SAM Magazine—Denver, July 29, 2024—Longtime tech industry executive Will Treves has been appointed as the new CEO of Aspenware, effective today.  Treves brings 20 years of experience to the role at Aspenware, an e-commerce and digital guest-experience solutions provider for the ski industry that’s co-owned by Alterra Mountain Company and As...

SAM Magazine—Jasper, Alberta, July 25, 2024—A fast-moving wildfire complex blazed through popular resort town Jasper Wednesday evening. More than 5,000 residents and 20,000 tourists were evacuated from the town and surrounding area earlier this week. Among the many businesses at risk from the fires is Marmot Basin, Jasper National Park’s onl...

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, July 24, 2024—The Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will return to Salt Lake City in 2034.  After awarding the city exclusive negotiating rights for the games last year, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) officially ratified Salt Lake City as the host of the 2034 Winter Games following a Wednesday m...

SAM Magazine—Stockholm, Sweden, July 23, 2024—Swedish locking and security systems manufacturer Assa Abloy Group has entered into an agreement to purchase Skidata from Swiss business technology firm the Kudelski Group.  Skidata provides access management solutions to mountain resort operations and others in the sport and entertainment industr...

SAM Magazine—Cambridge, Vt., July 17, 2024—While it’s hard for many to believe we’ve passed the 4th of July mile marker, the classic (and historically lucrative) summer holiday has now come and gone, leaving many operators grateful for water-based amenities and a continued interest in live music events.  For example, Snow King Mountain, W...

SAM Magazine—Sandpoint, Idaho, July 15, 2024—Schweitzer has acquired Selkirk Powder’s resort-based backcountry operation, which offers guided snowmobiling and cat skiing in the terrain off the backside of the resort. The outfit has operated from the summit of Schweitzer for 21 years through a long-term concession agreement with the resort and...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., July 15, 2024—Stable rates helped fuel a continued uptick in occupancy at Western mountain destinations in June, according to the monthly Market Briefing from DestiMetrics, the business intelligence division of Inntopia. The growth comes as lodging properties have bowed to consumer pricing concerns and travel pa...

SAM Magazine—Gilford, N.H., July 11, 2024—The Gunstock Area Commission (GAC) has selected Robert Drake to succeed Tom Day as Gunstock Mountain Resort president and general manager, effective Aug. 5. Drake’s appointment ends a four-month nationwide search to replace Day, who announced his retirement in January with the plan to stay on until a ...

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, July 10, 2024—Utah’s 15 alpine ski areas saw a total of 6,746,008 skier visits during the 2023-24 winter season, the second highest visitation total in the state’s history behind the 7.1 million skier visits in 2022-23, according to state trade association Ski Utah.  “We are immensely proud of this sea...

SAM Magazine—Mount Baldy, Calif., July 10, 2024—After it was first reported Sunday, July 7, at 10 a.m. PDT, the Vista Fire has grown to nearly 2,500 acres and has prompted evacuation orders for Mt. Baldy Resort east of Los Angeles as the fire approaches the ski area. As of Wednesday afternoon, it was zero percent contained. The latest report s...

SAM Magazine—Salida, Colo., July 10, 2024—Monarch Mountain has received United States Forest Service (USFS) approval for its No Name Basin terrain expansion project, as its Memorandum of Agreement has been finalized and the USFS has signed the Decision Notice. The project will add 377 acres, bringing Monarch's special use permit to 1,146 acres...

SAM Magazine—Montville, N.J., July 9, 2024—Snow Partners has hired Dave Amirault as chief innovation officer for all its related businesses. He started July 1. In this newly created role, Amirault will lead Snow Partners’ innovation strategy for Mountain Creek Resort and Big Snow American Dream, N.J., SnowCloud resort management software, and...

SAM Magazine—Seven Springs, Pa., July 2, 2024—Pennsylvania Ski Areas Association (PSAA) held its biannual lift maintenance seminar at Seven Springs Mountain Resort, Pa., June 25-26, 2024.  Attendance from Pennsylvania ski areas is near 100 percent for the program, which stresses hands-on training. Participation is free for employees of Pennsy...

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, July 2, 2024—Doppelmayr USA will expand its Salt Lake City headquarters with the addition of a new facility that will nearly double the size of its existing building, allowing Doppelmayr USA to take a larger role in manufacturing and accommodate a growing workforce. “The current facility has served us well ...

SAM Magazine—Savoie, France, July 2, 2024—French industrial group MND opened a new cable transport production and assembly facility in Savoie, France. The facility cost 10 million euros (roughly $10.5 million) and is dedicated specifically to production of the group’s new Orizon range of gondolas and chairlifts. “This is an important step ...

SAM Magazine—Granby, Colo., July 1, 2024—After adding 10 new ski areas to its roster for the 2024-25 season, Indy Pass will release a limited number of passes starting July 1.  “With the addition of these great new partners, we are excited to release additional passes during this short window,” said Indy founder Doug Fish, adding that “...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 28, 2024—Alterra Mountain Company’s planned acquisition of Arapahoe Basin, Colo., is reportedly being reviewed by the Department of Justice (DOJ), which has issued a civil investigative demand to the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) and RRC Associates seeking data from the association’s annual surveys on ski a...

SAM Magazine—South Lake Tahoe, Calif., June 27, 2024—The 2024 Ski California Lift Maintenance and Operations Education (LMOE) conference set a record for attendance, with 368 ski industry professionals descending upon South Lake Tahoe, June 4-6, for education, training, and networking. The event moved from Palisades Tahoe to a new location thi...

SAM Magazine—Tooele, Utah, June 25, 2024—Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA) opened a new $27 million, 130,000-square-foot Skytrac manufacturing facility last week in Tooele, outside of Salt Lake City.  The new campus will serve primarily as the headquarters and sole manufacturing base for ropeway company Skytrac, an LPOA subsidiary, as well as pr...

SAM Magazine—Red Lodge, Mont., June 25, 2024—The 2024 Intermountain Ski Areas Association (ISAA) Conference, held June 10-12 in Red Lodge, Mont., attracted a record attendance of 246 ski industry business professionals. Red Lodge Mountain GM Jeff Schmidt accepts the Outstanding Contribution Award at the ISAA Conference.The event provided a plat...

SAM Magazine—Dawson City, Yukon, June 20, 2024—Liftblog.com creator Peter Landsman completed his mission to visit every ski area in North America last night when he stopped in at Moose Mountain in Canada’s Yukon territory to grab a picture of the municipal hill’s T-bar. Landsman has been documenting lifts in North America for more than two ...

SAM Magazine—Montpelier, Vt., June 20, 2024—Despite a slow start to the season and inconsistent weather, Ski Vermont reported that the state’s alpine ski areas welcomed 4.1 million skier visits for 2023-24, down less than half a percentage point from the 2022-23 season.  Visitation was 4 percent above Vermont’s 10-year average and outpace...

SAM Magazine—Ruidoso, N.M, June 19, 2024—Approximately 8,000 people have been forced to evacuate in central New Mexico as the South Fork / Salt Fire complex spreads across Lincoln County and the Mescalero Apache Reservation, home to the ski town of Ruidoso. Ski Apache, the local mountain resort, has closed its summer operations until further no...

SAM Magazine—Jay, Vt., June 19, 2024—Jay Peak Resort unveiled plans to freeze or reduce pricing on a variety of its products for both this summer and the upcoming 2024-25 winter season. The initiative, dubbed Mission Affordability, will freeze rates on day tickets and reduce pricing on the Mission Affordable 4-pack, as well as certain menu item...

SAM Magazine—Boulder, Colo., June 19, 2024—The Outdoor Foundation (OF) and Outdoor Industry Association (OIA) report that the outdoor recreation participation base grew 4.1 percent in 2023 to a record 175.8 million participants.  According to the 2024 Outdoor Participation Trends Report, 57.3 percent of Americans aged 6 and older are particip...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., June 19, 2024—Just how far can season pass sales take a resort? That's surely a question that many areas have been asking themselves. And it was a topic that was explored in some depth during the Vail Resorts conference call with analysts following the company's presentation of its Q3 results June 6. Quarterly a...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., June 14, 2024—A very small tweak downward in aggregated rates over the past 30 days created an appreciable uptick in occupancy for most of the summer months (May through October) at Western mountain destinations. This positive pattern shift from the previous six months, for both lodging properties and consumers,...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., June 6, 2024—Vail Resorts (VR) has reported results for the third quarter of fiscal 2024 ended April 30, 2024, along with early season pass sales and almost-complete-season results. While lift, ski school, and dining revenues were up all up, total skier visits for the quarter were down 3.2 percent year-over-ye...

SAM Magazine—North Conway, N.H., June 7, 2024—Alpine ski areas in the Granite State recorded approximately 2.17 million skier visits during the 2023-24 winter season, according to estimates from Ski New Hampshire. Alpine visits were down 4 percent year-over-year from 2.2 million visits in 2022-23. “Given the challenging weather conditions th...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 6, 2024—Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) is projecting that the state saw 14 million skier visits during the 2023-24 season. The projected total is a decrease of approximately 5 percent from last season’s record-breaking total of 14.8 million, but still represents the second highest skier visit total on record for t...

SAM Magazine—Denver, June 6, 2024—Alterra Mountain Company has expanded its partnership with payment network Affirm, allowing customers the option to pay over time when purchasing local mountain passes, lodging, and lessons for any of Alterra’s North American destinations. The option to use Affirm to split a purchase into monthly payments wa...

SAM Magazine—Park City, Utah, June 3, 2024—The Cross Country Ski Areas Association (CCSAA) held its annual conference in Park City, Utah, April 8-10, drawing 58 attendees representing 36 entities including cross country ski areas, suppliers, media, and related businesses. City of Aspen's Austin Weiss and Blaine County’s (Idaho) Eric Rector. ...

SAM Magazine—Teton Village, Wyo., May 31, 2024—Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JHMR) chief financial officer Matt McCreedy will retire on June 30 after more than three decades at the resort. Corporate controller Braden Turner will succeed McCreedy as the resort’s new CFO. Turner is a licensed CPA who has served as the resort’s corporate cont...

SAM Magazine—Frisco, Texas, May 31, 2024—The 2024 National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) National Convention and Tradeshow welcomed 687 attendees to the Omni PGA Frisco Resort, May 21-24, for meetings, educational sessions, tradeshow, and networking.  Many of the industry’s biggest challenges and opportunities were discussed, both formally a...

SAM Magazine—Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec, May 31, 2024—Quebec ski resorts were able to attract more than 6 million skier visits during the 2023-24 season despite serious weather challenges and other obstacles, according to preliminary results from the “23-24 Economic and Financial Study of Quebec Ski Resorts.” Skier visits were down 10 percent...

In SAM’s Snow People, we highlight personnel moves in the mountain resort industry. From resort hires, promotions, and retirements to awards, obits, and supplier news, we celebrate the people that make this industry thrive. PEOPLE KELLY PAWLAK and CHIP SEAMANS, NSAA Kelly Pawlak is stepping down as president and CEO of the National Ski Areas A...

SAM Magazine—Nederland, Colo., May 29, 2024—Eldora Mountain Resort president and general manager Brent Tregaskis informed members of the resort’s ski patrol today that Eldora is withdrawing its challenge to the patrollers’ vote to unionize and shared a desire to bargain in good faith. “After careful consideration, Eldora Mountain Ski Res...

SAM Magazine—Juneau, Alaska, May 29, 2024—The Eaglecrest Ski Area board of directors asked general manager Dave Scanlan to resign last week from the position he’s held since being hired to run the community-owned ski area in 2017. Scanlan complied, effective June 3.   According to a report from Alaska Public Media, Scanlan did not want to ...

SAM Magazine—Denver, May 28, 2024—Alterra Mountain Company has appointed Dave Hunter as president and COO of Steamboat in Colorado and Eric Clark to president and COO of Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain in California.Eric Clark and Dave Hunter Both served as interim leaders at their respective resorts throughout the 2023-24 winter season aft...

SAM Magazine—Denver, May 23, 2024—In a 5-2 ruling, the Colorado Supreme Court found that liability waivers cannot be used to protect ski areas from negligence claims related to chairlift accidents. The decision will allow a negligence per se claim brought against Vail Resorts to proceed in the district courts. Negligence per se is negligence i...

SAM Magazine—Eagle Mountain, Utah, May 24, 2024—Loam Pass, a new multi-destination product in the vein of Indy Pass but geared toward mountain bikers, has added 12 new destinations for its first summer season, bringing its total to more than 40 resort, bike park, and shuttle service partners. "We are super stoked to be partnering with some of ...

SAM Magazine—Frisco, Texas, May 23, 2024—Kelly Pawlak is stepping down as president and CEO of the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). Newly appointed NSAA board chair and Windham Mountain Club, N.Y., president Chip Seamans shared the news at the NSAA National Convention and Trade Show in Frisco, Texas, today during the morning general sessi...

SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., May 22, 2024—The U.S. ski industry overcame significant weather challenges in 2023-24 to post the fifth best season on record, according to preliminary data from the National Ski Area Association (NSAA). Skier visits totaled 60.4 million. The performance follows the two strongest seasons since NSAA began keeping t...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., May 21, 2024—Winter lodging occupancy across 17 western mountain resorts in seven states declined in the 2023-24 November-to-April winter season, according to the monthly Market Briefing from DestiMetrics, the business intelligence division of Inntopia. Aggregated daily rates increased slightly, helping to mitig...

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., May 21, 2024—Six lift maintenance teams have been chosen as finalists in the fourth annual Rise Up Challenge, sponsored by Leitner-Poma of America (LPOA). The crews from Berkshire East, Mass., Crystal Mountain, Wash., Mt. Sunapee, N.H., Palisades Tahoe, Calif., Purgatory, Colo., and Snowbird, Utah will compete this...

SAM Magazine—Boulder, Colo., May 20, 2024—Louis Miller, the equipment manager at Colorado’s Eldora Mountain Resort, was killed while performing off-season trail maintenance at the ski resort when he was struck by a falling tree. The Boulder County Sheriff’s Office reported that it responded to the scene of the accident on the morning of Ma...

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., May 16, 2024—The 2023-24 ski season isn’t quite over even as June approaches: a small but feisty group of ski areas are still open for skiing and riding, mostly in the western U.S., where some ski areas have benefitted from late-season snowfall that’s helping to keep the lifts spinning. Arapahoe Basin, which his...

SAM Magazine—Granby, Colo., May 15, 2024—Indy Pass will preview a digital version of its popular multi-resort ski pass next season. The mobile pass will be enabled by Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) technology and rolled out in partnership with three resorts that use Entabeni Systems’ suite of ski area management applications.  Indy Pass was ac...

SAM Magazine—Tres Valles, Chile, May 10, 2024—Durango, Colo.-based Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), which already owns Valle Nevado ski resort in Chile’s Tres Valles, has entered an agreement to acquire the adjacent La Parva Ski Resort.  Upon closing of the acquisition, MCP would own two of the three resorts in Tres Valles. The third, El Co...

SAM Magazine—Pinedale, Wyo., May 7, 2024—Alan and Robyn Blackburn closed on the sale of White Pine Ski Resort to billionaire Joe Ricketts. White Pine has been on the market for about four years, according to Pinedale Roundup, with at least one acquisition falling through during that time. Ricketts has committed to investing in and improving the...

SAM Magazine—Lac-Beauport, Quebec, May 7, 2024—The Beaulieu family has sold Le Relais ski area to four Quebec businessmen, including former Le Massif executive vice president and managing director Nicolas Racine and Henrick Simard, a ski coach and corporate attorney who reportedly led the acquisition, as well as Francis Moreau and Nicolas Bouch...

SAM Magazine—Jackson Hole, Wyo., May 3, 2024—Peter Wuerslin, a 71-year-old ski instructor, was killed after being struck from behind by another skier who was also travelling downhill on an intermediate trail at Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, April 14. The Teton County coroner has ruled the death a homicide. A separate police investigation is un...

SAM Magazine—Jasper, Alberta, May 1, 2024—More than 425 ski area operators and suppliers gathered in Jasper, Alberta, for networking, education, and late season turns at the Canada West Ski Areas Association (CWSAA) Spring Conference, April 21-24. Katie with Marmot Basin's mountain manager Rob Ellen SAM senior editor Katie Brinton attended t...

SAM Magazine—Lakewood, Colo., May 1, 2024—Russ Coloton and Kenny Hess will receive the 2024 National Ski Area Association (NSAA) Lifetime Achievement Award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated an extraordinary lifetime commitment to NSAA and the ski industry, and whose contributions will benefit the industry for decades to come....

SAM Magazine—Salt Lake City, Utah, April 25, 2024—Utah’s 15 ski resorts generated nearly $2 billion in nonresident visitor spending during the 2022-23 ski season, and local skiers contributed almost $700 million more—reflecting a surge in skier visits driven in part by record snowfall—according to an April 2024 report from the Kem C. Gard...

SAM Magazine—Denver, April 24, 2024—Alterra Mountain Company has published its second annual impact report that outlines the company’s social responsibility efforts as part of its “Forward Stance” platform. The 164-page report—organized around the key pillars of people, planet, community, and responsibility—details Alterra’s various...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., April 24, 2024—Skier visits are down but revenues are up for Vail Resorts’ North American ski areas during the 2023-24 winter season, according to a report from the company comparing certain ski season metrics year-over-year through mid-April. Season-to-date skier visits were down 7.8 percent in 2023-24 compar...

SAM Magazine—Carrabassett Valley, Maine, Feb. 16, 2024—Today, Sugarloaf is opening West Mountain, a new 120-acre terrain expansion served by a high-speed detachable quad with an uphill capacity of 2,400 skiers per hour, which terminates at the Bullwinkle’s restaurant near the midpoint of the 4,237-foot mountain. Nine of the planned 12 trails ...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Feb. 15, 2024—Hotel bookings at mountain destinations in the western U.S. have dropped to a 30-month low, while room rates remain stubbornly high despite a drop in guest interest in overnight stays, according to the latest monthly Market Briefing from DestiMetrics, the business intelligence division of Inntopia....

SAM Magazine–Albuquerque, N.M., Feb. 15, 2023—Skiers hit the slopes at New Mexico’s Sandia Peak Ski Area last weekend as the mountain opened for the first time in two years.Courtesy of Sandia Peak Ski Area The opening marked the debut of operations at Sandia Peak under the aegis of Mountain Capital Partners (MCP), which announced a joint ven...