National Ski Council Federation Newsbeat
September 2015
National Ski Council Federation Holds 2015 Annual Meeting. Ski Council delegates and industry representatives met Sept. 9-13 in Lake Placid. The Federation extends our great appreciation to Lake Placid for hosting the meeting. This was an election year and the following officers were elected for the coming two years: Lisa Beregi, President (Crescent Ski Council); William Shadboldt, Vice President (Northwest Ski Club Council); Cheryl Mann, Treasurer (Texas Ski Council); and Jane Guiterrez, Secretary (Los Angeles Council of Ski Clubs and National Brotherhood of Skiers). The news release detailing the meeting is at the end of this document, plus a photo of the attendees and of our newly elected officers.
U.S. Ski Associations Planning World’s Largest Ski Lesson. A number of ski associations in the U.S. are plotting to pull off the “world’s largest ski and snowboard lesson” Jan. 8, 2016, with the goal of having it officially recorded in the Guinness Book of World Records. The goal is also to use this stunt as a kickoff event for Learn to Ski and Snowboard Month and the Bring a Friend learn-to campaigns. More. SAM
Ed. Note. Mary Jo Tarallo, Associate Editor of SIA’s online publication On the Snow addressed our annual meeting in Lake Placid to talk about Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month/Bring a Friend and the planned record setting ski lesson.
Vail Resorts Will Spend up to $115 Million on Improvements This Winter. Vail Resorts wants us to know just how much money the empire is spending to improve some of our favorite resorts. It’s not trivial. Between $110 million and $115 million is going toward winter improvements for the upcoming season. The largest beneficiary of that largesse is the new Park City, with a total project cost of $50 million to tie together what used to be Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons. More. Curbed Ski
Vail is Going to Tell You How Long Lift Waits Are. Vail Resorts might not be able to eliminate lift lines at some of its most popular resorts, but this upcoming season, it’ll at least be able to tell you which lines are the worst. The resort giant is harnessing the technology it puts in season passes to turn them into data points in a system to crowd-source wait times. The EpicMix™ Time feature will be a part of its already available EpicMix app and will debut this season at the company’s Colorado resorts: Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone. The newly acquired Perisher Resort in Australia, which is in the middle of its season, is the guinea pig for the new service. More. Curbed Ski
New Snowmass Master Plan Includes a Hut System. Snowmass had its new master development plan formally accepted by the U.S. Forest Service last week, and among the proposed updates is a backcountry hut system akin to the 10th Mountain Division. Like any of the new items included in the master plan update, it will have to go through an environmental review before becoming reality, but it looks like Aspen Skiing Co. is not content with the number of projects it already has in the wings for Snowmass. More.
Mountain High Rolls Out Winter Guarantee. Mountain High is giving skiers and riders added assurance that they will get more value out of their season passes by introducing the Winter Guarantee, which applies credits to those who use their season pass less than five days. Offered only to Mountain High Powder Alliance pass holders, the program applies credits of up to 50 percent of the purchase price of a 2016-17 season pass. More. SAM
Mt. Rose is Spending $1.2 Million and Looking to Open Early. Mt. Rose, the local’s favorite northeast of Lake Tahoe, is dropping $1.2 million this year for on-mountain improvements that should make the ski area more attractive to beginners. The Ponderosa lift, originally built in the early 1990s, will be will relocated and renamed the Wizard. The hope is that the new lift, along with the construction of four additional beginner trails, will make Mt. Rose a better experience for newbies. But those aren’t all the changes planned for this Nevada gem. More. Curbed Ski
Greek Peak to Acquire Toggenburg. Greek Peak is purchasing Toggenburg. The new owners are also co-owners of Greek Peak Mountain Resort. Greek Peak Mountain Resort owners Marc Stemerman and John Meier filed a purchase agreement to buy Toggenburg Mountain on Aug. 26, 2015. The combination will see former Toggenburg owner Jim Hickey continue to operate the Foggy Goggle restaurant and lend his culinary skills to the food and beverage department at Greek Peak. More. SAM
Idaho’s Tamarack Resort Will Open 100 Acres of Hike-to Terrain. Tamarack Resort, near Donnelly, Idaho, is reopening 100 acres of its Wildwood trail area to those willing to earn their turns. Closed in 2009 after a lift was removed, the new resort operator, Relay Resorts, which took over in 2014, has decided to open a section of Wildwood that allows for a short hike to the top and an easy exit back to the lifts. Unlike some of the other hike-to options at Tamarack, this section is inside the resort boundary and will be monitored by ski patrol. More. Curbed Ski
Loveland Turns One Lift Into Two To Improve Traffic Flow. It’s not often that an American ski resort actually shortens a chairlift, but that’s exactly what’s been going on over the summer at Loveland Ski Area. Crews are hustling to get the venerable Lift 2 and new Ptarmigan Lift up and running by opening day – often as early as mid-October for one of Colorado’s highest-elevation ski and snowboard mountains. The truncated Lift 2 will continue to provide access to the upper-mountain lifts in Loveland Basin area on the west side of the Continental Divide resort – including the new Ptarmigan fixed-grip triple chair. More. SnoCountry
Ski Jumping World Champ Sarah Hendrickson to Sit Out Season with Knee Injury. World champion ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson (Park City, UT) underwent knee surgery this week and will be out for the season. Hendrickson, who injured her right knee in a training accident in August 2013 leading up to the Sochi Olympics, reinjured the knee during jump training in June.
According to U.S. Ski Team Medical Director Kyle Wilkens, Hendrickson underwent surgery to repair her right knee earlier this week in Park City. A followup surgery is anticipated in a few months. She will rehab at her home base of Park City at the USSA Center of Excellence. It is anticipated that she will be back for the 2016-17 World Cup season including the 2017 World Championships in Lahti, Finland. Hendrickson won the season-long FIS World Cup title in 2012 and became the World Champion in 2013.More. USSA via Google Alerts
Hot, Dry Oman Wants to Build an Indoor Snow Village. There must be something in the air in the Arabian Peninsula (maybe it’s the heat) because indoor snow projects are on trend right now. As part of a larger mall project, Muscat, the capital of Oman, is getting a $31 million snow village. Dutch firm Unlimited Snow was recently contracted to build the village, but details are scant. Judging from early sketches, it looks like the snow village might include tubing, curling and a spot for good ‘ol snowball fights. More. Curbed Ski
Ski Towns Dominate the List of Richest Small Towns in America. That ski towns attract wealth is a pretty obvious reality, but when looking at a list of the richest small towns in America, as compiled by Bloomberg Business, it’s still notable just how much of the list is occupied by areas associated with skiing. All of Bloomberg’s Top 10 are travel destinations, but only three have no ties to skiing. Bloomberg looked exclusively at what the U.S. Census Bureau terms micropolitan areas, which cluster around urban centers of about 10,000 to 50,000 people. Leading the pack was Summit Park, Utah, home of North America’s newest mega-resort, Park City. More. Curbed Ski
