SAM Magazine--Rumford, Me., Aug. 30, 2004--Black Mountain has banned use of all tobacco products at the resort, indoors and out. The policy may soon spread to other community-oriented areas owned by the Maine Winter Sports Center, in Mars Hill, Fort Kent and Presque Isle. The Black ban is total: it covers cigarettes, cigars, pipes, and chewing t...

SAM Magazine--Crested Butte, Colo., Aug. 24, 2004--Crested Butte Mountain Resort has named Randy Barrett general manager and vice president. As GM, Barrett will take on some duties formerly handled by John Norton, who resigned in early August as the Crested Butte resort's president and CEO. Crested Butte co-owner Tim Mueller of Vermont-based Triple...

SAM Magazine--Big Sky, Mont., Aug. 24, 2004--U.S. District Judge Richard F. Cebull has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Yellowstone Mountain Club owner Tim Blixseth against the U.S. Forest Service in an effort to gain control of a parcel of land atop Lone Peak, home to both Big Sky and Moonlight Basin and neighbor to the Yellowstone Club. The judge rul...

SAM Magazine--Mont Tremblant, Que., Aug. 24, 2004--Daniel Cordier, a shareholder in the Gray Rocks ski area, is purchasing the area and will open it for the 2004-05 season. The purchase follows the announcement in early July that the area and its hotel would close for the coming winter season. Cordier has held the title of hotel vice president from...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., Aug. 20, 2004--Vail Resorts has signed contracts worth $43.8 million for the sale of 11 townhomes in the elite Gore Creek Place development in Vail's LionsHead neighborhood. The Gore Creek Place project includes 16 townhomes in all, ranging in size from 3,500 to 4,400 square feet. All 11 townhomes, part of Vail's New D...

SAM Magazine--Lakewood, Colo., Aug. 19, 2004--Several resorts are implementing the WinterKids' National Outdoor Learning Curriculum in in their local communities this season. The resorts include Crystal Mountain, Mich., Thunder Ridge Ski Area, N.Y., Cataloochee Ski Area, N.C., and Ski Areas of New York (SANY). In addition SkiTops, a Colorado-based ...

SAM Magazine--Ishpeming, Mich., Aug. 12, 2004--Olympic champions Picabo Street and Donna Weinbrecht, who both collected titles at the Olympic, World Championship and World Cup levels, headline the 2004 inductees for the U.S. National Ski Hall of Fame. Street earned an Olympic silver medal in downhill at Lillehammer, Norway, in 1994, then won gol...

SAM Magazine--Vancouver, B.C., Aug. 12, 2004--Intrawest is forming a partnership with CNL Income Properties, Inc., a real estate investment trust, in which CNL will acquire an 80 per cent interest in commercial properties at nine Intrawest resort villages, with a total value of $160 million. Intrawest will continue to manage and lease all of the re...

SAM Magazine--Lakewood, Colo., Aug. 11, 2004--U.S. ski areas tallied a total of 57.07 million visits during the 2003/04 season, according to the NSAA's final 2003/04 Kottke End-of-Season Survey. That represents the third best season in the industry's history and continues a hot streak: The past four seasons include the industry's three best seasons...

SAM Magazine--Big Sky, Mont., Aug. 11, 2004--The Yellowstone Club will pay $1.8 million and complete a list of resoration projects to settle claims brought against it by the Environmental Protection Agency for alleged violations of the Clean Water Act during 2001. Although the Club denies wrongdoing, it agreed to pay the penalty and replace or repa...

SAM Magazine--Oliver, B.C., Aug. 9, 2004--Mount Baldy ski area is on a fast track for modernization, thanks to new owners and the pro-resort efforts of the B.C. government and the Osoyoos Indian Band (OIB). The B.C. government is encouraging new investment in the resort industry and was "instrumental, if not indispensable" in supporting new owne...

August 9 (SnowHunter)--The Mills Corporation, leading developer of innovative retail and entertainment destinations, today announced a September 29, 2004 groundbreaking for Meadowlands Xanadu in New Jersey, USA. Following on from the company's completion of the Madrid Xanadu last year, it is hoped that this new development will house the first U...

Dear Jennifer: I am writing in response to your open letter in the July 2004 SAM. As always, I respect SAM's role as an independent voice in the industry and I appreciate your willingness to voice your concerns on the future of NSAA and the industry. At the same time, I respectfully disagree with your opinion that the leaders of the industry hav...

SAM Magazine--Crested Butte, Colorado, August 5, 2004--John Norton, president and CEO at Crested Butte, announced that he will step down from that position to pursue a career in consulting. Norton will continue to work on projects for the ski resort as the point person for planning and approvals of expansion projects. Tim Mueller, the new owner ...

SAM Magazine--Silverton, Colorado, August 5, 2004--The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has given the OK to Silverton to host unguided skiers, up to 475 a day. The Bureau conducted a survey of the area, concentrating on avalanche safety, for three years before it rendered its recommendation. The fly in the ointment, however, is the recommendation...