SAM Magazine-Lakewood, Colo., May 1, 2009-Henry "Hank" Lunde has received the National Ski Areas Association Lifetime Achievement Award, while Bill Gilbert has earned the Sherman Adams award, NSAA announced today. Lunde was president of Vermont's Killington and SKI, Ltd., for 28 years before spending nearly a decade as president of Stowe Mountai...

SAM Magazine-Mt. Hood, Ore., May 1, 2009-Not only are several North American resorts still operating, several others are reopening for the first weekend in May. Mt. Hood Meadows Ski Resort resumes operations today through Sunday, May 1, 2 and 3 for a season encore. Similarly, Wolf Creek and Echo Mountain, Colo., Jay Peak, Vt., and Alpental, Wash...

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...