SAM Magazine-Helena, Mont., Jan. 16, 2009-The Montana House of Representatives is considering an assumption of risk law to protect a wide range of recreation businesses from liability lawsuits. The bill would shift the burden for managing the inherent risks in many sports to participants, much like ski-related assumption of risk laws in many other ...

SAM Magazine-Granby, Québec, Jan. 16, 2009-The Leitner Technologies Group has acquired the Camoplast Track Machine Group and will integrate the division into Prinoth, Leitner's snow grooming division. Prinoth will manage production and sales of the group's utility and municipal vehicles as well as its existing Alpine machines. Leitner expects th...

SAM Magazine-Cody, Wyo., Jan. 13, 2009-Wyoming's Sleeping Giant ski area, which has been closed since 2004, has just received a $500,000 grant from the state as the resort seeks to remake itself as a non-profit, community venture. The grant was part of $22 million doled out by the State Loan and Investment Board (SLIB) at its meeting last Thursday ...

SAM Magazine - Crystal Mountain, Wash., January 10, 2009 - With surrounding resorts reopening after warm rains caused havoc to conditions and spiked avalanche danger, Washington's Crystal Mountain remains embattled due to road closures. The Washington Department of Transportation has continued road closures on Highway 410, the only access road to t...

SAM Magazine-Vail, Colo., Jan. 9, 2009-Unaudited interim data for Vail Resorts (VR) show season-to-date skier visits for the company's five mountain resorts were down 5.8 percent compared to the prior year. Lift ticket revenues dropped 7.5 percent, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each year. Bookings through VR's central re...

SAM Magazine-Aspen, Colo., Jan. 9 2008-Following news of declining occupancy rates in Vail, Aspen lodging properties are reporting lower occupancy rates for the holiday season. In Aspen, a soft Christmas week holiday period saw occupancy at just 67 percent compared to last year's 87 percent. Advance reservations are similar reduced. As of the la...

Robert Drake  SAM: You guys had a near miss with a fire this summer, tell us about it. Robert Drake: We did. The Cascade Fire started at the far end of the West Fork Canyon behind the resort and quickly made its way down canyon toward us. It started over the weekend when there are typically not a lot of people on the mountain over the s...

SAM Magazine-Vail, Colo., Jan. 8 2009-Ski resorts across the U.S. have been reporting strong holiday visits as December snowfall brought out skiers and snowboarders in droves. In Vermont, Okemo Mountain Resort saw skier rise seven percent above of the same Monday-through-Sunday period over the Christmas holiday last year, and six percent ahead o...

SAM Magazine-Snoqualmie Pass, Wash., Jan. 8, 2009-Heavy rains and high snow levels have taken a toll on Washington ski resorts, with avalanches, mudslides and floods shuttering resorts and making access roads impassible. At Snoqualmie Pass, rain sparked a 300-foot-wide slide that toppled two lift towers on the resort's Keechelus chairlift. The debr...

SAM Magazine-Whistler, B.C., Jan. 2, 2009-Two separate avalanches-in areas closed due to avalanche danger-have resulted in fatalities at Canada's Whistler/Blackcomb resort. The incidents occurred on separate parts of the resort. In the first case, a 37-year-old Whistler resident died after triggering a Class 2 avalanche with a three-foot crown, ...

SAM Magazine-Nederland, Colo., Dec. 30, 2008-Eldora Mountain Resort general manager Brian Mahon, 49, was the victim of an apparently random shooting this morning at the resort. The suspect, 24-year-old Derick Bonestroo, a lift attendant at Eldora, fled the scene and was pursued by a Boulder County deputy sheriff. After a brief chase, Bonestroo stop...

SAM Magazine-Jackson Hole, Wyo., Dec. 30, 2008-Routine avalanche control work at Jackson Hole on the resort's Headwall area triggered a substantial avalanche, which damaged the resort's Bridger Restaurant and forced the closure of the ski area's upper lifts. The slide, which occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Dec. 29, was triggered by patroller...

SAM Magazine - Squaw Valley, Calif., December 27, 2008 - In the second in-bounds avalanche fatality of the year, 21-year old Randall Davis died on December 21 after getting separated from a friend and caught in a slide in the Red Dog area. The victim was found by ski patrol who determined Davis had been caught by a slide after finding his ski prot...

SAM Magazine - Ludlow, Vt., December 27, 2008 - Vermont Resorts Okemo and Stratton are offering a joint lift ticket product that will enhance the destination visitor experience. The deal allows any purchaser of a three-day lift ticket to use on day at the other resort. The tickets can be purchased separately or as part of each resorts' skiing and l...

SAM Magazine-Lakewood, Colo., Dec. 24, 2008-The recent adoption of the ACL Prevention Program by Arapahoe Basin (see earlier report) is only the most recent case of what has been a broader spread of the program. Several resorts in Colorado and, more recently, California, are using it. So are Mt. Bachelor, Ore., Bogus Basin, Idaho, Red Lodge, Mont.,...