• Lifts
• Marketing

In SAM’s Snow People, we highlight recent personnel moves made in the mountain resort industry. From resort hires, promotions, and retirements to supplier news, awards, and obits, we celebrate the people that make this industry thrive.     PEOPLE MATT PETERSON, PALISADES TAHOE, CA Palisades Tahoe hired Matt Peterson as its senior director ...

• Marketing

 SAM Magazine—Gilford, N.H., Aug. 2, 2022—The Gunstock Mountain Resort senior leadership team is back to work today after the Belknap County Delegation voted 9-1 to accept acting Gunstock Area Commission (GAC) chair Dr. David Strang’s resignation following the appointment of Denise Conroy to the GAC at an emergency meeting last night. Strang...

• Ski School

SAM Magazine—Jay, Vt., Aug. 1, 2022—A motion for approval has been filed for Pacific Group Resorts, Inc. (PGRI) to enter into a $58 million asset purchase agreement (APA) to acquire Jay Peak Resort, Vt. A judge has 10 days to accept or deny the motion; if accepted, the asset purchase agreement would become the initial bid in a potential auction...

• Lifts
• Marketing

SAM Magazine—Steamboat Springs, Colo., Aug. 2, 2022—Scott Leigh was appointed as general manager and chief operating officer of Bluebird Backcountry, effective Aug. 1. In his new role, Leigh, a ski industry veteran of 20-plus years, will focus this season on the chairlift-free ski area’s revenue and operational growth goals.  “I'm impress...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Aug. 1, 2022—Voting is now open for the second annual “Rise Up Challenge,” a video contest highlighting a few skilled, young lift mechanics who will keep ski area lifts spinning for decades to come. This year’s contest includes videos from six resorts, each featuring an up-and-coming mechanic from the resort’...

• Marketing
• Lifts

SAM Magazine—Ludlow, Vt., July 27, 2022—Resorts across North America have eased into summer this year, with the Fourth of July holiday weekend serving as a litmus test for the state of “typical” traveler behavior amid fluctuating Covid infection rates and persistent recession and inflation concerns. Courtesy of OkemoThe long weekend and the...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Portland, Ore., July 26, 2022—Indy Pass will now include Mt. Hood Meadows, Ore. The ski area is Indy’s largest resort partner by skier volume, and it brings the pass’ total resort partners to 105 for the 2022-23 season. Meadows VP of sales and marketing Dave Tragethon anticipates that the pass partnership will spur new busines...

• Racing

SAM Magazine—Aspen Snowmass, Colo., July 26, 2022—The Mountain Collective Pass has added Marmot Basin, Alberta, to its winter 2022-23 roster. Marmot Basin is the seventh Canadian resort to join the pass partnership. (Le Massif de Charlevoix in Quebec signed on in June.) Its addition brings the total number of Mountain Collective resort partners...

• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Gilford, N.H., July 21, 2022—The senior management team at Gunstock Mountain Resort resigned Wednesday night at a Gunstock Area Commission (GAC) meeting. Escalating tensions between Gunstock staff and the GAC, a five-member board appointed by the Belknap County Delegation to manage the ski area, precipitated the resignations.  Th...

• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Milwaukee, Wis., July 18, 2022—In a claim involving an unseated passenger who fell from a lift at Sunburst Ski Hill, the Wisconsin Court of Appeals recently ruled that the waiver signed at the time the plaintiff purchased her lift ticket could be enforced for part of the plaintiff’s claim because the day-pass release included bif...

• Snowmaking
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., July 18, 2022—The booking pace for lodging at Western mountain destinations improved slightly during June, but occupancy is still down compared to both last summer and the pre-pandemic summer of 2019—and bookings remain below the pace of 2021—according to DestiMetrics, the business intelligence division of I...

• Racing
• Miscellaneous

SAM Magazine—Roxbury, N.Y., July 14, 2022—A direct lightning strike on July 12, 2022, started a fire in the bottom lift shack of the Plattekill Mountain Northface double, destroying the structure and its contents, including the lift’s drive control. No one was injured in the incident, but the Hall double chair will need a new low-voltage cont...

• Grooming
• Trail Maintenance

SAM Magazine—Woodstock, Vt., July 14, 2022—Suicide Six, one of the oldest ski areas in the United States unveiled its new name yesterday: Saskadena Six. The ski area, which is operated by the Woodstock Inn & Resort, Vt., said earlier this year that it would retire its former name because of concerns over its insensitivity to mental health....

• Area Management
• Snowmaking

SAM Magazine—Roxbury, N.H., July 14, 2022—Keith Kreischer will join Granite Gorge ski area as its new general manager. New ownership group Granite Gorge Partnership, LLC (GGP) acquired the mountain—which has been shuttered since 2020—at a foreclosure auction on June 3, 2022, for $430,000 and aims to reopen the property this coming winter. ...

• Ski Area Profiles
• Racing

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, July 13, 2022—Todd Bennett will become president and chief operating officer of Deer Valley Resort, Utah, effective Aug. 1, 2022. A ski and hospitality industry veteran of 23 years, with experience at The Walt Disney Company and Vail Mountain, Bennett brings an extensive leadership background to the Alterra Mountai...