National Ski Council Federation Newsbeat
March 2015
Deedee Corradini remembered as a visionary leader and for her love of family. Former Salt Lake City Mayor Deedee Corradini was remembered at a March 9 memorial service as a visionary leader, a champion of women’s rights, a loving life partner and a grandmother who taught her only granddaughter to “set a proper dinner table and ski black diamond runs.” More. Deseret News Ed Note: Many readers have already seen this article, but for those who haven’t, it includes some very moving quotes from her family, as well as Lindsey Vann. Although we knew her as the champion of Women’s Ski Jumping, her life and career involved so much more.
How ski resorts are fighting climate change. As New England confronts sidewalk avalanches and digs itself out from underneath a blizzard, West Coast skiers are dealing with the opposite problem. Squaw Valley, which averaged 450 inches of snowfall per year between 2008 and 2014, has received less than a third of that amount this season, according to a February snow report.
The snowpack situation is so dire there that the International Ski Federation canceled the skicross and snowboardcross World Cup two weeks before it was scheduled to launch, in early March. Much has been made about the impact of global warming but nowhere is it felt deeper than at ski resort towns, whose economies are pegged almost entirely to snowfall. More. Outside
Multi-Resort Season Pass Options Expand. The season’s pass war for 2015-16 has begun, and major resorts are adding a number of new weapons to the fight. Perhaps the biggest development: the growth in limited-use passes. Choice is in. But choice comes with a caveat: customers have to act soon to get the best prices. More. SAM Ed. Note: This article provides a good description of the season passes that cover multiple resorts, including the Vail Epic, the Mountain Collective and the new M.A.X. pass.
Ski-lift cost becomes moving target as dynamic prices hit slopes. The $11 billion ski-and- snowboard industry’s shift toward what economists call dynamic or variable pricing makes the cost of a day on the hill less static and more like the moving target of an airplane seat, hotel room or rental car.
Behind the change is Liftopia, a venture-capital- backed San Francisco data and e-commerce company that says it will sell 5 percent of paid daily lift tickets this year. Resorts across the U.S. have also gone this route on their own, including Alta in Utah, Intrawest Resorts with its six ski areas including Mont Tremblant in Quebec, and Wachusett Mountain Ski Area in Massachusetts. More. Bloomberg News via Ogden Standard Examiner and Google Alert
Colorado Resorts Reporting Credit Card Fraud. Law enforcement officials in Aspen, Eagle County, Steamboat Springs, and other Colorado ski towns are reporting a rise in credit card fraud in the past two months. It’s thought to be coming from international cyber-crime organizations. Detectives believe credit cards recently used at businesses in these ski towns were infected with malware originating from international locations. Cards infected with the malware cause the server to forward the credit card information on to criminals who can use it to make fraudulent purchases. More. SAM
Land managers grapple with backcountry skiing’s impact on wildlife. Anyone who has spent more than a few days backcountry skiing has seen it—animal prints in the skin track. It’s obvious both predators and prey use these human-made paths to their advantage, but what’s the impact of that mixing of species? More. Mountain Magazine’s Logbook
‘The Black Summit’ Draws African-American Skiers and Boarders To Aspen. We’ve all heard the old adage that every snowflake is different, but they do have one thing in common: They’re all white. That’s also the image that many have of the people taking part in winter sports, including skiing and snowboarding, here in the U.S. There are efforts underway to change that. Every other year, the National Brotherhood of Skiers — or NBS — organizes an event known as the Black Summit or Black Ski Summit. More. National Public Radio
Vail Resorts Posts Banner Second Quarter Results. Vail Resorts (VR) reported net income for the second quarter of fiscal 2015 (ended Jan. 31, 2015) nearly doubled, to $115.8 million from $59.3 million. Total net revenue increased to $530.2 million, up 17.1 percent compared to the same period in the prior year. Notably, the results this year include Park City, which was not part of the VR portfolio a year ago. This summer VR expects to spend approximately $50 million to connect the Park City and Canyons resorts…. More. SAM
SIA Snow Show featured state of the ski industry overview. The state of the ski and snowboard industry in the United States is that it’s changing. Some of that change is good, some bad, but overall the industry has serious challenges ahead, including climate change, an aging customer base and aging infrastructure, to name a few. More. Aspen Times via DestiMetrics Ed. Note: The Times covered The Assembly, hosted by mountain resort research firm Destimetrics as an unofficial kickoff to the annual Snowsports Industries America Snow Show, in Denver which features panel discussions and interactive sessions about the ski industry’s place in the larger tourism industry.
Colorado considers snow-tire law for I-70. A Democratic state representative from Steamboat Springs has proposed a bill that would require noncommercial vehicles on a 130-mile stretch of I-70 through the mountains to have snow tires or chains from Nov. 1 to May 15, as the law now requires of commercial vehicles. This section of I-70 experiences chronic closures due to snow-related accidents, and has seen several such closures this winter. The goal is to reduce the incidence of accidents and smooth the flow of traffic during the snowiest months. More. SAM
