April 25, 200
Ski New Mexico
“The 2007-08 season has just wrapped up with a banner year”
News Letter III
   
Ski New Mexico is please to announce the statistics for the 2007-08 ski season.  The ski industry saw a 4% gain over a very successful 2006-07 season.  The number of skier visits to Ski New Mexico resort members were up from 689,244 in 2006-07 to 716,477 in 2007-08. The resorts were blessed with great snow fall ranging from 93inches locally at Sandia Peak to 293 inches at the northern ski resorts. 

Ski NM and KOAT TV re-introduced a new but previously done program (Kids Learn to ski/ride) which was extremely successful.  Over 730 New Mexico kids took up the sport over a three weekend program.  “Developing new and younger skiers are a focus of Ski NM” said newly hired Executive Director George Brooks.  “Kids are our future and also the future of our sport”, a big thank you to Mary Lynn Roper and KOAT for helping with this program.

Ski NM is also pleased to announce the “Best of the Best” winners.  This program recognizes the best individual in seven different categories in the State of New Mexico’s ski industry.  Winners are as follows:

1. Best Alpine Ski Instructor:  Sara Nora Red River Ski School
2. Best Nordic Ski Instructor:  James Hampton Enchanted Circle Ski School
3. Best Ski Patrol:  Jack Dant  Santa Fe Ski Resort Ski Patrol
4. Best Ski Racer:  Tucker Van Ormer Junior Racers Red River Ski Team
5.  Best Mountain Operations:  Mike Green Pajarito Ski Area (Los Alamos)
6. Best Customer Service:  Ana Hayden Red River Ski Area
7. Best Skier of NM:  Jeff Speck Albuquerque –Jade Enterprises

The “Best of the Best winners” make the ski industry of New Mexico better for everyone involved.  They make your day better, the sport more fun, and your experience of skiing better that anywhere else in the country.  Ski New Mexico salutes these individuals for the outstanding efforts which go above and beyond.

Another huge event which received national and international attention was the opening of Taos Ski Valley to snowboarders on March 19, 2008.  This event went without a hitch and from March 19th until the closing of Taos Ski Valley on April 6, 2008 the mountain, the skiers, and the snowboarders were in perfect harmony.

Sipapu enjoyed the longest season in New Mexico opening November 9, 2007 and closing April 13, 2008.  All planned events at all Ski New Mexico ski resorts were conducted as scheduled with great enthusiasm and attendance. 

Ski New Mexico will continue to be an innovator as they did this year with the first “Community Employee Education Seminar” which was designed to educate business employees about the ski industry in their town, and hosting the first New Mexico Winter Tourism Summit attended by Dept of Tourism Commission, Tourism Assoc. of New Mexico Board, and Ski New Mexico board among others.  A big thank you for both events is extended to Red River and the leaders of that community.  These events were pilot programs and very successful.  We will continue them in the future and add additional sites.

We also made a few changes to the Ski NM web site:  snow reporting procedures and times and increased the web site a few additional pages. 

Even though the business year for Ski NM remains July 1 through June 30 the membership year will be ski season to ski season thus ski ticket membership cards will not be carried over season to season. Several other projects were completed during the year and details can be found in the two previous news letters.  

I would like to thank everyone for your patience, help and understanding during my first year as you Executive Director.   During the year I made some mistakes and did some good things but regardless this group stood behind me.  As we go into the future, to move the organization forward we must take some risk and I hope I will receive the same support and understanding I have up till now!

As you can see things have been happening and good results are expected. If you are not part of Ski NM now is the time to get involved. Remember Ski New Mexico is the voice of the Ski Industry of New Mexico.

George Brooks
Ski NM Executive Director
“Ski and Ride the Winter Sun”

February 15, 2008
Ski New Mexico
“Ski and Ride the Winter Sun”
Newsletter II

The 2007-08 New Mexico ski season has been nothing short of incredible. Even though several resorts missed the Thanksgiving opening they have made it up since. As a whole the holiday season showed a 20% increase over the same period last year. The snow fall this season has provided the resorts with excellent conditions starting mid December and has continued until present with more snow predicted weekly. Our ski resorts have enjoyed successful special events: Winter Wine festival at Taos, “Ole Texas Weekend” at Angel Fire, Mardi Gras at Red River, to UNM corporate cup races at Santa Fe and Red River. A military special at Sipapu and a night cross country ski adventure at the Enchanted Forest have given many of our guest memorable experiences. Everyone who has been out skiing and riding at the New Mexico resorts have been dazzled by the warm sunny days skiing on Champaign powder and the enchanted evenings with snow falling from a wonderful sky.

An up-date from Ski New Mexico includes the following:

1. Some nominations are in, in our quest for the best of the New Mexico ski industry.


2. Our snow report has changed to report snow fall in the past 48 hours and if none reported during that time the report will revert to “0”.


3. Most of our 70,000 winter adventure guides are distributed.


4. In conjunction with the Dept. of Tourism we have had two successful Fam tours


5. We have two snow report programs, one krqe TV 13 and one radio


6. Several news paper, TV, Radio, and out door bill boards have covered and promoted NM Skiing.


7. Our membership has doubled since last year but we are far short of where we ought to be.


8. Our Governmental relations have gone well with a successful distribution of VIP passes to the legislators and a close relationship wit the Dept. of Tourism.


9. Stating Feb. 15th KOAT TV and Ski New Mexico will be rolling out a “kids learn to ski” program. All Ski NM member resorts are involved. The program will be via reservations only and will include the weekends of Feb. 24-25, March 1-2 and March 8-9.

As you can see things have been happening and good results are expected. If you are not part of Ski NM now is the time to get involved. Remember Ski New Mexico is the voice of the Ski Industry of New Mexico.

George Brooks
Ski NM Executive Director

December 15, 2007
Ski New Mexico
“Ski and Ride the Winter Sun”
Newsletter

After a banner snow season, 2006-07, the New Mexico ski resorts are starting out with a BANG.  Sipapu started the season opening for weekend business on Nov.17, 2007 on man made snow.  Red River followed up on Nov. 21, 2007 on a man made base with a bit of natural snow.  Our Nordic area, the Enchanted Forest, was also operational over the Thanksgiving weekend on natural snow.  Since the Thanksgiving weekend, New Mexico had been blessed with a lot of moisture, first coming in the way of rain (which soaked the ground and provided for an excellent freeze), followed by a vast amount of snow. 

Snow fall amounts ranged from 3 to 7 feet of snow.  The moisture content of the early snow fall was wet and created an excellent base followed by some light and fluffy powder.  Over the past 10 days the weather patterns have brought snow storm after snow storm to the central and northern mountains.  This trend is predicted to continue into the holiday season.

Taos Ski Valley and Angel Fire will open for business today Dec. 14th and Santa Fe will open Sat. Dec. 15th.  The additional two ski areas in New Mexico, Sandia Peak (Wed. Dec 19th) and Pajarito (Fri. Dec 21st) have opened for business and are expecting lots of people to enjoy the holiday season on their slopes. 

Several “old timers” have been quoted as saying this holiday season, visitors will be welcomed by conditions we have not seen in many, many years. “SKIING IS THE BEST IT HAS BEEN THIS TIME OF THE YEAR SINCE THE 1980’s”.

What is new at Ski New Mexico?  Glad you ask that question.
 
First: As of September 1st our hard working, highly experienced, and do everything Ski NM administrator Kathy Pitre has been joined by George Brooks former Head Ski Coach at the University of New Mexico. Kathy is a remarkable lady and has contributed so much to the Ski New Mexico organization. She should be a candidate for sainthood.
 
Second: Ski New Mexico did a bit of house cleaning by changing a few things in our by-laws, starting a five year business plan, and writing a mission statement.

Third: We have launched a few new programs for the organization.  This year Ski New Mexico will recognize the “Best of the Best” employees in several categories (ski instructor, customer service, ski patrol, mountain operations, and racer).  This program will unite all the ski industry in recognizing the “Best of the Best” in our state.

Another program just starting up is the Ski New Mexico photo contest.  Each ski area will be awarding prizes for the best photo taken at their ski area and submitted in the contest.  Photos will be posted on the Ski New Mexico web site and credits given with the best photos being considered for publication in the New Mexico Winter Adventure Guide.

Several promotional and advertising possibilities are being explored and a few old and new Ski New Mexico partnerships are being established. 
 
Membership in the organization has become important in the over all development of Ski New Mexico. Efforts are being made to get more members and make sure the members are actively involved in the organization.

We are getting more involved with the Department of Tourism. Our goal is to help and advise them in their efforts to attract guests to the State of New Mexico during the winter.

On behalf of Kathy and myself we wish you a Happy and fruitful Holiday Season.

“Ski and Ride the Winter Sun”

George Brooks
SNM Executive Director