SAM Magazine - Snowbird, Ut., December 14, 2008 - An in-bounds avalanche in the Eye of the Needle area of Snowbird's Mt. Baldy claimed one life on Sunday in the wake of a storm that pounded both Utah and Colorado and pushed avalanche danger into the red zone. A similar in-bounds slide in the Lover's Leap area of Vail's Blue Sky Basin buried a man u...

SAM Magazine-Whistler, B.C., Dec. 16, 2008-At approximately 2:30 p.m. PST, a tower on lower section of the Excalibur gondola at Blackcomb Mountain split and "bent over," leaving several gondola cars dangling from the line and forcing an emergency evacuation that, at 5 p.m. PST, was still underway. Five people have received medical attention, but no...

SAM Magazine - Vail, Colo., December 9, 2008 - Recent storms across the Rocky Mountains and other parts of North America have sparked terrain openings. But resorts seem unwilling to rely upon Mother Nature to drive guest bookings and are aggressively marketing discounted vacation packages and other deals to drive business over the upcoming holiday ...

SAM Magazine-Vail, Colo., Dec. 7, 2008-In response to the economic downturn, Vail Resorts has laid off 50 year-round employees, eliminated 92 open positions, and frozen executive pay. In addition, the company will stop matching employee contributions to the company's 401 (k) plan. The cuts were announced last week in a memo sent by Vail Resort C...

SAM Magazine-Ludlow, Vt., Dec. 5, 2008-CNL Lifestyle Properties, Inc. is purchasing Okemo, Vt., Crested Butte, Colo., and Mount Sunapee, N.H., from Tim and Diane Mueller's Triple Peaks LLC, and leasing the properties back to Triple Peaks to manage the ski, golf, hospitality and conference operations under a long-term lease. Purchase price is report...

SAM Magazine-Breckenridge, Colo., Dec. 3, 2008-Uphill traffic is growing at several Colorado resorts including Aspen and Breckenridge. At the latter, the traffic is starting to frustrate mountain operations crews, who are looking to limit uphill access for safety reasons. Breckenridge ski resort can see up to 50 people each weekend who skin or s...

SAM Magazine - Bretton Woods, NH., December - When it snows, they will come. At least that's the lesson that Chris Ellms, Mount Washington Resort's director of ski operations, is drawing from a Thanksgiving holiday weekend that was up by 22 percent over the previous season at Bretton Woods. "We're thrilled, of course, but not completely surprise...

SAM Magazine - Smithers, B.C., - Ski and Ride Smithers, a northern British Columbia resort, has received approval for the resort's master plan. The plan features a a multi-year expansion including ski terrain and retail and residential development. The primary feature of the plan are trails to connect the mountain, which will change its name to Hu...

SAM Magazine - Girdwood, Ak., December 3, 2008 - After a dry November across North America delayed some openings and forced snowmaking crews to work overtime, winter seems to finally have arrived. Alaskan resort Alyeska received more than 117 inches over the last week, pushing the ski area's total to more than 200 inches on the year. "This is t...

SAM Magazine-Zermatt, Switzerland, Nov. 26, 2008-Huge snowfalls in recent weeks have brought fantastic early-season conditions to ski resorts across Europe, according to Patrick Thorne's www.Skiinfo.com. Resorts in Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Norway and Switzerland have reported more than three feet in the past five days, and more than 200 ski...

SAM Magazine-Durango, Colo., Nov. 25, 2008-Winter resorts received a record 18 A grades in the Ski Area Environmental Scorecard this year, compared to 12 last year, thanks to increased efforts to reduce energy consumption, install green energy technologies and reduce greenhouse gases. "Ski areas have accelerated their efforts to become more ener...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Ut., Nov. 25, 2008 -While many areas have opened across the Eastern U.S., thanks to a persistent cold wave, resort openings are mixed across the west, where warm weather has delayed the start of skiing at The Canyons (to Dec. 5) and Park City (to Nov. 28). Many Colorado resorts are open, though, and Whistler will open a day ...

SAM Magazine-Vancouver, B.C., Nov. 25, 2008-Frank DeBerry has become president and chief operating officer at Mountain Creek, N.J. DeBerry will be responsible for all aspects of Mountain Creek's resort operations and will report to Hugh Smythe, Intrawest's senior vice president of mountain resorts, as do Intrawest's other eastern mountain resorts. ...

SAM Magazine--Aspen, Colo.., November 21, 2008, 2008 --The Aspen Skiing Company has developed a partnership with shipping company UPS to create a program which allows guests to ship skis and snowboards, bypassing the latest baggage fees implemented by airlines. Resort guests can save approximately $50 to $300 depending on the number of bags bei...

SAM Magazine - West Dover, Vt., November 21, 2008 - Mount Snow has announced that the resort is tweaking its snow reporting methods and will no longer list "runs open", focusing instead on acreage available for skiing. The ski area says that the move will increase snow and condition reporting accuracy, and give guests a better feel for exactly what...