Mountain News and Updates

Several interesting tidbits of mountain news the last couple of days ranges from lightning strikes at the mountains, a winding down of this past season skiing and snowboarding, as well as ski and snowboard sales a foot.

The July Fourth weekend saw skiing and riding end at the following resorts:

• Arapahoe Basin,CO - the word was is was packed and a great time.
• Snowbird, UT - Closed for the season as well on Monday the 4th.
• Squaw Valley, CA - T shirts were part of the schwag for the historic day as well

Many others are now getting all the snow off and mountain biking, lift rides, alpine slides and more are in full swing.


Mt Abrams in Maine had their base lodge struck by lightening and a fire resulted in significant damage. Resort operators assured they would be ready and operating by the scheduled start of the next ski and snowboard season.

On the retail side we see that the retail arm of Vail Resorts - Specialty Sports Ventures(SSV) - acquired the assets of Outdoor Outlet, LLC, a Wisconsin-based company that owns and operates O2GearShop.com, an online retailer of outdoor and snowsports goods and equipment with more than 2 million total visits last year. This signals a re entry for SSV into e-commerce. And their local store in Boulder, Boulder Ski Deals kicks off the next retail season with their $69 Tent sale. This is always a signal that ski and snowboard sales will be upon us and the next wave of season pass sales are right around the corner.