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Pastimes : Alpine Skiing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ~digs who wrote (371)	3/12/2007 8:01:34 PM
From: ~digs	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1162

Vail Resorts 2Q Profit Rises biz.yahoo.com Monday March 12, 4:55 pm ET ; By Sandy Shore, AP Business Writer DENVER (AP) -- Ski resort operator Vail Resorts Inc. on Monday reported a 23 percent increase in second-quarter earnings, bolstered by strong real estate sales and more visitors to its Colorado slopes. The company also said lodging revenue rose 2.2 percent, which put resort revenue -- a combination of on-mountain and lodging businesses -- up 9.5 percent. The results for the quarter ending Jan. 31 provided a snapshot of how the ski season is progressing for Vail Resorts, which operates four resorts in Colorado and a fifth in California. Its stock rose 6 percent. Net income totaled $53 million, or $1.35 per share, for the November-January period compared with $43 million, or $1.12 per share, in the previous year. Revenue increased 25 percent to $361 million from $288 million a year ago. The company reports revenue in three segments: mountain, which includes on-slope businesses, up 10.5 percent to $272 million; lodging, up 2.2 percent to $32.8 million; and real estate, up 479 percent to $56.2 million. Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial had forecast overall revenue of $317.7 million. Vail shares rose $3.33 to close at $58.33 on the New York Stock Exchange after briefly rising to a new 52-week high of $59.32. In the first six months of its fiscal year, Vail reported net income of $17.2 million, or 44 cents a share, compared with $8.7 million, or 23 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $474.5 million from $373.4 million a year earlier. Skier visits, totaled 2.9 million in the second quarter, up 1.3 percent from the previous year despite adverse weather conditions that contributed to a 6.2 percent drop in skier visits at Heavenly Mountain Resort at Lake Tahoe, Calif., Skier visits were up 4.8 percent in Colorado excluding season pass holders, although the total for Vail ski resort dropped 3.7 percent to 725,000 which was attributed to winter weather problems. A skier visit is an industry measure equal to one person buying a lift ticket and using it to ski or snowboard. Season pass sales were up 20 percent from the same period in 2006 and the effective ticket price rose 7 percent, Chief Executive Officer Rob Katz said. For the full year, Katz forecast net income of $55 million to $63 million. Vail Resorts reduced its 2007 guidance for real estate earnings before interest, taxes, debt and amortization to zero to a loss of $5 million. Katz attributed the change to additional, unanticipated costs on development of the Jackson Hole Golf & Tennis Club in Wyoming and the Arrabelle condominium development in Vail. During a conference call with analysts, he said the additional cost stemmed from problems in coordinating design and construction. "I don't think the company had the right processes in place at the beginning of both of those projects to kind of effectively implement the design," he said. "Those processes have completely been revamped." Vail Resorts owns and operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge ski areas in Colorado, Heavenly in Nevada and California, and the lodge near Jackson, Wyo.

To: ~digs who wrote (371)	3/14/2007 12:05:40 AM
From: ~digs	Respond to of 1162

Water Watchers Give Utah Snowpack Outlook ksl.com March 12th, 2007 @ 9:00pm ; Samantha Hayes and Jed Boal Reporting This burst of warm weather makes most of us smile and want to head outside. But it's not what water managers had in mind for the rest of the winter. We're warming up too quickly for our water needs. This time of year is when water managers say, "What you see is what we'll get." They are talking about snow, and this winter did not deliver much. The scientists who monitor snowpack are always looking ahead because the snow we have today is our water tomorrow. In a few weeks, City Creek will surge with spring runoff, but it'll be 70 percent or less of what it should be. Unfortunately, that's about what we can expect from creeks and rivers across the state. Randy Julander, hydrologist: "Up here in the north, 70 to 75 percent of average." Snowpack is below average in the Bear River Basin, Weber River and Provo River Basin. We are well below last year. The Virgin River basin has been closer to average. Terel Grimley, Pineview Water Systems: "Absolutely it concerns us because it tells us we are not going to have a sufficient allocation for an extended runoff period." Temperatures are warming up, and at this point in the year, it would really take a tremendous amount of snow to change the percentage. In some cases, water managers say they are already seeing runoff. Randy Julander: "Middle of March we are starting to see snow melt occur across the state, streams (are) picking up. (We have) a low snowpack with very little storminess on the way, so it's setting everybody on edge." And that's not unfamiliar territory. Utah experienced a six-year drought followed by two good years. Randy Julander: "It simply sends a message that climate is variable, and you can't count on having x number of good years and x number of bad years." And that means counting on conservation even more. If a dry spell continues through March, we could see the amount of water expected from the snowpack to decrease significantly. Estimates could fall from 60 percent, to somewhere between 30 percent and 40 percent. That is all that will end up in the reservoirs. Fortunately, we'll all have the water we need this year because the last two wet years refilled most reservoirs across the state. Hydrologists say we'll get by this year. It's what happens next year that will tell us whether we're headed into another extended dry period.