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Aspen Ski Company & KSL Purchase Steamboat and many other ski areas..

April 10, 2017
The mountain resort community woke up this morning with very exciting news - the Aspen Ski Company and KSL Capital are purchasing Intrawest Holdings - the owner/operator of several ski areas including Steamboat and  Winter Park in Colorado. The company also has several resorts in the East, including Snowshoe, WV, Stratton Mountain, VT, Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Blue Mountain, Ontario.  The combined company includes Aspen Mountain, Snowmass, Buttermilk, Aspen Highlands, in Colorado, and  Squaw Valley/Alpine Meadows in the Lake Tahoe area.  This move is clearly in response to Vail Resorts successes in acquiring and running multiple ski areas throughout North America.
 
aspen-steamboat-ksl-map.jpg
 
From early indications, it appears that there are no announcements on a combined ski lift ticket to combat Vail Resorts Epic Pass for the 2017-2018 season, but there is a great deal of expertise in the combined team of the Aspen Ski Company and KSL, as well as the management of Intrawest, and it would be very reasonable to expect that this team would put together a very effective offering for skiers to entice them to plan multiple trips to some of the world's best ski areas in the west, as well as servicing feeder markets of New York/New England, Toronto & Montreal, as well as the Bay Area.
Here are links to various new articles: Aspen Ski CompanySteamboat PilotAspen Daily
 
This news is coming on the heels of Vail Resorts purchasing the Whistler/Blackcomb ski area in British Columbia, and the premium Vermont ski area, Stowe - both of which are planned to be incorporated into the Epic Pass (pending the closing of the Stowe acquisition).

It will be interesting to see how this all comes together, but from what we've seen well capitalized companies investing in ski areas is great for the skier experience.

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