Standard Time should start On Time

Snow has been slow in coming to many western US ski resorts in the Fall of 2007. Forget global warming and La Nina. I think we should go back to having Daylight Savings Time end on the last Saturday of October instead of the first Saturday in November. The extra hour of daylight in the afternoons in early November may have messed up the winter storm track.

Ski Prices - Trip Prices

Premium Ski & Binding $1250

Spring Break trip to Snowmass, $1399
air, 6 nights, lodging, lifts and transfers, March 22 - 28, 2008

If people are willing to pay over $1200 for a pair of skis and binding, more than likely, they will want to use that equipment on a nice trip. A week long trip that costs $1400 - $1600 is probably within their price range.

Mary Harris moves to the Timberline

Mary Harris, who has been the General Manager of the Mountain Chalet in Snowmass, will be the new General Manager of the Timberline condos in Snowmass. Mary has done a great job at the Mountain Chalet and we can expect good things for the Timberline during her tenure at this property.

Partners In Group Sales 9.0 in Vail

The 9th annual Partners In Group Sales meeting was held in Vail, July 16 & 17. There were 32 participants from several major tour operators as well as many of the top resorts and lodging properties in Colorado.

Jacque Rossi of Vail Resorts was named the Supplier of the Year and Karri Willemssen of Western Seasons was named Rookie of the Conference.

Click here for a chart summarizing the average price of leisure ski group trips between 2003 and 2008.

The conference was produced by Mike Beltracchi and Eric Fullerton.

15 weeks for a new passport

After losing my passport while in Canada at the end of February and getting back into the US with relatively little problem, I applied for a new passport on March 28, 2007. The clerk at the Eagle, CO post office told me that I probably wouldn't have the new passport until at least the week of June 10. 15 weeks after I submitted the application, I finally received my new passport on July 21, 2007.

While the current system of health care delivery in the US has issues, a single provider system run by the government is probably not the answer to our ills. If the State Dept can't handle issuing a single document to US citizens, how can another branch of the government handle something as complex as health care?

With new passport in hand, hopefully I'll be off to Panama in September.

Doug Lofland, Casandra Foister, Stephen Hall, Erin Peck and Mike Beltracchi rode in the MS 150 from Denver to Ft. Collins on July 7 & 8. It was hot and dry, but we all survived. Casandra suggestd that next year we name our team, "How's your Aspen?"

Frontier to ski resorts, not just yet

Frontier Airlines has recently announced that they will start selling tickets on their new regional turboprop service to 4 new cities. However, there will be a delay before they potentially start selling tickets to cities such as Aspen (ASE) and Eagle (EGE).