National Ski Council Federation Newsbeat
February 2018
Alterra Announces Ikon Pass. Alterra Mountain Company, the recently-named joint venture that curated a dozen North American mountain resorts last year, unveiled the name of its highly anticipated season pass product and the mountains it will provide access to. The Ikon Pass will go on sale this spring, and passholders will get unlimited access to, and/or a set number of days at 23 different mountain resorts—Alterra’s 12 properties, and 11 partner mountains. The company said details on access, pass benefits, and pricing will be released in the coming weeks. More. SAM
Alterra Names Rusty Gregory as Chief Executive Officer. Longtime Mammoth Resorts leader Rusty Gregory has been named Alterra Mountain Company’s chief executive officer. Gregory has been a member of Alterra’s board of directors since the company’s inception in August 2017. His 40-year ski industry career began as a lift operator at Mammoth Mountain, Calif., where he rose through the ranks to become an owner and the company’s chairman and CEO for more than 20 years. More. SAM (Ed. Note: Gregory was keynote speaker for the NSCF Annual Meeting in Mammoth in 2011.)
Vail Epic Pass Adds Telluride. Vail Resorts has entered into a “long-term alliance” with Telluride Ski Resort in Colorado, adding the resort to the Epic Pass starting in 2018-19. The Epic Pass will include seven free days of direct-to-lift access at Telluride with no blackout dates, and passholders will get 50 percent off lift tickets once the seven days have been redeemed. Telluride season passholders and Telluride Ski and Golf Club members with full winter benefits will receive 50 percent off lift tickets at all Vail Resorts-owned mountain resorts. More. SAM
Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows Hopes to Use 100 Percent Renewable Energy by December 2018. Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows is working with regional electricity provider Liberty Utilities to identify and develop new renewable energy generation, storage and energy efficiency projects, primarily solar, that will provide clean energy to the region. Subject to regulatory approval, the two companies intend to achieve the resort’s 100 percent renewable energy goal as early as December 2018. More. SAM
Heavenly Gets Opening Nod For Trail Improvements. Heavenly Mountain Resort recently got over a critical regulatory hurdle in order to widen trails, remove debris and relocate snowmaking. Resort officials aim to start the projects as early as this spring, if a final decision is issued by the Forest Service. The “draft decision” by the U.S. Forest Service in the Lake Tahoe Basin will, if it survives a 45-day object period, relieve bottlenecks and get trails open sooner in low-snow winters on the California Sierra mountain, according to the document. More. SnoCountry
Snowbird Building New Lift, Training Center to Honor Skier Killed in 2015 Avalanche. Bryce Astle, a Utah skier, was skiing with teammates in Sölden, Austria, when he and a teammate, New Hampshire skier Ronnie Berlack, 20, were caught in an avalanche and were killed. To honor Astle’s life, Snowbird Ski Resort announced it will be building the Bryce Astle Training Center, a new quad chairlift for training skiers and a renovated race shack for Snowbird athletes. More. KSL.com via Google Alerts
NSAA Urges DOJ, Senate Guidance on ADA Lawsuit Abuse. More than 60 ski areas and resort companies have now been sued for allegations over inaccessible websites for the visually and hearing impaired under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), according to the most recent NSAA Capitol Watch. To combat this trend, NSAA representatives went to Washington D.C. this month to meet with key lawmakers and Justice Department officials who can help move regulation and guidance along. More. SAM
Jay Peak and Burke Mountain for Sale in May. The official opening of Jay Peak’s Clips & Reels, a $5 million indoor movie theater, climbing wall and arcade center, marks the end of nearly a decade of major development at the resort—and the beginning of the process to sell the property, along with sister resort Burke Mountain. More. SAM
Former Jay Peak Owner Ariel Quiros Reaches $81 Million Settlement with SEC. Jay Peak’s former owner who allegedly misused millions of dollars in EB-5 foreign investor funds has agreed to pay back $81 million as part of a settlement with the government. The SEC charged Quiros in 2016 with orchestrating a “Ponzi-like” scheme. The government also said that Bill Stenger, former president and CEO of Jay Peak who was implicated in the scheme, has agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty. Stenger has been cooperating with the federal investigation since charges were brought, but the government said he did not personally benefit from the scheme. More. SAM
Forest Service Seeking Feedback on Environmental Rules. The U.S. Forest Service has commenced a series of “Regional Partner Roundtables” to gather feedback to improve processes related to environmental analysis and decision making (EADM). The roundtables provide resorts that operate on Forest Service land the opportunity to make suggestions for improving the efficiency of the processes associated with every improvement project that resorts undertake, according to the most recent NSAA Capitol Watch. More. SAM
Airlines Find Some Bad Habits Are Hard to Break. Look for carriers to continue a pattern of adding too much capacity, leading to fare wars and bankruptcies. United Continental announced plans in late January to add routes to domestic hubs, enhancing the airline’s capacity by 6 percent by 2020. More. Bloomberg via Destimetrics
High Fives Foundation brings 22 Veterans to Squaw Alpine for Military to the Mountain program. The High Fives Foundation in Truckee, Calif., the City of Reno Parks, Recreation and Community Services Department in Reno, Nev., and the Adaptive Training Foundation in Dallas, Texas are teaming up to host a program called Military to the Mountain. 22 injured US Military Veterans will train at their respective facilities for nine weeks preparing them for a week of skiing at Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows in Lake Tahoe, Calif. from March 11 to March 17, 2018. The Veterans will be instructed by Achieve Tahoe adaptive ski program. More. SIA
Business Mogul and Ski Area Owner Ian Cumming Dead at 77. Snowbird majority owner and former Powdr Corp. owner Ian Cumming died Friday at his home in Jackson, Wyo. He was 77. Cumming made a name for himself in the ski industry as the owner of Park City-based Powdr Corporation, which at one point owned Park City Mountain Resort and currently owns and operates eight ski areas in addition to its Woodward adventure lifestyle facilities. In 2014, Cumming acquired majority interest in Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort from co-founder Dick Bass. More. SAM
