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...

SAM Magazine—Lafayette, Colo., Feb. 13, 2024—Snowsports school management software provider flaik is now a Certified B Corporation after satisfying the required criteria to earn the recognition, scoring 86.2 out of 100 in the evaluation of five primary areas relating to the company’s business practices: governance, workers, community, environ...

SAM Magazine—Choteau, Mont., Feb. 12, 2024—Teton Pass Ski Area is the latest in a string of resorts to pull the plug on a 2023-24 ski season bedeviled by shifting weather patterns and unseasonably warm temperatures. A historic lack of snow—or almost any precipitation at all—has forced the early closure of the Montana ski area. In a six-pag...

SAM Magazine—West Dover, Vt., Feb. 9, 2024—It’s that time of year again, when folks gather for a bit of networking, education, and snow sliding at the National Ski Areas Association winter conferences. More than 500 operators and suppliers descended on Keystone, Colo., Jan. 17-19, for the NSAA Western Conference. After a rough start to the s...

SAM Magazine—Taylor Falls, Minn., Feb. 7, 2024—Wild Mountain snowsports manager Nathan Hakseth has been promoted to general manager of the Taylor Falls, Minn., ski resort. He will oversee all operations of the mountain and also retain his duties within the Snowsports School and Competitions department. Hakseth has worked in the ski industry fo...

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Feb. 7, 2024—In an effort to gather data and insights on ski area marketing, SAM and MMGY Origin have partnered to launch an annual survey targeting resort marketers. The responses will inform the Annual Outlook on Resort Marketing report, which will serve as a yearly resource and benchmarking tool for marketing team...

SAM Magazine—Massanutten, Va., Feb. 7, 2024—Industry veteran Michael Hammes has been selected as the new general manager and vice president of Massanutten Resort, a four-season resort in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley. Hammes most recently served as director of base operations at Washington's Summit at Snoqualmie resort, part of the Boyne Res...

SAM Magazine—Mount Snow, Vt., Feb. 6, 2024—Nearly 12,000 votes were cast during the 12-day voting period for the 2024 I AM a Snowmaker contest. This year’s contest showcased eight snowmaking teams from across North America: Brettons Woods, N.H.; Cataloochee Ski Area, N.C.; Copper Mountain, Colo.;  Gore Mountain, N.Y.; Greek Peak, N.Y.; Mammo...

SAM Magazine—Jackson, Wyo., Feb. 5, 2024—The sale of the Jackson Hole Mountain Resort (JMHR) to a local group of investors, initially announced last August, is complete. The Kemmerer family, which has owned the independent ski resort for the last 32 years, officially closed the deal in early February. Financial details were not disclosed. “...

SAM Magazine—Denver, Feb. 5, 2024—Alterra Mountain Company has entered into an agreement to purchase Arapahoe Basin from Dream Unlimited Corp. A-Basin will be Alterra’s 18th North American mountain destination. Toronto-based Dream Unlimited—a multi-billion-dollar real estate development, asset management, and private equity firm—acquired...

SAM Magazine—Denver, Feb. 2, 2024—KSL Capital Partners (KSL) closed a "single-asset continuation vehicle" for Alterra Mountain Company in late January, with total commitments of more than $3 billion, KSL said in a press release. What it didn't say, and what many in the industry are speculating about, is what this all means. Let's start with w...

SAM Magazine—Fabius, N.Y., Jan. 31, 2024—In a new court filing, New York Attorney General Letitia James has said the owners of Toggenburg Mountain in upstate New York violated the state’s antitrust law by purchasing and shutting down the competing ski area and should be ordered to sell the property. Intermountain Management, which owns Labra...

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 31, 2024—Registration is now open for the 20th anniversary spring session of Cutter's Camp, May 13-17, 2024, at Timberline, Mt. Hood, Ore. The five-day program for terrain park professionals features on-hill and classroom workshops, one-on-one customized operator coaching, and demos of the latest machines a...

SAM Magazine—Aspen, Colo., Jan. 30, 2024—A new sustainability report from Aspen One, the parent company of Aspen Skiing Company, ASPENX, and Aspen Hospitality, highlights the company’s environmental and social responsibility efforts in areas such as political action, research, and philanthropy. The report presents as part educational tool, pa...

SAM Magazine—Broomfield, Colo., Jan. 29, 2024—Vail Resorts marked its second year of 100 percent renewable energy use at its 37 North American resorts and made strides in landfill waste reduction and energy efficiency company-wide, according to its 2022-23 Environmental & Social Responsibility Report. The report assesses the company’s pr...

UPDATE: SAM Magazine—South Lake Tahoe, Calif., Jan 31, 2024— Following an internal investigation, Heavenly COO Tom Fortune has taken responsibility for the circumstances that led to a female snowboarder being stranded overnight on the ski area’s gondola. “I am responsible for all aspects of mountain operations, including the safety of our...

SAM Magazine—Gilford, N.H., Jan. 26, 2024—Tom Day, who began his career in the ski industry as a lift attendant at New Hampshire’s Waterville Valley in 1978, plans to retire from his post as general manager of Gunstock Mountain Resort at the end of the current ski season. SAM recently chatted with Day for an informal “exit interview” abou...

There's a new sheriff in Showville, and he wants to reshape the place. Raccoon Media Group has brought its entertainment-oriented consumer show format to Boston and is doubling down on the concept, pioneered in its National Snow Show in the U.K. The company has been pleased with the reception it has had in Boston with Snowbound, its new show, in th...

SAM Magazine—Cody, Wyo., Jan. 24, 2024—Sleeping Giant Ski Area won’t awaken from its slumber for the 2023-24 season.Sleeping Giant Live Cam Hit by the combination of a crippled snowmaking system and an unprecedented lack of natural snow, Sleeping Giant will not open this year, resort owner Nick Piazza announced on Jan. 12 after a hoped-for J...

SAM Magazine—Natick, Mass., Jan. 22, 2024—Online voting for the 2024 “I AM a Snowmaker” contest is now open through midnight (EST) on Friday, Feb. 2. Since it debuted the winter of 2013-14, the annual I AM contest—sponsored by HKD Snowmakers—has highlighted the hard work, determination, and camaraderie of snowmakers, recognizing how cri...

In SAM’s Snow People, we highlight recent personnel moves that have been 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 TOM DAY, GUNSTOCK, NH Gunstock general manager Tom Day will retire following the 2023-24...

SAM Magazine—Winter Park, Colo., Jan. 18, 2024—The challenges presented by meager snowfall, school holidays that started nearly a week later than usual, and ongoing resistance to high daily rates at Western mountain destinations dampened occupancy during December, according to the monthly Market Briefing released by DestiMetrics, the business i...

SAM Magazine—Eden, Utah, Jan. 16, 2024—An early morning fire ripped through the lodge at Nordic Valley Resort yesterday, causing extensive damage to the building and leading ski area officials to cease operations until further notice. A ski area worker noticed flames and smoke emanating from the unoccupied lodge around 1:50 a.m., according to ...

SAM Magazine—Neihart, Mont., Jan. 12, 2024—A few days after Showdown Montana opened for the season on Dec. 23, the ski area extended an offer for season pass holders at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area to ski for free until their home area can open. This started a trend of other open Montana ski areas extending a similar offer in response to the slo...