national marketing effort next to last. USIA would last another year.
