Top Stories

It’s no surprise that community is at the heart of everything we do at Taos Ski Valley. As the first certified B Corp ski resort, we are constantly looking for ways to improve and give back to those that help define who we are. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected the world in ways that were unimaginable only a month ago. Yes, ending the season early means less days on snow, but also lost wages for our staff and the employees of many local businesses in our tight-knit town. Once the decision to close the resort was made, our Food and Beverage team quickly realized we had a surplus of incredible food that would no longer be needed on the mountain and would be put to great use distributed to those in need in Taos.  Chris Goss, Director of Food and Beverage, explained: “We feed hundreds of skiers up on the mountain every day with these same ingredients, yet being able to donate this quantity of quality food to feed our own community at a time like this feels much more impactful. We are grateful to help in this small way.”

In an effort to reduce expenses over the coming months, Vail Resorts will furlough the majority of its U.S. year-round hourly employees and institute pay cuts for salaried employees. It will also significantly reduce capital expenditures planned for this summer. The moves stem from the uncertainty of when, or if, the company’s businesses will be able to reopen this summer as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic grow.

Aspen Skiing Co. plans to proceed with multiple capital improvement projects this summer despite losing a significant chunk of revenue due to the coronavirus crisis.

On Tuesday, March 24, Sonja and Bill Allen’s home radio crackles to life at 1:10 p.m. There is no cell service in Ophir, Colorado, an 1880s mining town 20 minutes south of Telluride encircled by 13,000-foot peaks. But its 180 residents and virtually all the skiers who seek out the world-class backcountry above town know about the two-way radio frequency that fills the void. Many locals keep their radios tuned to the “Ophir channel” when they’re at home, if only to monitor the chatter among fellow powder seekers. 

More resorts are banning uphill traffic as skiers flock. And as a second snowy weekend approaches with the entire state now under stay-at-home orders, more health departments and sheriffs are following that lead with both orders and requests to limit outdoor activity by visitors from afar. 

Five Front Range ski areas and the U.S. Forest Service have collaborated to produce a video message imploring uphill skiers to stay away from their resorts.

Ski Blandford in western Massachusetts will not operate next season. The ski area was purchased in 2017 by the owners of nearby Butternut, and they made a variety of improvements to lifts and snowmaking. However, the area has continued to lose money, and coupled with the current economic uncertainties brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, the owners made the difficult decision now to close the ski area.

Sean Glackin’s phone exploded within minutes of the news that Vail ski area was closing. The outdoor retailer’s entire rental fleet of alpine-touring skis was quickly rented by a flood of uphill skiers the following day.

As more resorts start to speak to their audiences about COVID-19, I’ll be gathering these tweets and posts so we can learn from others’ messages and communicate thoughtfully and effectively during the following days and weeks.

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Living in beautiful New England is about embracing every season. Snowy days and snowscaped scenes are part of who we are, and getting out into them really boosts the soul.

But snow has been sparse around these parts this winter. Great for those who hate to shovel, not so much for those who want to have outdoor fun.

 Read the full story at BostonHerald.com

Strange things happen after dark in Utah’s mountains.

Andy Daly, Bill Kane and John Norton have more than 130 years of combined experience leading, planning and marketing skiing and resort communities in Colorado. 

March in Colorado ski country calls to mind shorts, shades, sunshine and ponds. Hard to imagine after a February that saw record snowfall.

In an unusually transparent move for the ski industry, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area has released data on skier numbers that Chief Operating Officer Alan Henceroth promised to provide following a particularly busy Saturday in February.

The world’s avid skiers and snowboarders likely regard British Columbia’s “Powder Highway” -- a jaw-dropping collection of mountain towns, hot springs, and monolithic slopes tucked in a compact section of the Canadian Rockies west of Calgary -- as the globe’s crown jewel when it comes to sliding downhill on boards of some sort. From December to late April, it's one of the best places on Earth for powder hounds.

In the dark of a midwinter morning, chef Rebecca Clay jumps onto the back of a snowmobile at Okemo Mountain Resort. As the engine revs into gear, the last remnants of a full moon peek out from behind the clouds.

Well-groomed trails, sunshine and mild temperatures have kept the T-bar at Ascutney Outdoors busy with skiers and snowboarders the last two weekends.

I don’t usually get confused in public restrooms, but there I was in the men’s room at the Mangy Moose: totally stumped. It was December, Jackson Hole was beginning to see the storms of this winter’s historic snowfall, and the skiing was superb. Town morale should have been peaking. There in the urinal, however, was a bumper sticker to the contrary that read IKONnot Ski. I was immediately bummed. The attitude it reflects is pervasive: that multi-passes, specifically Ikon and Epic, are bad for skiing and bad for ski towns.

When I first moved to Colorado, I thought my family and I would somehow magically pick up skiing, hitting the slopes every winter. But as it turns out, skiing is not an easy thing to start up on your own in your 30s.

Gore Mountain in North Creek; Whiteface in Lake Placid; and Belleayre Mountain Ski Center in Highmount, in central New York’s Ulster County. These three ski resorts all have one thing in common; all are operated by the New York State Olympic Regional Development Authority.