November  2023

 Late October Snow Primes the Pump for More Ski Area Openings. More North American ski areas are opening for the season after late-October snowstorms pummeled various regions this past week and cooler temps allowed other areas to fire up their snowmaking systems. Here is a rundown of some recent and soon-to-come opening dates. More. SAM

Windham (NY) Unveils Rebranding, New Master Plan. The Windham Mountain Club, formerly known as Windham Mountain, unveiled its rebranding and capital upgrades for the 2023-24 winter season and beyond. More. SAM

Mountain Capital Partners Inks Joint Venture with Sandia Peak, NM. Mountain Capital Partners (MCP) and Sandia Peak Ski Company have entered a joint venture agreement for the operation of Sandia Peak Ski Area, located 35 miles northeast of Albuquerque, N.M. This is MCP’s third New Mexico ski area.  More. SAM

California Mountain Resorts Company Buys Bear Mountain. California Mountain Resorts Company (CMRC) has acquired Bear Valley. It’s the third acquisition in three years for the growing Golden State conglomerate, which is headed by CEO Karl Kapuscinski. CMRC, which has owned Mountain High since 1997, purchased California’s Dodge Ridge in 2021 and China Peak in 2022. More. SAM

Smugglers’ Notch and Stowe Connector Lift Plans Withdrawn. Plans for a proposed gondola connecting Smugglers’ Notch Resort and Stowe Mountain Resort have been withdrawn following initial disapproval from the Agency of Natural Resources, according to reporting by the News & Citizen. Stowe, owned by Vail Resorts, and privately held Smugglers’ Notch have reportedly been in discussions with Vermont state officials about building the 2,600-foot lift since 2017. More. SAM

Alterra Purchases Mike Wiegele Heli Ski Operation. Alterra Mountain Company has initiated the purchase of Mike Wiegele Helicopter Skiing (MWHS) in Blue River, BC, Canada. Officials at Alterra said the addition will complement the company’s BC-based CMH Heli-Skiing and Summer Adventures operation, and is expected to be completed late this year, pending closing conditions that include regulatory approvals. More. SAM

Black Mountain (NH) to Open, Assisted by Indy Pass. A week after announcing that it would not open for the 2023-24 season, owners of New Hampshire’s Black Mountain have reconsidered after reaching an operating agreement with Indy Pass and its parent company Entabeni. Black Mountain officials announced on Oct. 11 that the ski area would remain closed due to “circumstances beyond our control,” citing soaring energy costs, staffing shortages, and unpredictable weather among other factors. More. SAM

New Owners for Alberta, Canada’s Rabbit Hill. Rabbit Hill Snow Resort, founded in 1955, has transitioned to new ownership—business partners Chuck and Lara Amerongen and Derek and Anna Look. The independently owned ski area is located about 20 miles southwest of Edmonton. More. Ed. Note: Although not of general interest, I just love the resort name.

December 2022 – January  2023

Important Precedent Set in Oregon Ski Area Ruling. Recreational use law was successfully used as a defense against a plaintiff seeking $1.5 million in a parking lot slip-and-fall claim against Hoodoo Ski Area in Oregon. Recreational use statutes limit the liability of landowners if they make their land available for recreation free of charge. More. SAM

Tahoe MegaResort Opens in Time for Snowmageddon. Palisades Ski Resort and Alpine Meadows Ski Resort in the Lake Tahoe area are now one giant MegaResort, thanks to the opening of the base-to-base gondola between the neighboring ski areas. The two resorts, owned by Colorado’s Alterra Mountain Company, have become the second largest single ski destination in the country. More. Connectcre via Ski Racing Media

Steamboat Resort Unwraps ‘One-of-a-Kind’ Wild Blue Gondola.  With snow falling, Steamboat Resort opened the Wild Blue Gondola on Saturday, Dec. 24, just in time for Christmas. The debut was complete with a red bow on the first car, a ribbon cutting, a jingle of bells, and a long line of people waiting to board. More. Vail Daily via Ski Racing Media

Owners of Mountain High and Dodge Ridge (CA) Purchase China Peak. China Peak Mountain Resort has been sold to Mountain High Resort and Dodge Ridge, Calif. All three are also existing partners on the Indy Pass and Powder Alliance.  More. SAM

Mont-Sainte-Anne Ski Resort (Quebec) to Reopen Jan. 8 After Dec. 10 Shutdown Over Gondola Cabin Disconnect. The Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) has authorized the reopening of four of the resort’s five lifts that were shut down after a gondola fell to the ground last month. Though nobody was injured in the incident, the resort has been closed since Dec. 10. More.  CBC/Radio-Canada

Tree Falls on Park City Mountain Chairlift, Employee Killed. A Park City Mountain staff member was killed Jan. 2 after falling from the chairlift they were riding. A tree fell on the line of the Short Cut chairlift, unseating the employee who fell at least 25 feet to the ground, according to a Vail Resorts spokesperson. The staff member was working at the time of the incident. More. SAM

Indy Expands Colorado Foothold with Echo Mountain, Granby Ranch. The coalition now has four partner areas in Colorado, including Sunlight Mountain and Bluebird Backcountry, and is up to 121 downhill and Nordic resorts total across the U.S., Canada, and Japan. More. SAM

Indy Pass Adds Four Northeastern Nordic and Alpine Resorts. The Indy Pass has added four Northeastern Alpine and Nordic ski areas, making for 21 total participating ski areas in the Eastern region. Included are Peek ‘n Peak in New York and Tussey Mountain, Pa., on the Alpine side, and cross-country areas Catamount Outdoor Family Center, Vt., and the Rangeley Lakes Trail Center in Maine. More. SAM

Mt. Bachelor Biomass Boiler to Provide Cleaner Heat, Reduce Wildfire Risk. Powdr-owned Mt. Bachelor in Oregon will install a new wood energy facility to provide heat for four of its base area buildings using a modern biomass boiler fueled by the byproducts of forest management and wildfire fuel reduction activities within the surrounding Deschutes National Forest. Mt. Bachelor anticipates the new facility will reduce the resort’s propane consumption by roughly 150,000 gallons annually and reduce CO2 emissions by nearly 1,000 tons per year.  More.  SAM

Ski California Debuts Updated Digital Mountain Safety Guide. Ski California has debuted an updated digital version of its Mountain Safety Guide. Designed by the association and its member resorts in California and Nevada, the new version is a play off the group’s existing Mountain Safety Guide.  More. SAM

Fourteen New Chairlifts to Ride This Winter. There are a lot of new lifts, and even some expanded terrain, coming online this winter. Here’s what you can look forward to as you click into your planks at ski resorts across North America. More. Ski

The 10 Best—and Worst—Ski Resorts For Parking. An overview of parking requirements at the worst offenders this winter. More. Outside

Ed. Note: The following two articles list some of the same resorts but also some different ones.

The 10 Best Ski Resorts in North America for Seniors. The number of seniors on the slopes has reached epic proportions. In 2020-21 seniors accounted for 16.1% of skier visits, totaling 59 million, while a record 10.5 million seniors participated in the sport, according to the National Ski Areas Association. More. Travel + Leisure via Google Alerts

The Top 9 Resorts in the U.S. for Seniors. According to the National Ski Area Association (NSAA), the median age of snow sports participants has been gradually increasing. Additionally, over 16% of all participants are now seniors. These seniors are proving that there is no age limit for winter fun, and you don’t have to fly south when the weather turns cold. More Snowbrains via Google Alerts

New to the Market, Peak Skis Is Bringing Innovation to the Slopes. Developed by professional ski racer Bode Miller, Peak Skis is shaking up the industry with design technology that put Miller on podium after podium throughout his racing career. More. Ski

How to Wax Your Own Skis In 4 Easy Steps. Mere mortals can, in fact, learn to maintain their skis at home (and save money in the process). More. Ski

The Art of Charcuteski: Craft an On-mountain Dining Experience with the Skis That Got You There. Picture this: You’re at your favorite resort, and there’s bluebird skies above as you clip out of your skis, wedge them into the snow, and start layering on stacks of salami, cheese wedges, heaps of crackers and punchy pickled vegetables. This, my friends, is charcuteski. More. Tahoe Daily Tribune via Ski Racing Media

81-Year-Old Cross-Country Skier Odd Osland Still Finds Joy on the Trails. Norwegian transplant Odd Osland is at home in Minnesota’s Nordic ski community. Odd Osland is an elite skier who still competes across North America. More. Star Tribune via Ski Racing Media

The Hidden History of Skiing in the West. Skiing in the U.S., as we think of it now, came from Europe in the late 1800s by way of Scandinavian immigrants, who used skis as a mode of transportation. They also liked to have a good time in the long, dark mountainous winter, founding ski jumping hills at places like Howelsen Hill, in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and Ecker Hill, near Parleys Summit, in Utah. More. Deseret News via Google Alerts.

June  2021

Indoor Snowsports Facilities Finally Catching on in U.S.; Developer Alpine-X Plans to Open 20-Plus Destinations. Alpine-X’s first venue—Fairfax Peak—will open in Northern Virginia, with 20-plus additional metro markets to follow. The ski dome will be the anchor, but the complex will also include an upscale hotel, a gravity-powered mountain coaster, zip lines and multiple restaurants. More.  Forbes via Google Alerts

Top Snowiest Ski Resorts in the USA. It’s no secret that the West gets the most snow.  Cold fronts come down from the Gulf of Alaska, hit our north-south oriented mountain ranges, and orographic lifting does the rest. There are 10 ski resorts in the west that average over 500” of snow. See the list here. SnowBrains

Major Resort Ownership Groups Band Together to Fight Climate Change. Alterra Mountain Company, Boyne Resorts, POWDR, and Vail Resorts have joined forces to develop the Climate Collaborative Charter, a unified effort to combat climate change through shared sustainability and advocacy commitments. More. SAM

NSAA Releases Skier Visit Numbers & Other Metrics for 2020-21 Season. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced that skier visit numbers to U.S. areas totaled 59 million for the 2020-21 ski season, the 5th best season on record and a strong recovery from the pandemic-shortened 2019-20 season. More. NSAA

NSAA Issues Annual Report. In spring 2020, NSAA released its first-ever Annual Report. President and CEO  Kelly Pawlak said, “Our goal with this document was to inform our members of the health of the association, and of the outcomes of our year of work. Now, we’re releasing the 2020-21 Annual Report, taking a look back at what NSAA has achieved this past season.” Read the report here. NSAA

NSAA Honors Best in Ski Industry. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) presented awards in sustainability, safety, growth and marketing to members with the most innovative and successful programs in each category. They also give Sustainable Slopes grants to winning resorts, as well as safety awards. See all the award winner here.  NSAA

Jared Smith Named Alterra President. Jared Smith will serve as president of Alterra Mountain Company, effective June 7, 2021. Smith, who will report to CEO Rusty Gregory, will be responsible for overseeing and developing Alterra’s 15 mountain destinations. Smith comes to Alterra from Live Nation Entertainment. There, he most recently served as president and global chairman of Ticketmaster. More. SAM

Cohen Named Mammoth, June President and COO. Alterra Mountain Company named Ron Cohen president and COO of Mammoth Mountain and June Mountain, Calif., effective immediately. He will oversee all operations at both resorts, and will lead significant developments planned for Mammoth, Alterra’s largest and most visited destination. Cohen has served as president and COO of Alterra-owned Squaw Valley Alpine Meadows, Calif., since August 2018. More. SAM

National Ski Patrol Names New CEO Amid Continued Staff Turnover. National Ski Patrol (NSP) named Chris Castilian as its new chief executive officer. Castilian succeeds former executive director Meegan Moszynski as the head of the non-profit organization. More. SAM