National Ski Council Federation Newsbeat
February-March 2020
Ski Areas Look for Congressional Relief in Next Stimulus Bill. Shuttered U.S. ski areas that are economic engines for many Western and New England states are pressing Congress for economic relief—though they’ll likely need to wait for the next Covid-19 economic stimulus bill to get it. More. Bloomberg
Vail, Alterra Close 49 Ski Resorts Amid Virus Outbreak. As ski resorts across the United States grappled with how to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus without having to close, industry giants Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company decided Saturday they would shutter 49 of North America’s most well-known resorts. More. Associated Press via Destimetrics
Gondola Project Connecting Squaw Valley to Alpine Meadows Clears Major Environmental Hurdle. Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadow have reached an agreement with a local environmental protection group, clearing the way for construction of a base-to-base gondola between the two Tahoe-area ski resorts as the conservationists have agreed to drop a lawsuit filed against the project last year. More. Sacramento Bee
For Some Resorts, Multi-Mountain Passes Mean Crowded Slopes and Longer Lift Lines. The popularity of IKON and Epic passes have ski resorts cutting off weekend sales at the windows and warning crowds on social media to stay home. More. The New York Times
Here’s Why Skiing Got So Expensive and So Cheap at the Same Time. Like with so many things, few skiers actually pay list price for access to the mountain. Last year, when Vail’s maximum one-day ticket price was $209, the average effective ticket price charged by Vail Resorts for nearly 15 million skier days was just $68.89 per day. More. New York Magazine Intelligencer
Walt Disney’s Everlasting Effect on North American Ski Resorts. All ski resorts in North America grade their slopes and trails with either a green circle (easy), a blue square (intermediate), a black diamond (advanced), or a double black diamond (experts only). It was Walt Disney’s team that came up with that grading system. Read the story of how the grading scale came to be, and the subtle psychological genius behind it. More. Inside the Magic Ed. There are some cool old Disney cartoons in the posting.
American Ski Journalist John Fry Dead at 90. John Fry, the dean of North American ski journalists, died suddenly but peacefully on January 24, two days after celebrating his 90th birthday. Over a 60-year career devoted to ski journalism, Fry served on the staffs of the magazines SKI LIFE, SKI, Snow Country and Skiing Heritage (now Skiing History). He was editor-in-chief of SKI, founding editor of Snow Country, and served as president and then chairman of the International Skiing History Association. More. Ski Racing
Dave McCoy, Founder of Mammoth Mountain, Dies at 104. In the mid-1930s, the iconic Mammoth Mountain all started with a rope tow built by Dave McCoy and his friends during his first winter in the Eastern Sierras. A rope tied to a tree and rigged to the back end of a jacked-up Ford Model A would eventually spark the idea that would grow into the business now known as a Mammoth Mountain, a resort that attracted about 1.21 million visitors in 2018. More. Ski Racing via Google Alerts
