SAM Magazine-Hot Springs, Va., Aug. 4, 2010-Sepp Kober, known as the "Father of Southern Skiing," died Aug. 3. He was 88. Kober was one of the greatest pioneers in the development of Southern skiing. He introduced snowmaking at The Homestead, Va., which he managed for several years, and brought organized ski instruction and master planning t...

SAM Magazine-Golden, B.C., Aug. 3, 2010-Kicking Horse Mountain Resort is opening a fourth bowl for winter 2010-11, its tenth season of operation. Known as Super Bowl, the new terrain will introduce "an epic selection of advanced and expert skiable terrain," the area said in a release. The expansion demonstrates "the resort commitment to improvin...

SAM Magazine--Baker City, Ore., July 29, 2010--As SAM first reported on July 12, the Baker County commissioners were looking at voting to take over control of the Ski Anthony Lakes resort. Two days ago they did and unanimously agreed to take over the local area. According to published reports, it has yet to be decided whether the county will ope...

SAM Magazine-Sunshine Village, Alberta, July 30, 2010-Sunshine Village was not at fault for the accidental death of one of its ski resort workers in 2004, an Alberta court has ruled. The decision overturned a lower court decision that found the resort failed to protect the employee's health and safety, according to the CBC. Maintenance worker Ka...

SAM Magazine-Choteau, Mont., July 30, 2010-Teton Pass Ski Resort has been purchased by kiwi Nick Wood, who, along with two investors, plan to spend $3 million over the next two years to transform the area into a regional destination. Sale price was reported to be around $300,000. Wood, a skier who has been in the high tech and hotel businesses, ...

SAM Magazine-Pagosa Springs, Colo., July 30, 2010-Developers of the Village at Wolf Creek have presented a new plan for a proposed land swap near the top of Wolf Creek Pass, where they hope to create a ski-in, ski-out village with up to 1,700 residential units at an elevation of 10,300 feet. The developer acknowledges that the new plan will stil...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., July 29, 2010-Vail Resorts, Inc. (VR) has revamped the senior leadership teams at Beaver Creek, Keystone and Heavenly. Keystone Resort COO Doug Lovell is now vice president and COO of Beaver Creek; John Buhler, director of skier services for Breckenridge, has become vice president and general manager of Keystone; and...

SAM Magazine--July 29, 2010--Showdown Ski Area, Mont., was given the go-ahead by the Lewis and Clark National Forest to remove 180 acres of dead trees. According to published reports, the trees were killed by the mountain pine beetle, white blister rust and other pests and were threatening lift lines and other ski area infrastructure....

SAM Magazine-Aspen, Colo., July 29, 2010-On the heels of an announcement by Colorado Ski Country USA saying the association would no longer be releasing skier visits for its member resorts, Aspen Skiing Co., went and released them anyway. According to Aspen Daily News Online, Aspen tallied 1,338,210 at its four areas, which was 4.3 percent over ...

SAM Magazine-Washington, D.C., July 29, 2010-Legislation introduced into the U.S. Senate this week would encourage the development of more summer activities at ski areas around the nation by revising the National Ski Area Permit Act of 1986, which governs ski area use of public lands. A similar bill was introduced in the House by Rep. Diana DeGette...

SAM Magazine-Las Vegas, Nev., July 26, 2010-Jerold Stanton Simon, 79, a trailblazer in the promotion and development of snow skiing for more than 30 years, passed away at his Las Vegas home on July 24. In 1964, Simon began co-producing consumer ski shows in major U.S. cities, featuring such superstars as Olympic medalists Stein Eriksen, Jean-Cla...

Last summer SAM Magazine kicked off a series of resort profiles featuring summer attractions across the country. These profiles were also covered in more depth in the pages of SAM. We continue our summer ops series here with a trip to Northstar-at-Tahoe in California. SAM's assistant editor, Liz Eren, strapped on the head cam to test out the area's...

SAM Magazine-Burr Ridge, Ill., July 26, 2010-The Winter Dew Tour, which showcases top skiers and riders in slopestyle and superpipe, begins at Breckenridge, Colo., Dec. 16-19, moves to Killington, Vt., Jan.20-23, and concludes with the Toyota Championship at Snowbasin Feb. 10-13, 2011. Breckenridge will also stage the Open Qualifiers, where would-b...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., July 23, 2010-After a sluggish start for summer mountain travel destinations across the western U.S., reservations have ticked up, according to the latest report released by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP) in its monthly Mountain Marketing Briefing. Occupancy for June was down 2.5 percent, but reservation...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Utah, July 23, 2010-The U.S. Ski and Snowboard Association (USSA) will stage a showcase big air competition in Denver Jan. 25-26, just prior to the annual SIA Snow Show and the X Games in Aspen. The aim is to maintain the visibility of USSA athletes and highlight the addition of slopestyle and ski halfpipe to the list of USS...

SAM Magazine--Ski Areas of New York, Inc. (SANY) is announced that total skier and tubing visits for the 2009-2010 season were 4,118,000, which represents an increase of 1 percent over the 2008-2009 season. The increase in visits in NY is worthy of note as the northeast as a whole was down 2.7%. "Visits throughout New York, with a few exceptions...

SAM Magazine--July 22, 2010--Whether it was the abundance of snow that fell right into June, Ski Lake Tahoe resorts-Alpine Meadows, Heavenly, Kirkwood, Mt. Rose-Ski Tahoe, Northstar-at-Tahoe, Sierra-at-Tahoe and Squaw Valley USA reported a 17 percent increase in skier and snowboarder visits during the 2009-2010 season. With some resorts reporti...

SAM Magazine--July 22, 2010--The beleaguered development of a new ski resort in Minturn, Colorado--Battle Mountain--has been downscaled even further. Originally, the Ginn Co., bought the land and planned for a world-class ski area, golf course, condos, second homes and retail space, all of which was approved preliminarily by the town council in ear...

SAM Magazine-Rangeley, Maine, July 15, 2010-Saddleback, Maine, is offering a limited number of its new Decade Passes as part of its 50th anniversary celebration this upcoming season. The Decade Pass ($5,000) will provide unlimited skiing and riding for ten consecutive years. Only 50 passes will be available. "Saddleback is excited to offer this ...

SAM Magazine-Crested Butte, Colo., July 15, 2010-Gloria Manning, reviewing officer for U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell, yesterday upheld two earlier decisions to reject a proposal by Crested Butte Mountain Resort (CBMR) to develop lift-served skiing on Snodgrass Mountain. The decision is the U.S. Department of Agriculture's final administrati...

SAM Magazine--July 15, 2010--Last night, July 14, ESPN presented its annual ESPY awards, honoring athletes across all sports, and skiing and snowboarding came out on top. Out of 35 awards chosen by the viewers, winter sports took home five: Best Female Athlete: Lindsey Vonn Best Male Action Sport Athlete: Shaun White Best Female Action Sport...

SAM Magazine-Durango, Colo., July 14, 2010- Tori Ossola, former VP of marketing for the Vermont Ski Areas Association, has been named managing director for Snow Monsters and NextSnow, the national ski and snowboard programs for kids with more than 100 affiliate resorts and industry members. "We have spent months redesigning both Snow Monsters an...

SAM Magazine-New Westminster, British Columbia-In response to the failure of a lift tower of Blackcomb's Excalibur Gondola in December 2008 due to ice jacking, the B.C. Safety Authority (BCSA) has issued new regulations intended to avoid a repeat incident. They are: 1. All operators of passenger ropeway installations must assure towers are fitte...

SAM Magazine--July 13, 2010--Nancy Cushing, retiring CEO of Squaw Valley Ski Corporation, Calif., announced the appointment of Andrew (Andy) D. Wirth to the position of CEO at Squaw Valley USA. Wirth will be responsible for all aspects of resort operations at Squaw Valley USA, and he will report directly to the Board of Directors at Squaw Valley Sk...

SAM Magazine-Baker City, Ore., July 12, 2010-The owners of Ski Anthony Lakes Mountain Resort have offered the assets of the ski area to the county government, including the rest of its 30-year Forest Service lease, the Baker City Herald reports. Skiers and businesses that rely on winter visitors back the idea. So does County Commission Chairman ...

SAM Magazine-Laramie, Wyo., July 12, 2010-Aaron and Becky Maddox are buying the Snowy Range Ski Area, which has been owned and operated by the First National Bank for the past two seasons. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. The husband and wife team are longtime skiers but new to the resort business. However, Aaron grew up in Steamboat, and p...

SAM Magazine-Snowmass Village, Colo., July 12, 2010- On Friday, July 9, District Judge Gail Nichols put the Base Village project at Snowmass into receivership. The move, effective today, July 12, transfers operational control from the Related Companies of New York to Destination Snowmass Services, Inc., a subsidiary of Lowe Enterprises of Los Angel...

SAM Magazine-Lakewood, Colo., July 8, 2010-Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month in January 2011 will have a new graphic look and messaging this season. The campaign is built around the theme, "Humans were never meant to hibernate." The ad campaign reaches out to current participants to "bring a friend" to try skiing and snowboarding, and encourages nev...

SAM Magazine--July, 7, 2010--The Burlington Free Press reported that a Vermont federal judge says Powdr Corp., the owner of Killington ski resort, doesn't have to honor 1,243 lifetime ski passes first issued to people who invested in the ski area almost 50 years ago ago. Powdr Corp. and SP Land Co. bought Killington in 2007 and announced the dec...

SAM Magazine-Vienna, Austria, July 6, 2010-The Organisation Internationale Des Transports a Cables (OITAF) will hold its tenth worldwide congress Oct. 24-27 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in conjunction with Companhia Caminho Aéreo Pão de Açúcar, which operates two reversible cableways in the city. OITAF has also issued its call for pape...

SAM Magazine-Angel Fire, N.M., July 6, 2010-Angel Fire Resort has named John Kitts CEO, effective July 23. He will oversee Angel Fire's five principal businesses-operations, membership, timeshare, resort development and real estate sales. Kitts had been the resort's CFO for the past two years. Kitts succeeds Pat Brunstad, who had been CEO and di...

SAM Magazine-Harbor Springs, Mich., July 1, 2010-Are Superpipes becoming an endangered species? As at some other resorts around the country, Nub's Nob's Superpipe was the least-used piece of real estate at the area. So the area reshaped the walls and built a new race arena slope to provide a home for aspiring racers. The venue is specifically de...

SAM Magazine-Stratton, Vt., July 1, 2010-Stratton Mountain Resort will stage the first Vermont Solutions Festival Aug. 27-28, held in collaboration with the state of Vermont, to celebrate sustainability, sport and wellness. "The Vermont Department of Tourism & Marketing is excited to be a partner in the new development of the Vermont Solution...

SAM Magazine-Cannonsburg, Mich., July 1, 2010-The Brown family, which has owned and operated Cannonsburg Ski Area for more than three decades, has sold the resort to James Wynn, an attorney in Petoskey. The sale also includes Arnold Transportation, a ferry boat company operating out of Mackinaw City. Both Cannonsburg and Arnold Transportation have ...

SAM Magazine-Park City, Utah, July 1, 2010-Jenni Smith has been appointed president and general manager of Park City Mountain Resort (PCMR) by parent company Powdr Corp. Most recently, Smith served as vice president of resort administration and development at PCMR. She replaces Peter Curtis, president and GM since 2004, who is retiring. Smith's new...

SAM Magazine-Salt Lake City, June 24, 2010-The Utah ski and snowboard industry closed the 2009-10 winter season last Sunday with a total of 4,048,153 skier days, up two percent from the 2008-09 season's 3,972,984. The two percent increase signals success for the industry in light of the current economic climate, according to Ski Utah. Ski Utah pres...

SAM Magazine--June 23, 2010--A five-year-old plan for a ski area on St. Mary's Glacier outside of Denver was voted down by Clear Creek County's commissioners. According to the Denver Post, the three-member board voted 2-1 to reject the plan for Eclipse Snow Park. The 284-acre property was bought for $1.65 million in 2005 by Michael Coors. At fir...

SAM Magazine-Truckee, Calif., June 22, 2010-Boreal Mountain Resort will reopen for a weekend of skiing and riding July 10-11, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day. The area's Castle Peak Quad will service a variety of park features. Lift tickets will cost $20. More details will be available shortly, according to the resort....

SAM Magazine-Salt Lake City, June 22, 2010-The U.S. Forest Service has denied Solitude Mountain Resort's request to expand lift-served ski and snowboard terrain onto the adjacent Silver Fork, a side canyon to Utah's Big Cottonwood Canyon that is popular with backcountry skiers. Among other issues, the proposal conflicted with a 2003 forest plan for...

SAM Magazine-Whistler, B.C., June 22, 2010-Intrawest is exploring the sale of Whistler Blackcomb, according to the Wall Street Journal. WSJ says that Intrawest has talked with Russian billionaire Vladimir Potanin about a potential acquisition. Potanin has expressed interest in Whistler Blackcomb in the past. Possible price for any such sale is not ...

SAM Magazine-North Conway, N.H., June 18, 2010-Cranmore Mountain, now run by Jiminy Peak principals Brian Fairbank, Joseph O'Donnell and Tyler Fairbank, will get nearly $7 million in improvements in the next six months, providing a facelift in time for winter operations set to begin in November 2010. CNL Lifestyle Properties is providing the capita...

SAM Magazine-Huntsville, Utah, June 17, 2010-Snowbasin Resort has filed a Master Plan with Weber County's Ogden Valley Destination and Recreation Resort Zone to build a sprawling resort village. The plan calls for up to 2,400 residential units, most of which would be built near the existing base lodge, and encompass hotels, condominiums and town...

SAM Magazine-Crested Butte, Colo., June 17, 2010-The U.S. Forest Service will conduct a formal review of a recent appeal decision that nixed Crested Butte's proposal to expand onto Snodgrass Mountain. The associate deputy chief for the National Forest, Gloria Manning, will review the earlier decision, which upheld forest supervisor Charlie Richm...

SAM Magazine-North Conway, N.H., June 17, 2010-The principals of Jiminy Peak Mountain Resort-Brian Fairbank, Joseph O'Donnell and Tyler Fairbank-have purchased the assets of Cranmore Mountain Resort from Booth Creek Resorts. The new owners plan to make major upgrades and improvements. CNL Lifestyle Properties, which already has business relationshi...

SAM Magazine-Denver, Colo., June 10, 2010-Colorado skier and rider visits for the 2009-10 season, including non-member resorts, are once again approaching the 12 million visit threshold, ending the year at 11.86 million, according to Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA). At its 47th annual meeting today, the organization reported that its 22 member re...

SAM Magazine--June 11, 2010--Following the annual general meeting of the Québec Ski Areas Association (ASSQ), the members have elected a new president, Christian Dufour, client experience director for Mont Saint-Sauveur, Mont Avila and the Mont Saint-Sauveur Water Park. At age 33, Dufour becomes the youngest president to date of the association...

SAM Magazine--June 11, 2010--During its 47th annual meeting, Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) announced the addition of a major new component to its 5th grade passport program: one complementary ski lesson, including rental equipment, for 5th grade passport holders who are new to the sport. Lessons will be provided during the month of Januar...

SAM Magazine--Stratton, Vt., June 9, 2010--The Vermont Ski Areas Association announced at its annual meeting that Vermont's ski resorts recorded 4,125,082 skier visits for the 2009-10 season. This marks a 1.4 percent increase over the prior season's tally and tracks with the 5-year average. "With below-average snowfall, below-average days of op...

SAM Magazine--June 9, 2010--www.skiinfo.co.uk reports that the number of ski areas open worldwide continues to rise despite more areas closing for the season in Austria, Sweden, Switzerland and the U.S. That's because the southern hemisphere's ski season has kicked off at resorts in Chile and New Zealand and, next week, Australia, Canada and France...

SAM Magazine-Antalya, Turkey, June 8, 2010-Delegates at the 47th International Ski Congress of the International Ski Federation (FIS) decided to advance ski halfpipe, women's ski jumping, and snowboarding slopestyle and team snowboardcross toward possible inclusion in the 2014 Olympics. The FIS is proposing that ski halfpipe for both men and wom...

SAM Magazine--Vail, Colo., June 3, 2010--Vail and Beaver Creek Resorts were selected by the International Ski Federation (FIS) Council to host the 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships. This will be the third FIS World Championships for the resorts, which previously hosted the 1989 and 1999 Championships. "Vail and Beaver Creek Resorts are hono...

SAM Magazine-Beloeil, Quebec, May 27, 2010-After more than 30 years as the driving force behind Ski Press, Jean-Marc Blais has left the company. "The time has come for a new chapter in my life. I am leaving Ski Press today for new and exciting challenges," he told friends via email. Blais got his start in publishing in 1979 when, as a ski club o...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., May 28, 2010-Vail Resorts (VR) has acquired Mountain News Corporation (MNC), which operates OnTheSnow.com. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Following the acquisition, Chad Dyer will continue to oversee operations as global managing director. Craig Altschul remains as global editor-in-chief of the site....

SAM Magazine-Hardyston, N.J., May 27, 2010-Crystal Springs Resort, an upscale resort company based here, has purchased Mountain Creek resort from Intrawest. The acquisition creates a comprehensive four-season resort destination: Spanning five miles through four townships (Vernon, Hardyston, Hamburg, Franklin), the combined resorts encompass 15,000 ...

SAM Magazine-North Woodstock, N.H., May 26, 2010-New Hampshire alpine ski and snowboard resorts recorded a total of 2,228,571 alpine skier and snowboarder visits in 2009-10, a slight decline of 2.6 percent from the winter of 2008-09, which was the third best on record in New Hampshire. The season was 4 percent above the state's 10-year average for ...

SAM Magazine-McLean, Va., May 25, 2010-Active Interest Media (AIM) and veteran snow sports editor/publisher Andy Bigford will produce the "Snow Show Daily" at the 2011 SIA Snow Show Jan. 27-30, 2011, according to Snow Industries America president David Ingemie. "No other company can match the combination of snow sports experience, relationships,...

SAM Magazine-Los Angeles, May 24, 2010-The 2010 Olympics in Vancouver produced and Universal Sports is taking a unique look at many of the heroes, highlights and human stories from the 2010 Olympics in "Visions of Vancouver," a documentary premiering on Universal Sports network on Monday, May 24, at 7 p.m. ET. The show will feature Olympic medalist...

SAM Magazine-Shaver Lake, Calif., May 24, 2010-The purchase of Sierra Summit Mountain Resort by ski industry veteran Tim Cohee closed last Friday after a brief delay, due to the issuing of a new 40-year Special Use Permit by the United States Forest Service. As SAM reported earlier, Cohee immediately returned the resort to its former name, China Pe...

SAM Magazine-Broomfield, Colo., May 21, 2010-Vail Resorts plans to spend $75 million to $85 million on resort projects for the 2010-2011 ski season. Major projects include a high-speed quad at Vail to upgrade the area's original Back Bowls Chair 5, currently a triple chair, a new 14,750 square foot restaurant atop the Heavenly Gondola, and continu...

SAM Magazine-Aspen, Colo., May 21, 2010-More than 500 salaried employees at Aspen Skiing Co. will be wearing helmets while working on the slopes next season. The Aspen areas join Vail Resorts and Intrawest areas in requiring helmets for large portions of their labor forces. At the same time, the Aspen resorts expanded their helmet requirement fo...