• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah—July 13, 2023—The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) yesterday released its final record of decision (ROD) to move forward with construction of a controversial eight-mile-long gondola in Little Cottonwood Canyon. Image credit: Gondola Works The ROD, the final step in the Environmental Impact Statement...

• Ski School

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo.—July 13, 2023—Positive economic news during June spurred an uptick in advance summer reservations, according to DestiMetrics’ most recent monthly Market Briefing.  Data compiled through June 30 revealed that the booking pace increased and daily rates improved slightly after five months of softening compared...

• Area Management
• Marketing

SAM Magazine—July 13, 2023—Water has started to recede in Vermont after torrential rains and historic flooding in some mountain locations, with Killington, Magic Mountain, and Okemo among the most heavily impacted.Parking Lot of Magic Mountain. Courtesy of Magic Mountain Molly Mahar, president of Ski Vermont, said those ski areas are reporting...

• Marketing
• Area Management

SAM Magazine—Franconia, N.H., July 11, 2023—Longtime Cannon Mountain Ski Area GM John “JD” DeVivo will assume the role of GM of the non-profit Antelope Butte Mountain Recreation Area in northern Wyoming on Sept. 5. DeVivo will leave the state-owned Cannon on Aug. 31, after 16 years, and with a total of 33 years in the outdoor industry in th...

• Marketing

SAM Magazine—Mount Hotham, Victoria—July 11, 2023—Australia’s Mount Hotham Skiing Company has named Tina Burford as its new general manager. Burford comes to the position with almost four decades of experience, including 32 years at Perisher, where she served as resort services director.   In addition to her term at Perisher, Burford has...

• Miscellaneous
• Area Management

SAM Magazine— Detroit Lakes, MN—July 10, 2023 – Detroit Mountain general manager Mark Knutson, 53, died Sunday, July 9 in a vehicle-involved biking accident on South Shore Drive in Detroit Lakes.  Knutson was riding his bike just after 7 a.m. when he was reportedly hit by a pickup towing a boat. Life saving measures were performed on Knutso...

• Miscellaneous
• Marketing

SAM Magazine—July 10, 2023—Concern is growing among ski area operators in Vermont and New York, with damage already being reported in the wake of two days of torrential rains and historic flooding in the Northeast.Courtesy of Magic Mountain The National Weather Service has issued a flash flood warning through Tuesday morning, including the moun...

• Legal
• Marketing

SAM Magazine—– Kremmling, Colo.—July 10, 2023—After three seasons of operation, Bluebird Backcountry, a ski touring-only area operated on a private ranch between Kremmling and Steamboat Springs, is permanently closing, citing future financing and the economy as factors. Bluebird Backcountry co-founder and CEO Jeff Woodward said that the bus...

• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Macungie, Pa., July 6, 2023—The Pennsylvania Ski Areas Association (PSAA) held its inaugural lift training program at Bear Creek, Pa., June 20-21. The biannual training supports PSAA’s mission to provide practical, hands-on lift training, and is being offered for free to all Pennsylvania ski areas, drawing nearly 100 percent att...

• Environment

SAM Magazine—Alberta, Canada, July 5, 2023—Summer operations at Lake Louise Ski Resort are shut down until further notice and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have arrested and charged a 40-year-old man with arson after a fire on July 3 destroyed a 100,000 square-foot building that houses hundreds of resort staff.  About 160 employees...

• Safety
• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Crested Butte, Colo., July 5, 2023—Lift mechanics and electricians at Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) voted 7 to 3 to form the Crested Butte Lift Maintenance Professional Union, joining the Communications Workers of America (CWA) 7781. This is the second ski area lift maintenance crew in the country to unionize, following the ...

• Resort Development
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 28, 2023—Two individual studies released by Snowsports Industries America (SIA) and Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) show positive gains in snowsports participation, and outdoor sports as a whole. Snowsports participation increased significantly in non-alpine activities such as winter running and hiking, with 61 per...

SAM Magazine—Auckland, New Zealand, June 27, 2023—Just weeks before the start of the 2023 Southern Hemisphere ski season, the central government of New Zealand has provided a NZD$5 million loan to bail out two financially struggling North Island ski fields that operate on Mt. Ruapehu.  Ruapehu Alpine Lifts (RAL), the operator of Tūroa and Wh...

• Snowmaking
• Safety

SAM Magazine—Bend, Ore., July 26, 2022—A Deschutes County jury ruled in favor of POWDR-owned Mt. Bachelor in a $15 million wrongful death lawsuit on Friday. The suit was brought against the resort by the father of a 24-year-old Bend snowboarder, Alfonso Braun, who suffocated and died after falling into a tree well within the resort’s boundary...

• Ski Area Profiles
• Resort Development

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., June 26, 2023—James “Jim” Crown, an owner and managing partner of Aspen Skiing Company, died Sunday in a crash at the Aspen Motorsports Park, according to the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office. Crown was in a single-vehicle accident, colliding with an impact barrier at the private, member-owned motorsports country...