Partying Hard at Breckʼs Ullr Festival

March-April 2012
Volume 25 Number 2
Celebrating 25 years of addressing Americaʼs ski club officers
Partying Hard at
Breckʼs Ullr Festival
Skiing St. Anton
Free Facebook Ski Photos
North Americaʼs Ski Resort Zip Lines
March-April 2012
Volume 25 Number 2
Celebrating 25 years of addressing Americaʼs ski club officers
Page 6
Trip Reports
Fall Line Ski Club Skis St. Anton, Austria
Flying Dutchmen Discover Utahʼs Canyons
Pentagon Ski Club in Valle Nevado
Page 12 Ski Club Management
Using MeetUp to Get New Members
Consider Taking the Train to Resorts
The Search for Club Accounting Software
Market Ski Clubs on Value
Page 18
Page 20
Ideas from Other Clubs
Ski Council News
Page 23 Ski Industry News
Vailʼs Free EpicMix Photos
Breckenridgeʼs Ullr Festival
Zip Lines at North American Ski Resorts
Free Fun at Colorado Resorts
Cover photo: Attractive local lady at Breckenridgeʼs UllrFest. Photo: NSCN.
Skiiing in St. Antonʼs massive slopes. Photo: By Gene Dwarkin and courtesy of TVB St. Anton am Arlberg.
Bob Wilbanks
Editor/Publisher
303-689-9921 -- wilbanks@ski-club.net
THE NATIONAL SKI CLUB NEWSLETTER is published by Rowil Publishing,
P.O. Box 4704, Englewood, Colorado 80155.
Phone or Fax: 303-689-9921.
E-mail: wilbanks@ski-club.net
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EDITORIAL
Two Ways To Hold Down the Price of a Club Ski Trip
Review “Free” Trip Policy for Ski Weeks
The cost of complimentary trips for council officers, club officers, and trip leaders are
part of what a vendor must consider when
pricing your council ski weeks. When a council can bring 500 people to the resort and they
require five complimentary trips for council
officers on that trip, that simply adds 1% to the
cost of the paying participants’ price so it’s
probably no big deal -- and council trips are
still a solid value. But if, over the years, participation on your ski week drops to only 100
people and you’re still insisting on five complimentary trips for council officers you have
in all probability increased the trip cost by at
least 5% -- plus the cost of the trip leaders’
trips and probably a fam trip or two preceding
the trip.
If your council ski week participation numbers are lower than they were several years
ago you should consider lowering the number
of “free” participants whom you allow on your
trip if you want your ski weeks to still be the
excellent value that your members have come
to expect.
From the vendor’s perspective, those “free”
March-April 2012
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
trips are a legitimate part of the cost of the ski
week and, while the cost of them may not be
broken out as a separate cost item in their bid
to your council, you have to realize that the
cost of “free” trips is in there somewhere.
Donʼt Block More Seats than You Need
In a discussion about airline pricing at last
year’s National Ski Council Federation meeting in Mammoth Mountain, California, Mike
Hibbard of Sports America Tours made the
point that clubs who ask multiple tour operators to hold or block group airline seats on the
trips they are bidding should ask the bidding
tour operators to identify the club by name to
the airline. If the airline is not told that each of
the two or even three tour operators requesting seats on a particular flight are bidding the
same trip, the airline could get the impression
that the demand for the desired flight has risen
sharply -- which could, in turn, could create a
price increase for that flight. If you want seats
held on a particular flight, request that the
seats be held in the name of the club so that
the airline (or its computers) don’t think that
the demand is two or three times higher than it
The National Ski Club Newsletter
Bob Wilbanks, Editor, at Quebecʼs Ice Hotel.
Photo: NSCN.
Page 5
TRIP REPORT
New Jerseyʼs Fall Line Skis St. Anton, Austria
and Tours Munich, Germany
By Ann Marsteller, Trip Leader, Fall Line Ski Club
From their Powder Express
St. Antonʼs futuristic Gondola base building. Photo: By Josef Mallaun and courtesy of TVB St. Anton am Arlberg.
It was a group of 34 seasoned
travelers on the bus to Newark
Airport with New Jersey’s Fall
Line Ski Club heading for St.
Anton, Austria. When I asked who had
never been to Europe before, only one hand
was raised and when asked who had never
skied in Europe, only an additional two hands
went up.
Page 6
TRIP REPORT
Upon arrival in Newark, we checked our
free bags flawlessly at Lufthansa and proceeded to the Sam Adams Bar near our gate.
The flight was great. The libations were free
and in less than eight hours we landed. After
exiting customs, Hans, our jovial driver,
greeted us waving his Fall Line sign. With the
Autobahn its usual Saturday morning parking
lot, we took the scenic route to St. Anton,
home of Hannes Schneider, inventor of the
Arlberg ski technique more than 100 years ago
The National Ski Club Newsletter
and instructor to many famous Tyrolean ski
racers; Benny Raich, Karl Schranz, and Rudi
and Mario Matt to name a few.
After settling into our lovely rooms, we
were treated to aperitifs and an overview of the
ski area. We had our wonderful five course
dinner with three entrée choices, appetizer,
cheeses, and dessert. Then we contemplated
the next day’s skiing. Others decided, since it
was the big night of Fashing (German Mardi
Gras) that it was time for a night on the town.
The Post Keller was the hopping disco and adjacent to it was the Piccadilly with a live band
-- both accessed by the same entry fee. The
place was one big party with all in costumes,
bear babies with bottles filled with vodka and
Richard Simmons imitators dancing on the
dance floor. The ladies were admitted free and
this turned out to be our favorite après-ski and
night spot all week. Free is good.
St. Anton is the idyllic Tyrolean ski village;
no high rises, no condo sprawl, and the postcard town of St. Christoph, and the relatively
serene and uncrowded Stuben have 174 miles
of slopes and 85 lifts. Or you can take the post
bus over to tony Lech and Zurs, with long ski
boulevards and off piste bumps and trails. The
emphasis is on good hard skiing by day and
even harder partying by night. Our kind of
place!
On Sunday, we had the choice between the
Ferris wheel-looking Galzigbahn, with its 28
24-passenger gondollas taking you to the bulk
of St. Anton’s ski terrain in less than 10 minutes , or the new eight-seat Rendl Gondola,
with its escalator zipping you right to the gondola and a more relaxing day. Last year, the
Rendl was relocated right across the Galzig; a
big difference from our journey 10 years ago,
when it was on the outskirts of town. Our
hotel provided us with free ski and heated boot
storage at the ski shop as we exited our private
hotel shuttle. There was also a public shuttle
bus that ran every 10 minutes from outside our
hotel. Every day, you hopped on the bus with
your toasty boots and picked up your skis from
the smiling attendant and made your decision
on which lift to take. Or you could jump onto
a bus to Lech and Zurs, a short ride away.
About half of us ventured to the Rendl, where
we skied to empty chair lifts, neat ski routes
(runs marked with a red diamond stick in the
middle that are not groomed nor patrolled)
some of which were pretty easy and some
March-April 2012
Map of the Arlberg Ski Areas including St. Anton, Lech, and Zurs.
were bumped up, while others braved the
crowds on the Galzig. Some stoped at the
slopeside Mooserwirt Bar for après-ski but
eventually had to go to the next bar to get a
drink. They could not get near the bar at the
Mooserwirt. (The Mooserwirt sells more beer
than any other bar in Austria and can get very
crowded...Editor.)
Several participants ventured to Lech the
next day, with al start in Zurs -- again, no
crowds! They even had an eight-seater chair
that was empty. I was wondering why they
needed it when I found out that those who
went later in the week saw crowds; oh well,
some days you are lucky and some days you
are not. Anyway, Lech had some challenging
ski routes, one or two I would not have found
-- Volkswagen moguls that were anything but
soft and round, in between narrow canyons.
The snow gods did not shower us with fresh
powder during our stay, but we had the next
best thing -- sunshine and blue skies the entire
week. Lunch outside was a tough choice; so
was deciding which beach chair to park yourself on the mountain.
We had some interesting events, such as an
Estonian who not only went into the sauna
naked (the norm in Europe) but walked down
the hallway to the sauna naked.
The nightlife did not wane all week, as we
had a few table dancers during après-ski at
Huesdadl with its live music every day and the
Krazy Kanguruh with it’s raucous crowd. Fat
Tuesday was the best, we even got the crowd
shouting “New Jersey, New Jersey” when one
of our members got up and danced rather
wildly with a lovely Scottish lass. One thing
that is really neat about Europe is that you are
everyone's friend no matter who you are or
where you are from.
On Thursday, we had a party in a couple of
March-April 2012
Courtesy of St. Anton Ski Area.
hotel rooms and almost everybody wore their
Fall Line turtlenecks for photos.
On Friday, we boarded a train to Innsbruck
for some sightseeing, including the historic
side streets, the famous golden roof, castles,
and churches.
Saturday morning we were greeted by
Hans, our driver, who took the back way to
Munich in a record three hours. There we
checked into the Historic Hotel Torbrau in rec-
The National Ski Club Newsletter
ord time and quickly made our way to the virtual market just a block away. The pedestrian
zone, The Marienplatz, was just two blocks
away and so was the Hofbrauhaus. Everything
was at our fingertips. The climb up the 309
steps to the top of St. Peters Church was because of the vistas -- all of Munich surrounded
by blue skies and you could even see the
Olympic stadium from there.
The Residenz Museum, home to German
kings until 1918, and Deutsches Mesium, one
of the world’s largest and most important natural science and technical cllections were
must-sees for many of us.
All 34 of us made it to the Hofbraushaus at
some point and sightseeing in Munich means
seeing the Glockenspiel turn at five p.m. or at
11 a.m. on Sunday morning.
A ski trip to Europe is always an adventure
with new experiences, fun, and comaraderie
along the way -- and this trip did not disappoint. If you did not know what the German
word Gemutlichkeit meant before the trip, you
did after the trip -- warm friendliness, and
good nature experienced by all. It’s a place
where nationalities don’t matter, only the
search for a good time and a pleasant experience. Yes, we all experienced gemutlichkeit!
Auf widersehen! Bis spatter.
Page 7
Utahʼs Canyons:
TRIP REPORT
Pennsylvaniaʼs Flying Dutchmen Find a New Favorite Ski Resort
By Lori and Stacey Kramer, Co-Trip Chairs, Flying Dutchman Ski Club
From their Ski Trails
Skiers under Utahʼs Canyonsʼ signature orange bubble-top, high-speed quad chairlift. Photo: Courtesy of Canyons Resort.
A small group of Flying Dutchman arrived
at the Canyons’s Grand Summit Hotel on February 26, 2011 where we were greeted with a
welcome reception and met our hosts for the
week.
The majority of the group took a guided
mountain tour the first day and, with so much
to do in the Park City area, the week just flew
by. We skied several days at the Canyons, then
Park City Mountain Resort, and then Deer Valley -- although I believe that The Canyons was
everybody’s favorite. The resort had some exciting new features, the most obvious of which
was their bubble lift with heated seats and orange colored plastic weather covers, but they
also had an additional 300 acres of ski terrain,
the only kosher restaurant at a U.S. ski resort,
and a European-style ski beach -- all making
Utah’s largest ski resort even bigger and better
than ever!
Each day, most of us managed to find a few
après-ski activities to keep us busy, including
happy hours, relaxing in the Grand Summit’s
big pool and hot tubs, and enjoying the many
restaurants, bars, and shops that the Canyons
and main street of Park City had to offer. The
Canyons, the Grand Summit, and Park City
were wonderful and everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Enjoy our spa and all of the uplifting
amenities of Breckenridge’s
biggest resort.
SKI-IN/SKI-OUT LOCATION · THE SPA AT BEAVER RUN
TWO HEATED POOLS · SEVEN HOT TUBS · EXERCISE ROOM
SAUNA & STEAM ROOM · RESTAURANTS AND BARS
IN-TOWN SHUTTLE · MEETING AND WEDDING FACILITIES
Welcome Lori Adis, our new Ski Club Sales Specialist
Call 970-453-8714 for 2012 Hot Dates
800.288.1282 · BeaverRun.com
March-April 2012
The National Ski Club Newsletter
Page 9
RESORT REVIEW
Chileʼs Valle Nevado
By Peter Porton, President
Pentagon Ski Club
The base area facilities at Valle Nevado. Photo: Courtesy of Valle Nevado.
Valle Nevado is on the windward side of the
Andes, the longest mountain chain in the
world and containing the highest mountain
outside Asia, Aconcagua. The Valle Nevado
ski resort has some of the highest quality snow
in Chile because of its high location with a
base at 9,450 feet -- with almost 3,000 feet of
skiing above the base area. The resort was created by the French in the late 1980’s and the
modern buildings, hotels, and equipment, like
the Andes Express, (the only high-speed lift in
South America) , are the most advanced in the
Southern Hemisphere. Valle Nevado is also
connected with two other major resorts, La
Parva and El Colorado. The area covers 2,000
acres and is served by eight lifts. The skiing is
mostly above tree level and the ski day is from
9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The sun rises about 7 a.m. and
it stays light for 11 to 12 hours a day.
It’s located 37 miles and 40 switchback
turns from Santiago’s International Airport
amidst incredibly breathtaking landscapes in
the Andes. It is also the gateway to the largest
skiable acreage in the southern hemisphere.
There are three hotels, apartments, six ethnic
restaurants, bars, pubs, a disco, and a heated
pool.
Next door, La Parva has a beautiful view to
the valley of Santiago and 24 miles of trails
served by14 lifts and is interconnected with
Valle Nevado. There is a nominal additional
charge to ski at La Parva.
El Colorado Ski Center goes from 7,970
feet to 10,930 feet above sea level and consists
of two villages. It has 25 miles of trails served
by 18 lifts.
In addition to the resorts, there is also heliskiing and helitouring from Valle Nevado.
The Pentagon Ski Club’s trip in early September also included one-and-a-half days visiting Santiago, the capital of Chile.
Belalp, Valais. In the background the Matterhorn
Valais – Matterhorn Region.
If you love winter you will love the Valais! Majestic peaks
frame this winter sports arena. The beauty is boundless
and the ski runs are guaranteed to be snow-covered!
Sample Alpine Adventures / SkiEurope
group arrangement
Zermatt, Hotel Perren, $1529 per person
Includes:
- Round-trip flight economy class on Swiss
International Air Lines from JFK to Geneva
- Arrival assistance at Geneva airport
- Round-trip ground transfers by private motor
coach and shuttle vans into Zermatt
- 7 nights accommodation at 3* Hotel Perren
based on double occupancy
- Welcome orientation meeting
- Buffet breakfast and dinner daily
- All local taxes and service charges
- One complimentary package (air and land) for
each 20 paying participants
Not included:
- Current air taxes and fuel surcharges (currently
$545), Lift tickets, Drinks with dinners, Items
of personal nature
Prices are group net rates, per person based on
low season winter 2011/12. Other hotels and
departures from all major US airports available.
Page 10
The National Ski Club Newsletter
March-April 2012
Snow cover guaranteed.
Majestic glaciers and 13,000 feet high
peaks not only offer a perfect backdrop,
they also guarantee snowfall. The majority of our winter resorts are situated at
over 5,000 feet and 9 ski regions lie at
over 10,000 feet – this is where winter is at
home!
Variety.
Aside from skiing there are hundreds of miles of cross-country ski trails, winter hiking
paths, snowshoe trails, and sledding runs
available for snow enthusiasts. There are
lots of snow parks and trend sports, such
as snowkiting or ice climbing.
Wining and dining.
Relax after a day on and off the slopes and
choose from a wide range of outstanding
dining options: a delicious bite of nourishing dried meat, dried bacon, homemade sausage, cheese with Valais‘ own
rye bread. And there is always traditional
raclette or fondue!
For reservations and information visit ski-europe.com or call 1-800-333-5533.
For snow reports, news and events please visit www.valais.ch.
Meetup:
SKI CLUB MANAGEMENT
You Should Already
Be Using It
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
Wikipedia describes Meetup as “an online
social networking portal that facilitates offline
group meetings in various localities around the
world. Meetup allows people who have signed
up for the service to find and join groups unified by a common interest, such as politics,
books, games, movies, health, pets, careers or
hobbies. Users enter their zip code or their city
and the topic they want to meet about and the
website helps them arrange a place and time
to meet.” Nine million people visit the site
each month and 1.5 million of those people
sign up for some kind of event or meetup.
There is no charge for people searching for or
signing up to participate in events.
Signing up as an organizer of a meetup
group is extremely easy and very inexpensive.
Just go to http://www.meetup.com/create/basics/, fill out the simple form, and agree to pay
the site $12 a month (billed and renewed automatically on a semi-annual basis at $72, but
that is cancelable at any time).
When I checked to see how many of the
meetup groups were formed for people to go
skiing as of the first of January, there were 628
groups formed around going on a ski trip together, most of which were located in the United
States who announced 3,294 trips ranging from
weekend to ski weeks. A total of 22,274 replied
and said that they would like to go on those
trips! These groups included a mixture of ski
clubs, small tour operators, and people who just
decided to put a group ski trip together.
There are also more than 10,000 Meetup
groups formed around meeting new people as
well as there are 4,932 groups organized
around some form of travel -- both of which
are often one of the reasons that many of your
current members initially joined your ski club.
Hey, there were 77 travel groups within a few
miles of Englewood, Colorado! Go to
http://travel.meetup. com/cities/us/ and see
how many there are near your hometown.
From the appearance of the photographs
that accompanied the respondent’s RSVPs to
these events, many, if not most, of the folks
that responded were in their 20s, 30s, and 40s
and they were all looking for other people with
whom they can ski, travel, and perhaps socialize. Meetup would seem to be a natural way
for America’s ski clubs to get new and younger
members. Try it!
Page 12
New York Cityʼs Skimegameetup
SKI CLUB MANAGEMENT
Consider Taking the Train to U.S. Ski Resorts
From the New York Ski Councilʼs Newsletter
New York’s Ski and Snowboard Mega
Meetup happy hours were organized by an independent trip organizer with the assistance of officers of the Hoboken and Mogul Meister Ski
Clubs. These were happy hours attended by
more than 200 prospective members who listened to six ski trip presentations and saw several table top displays of ski club trips at happy
hours at a local bar on January 10 and February
7.
Billed on Meetup as a “free tour of up to 25
ski trips from different ski clubs and a ski show”,
over 200 local skiers RSVPed to attend -- and
most of those who showed photos of themselves
in their RSVP were in their 20s to 40s.
Clubs in the area were invited to sign up and
to sell or list their ski trips in the “Mega Ski Trip
Directory” that was distributed at the events.
Ski clubs included in the event announcement included Diamond Dogs, Hoboken Ski
Club, Miramar Ski Club, Mogul Meisters,
New York Ski Club, Westchester Skiers and
Riders, and Ski the World With NYE Women
Friends (the event sponsor). For more infor-
Haven’t tried Amtrak yet? If you are within
an hour’s drive of an Amtrak Station, are
weary and wary of another close-confines airline flight to your chosen ski destination, try
taking your club by train. Timken Ski Club
(OH) has found it to be a relaxing, pleasant
way to journey to three different venues in the
last three years. It started with a trip to Winter Park, CO in 2010 that was documented previously in this publication. In February of
from The Timken Ski Club
Canton, Ohio
2011, a train contingent of 24 people united
with 24 plane travelers at Whitefish, MT, for a
week at the Lodge at Whitefish Lake to ski
Whitefish. Twenty of the train travelers were
repeats from the Winter Park trip. It was a
long ride to Montana from Ohio, but the entire
group enjoyed the freedom the train offered.
Sleeper cabins, good food courtesy of the
“meals included” feature, the observation car,
the bar car and the ability to walk the train,
All aboard the ski train.
www.brundage.com
The National Ski Club Newsletter
March-April 2012
March-April 2012
The National Ski Club Newsletter
Photo: NSCN.
doze off in your cabin or to be as active as you
choose appealed to all the group. So much so
that before we even reached Whitefish, many
of the participants were asking where we were
going to by train next season.
Whitefish was a great ski destination.
Crowds were non-existent, people were
friendly, and the slopes provided more than
enough vertical and challenge for all skier
types. The Lodge at Whitefish Lake was a
beautiful place to stay with a lovely view of
the lake and mountain, a great bar, and a nice
restaurant. Our lodging hosts were tremendous
and their free shuttle to both the slopes and
downtown kept us in motion.
In response to the train traveling group’s
question as to where we go next, we are
headed to Killington, VT, this season for a
week at Killington/Pico…by train: Cleveland
to Schenectady with a train change and on to
Rutland, VT, via the Ethan Allen Express, and
a quick bus ride to the Pinnacle Condos at
Killington. Transportation from our parking
area to Cleveland, round-trip Amtrak service,
5 days skiing, and 5 nights one bedroom condo
lodging all included for $659. This trip filled
36 spots in three days after being advertised.
Club members are already asking where we
are going in 2013, by train. Hmm…
Other ski destinations that are easy to reach
by train are Taos, Snowmass/Aspen,
Schweitzer, the Salt Lake areas, Washington,
and other Vermont areas. If you are in a rush
to get there, train travel is not for you. If you
are looking for a new adventure, check it out!
Page 13
SKI CLUB MANAGEMENT
The Search For Ski Club Accounting Software
By Michael Finegold, Board Member and Webmaster
Upper Cape Ski Club (MA)
As a 25-year member and current board
member of our ski club I have been involved
with many projects. The single item that irritated me the most was the amount of time it
took to run our club. Statistics and data were
hard to compile and involved laborious surveys
or scanning through the club checkbook for information. Membership checks and trip checks
were all collected by hand and frequently passed
from person to person providing room for error.
After viewing the website of a neighboring club
that was using software to run itself, I began a
search to find a solution for our club. Excel
spreadsheets just weren’t going to do the job
any longer. After finding relatively little aimed
at the running of a club we ended up using the
same software as our neighboring club -- a little
known Canadian outfit called Wild Apricot.
A recent informal survey I conducted by visiting more than 100 ski club websites revealed
that more than 80% of clubs had things like
membership and trip applications printed via
PDF’s, filled out by the member and mailed to
the appropriate person for payment or record
keeping. This becomes a real effort as a club approaches 100 members and a truly major chore
if the club has 500 members.
The software from Wild Apricot worked
fairly well for our club but still doesn’t do
everything. For example, breaking the payments into two or three parts is desirable but our
software doesn’t easily accommodate this.
Splitting the payments can be done but we give
up an automated count of attendees, puting
more burden on the trip leader to maintain an
accurate count. Another drawback was that a
training program for the software should have
been set up for the trip leaders.
All clubs can explore the benefits that software which can provide the ease of communicating to all club members information like
meeting announcements, changes to the trip
schedule, and reminders to sign up for trips or
meetings. Even the most avid member will occasionally forget an important function or timeline so a quick reminder via a mass e-mail is a
huge benefit to the club.
Most important of all, is the automated collection of dues, trip fees, and meeting costs are
a huge benefit to the treasurer. It’s now easy to
see how many members the club has this year
versus last year and exactly who they are.
Those who didn’t sign up can easily be sent an
e-mail reminding them to do so.
The Wild Apricot software costs around $540
a year for the license -- plus credit card and or
PayPal fees run about 2.2% plus 30 cents per
transaction. A club that takes in $100,000 a year
between membership and dues could easily generate $2,500 to $3,000 in fees as an expense.
Some software systems allow for manual payment so that club members can still send in a
check if they wish and in the process that club
will avoid the fees that the banks, credit card
company, or PayPal charges -- which should be
taken into consideration before a club automates.
I believe that club software is a good investment as it frees up board members, trip leaders,
and others to work more efficiently at doing
those duties that are really important, such as increasing club membership, maintaining a fun atmosphere for members, and enjoying the club
themselves. After all isn’t that why we joined?
To have a good time ourselves? Wild Apricot
can be reached at http://register.wildapricot.
com/?refcode=M7Q8J.
Does anyone else out there have a software
program that may do these jobs better? If so,
America’s ski clubs would like to hear from
you...Editor.
SKI CLUB MANAGEMENT
Market Ski Club Trips on Value
Provide a Quality Experience
By Jo Simpson, National Ski Council Federation
Ski trips are a prime activity for many ski
clubs. This is especially true of clubs in areas
far from skiing and riding opportunities. Club
members, however, have many travel options.
So how do clubs complete with discount packages offered by resorts and others?
The National Ski Council Federation brings
ski council presidents from across the nation
and representatives from ski resorts, tour operators, and service providers together yearly to
discuss items of mutual interest. A chief topic
of these meetings is club and council trips.
Industry and council leaders agree that clubs
and councils should market trips as a good value
for money spent. Going on a club trip can be
compared to gassing up a car at the full service
pump instead of self-service.
Pack your bags and show up at the airport
where the trip leader hands you a plane ticket
and off you go. Board a bus at the destination
airport to the resort where the trip leader gives
you lodging keys and lift tickets. No searching
the Internet for the best package, arranging air
and ground transportation, and searching for
your lodging in the dark on arrival.
Bus trips can also be lots of fun if you are
within a few hours of a resort. They can be less
expensive than air trips and provide a rolling
party to the slopes. U-drive trips are another
popular option for short distance trips.
Use the bus ride to the resort for introductions. Have a mixer on arrival to let participants
unwind and get further acquainted or reconnected. Resorts often provide a wine and cheese
reception. If not, check ahead of time with the
resort or tour operator about a nearby bar that
can accommodate your group.
Skiing or riding is a more enjoyable experience on a club trip. Members can link up with
people of similar skiing or riding ability, meet
up with more friends at lunch and make plans
for dinner. Some clubs include dinners, sleigh
rides and other activities in trip packages.
As clubs and councils begin planning trips
for next season, survey members to learn where
they would like to go and what price points they
are willing to pay. Programs are available to create online surveys that don’t require higher
Jo Simpson, NSCF.
Photo: NSCN
order computer skills.
Provide participants with a quality experience. Remember, you are selling the trip based
on value. Trip leaders can make or break a trip.
Choose them carefully. Train potential trip leaders by having them assist experienced trip leaders. Have them lead a small trip before taking
on a larger, more complicated one.
People often are attracted to join a club because of the variety of trips offered. If they have
a good experience, they will become loyal
members for many years and may take an active role. Trips are a great way to attract “new
blood” into a club.
EXPERIENCE
bonjourquebec.com/ski
for the best ski packages
JASEY-JAY ANDERSON
CANADIAN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST AND
WORLD SNOWBOARD CHAMPION
Page 14
The National Ski Club Newsletter
March-April 2012
March-April 2012
bonjourquebec.com/ski
The National Ski Club Newsletter
Page 15
IDEAS From Other Clubs
Boat that is used as a hotel and bicycles.
Photo: NSCN.
San Diego Ski Club (CA)
Two Bike and Boat Trips in Europe
The San Diego Ski Club hosted two bike
and boat trips down the Danube from Passau,
Germany to Budapest, Hungary -- one in September and a second trip in October 2011. The
September trip included a three-day post-trip
in Munich for Oktoberfest and the October trip
featured a tour of Neuschwanstein Castle and
another to Dachau, with a post trip to Prague.
Tampa Bay Ski Club (FL)
All Communications to be Via E-mail
The Tampa Bay Ski Club will no longer
mail meeting notices and other club information to members by U.S. mail but will now
communicate exclusively via E-mail.
Torrey Pines Ski Club (CA)
Tour of San Diego Airport
After a ski club meeting presentation about
the San Diego Airport, this club decided to
take a free two-hour tour of the airport to see
what’s new and interesting. Half of the event
was a walking tour and the other half was
aboard a bus.
Colorado Mountain Club (CO)
Climb Russiaʼs Mount Elbrus
The Colorado Mountain Club is planning their
8th trip to climb Russia’s Mt. Elbrus, Russia’s
highest mountain at 18,510 feet above sea
level in August. Located in the Caucasus
Mountains of southern Russia, Elbrus is one
of the fabled Seven Summits and offers a
strenuous, but not overly difficult climb for
those who know how to use an ice axe and
crampons and are familiar with roped team
travel. The $3,085 trip includes domestic airfare within Russia, all lodging and most
meals, ground transportation, guide fees, and
Russian visa, and all permit fees, as well as a
city tour of Moscow at the end of the trip -but it does not include international air travel.
Page 18
GM Ski Club (MI)
Black and White Halloween Party
This club held themed Halloween party
where the only rule was to be dressed in black
and white. It could be a costume, formal wear,
ghouls in black and white or even casual, participants just had to make sure that the colors
they wore were black and white.
Suburban Ski Club (OH)
Erie Shore Ski Club (OH)
Suburban Ski Club (OH)
Joint Trip to Jay Peak/Stowe
These clubs have joined forces for a bus trip
to ski Jay Peak for four days and one day at
Stowe Mountain Resort. The $899 price includes a two-hour daily group lesson at Jay,
ice round-trip bus, accommodations, and five
breakfasts and six dinners and the use of Jay
Peak’s new 60,000 square foot indoor water
park and lift tickets.
Baltimore Ski Club (MD)
Copper Mountain/Winter Park Ski Trip
The Baltimore Ski Club is hosting a Copper Mountain and Winter Park Combination
ski trip in March. The club will stay in Copper Mountain and use a chartered bus to take
the participants to Winter Park.
Bayou City Outdoors (TX)
Multi Sport Winter Trip
Each year, this Houston club runs a multisport trip to Grand Lake, Colorado, for that
town’s Winter Festival. They try everything from
snowshoeing to ski, visiting hot springs, and
joining in the town’s festivities! While they’ve
been known to even place in the teapot curling
competition, sitting by a warm fire sipping hot
cocoa is also one of their favorite pastimes!
Idaho Falls Ski Club (ID)
Promote Skiing Locally
The Idaho Falls Ski Club sponsors ski
scholarship program in local school districts
to help under privileged student to experience
the sport of down hill skiing -- and they sponsor the Kelly Canyon Ski Team which helps
local children learn and develop ski racing
techniques.
Peoria Ski Club (IL)
Partnering with Park District Clubs
This club encourages its members to participate in a tour company tours and an organization called 50 Rocks (age 50+ adult group) to
expand the opportunities for club members to
meet new people in the city. The three organizations are members of the local Park District.
IDEAS From Other Clubs
Up-the-Creek Ski Club (CO)
Date Night For Couples
Since 70% of their members are single, it’s
tempting to ignore the 30% who are married or
in a relationship, so this club holds date nights
-- movies, dinners, etc. -- for those members
who may not attend happy hours or other primarily singles events.
Boston Ski and Sports Club (MA)
Ski Dating
Boston Ski and Sports Club is a very large forprofit club and they recently held a Ski Dating
event -- advertising in local media with a weekend day trip to Mt. Snow for single members and
non-members to not only ski, but mingle with
other winter-minded folks at an après-ski event
with drinks, icebreakers, and games.
Armadillo Ski Club (TX)
What to Bring on a Ski Trip
In a recent newsletter article, the Armadillo
Ski Club of Beaumont, Texas, reminded their
members to carry the following when skiing.
Trail map, fog cloth, lip balm, sunscreen, cell
phone, snack, water, whistle, headband or
scarf, tissues, wallet with money, credit card,
and a medical insurance card.
The Scottsdale Ski Club (AZ)
Designated Driver Program
The Scottsdale Ski Club has a designated
driver program and policy that states that if a
guest at one of their functions is unable to
drive safely from an event, that guest should
contact a board member or the event captain
who will arrange transportation for them.
Members are also requested to look out for
each other and guests and assist any participant
who appears to need help with transportation.
Rocky Mountain Over the Hill Gang (CO)
Travel Photo Dinner
These guys have asked five members to
prepare photo presentations on their recent
travels done outside the club. Two presentations will be done before dinner and three will
be done after dinner.
Erie Shore Ski Club (OH)
Tour China and Hong Kong in May
These guys will tour Beijing, Xi’an, Shanhai, and cruise the Three Gorges of the Yangtze
River with a post-trip to Hong Kong in May
for $789. The $3,099 trip includes airfare from
Cleveland and excursions to the Great Wall of
China, the Terra Cotta Warriors and horses in
Xi’an, and the Three Gorges Dam.
5
OUR EQUIVALENT OF THE
FOUNTAIN OF YOUTH.
®
Ski Town, U.S.A.
Telluride -- the front of the mountain and town below.
Photo by Alan Cuenca and courtesy of Telluride Resort.
The Peoria Ski Club (IL)
Take the Train to Telluride
The Peoria Ski Club is taking the train from
Galesburg, Illinois, to Grand Junction, Colorado, for a ski trip in March. The 37 participants also occupied every room in the Aspen
Street Inn, a small family-owned and -run
hotel, while on the trip. While the train is becoming more and more popular with ski clubs
who have access to the lines, this is the first
time that we have seen Telluride Resort as a
train destination.
The Dayton Ski Club (OH)
Chocolate and Champagne Party
A repeat of a popular party from last year,
this party was held in a member’s home and featured live piano music, a DJ, a chocolate extravaganza table, beer, wine, and, of course,
champagne. The price to attend: $20 per person.
The East Iowa Ski Club (IA)
Winter Outing on Local Golf Course
This club arranged for a January winter outing at a local golf course that included using
the snow-covered golf course for cross-country skiing and snowshoeing, then retiring to the
club’s bar for refreshments.
The Dallas Ski Club (TX)
So Whatʼs a Macho Party?
This Dallas area ski club throws an annual
Macho Party where the men prepare or cook
their favorite dish and the women bring the
wine. Held in a member’s home, attendance is
limited to 65.
Funny thing happens when you find
yourself waist-deep in our world famous
Champagne Powder® snow. You grin. You smile.
You hoot and holler. And you remember what it used
to be like before all that responsibility tracked you down.
NONSTOP JET SERVICE TO STEAMBOAT FROM 7 CITIES AND
CONVENIENT CONNECTIONS FROM OVER 230 AIRPORTS NATIONWIDE.
Call 877·255·2628 or visit Steamboat.com
STEAMBOAT, ONE OF NORTH AMERICA’S TOP SKI CLUB DESTINATIONS.
The National Ski Club Newsletter
March-April 2012
March-April 2012
The National Ski Club Newsletter
The Suffolk Skidaddlers (NY)
Dirctory Listing by First Names
This club has a membership listing arranged
by first names in the back of their membership
directory -- just in case you can’t remember
the last name of the guy you met last week.
Page 19
SKI COUNCIL NEWS
Whatʼs Happening Among the Councils?
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
Randy Lew, President of FWSA. Photo: Courtesy FWSA.
The 80th Annual Far West Ski Association
Convention will be in Ogden, Utah, June 7-10,
2012 hosted by the Intermountain Ski Council. The event will feature outdoor sports activities, their Snowsports Leadership
Academy, ski celebrities, a silent auction for
ski trips and travel, and the 6th Annual
Michael German Memorial Golf Tournament.
Meetings will be at the Ogden Eccles Conference Center with lodging at the Marriott and
Hampton Inn & Suites -- both near the Conference Center.
The first Far West Film Fest will also be
held in conjunction with the convention. The
Film Fest, benefiting various charitable organizations, will feature CAN DO: The Legacy
of Jimmie Heuga; Ready To Fly, the women's
ski jumping film staring Lindsey Vonn; and
The Movement a film produced by Kurt Miller
on physically challenged athletes.
The Texas Ski Council is offering a linked
partner program on their website to make it
easier for council and club members to click
directly on the councils’ partners’ websites
while on the council’s site. The fee for linking
from the Texas Ski Council’s website is $100
per year.
The Connecticut Ski Council’s Winter
Carnival will be held at Killington/Pico March
2-4, 2012. It’s a weekend of competition
among member-clubs in events such as downhill and cross-country racing, volleyball with
The National Ski Club Newsletter
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With over 5,300 acres of terrain, unparalleled events and endless nightlife, it’s no
surprise that Outside Magazine named Aspen/Snowmass “the world’s greatest ski town.”
We send The National Ski Club Newsletter free to
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The National Ski Club Newsletter
To receive The National Ski Club Newsletter, please fill out
and mail this form to P.O. Box 4704, Englewood, CO 80155
or e-mail the information to wilbanks@ski-club.net.
Thanks. Bob Wilbanks, editor.
March-April 2012
Contact Group Sales Today!
800-525-6200 / gsales@aspensnowmass.com
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SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
Vail Resortʼs EpicMix Photos Changes the Way
Skiers Take, Purchase, and Share Ski Photos
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
BOOK YOUR GROUP BY
AUGUST 31, 2012 FOR
WINTER 2012.13 FOR THE
BEST
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p: Eric Berger
Vailʼs Mountain Remix format can show information about your trips -- including the name of your club.
Photo and collage: Courtesy of Vail Resorts.
When it comes to ski photography, skiers
have historically had to choose between carrying a camera which can be heavy and uncomfortable or relying upon the on-mountain
photographers who take posed individual or
group photos in a predetermined scenic spot.
Then you go to the photographer’s shop and
rummage through today’s photos for your
photo or perhaps you take a card with the
photo’s number on it. There have been some
improvements in cell-phone cameras but the
quality is usually only acceptable if you are
only going to use your photos on the web.
This season, Vail Resorts has made a significant improvement in both on-mountain photography and the way which your images are
distributed and viewed. Starting this season,
EpicMix photographers is able to capture action photos of guests at select locations on the
slopes at all six mountains – Vail, Beaver
Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly and
Northstar as guests ski or ride in marked areas
near an EpicMix photographer, they capture the
action and then scan the guests’ RF-enabled lift
ticket or pass. The photos are then automatically delivered to their EpicMix account to
share with friends and family or can be incorporated into a Remix collage.
One huge change in Vail’s photo-business
model is that if you only want low resolution
March-April 2012
photos to post to Facebook, Twitter, or other social media, the photos are free but, if you want
high-resolution photos, you still only pay
$19.95 per photo -- and then only for those photos that you select. The photos are then ported
to your Flicker, Shutterfly, or other photo-sharing account. You own the photo and you can
print it as big, small, or as often as you like.
From a money-making viewpoint, it would
seem that Vail won’t be able to make as much
money on their ski photos -- but the resort says
that’s something Vail will trade for helping
their clients get more enjoyment out of their
vacation. Actually, it’s a lot better than that.
The new photo program borders on marketing genius in today’s tech-savvy and techdependent world. So far, this season’s new
EpicMix photos have resulted in more than
280,000 posts on Facebook and Twitter in just
the first few weeks of this season as skiers sent
a report about their ski trip back to their
friends. That’s more than all last season’s social posts about the six resorts combined -- and
half of this year’s posts contained photos!
Facebook says that the average Facebook
user account has 130 friends, so those first few
weeks of posts resulted in 36 million social
posts about Vail’s resorts during early season
as their clients literally became the resorts’ best
sales people on the web. Everybody wins!
The National Ski Club Newsletter
As a result of this and other programs,
guest activations of EpicMix accounts are already up by almost 40% -- and it’s only 5 % of
the way through the season.
The Mountain Remix collage on the
EpicMix online site allows guests to combine
their on-mountain EpicMix photos with their
stats, such as days skied and vertical feet with
their favorite digital pins they’ve earned, along
with other selected information like snow totals, into a single picture file or “jpeg” creating
a completely one-of-a-kind Remix collage.
The Remix will be a single snapshot of their
perfect ski day, vacation, or season that guests
can then share on Facebook and Twitter with
friends and family.
Vail Resorts limits the availability of highresolution images for guest download to 30
days from the date the photo is taken but lowresolution images for sharing on social sites
aren’t subject to the 30-day expiration.
Clubs Can Use the EpicMix
Program and Social Media
to Recruit New Members
Vail has accumulated 36 million social visits
from 280,000 posts on social-sharing media.
Put that in perspective for your club. If each of
the 42 people on your next trip to Vail, Beaver
Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Heavenly, or
Northstar-at-Tahoe took advantage of this program and placed a collage showing how much
fun their ski club trip was, and if each of your
participants had 130 friends as Facebook
claims, that could be in excess of 5,000 folks
reading about the fun that participants had skiing with your club. Multiply that by five trips
a year and you have over 25,000 people hearing
why they should join your ski club. We continually hear how the use of social media can help
ski clubs and, while such articles can inform us
how to tell America about our clubs in the abstract, this is a concrete example of just how
you can use social media -- as well as the tools
provided to your club by Vail to accomplish the
goal of getting more new members. If you’re
going to one of Vail’s resorts, help your participants sign up for EpicMix and encourage them
to get their photos taken, and then post the pictures or perhaps a photo collage on Facebook.
When was the last time you were able to tell
25,000 people about your ski club at no cost?
Page 23
Breckenridgeʼs Ullr Fest
is a Major Street Party
Breckenridge’s city council passes an ordinance setting aside the town’s open container law for the week of Ullr Festival each year, so it’s a major
street costume party -- with some of the locals going all out in full Viking regalia but most of the tourists were holding a Bud Light and wearing hats
that ranged from free Viking horned paper hats to fancy $60 Viking hats made by a local, Laren Lewsadder, and sold at Hand & Glove on Main Street.
The highlight of the week is Thursday, when there’s a parade held at 4:30 p.m. with more Viking costumes, hats, kegs, and people throwing candy from
the floats. Historically this was followed by a burning of last year’s skis but today, it’s followed by a wood bonfire in the town’s main public parking
lot -- and more parties at just about every bar in town. You don’t have to wear a Viking hat at Ullr Fest -- but that’s really part of the week’s fun. Monday’s events include the crowning of the Ullr King and Queen at 5:30 p.m., then there’s a bonfire. Tuesday, they hold the Ullympics -- a series of
winter sports events. There’s a on-the-street dating game on Wendsday. Friday is comedy night and there’s a chile cook-off on Saturday afternoon.
Next year, January 6-12 will mark the 50th anniversary of the event, so Ullr Fest parade on January 10 is sure to be a major event at the resort.
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
Zip Lines Pop Up All Over at North American Ski Resorts
up to 60 miles per hour as you parallel the 120
meter Nordic Jump facility. They claim that
it’s the steepest zip line in the world!
The Winter Ziptour at Canyons resort is
new this season and travels more than 200 feet
above the canyon floor using three lines.
Riding Park City’s ZipRider you can soar
100 feet above the treetops at up to 45 miles
per hour as you race your friends to see who’s
the fastest -- or you can ride tandem on the allnew Soaring Eagle Zip.
Schweitzer Mountain Resort in Northern
Idaho has side-by-side 700-foot zip lines for
winter use for $12 -- or $20 for two trips.
Flying over the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb Mountains.
Zip line rides consist of a strong cable, a
paragliding harness, and a pulley -- some with
brakes and some without -- powered only by
gravity that you ride through the trees in what
feels a lot like free-flight. The concept originated in Brazil where they were known as
canopy tours; then it became popular in Costa
Rica and it’s now moving into North American
ski resorts -- and many of them are open during
ski season! Typically, participants must weigh
less than 240 to 270 pounds but more than 50
to 60 pounds. Zip liners usually wear helmets
and hiking or snow boots and should try this
activity only if they are in good physical condition. Here are the resorts in North America
that we have spotted offering or about to offer
zip line tours during the ski season.
Canada
The original and largest zip line system at a
North American ski resort has to be Whistler’s
Ziptrek which offers tours that range from twoand-a-half hours, with five ziplines and four
treetop bridges, to four-and-a-half hours, covering 10 ziplines and nine treetop bridges. But
even their shortest tour includes a ride on a
2,000-foot run that drops over 20 stories in the
narrow valley between Whistler and Blackcomb. Prices range from $129 to $199 and
group rates are available.
In the Western U.S.
Heavenly’s two-cable, 3,325-foot-long
ZipRider at starts at the top of the Tamarack
Page 26
Photo: Courtesy of Ziptrek Ecotours.
chair, lands near the top of the gondola, then
drops over 500 vertical feet at an average percent grade of 15.8%. For people who don’t ski
or snow board, it’s a fun way to enjoy the thrill
of zooming down the mountain at up to 50
miles an hour.
Kirkwood is offering Zip Tahoe, a zipline
tour that includes eight different lines and several suspension bridges up to 80 feet up in the
trees. Reserve tours are available year round
and offer spectacular views of the Sierra.
During ski season, Zip Tahoe has two tours
scheduled daily.
Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s Zipline
Tour includes five zip lines ranging from 120
to 400 feet connected by features or “events”
such a suspended wood bridges and towering
platforms is about a one-and-one-half to twohour-long experience and cost $59 -- although
there is a 5% discount if you buy in advance.
The Purgatory Plunge at Durango Mountain Resort is named for the sensation of literally plunging off the initial tower as zip
liners begin the adventure. The two parallel
zip lines travel 420 feet at speeds of up to 35
miles per hour starting at the top of the Purgatory Village tower in the resort’s main plaza,
then going over Purgy’s Bear Bar and then
over Purgatory Beach. Rides are $25 each.
When skiing in the Pak City area, you have
three choices for zip lining after a day of skiing.
Utah Olympic Park’s Extreme is more like
a series of four single chairlifts that plunge
1,500 feet while dropping 500 feet at speeds
The National Ski Club Newsletter
In the Eastern U.S.
New Hampshire’s Bretton Woods canopy
tour was the first zip line built in New England. The system has nine zip lines and a 75foot-long suspension bridge. Riders progress
to the Sky Rider Zipline Tour, which features
dual 1,500-foot zip lines that lets two riders
race each other -- a favorite among teenagers.
Then, the grand finale is the “White Knuckle
Pine’’ that has an 80-foot drop that gives riders
a 50-mile-per-hour high as they tear over the
tops of the trees. The three-hour tour is $110.
Gunstock's $1.5 million ZipTour opened in
November and is the longest zip line tour on
the Continental U.S. -- with a 1.5 mile total
span descending the full 1,404-foot vertical of
the New Hampshire ski area, starting at the
summit, connecting to Pistol Peak, then plummeting to the resort base in three segments.
At Sugarloaf in Maine, the zip line opened
in the summer of 2010 and has been a hit yearround. The resort has six zip lines that run
from 160 to 240 feet in a course that takes oneand-one-half to two hours for a rider to complete. And while it doesn’t require the physical
skills of skiing or snowboarding, it is certainly
not like a passive amusement ride.
Maine’s Sunday River has a six-zip line
course ranging from 100 to 300 feet each where
you can travel up to 25 miles per hour and a
side-by-side 750 foot zipline at their base area.
New York’s Hunter Mountain is in the
planning stages off constructing what will be
the highest zip line canopy ride in North
America with a 600-foot-high ride.
Vermont’s Smuggler’s Notch features a
year-round ArborTrek Canopy Adventures,
which gives riders up to 4,500 feet on zip lines
that cross sky bridges and forest canopy.
Sugarbush, Vermont, has an 800-foot zip
line that starts at Lincoln Peak above the Valley House Lodge and sends riders through the
March-April 2012
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
Schedule Post Trips Around City Events
By Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
air to a landing pad behind the Gate House.
While most ski club European trips include
a pre- or post-trip, often to a gateway city, consider checking out the event and cultural calendars of the your proposed destinations to see
if they coincide with an event that would be
interesting to your members. This idea was
prompted by an e-mail from VisitBerlin on
what’s going on there during ski season and
here’s a partial list of their events. Check for
next year’s dates at www.visit Berlin.com if
considering a post trip to Berlin.
New Yearʼs Eve at
Brandenburg
New Years Eve at Brandenburg Gate. Photo by
Gate
Wolfgang Scholvien
More than a miland Courtesy of VisitBerlin.
lion Berliners and
visitors gather at
Brandenburg Gate to
call in the New Year
and witness a dramatic fireworks display. The giant street
party features show
stages, DJ towers,
dance floors, a Ferris
March-April 2012
Berlinʼs Museum Island. Photo: Courtesy of Visit Berlin.
Weihnachtsmarkt am Gendarmenmarkt
Photo: Courtesy of Visit Berlin.
wheel, and delicacies from all over the world.
Christmas Fairs and Winter Magic
Berlin is home to about 60 Christmas markets, including Germany's largest fair in Spandau’s Old Town, the historic market at
Gendarmenmarkt square, and the nostalgic fair
at the Opernpalais Unter den Linden. Holiday
concerts, from classical to vaudeville, enhance
the spirit, while countless winter activities,
such a tobogganing and ice-skating, make for
unique urban winter experiences. More information and a calendar of events at http://visitberlin.de/en/feature/a-lot-of-christmas-celebra
The National Ski Club Newsletter
tions.
Long Night of Museums
On January 28, this year, Berlin’s popular
“Long Night of Museums” features around 100
large and small museums open their doors from
6 p.m. Saturday until 2 a.m. Sunday. Unique
music, theater, and culinary events are also part
of this unique experience. With one ticket, you
get unlimited use of a special shuttle service and
admission to all participating venues and events.
.Carnival in Berlin
On February 12, 2012, spectators and participants will attend the 11th annual Berlin Carnival Costume Parade. More than 600,000
spectators, most of them in colorful costumes,
line the streets every year to watch the parade
and collect sweets while another 3,000 participants in 100 groups, 60 floats, and numerous
marching bands make up the frolicsome parade
starts at 11:11 a.m., and moves through the
Western center of the German capital.
And remember, this idea can apply to most
Page 27
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
Free Fun in Colorado Ski Country
By Craig Bannister, CSCUSA, and Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
Think everything at a ski resort costs a lot of
money? It’s not so. Colorado ski resorts have
lots of free activities, amenities, and services
during ski season and we’ve listed a few of the
things you can do free at Colorado resorts.
Arapahoe Basin hosts free rail jams (snowboard trick contest over rails and other features)
throughout the season plus free live entertainment in the base area every Saturday in May.
Aspen/Snowmass offers first tracks to get
on the slopes before the lifts start running for
untracked powder and fresh groomers. Participants are required to have a lift ticket.
Free tours twice daily on all four mountains.
Free cup of Green Mountain Coffee at the
base of any of their four mountains, and free
hot cider at the top of any lift.
Events such as the X Games and World Cup
races where spectators attend free.
Free concerts sponsored by Bud Light are
held once a month throughout the season during key events and peak weekends.
Free sing-alongs on Mondays and storytelling sessions on Wednesdays at the Pokolodi
Lodge in Snowmass.
Beaver Creek hands out more than 400,000
free warm chocolate chip cookies and hot cocoa
to skiers each season. A guided two-hour tour
of Beaver Creek Mountain is available to intermediate and advanced skiers, and beginners
and intermediates may Ski With A Ranger on a
guided 45-minute ski tour of beginner and intermediate trails on Beaver Creek.
Kids may join the wild west characters of
the Buckaroo Bonanza Bunch for story time
Page 28
Aspenʼs Bud Light Concerts are held monthly throughout
the ski season. Photo: Courtesy of Aspen Skiing Co.
Copper Mountain offers free snowcat rides up XXXXX
Mountain at 10 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. on most ski days.
Photo: Courtesy of Copper Mountain Resort.
The National Ski Club Newsletter
on the hill and at Thursday Night Lights you
may participate in a glow stick ski-down set to
music and followed by a fireworks finale.
Breckenridge offers a long list of free festivals and events: Ullr Festival, Ice Sculpture
contest, Snow Sculpture contest, and
springfestival -- as well as numerous concerts
throughout the ski season.
Copper Mountain offers free snowcat
rides to Tucker Mountain from 10:00 a.m. to
1:30 p.m. on select days, from the base of the
Mountain Chief lift.
Meet the mountain guided snowshoe tours
of the area are offered twice weekly. Redfeather snowshoes and poles are provided free.
Guests who bring their own skates can take
a whirl around West Lake in The Village at
Copper free and rental skates are available.
Crested Butte offers free guided mountain
tours daily, complete with warm beverages.
On the weekends and holidays, enjoy fresh,
homemade shortbread, cookies, and cocoa.
Their mountain safety tent provides free sunscreen and water and they offer a free lift ticket
for your birthday if it falls during ski season.
On Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve
there’s a torch light parade and fireworks display and they offer a free shuttle between the
town of Crested Butte and Crested Butte
Mountain Resort and its condo areas.
Keystone offers complimentary mountain
tours with views of the Continental Divide,
Ten Mile Range and the Gore Range at 10:30
a.m. and 1:30 p.m. each day, or try Nordic skiing at their Nordic facility.
March-April 2012
Free half-hour introduction to snow biking
lessons in the Summit Learning Area.
Complimentary NASTAR Family Racingdaily at 10:30 a.m. each day at the Flying
Dutchman Race Arena.
Loveland provides helmets free of charge
with all children’s lesson packages and free lift
tickets to kids five and under.
There’s also a live music series on the Basin
Patio every weekend in March and April.
Child entertainment on select weekends
throughout the season ranges from magicians
and storytellers to musicians.
Monarch Mountain offers free lift tickets
to skiers and riders ages 69 and over as well
as for kids six and under.
Purgatory has a free play area where kids
can take a break from skiing to play in the snow.
Sunlight has a kids-ski-free program with
purchase of two adult lift tickets.
Steamboat offers ski with Billy Kidd, the
1964 Olympic Silver Medalist and World
Champion program that gives free pointers on a
run down Heavenly Daze, starting at 1 p.m. on
most days and Nelson Carmichael, the 1992
Olympic Bronze Medalist and two-time World
Cup Mogul Champion leads tours daily at 10:30
a.m. from the upper gondola terminal.
You can join a naturalist from the Yampatika’s Education Partnership for a free ski tour
with information on mountain habitat and its indigenous flora and fauna. at 1:30 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays and they offer guided
snowshoe tours daily at 1:00 p.m. from Gondola
Square along a one-mile loop from the top of
Steamboat gondola. Snowshoe rentals are not
included with the tour, but are available from
the Information Center in Gondola Square. Participants need a lift ticket or season pass.
March-April 2012
Above: Free hot chocolate, apple cider, and cookies at
Crested Butte Mountain Resort.
Photo: NSCN.
Below: Skiers at Keystone have their photograph taken
(for free) by one of the resortʼs EpicMix Photograpers.
Photo: Courtesy of Vail Resorts.
The National Ski Club Newsletter
Telluride provides free gondola transportation to guests travelling between the resort, the
Intercept parking lot, and the core of the
Mountain Village from 7 a.m. to midnight.
They also offer free mountain tours from
the top of Coonskin Lift at 10 a.m. daily and
guests may cross-country ski, snowshoe, and
sled in and around town as well as on 30 kilometers of Nordic trails along with miles of
snowshoeing trails, three ice rinks, and a sledding hill located in Telluride’s town park at no
charge. Rental equipment is available.
Vail’s Thursday evening concerts signal the
opportunity for guests to enjoy free music in
the streets of Vail as well as the popular Bud
Light Street Beat free concert series.
At Vail’s Adventure Ridge, you can try
horseshoes, bocce ball, bean bag toss, or the
new slackline park where kids and adults can
test their balance at a variety of levels. Children age four and up are invited to dig through
sand to uncover dinosaur bones and learn
about prehistoric creatures at an educational
display. Digging tools and a map are provided.
And, as noted in the article on page 23, all
Vail Resorts offer free photographs and collages for telling your friends on Facebook,
Twitter, etc., about your ski trip.
Wolf Creek offers a free one-hour tour of
their more challenging ski terrain for intermediate skiers and above. The resort also offers a
free Fun Race Series with more than two
dozen brackets on selected days throughout
the season, they provide a free snowcat shuttle
to their remote Horseshoe Bowl. There’s also
free access to a six-mile track, groomed for
Nordic skating, classic touring, as well as
snowshoeing.
Page 29
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
What Else Is Happening at North Americaʼs Ski Resorts?
By Patrick Thorne, AKA The Snow Hunter, and Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
Vail Mountain is constructing a new gondola to replace the 26-yearold Vista Bahn Express lift in Vail Village. Completion of the new gondola will coincide with Vail’s 50th anniversary in December 2012 -just in time for the opening of the 2012-2013 ski season. The state-ofthe-art gondola will even offer free Wi-Fi on board. It is, of course, subject to Town of Vail and U.S. Forest Service approval.
California’s Homewood Mountain Resort has received approval of
its redevelopment plan by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for the
first phase of the $500 million project that paves the way for a 75-room
hotel, a base village with an ice rink, and retail outlets. The resort also
hopes to also offer more condos and lift upgrades that will transform it
into a major destination resort, but several conservation groups have
filed lawsuits to prevent the expansion of the resort’s base area.
The Canadian province of Nova Scotia is the first province in
Canada and perhaps the first government entity in the world to require
compulsory helmet use for both adult and children skiers. Helmet wearing for children has been a legal requirement in France and Italy for
years and more recently in New Jersey -- but it had not been enforced
on adults anywhere else before.
The new law will put the responsibility on skiers and boarders rather
than the resorts to wear helmets. Those not wearing helmets could face
fines of up to $246 and inspectors will be sent to ski areas to enforce the
law and Ski areas must put up clear warning notices of the law. While
Nova Scotia has only four small ski hills, there have been 11 traumatic
brain injuries in as many years attributed to skiing or snowboarding
without a helmet there and it costs the government healthcare system
about $400,000 each per year to care for people with brain injuries.
Peak Resorts, Inc., has purchased Jack Frost Mountain and Big
Boulder Ski Area in Pennsylvania, from Blue Ridge Real Estate Company. Peak Resorts had leased and managed the ski resorts since 2005.
Peak Resorts operates 12 ski areas through the Midwestern, Northeastern, and Southeastern United States, including Attitash, Crotched
Mountain, and Wildcat in New Hampshire; Boston Mills/Brandy Wine
and Mad River in Ohio; Hidden Valley and Snow Creek in Missouri;
Mad Mount Snow in Vermont and Paoli Peaks in Indiana.
Mountain News Corporation, publisher of OnTheSnow sports online and mobile platform, has purchased SkiReport.com, creating an audience of more than 23 million visitors per year in 14 languages and 20
countries. Mountain News Corporation is a subsidiary of Vail Resorts,
Inc.
California’s Mt. Baldy has announced a unique membership program where skiers receive unlimited lift tickets all season. After a nominal $40.00 activation fee, members pay only monthly dues of $19.97.
The lifetime memberships are month-to-month, cancelable at any time
by the member, and allow members unlimited year-round access to the
mountain for skiing in the winter and mountain biking, hiking and sightseeing during the summer. Activation increases to $150.00 when the ski
area opened. For more information on the Mt. Baldy Membership program please go to www.MtBaldySkiLifts.com .
Schmitz Brothers, LLC, has purchased Wisconsin’s Little Switzerland Ski Area from Wayne Erickson. The new owners plan to invest
heavily in updating the resort and open for the 2012-13 ski season. Little Switzerland first opened in 1941, but has been closed since 2007.
Clubs hosting a trip to Mt. Bachelor will see “Welcome (your name
here) Ski Club” signs in the windows of about 20 Bend, Oregon, retailers, bars, and restaurants and those establishments will offer discounts to
Page 30
Eagles Eye Restaurant on Kicking Horse Mountain.
Photo: By Andrew Mirabito and courtesy of Kicking Horse Resort.
the club’s participants. It’s a project of the local Chamber of Commerce.
Resorts of the Canadian Rockies (RCR) has purchased Kicking
Horse Mountain Resort from Ballast Nedam who started the resort 11
years ago. Resorts of the Canadian Rockies is one of the largest resort
owners in North America and now owns six ski resorts in Canada, including Nakiska Ski Area in Alberta and Fernie Alpine Resort and Kimberley Alpine Resort in British Columbia. Kicking Horse Mountain
Resort is located two-and-a-half hours west of Calgary, between the
Purcell and Rocky Mountains in British Columbia. sees an average of
23 feet of powder a year, with 27 trails and 106 runs on 2,750 acres.
The NATIONAL SKI CLUB NEWSLETTER
March-April 2012
SKI INDUSTRY NEWS
What Else Is Happening at the Worldʼs Ski and Travel Industries?
By Patrick Thorne, AKA The Snow Hunter, and Bob Wilbanks, NSCN
Panorama view of the international skiing area Portes du Soleil above Champery in Switzerlandʼs Canton Valais.
Switzerland’s Davos Klosters will replace the long Brämabüel
draglift this winter with a new high-speed quad chairlift which will depart from the middle station of the Jakobshorn gondola to Brämabüel.
The new chairlift means that draglifts now only operate on Bolgen.
Champery on the Swiss side of the giant Portes-du-Soleil ski area
which stretches for 650km across the French-Swiss border, has a new
six-seater chairlift this winter which will make getting around the vast
ski area that little bit quicker and comfier. The new Grande-Conche
chair replaces a couple of old drag lifts, dramatically increasing capac-
March-April 2012
Photo: By Christof Sonderegger and courtesy of SwissImages.
ity, as well as comfort on the route for 1,900 to 3,000 skiers and boarders per hour. The 3km long lift ascends 450 vertical meters and cost an
eye-watering 13 million Swiss Francs (about $14.6 million!).
Italy’s Cortina d’Ampezzo has replaced one of the world’s few remaining single seat chairlifts with the new Alpe Potor-Nuvolau lift.
Cortina’s three ski areas are served by 33 lifts on 115km of piste with
95% snowmaking, all part of the wider Dolomiti Superski region with
1,220km of pistes and with 450 lifts on one lift ticket.
Skiing off the roof of your condo building is rarely recommended but
that’s exactly what the designers of a spectacular new condo complex
planned for the Finnish resort of Levi expect guests to do. The Danishbased architectural firm BIG Design has designed a series of buildings
that radiate out from a central square and whose ends touch the ground
to create four freestanding buildings that also provide access to the roof
-- allowing skiers to descend from the resort’s rooftop downhill in any direction. The idea was that the lower elevation location of the development meant that skiers and boarders would have had to pole or trudge
through the snow to reach the slopes, but by raising the height of the summit with the apartment building, skiers and boarders will have the momentum to keep sliding to the main slopes. Work will begin in 2013.
A new quad chairlift which opened at India’s Gulmarg this ski season may be the world’s highest yet at 14,107 feet above sea level, according to the resort. Gulmarg also claims to operate the world’s highest
gondola and to be the world’s highest ski area but, in fact, there are two
higher gondolas in China, serving rather rudimentary ski areas.
Club Med announced that it intends to open a second holiday village
in China’s Guilin province. The Paris-based company has signed a 10year accord with China Pao Shan, owner of the site, for the facility to
open this year and double to 300 rooms in 2013. Guilin, famed for its
scenery, is one of China's top tourist destinations, attracting 20 million
domestic and 1.4 million foreign visitors in 2010. The Chinese investment company Fosun purchased a 7.0% stake in Club Med last year,
forming a strategic tie-up which aims to make the China market the second largest for Club Med by 2015.
Club Med has also announced that they’re seeking a ski property in
North America and are looking at hotels in California, Colorado, and
Quebec. After selling hotels in Crested Butte and Copper Mountain,
Colorado, several years ago, their only remaining property in the U.S.
is now the Sandpiper Bay resort in Port Saint Lucie, Florida.
The NATIONAL SKI CLUB NEWSLETTER
Page 31
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