Vermont Symphony Orchestra Outdoor Concert at Sugarbush Starts Independence Day Weeklong Celebration

Warren, VT - The Vermont Symphony Orchestra will give a special outdoor performance followed by fireworks at Sugarbush Resort on Friday, June 29, 2012, beginning the Independence Day week on a musical note.

Conductor Andrew Massey presents an evening of musical smiles, featuring selections that are joyful, witty, wacky, and fun. The evening will conclude with Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and a fireworks display.

Gates will open at the Lincoln Peak base area at 5:30 pm for picnicking on the grass, with the concert slated to begin at 7:30 pm. In the event of rain, the performance will be moved into the Gate House lodge.

Tickets are $31 in advance, or $34 at the gate. Children under age 18 are free with any purchase of a ticket in advance, or $11 at the gate.

The VSO performance kicks off the weeklong Independence Day calendar at Sugarbush, which includes activities throughout the area.

The celebration continues on Saturday, June 30th with Jim Parker's Stars and Stripes Charity Airshow. The show will feature stunt flying, airplane rides, music, food and drinks, all to benefit Vermont National Guard Charitable Foundation. Gates open at 11 am, with the airshow starting at 1 pm.

4th of July Events at Squaw Valley

Olympic Valley, CA - Celebrate Independence Day at Squaw with a full week of incredible music and events. Enjoy blues guitarist Chris Cain at this summer’s first Bluesdays – or come dance to the nationally acclaimed Billy Joel tribute band JOEL as they kick off the first show of the KT Concert Series. Take in the beautiful paintings and crafts of the Fine Arts and Crafts Festival or enjoy great family events like the Soaring Kites and Music Festival at High Camp and Kung Fu Panda at Family Movie Night in The Village at Squaw Valley.

The grand finale of the week-long celebration will be a free blowout concert with Brett Dennen, singer of last summer’s hit single "Comeback Kid (That’s My Dog)". The free show will take place at the base of KT-22 in Squaw Valley’s breath-taking natural amphitheater.

Wilmington/Whiteface 100K Mountain Bike Race Qualifies 70 for Leadville

Wilmington, NY - Justin Lindine (New Salem, Mass.) was the first rider to cross the finish line, taking top honors in the second annual Wilmington/Whiteface 100K mountain bike race (WW100) held Sunday, June 17, at Whiteface Mountain, in Wilmington, N.Y. Lindine completed the 69-mile long race in four hours, 19 minutes, 15.97 seconds. The finish earned the pro cyclist his second trip back to the Leadville 100 MTB (LT100), where he was 28th overall last year.

“This was an awesome race and competing here has been a goal of mine all season long,” said the winded Lindine following the race. “I wanted to go back to Leadville, so winning here was a sure way of doing that.”

Last year’s inaugural WW100 race measured 57 miles, but an additional 12 miles were added to this year’s event, which featured a combination of single track, dirt and paved roads, jeeping trails and back country roads.

“The race and the distance felt a lot like Leadville,” remarked the women’s first place finisher Rebecca Rusch (Ketchum, Idaho), who has won three times in Leadville. “All the way through it’s a super tough course, especially when you get to the ski resort, all the ups and downs are challenging.

Winter Park Resort's Chocolate Festival-Saturday, June 23, 2012

Chocolate Festival will include chocolate samples as well as fine chocolates for sale from a wide variety of regional vendors

Nearly 20 vendors and demonstrations, contests and live music

Winter Park, CO - The third annual Winter Park Chocolate Festival will bring relief for sweet tooth sufferers across Colorado when it returns to Winter Park Resort on Saturday, June 23. The event will feature close to 20 vendors offering chocolate samples as well as selling their sweet treats to festival guests.

Activities during the day will include a pudding eating contest (no hands!), live music featuring Katey Laurel, a beer and chocolate pairing and a truffle competition. Admission is free and guests can purchase Taste Tickets to indulge in their favorite sweets as much as they wish. The event lasts from 10:00am-5:00pm.

This is the perfect opportunity for the whole family to enjoy a summer weekend or just a getaway-for-a-day in the beautiful Colorado Rocky Mountains at Winter Park Resort. Featuring Colorado’s longest Alpine Slide, disc golf, a rock climbing wall, a human maze and other amazing interactive family activities, it is easy to make a weekend of all the spectacular happenings at Winter Park Resort. Room rates start at just $74 for Chocolate Festival attendees.

Trestle Bike Park Announces Biggest Opening Ever - Saturday, June 16

Winter Park, CO - Winter Park Resort’s Trestle Bike Park announces its summer events schedule and new developments for the upcoming 2012 season. After last year’s expansions, Trestle Bike Park consists of over 40 miles of trails, and hundreds of features like the 80 jumps on Rainmaker trail alone. New this season, the bike park will also open “Cruel and Unusual”, an expert-only trail that will live up to its name with a mix of dirt and wooden jumps, bottomless wooden berms, and the amazing flow that sets Trestle Bike Park apart from all others. With two more trail sections left to build, 2012 is setting up to be the best riding season yet at Trestle Bike Park.

“The spring has provided a quicker than normal melt-out. As a result, the bike park will have amazing conditions on opening day. The number of open trails and quality of the surface will be more like early July than mid-June,” said Trestle Bike Park Manager, Bob Holme. “Because of that, we are anticipating our biggest opening ever. Virtually every trail will be accessible on opening day with stellar conditions.”

Largest Bike Park Rental Fleet in the United States

Fastest Growing Bike Park in North America with 3 lifts to run in 2012

New Colorado Freeride Festival, July 26-29, 2012. This summer event will be the largest freeride festival in the United States.

New Summer Artist's Workshop Series

Rangeley, ME - Saddleback is excited to introduce the Saddleback Mountain Summer Artist's Workshop Series, a new venue for high-quality workshops that will take its place along side other premier craft centers in the United States whose reputation extends nationally and internationally.

The workshops will be conducted by award winning, internationally renowned artists and will involve intensive and focused studio time in an incredibly beautiful environment. Saddleback is surrounded by mountains, lakes, rivers, wildlife and hundreds of thousands of acres of wilderness that is the Rangeley Lakes Region. This is a place that inspires and sparks everyone's artistic soul.

The classes will be held in Saddleback's beautiful post and beam base lodge with views of Maine's Western Mountains and Rangeley Lakes - an inspirational setting to enhance the experiential education of participants. The entire lodge will be reserved for those attending the workshops. The lodge will remain open in the evening for students to be able to continue working on their projects and to socialize with other participants.

Got Bike?

Wilmington Whiteface Bike Fest June 14-17

Wilmington , NY - From road to mountain bikes, and BMX to unicycles, they’ll all be in Wilmington, N.Y., June 14-17, for what’s being called “a party on two wheels,” the third annual Wilmington Whiteface Bike Fest.

The four-day festival bike fest begins, Thursday, June 14, on the Flume trails with the “Fun not Fear” mountain bike instruction clinic for beginners, sponsored by High Peaks Cyclery. The two-hour clinic begins at 4 p.m.

An all-star group of cyclists headlines Friday’s, 6-8 p.m., free Jump Jam and Trials Exhibition. The line-up includes Kyle Ebbett, a renowned course designer and builder and mountain bike freerider, Sam Perkins, who will be demonstrating his bike trials skills, and Taylor Wright-Sanson, who is one of only five unicyclists who can consistently land a backflip.

Other riders also include “Evil” Elias Ingraham, a pro downhiller, and mountain bike rider Heikki Hall. Each will also be available to sign autographs and pose for pictures. Afterwards cyclists and fans can gather at the Steinhoff’s Sportsman’s Inn for the Wilmington Whiteface welcome party and the “Best Calves of Wilmington” contest. A celebrity panel of judges will select the “Best Calves” for both men and women.

The bike festival’s first race, the 11th annual Whiteface Mountain Uphill Bike Race, gets underway at 8 a.m., Saturday. As many as 400 road cyclists will compete in the 11-mile long race that will take them from the base of New York State’s fifth highest peak to the summit, via the Veterans Memorial Highway.

Heavenly Introduces New Director of Mountain Operations

Stateline, CA - Heavenly Mountain Resort today announced the selection of James Grant as Heavenly’s director of Mountain Operations. Grant brings 20 years of experience within Heavenly’s Lift Operations department to the role, the last eight as the director of Lift Operations. Grant will oversee many critical areas of Heavenly’s operation, including Ski Patrol, Snowmaking, Grooming, Terrain Parks, Mountain Safety, Adventure Peak, Race/Events, Lift Operations, Lift Maintenance and Vehicle Maintenance. Grant begins his new role on June 7, 2012.

“I am thrilled to be able to reward James for his years of extraordinary service to our guests and to the Company,” said Pete Sonntag, Heavenly’s general manager. “I have a tremendous amount of respect for his knowledge, experience and focus on guest service. James will play a vital role as we build on Heavenly’s success and take this resort to the next level.”

Grant was born and grew up in Australia’s capital city, Canberra. He studied at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, before taking his first ski industry job as a lift operator at Mount Blue Cow, Australia, in the early 1990s. He came to Heavenly as a liftie for the 1992-93 season, and spent the next 12 years climbing the lift operations ranks until achieving the role of director of Lift Operations in 2004. James’ time in the top spot has been highlighted by his ability to bring out the best in his employees, evidenced by year after year of Company-leading guest service scores. He received a SAMMY Leadership Award from Ski Area Management Magazine in 2008.

Loon Mountain's Andrew Noyes Presented with the Business Excellence Award

Lincoln, NH - Andrew Noyes, vice president of sales at Loon Mountain Resort, received the 2012 award for Business Excellence presented by the N.H. Travel Council at the recent New Hampshire Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

The Council presents awards to leading travel professionals each year at the annual Governor’s Conference on Tourism. This year’s event, which took place at Manchester’s Radisson Hotel, is the largest gathering of N.H. travel and tourism industry providers and suppliers. In addition to celebrating business achievements, the Conference features opportunities for professional development and networking. Council board member Maryanne Adams, Professor of Hospitality and Tourism Management at N.H. Technical Institute, chaired the Awards Committee and introduced the winners.

Noyes began working at Loon Mountain in 1984 and hasn’t looked back since. “It really is such a pleasure to work with such a great team at Loon, the towns of Lincoln and Woodstock and the State of New Hampshire,” said Noyes.

Loon Mountain congratulates Alex Ray, the owner of the Common Man Family of Restaurants; Michelle Cota, Marketing Manager for the N.H. Division of Travel and Tourism; Trish Taylor from the Courtyard by Marriott and Grappone Conference Center; and Craig Clemmer, from the Omni Mount Washington Resort; who also received awards at the Conference.

Colorado Freeride Festival Registration and Air Downhill Race Addition

Winter Park, CO - Trestle Bike Park at Winter Park Resort announces that registration for its inaugural Colorado Freeride Festival event goes live on June 1, 2012 at noon (MTN) and is available at www.coloradofreeridefestival.com. The Colorado Freeride Festival will be one of the largest mountain bike festivals in the United States and is scheduled for July 26 - 29, 2012. Some races include caps on number of participants, so early registration is strongly recommended.

In addition to the Specialized Enduro, Shimano Slopestyle, and Epic Singletrack cross country race, an exciting new race has been announced and added to the event line up. The festival will now feature the popular and spectacular “Air Downhill” on the afternoon of Thursday, July 26. After receiving athlete feedback regarding the festival, it was decided that the addition of the Air Downhill would be the perfect fit to the already world-class event lineup. With the addition of the new event, the total prize purse for the Colorado Freeride Festival now totals nearly $40,000. Information for the Air Downhill registration will be announced soon.

“The Air Downhill puts more ‘freeride’ in Colorado Freeride Festival. It is the perfect opportunity to showcase the upper portion of Rainmaker, the premier jump trail in the United States” says Bob Holme, Trestle Bike Park Manager.

The Colorado Freeride Festival will be open to the general public and free for all spectators.