The Case for a Larger Regional Snow Show in Spokane

Spokane’s “Ski the Northwest Rockies” Snow Show is a great event. It brings together legions of local skiers and acts as a great kickoff to the ski season. If offers a great place to go pick up your season pass or just wander around looking for free swag. But that’s not to say it cannot be improved.

The one-day event only showcases a small portion of the vast skiing and snowboarding industry. Significantly, it never completely fills up with exhibitors. And it takes place in one of the smaller Spokane Convention Center ballrooms — the smallest venue it has ever been located in. It may be a great local show, but by no means does it compare to the SIA Snow Show in Las Vegas (next year in Denver). But it will never be that size. But it is a reasonable goal to shoot for a ski show the size of Seattle’s SkiFever Snow Show.

It’s time to improve the Spokane Snow Show for the greater Spokane region. We’ve got five great ski resorts, including one world-class one — Schweitzer, two regional-class ones — Silver and 49, and two smaller local ones — Mt. Spokane and Lookout. The Spokane region has roughly 80,000-120,000 unique skiers. However, a good ski show would draw skiers from as far away as Seattle, Missoula and Boise — but only if it promised to be good enough.

In order to increase the amount of exhibitors, we’ll need to move the Snow Show into a new location. The ideal choice would be the Spokane Convention Center downtown — the old one. This way it is close to the INB Performing Arts Center for movie premieres. Plenty of space and room for growth.

The second thing on the list would be to actually add exhibitors. In order to reach the most potential skiers, you would have to include a wide variety of exhibitors. For best results, INSA should focus on reaching the following exhibitors:

• LINE Skis
• K2 Skis/Snowboard/Telemark
• Armada Skis
• 4FRNT Skis
• 686
• Atomic
• Billabong USA
• Bern Helmets
• Bolle
• Smith Optics
• Bonfire Snowboarding
• Burton
• Marker
• Salomon
• Patagonia
• O’Neill
• Quiksilver
• Ride Snowboards
• Scott USA
• Sessions
• Skullcandy
• Spy Optic
• The North Face

While not all of these manufacturers will sign on, many will if the Snow Show is correctly marketed.

In addition to ski/board manufacturers, INSA should also look at attracting new resorts to the Snow Show. Resorts should be within the immediate area — Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, etc.

• Whitefish Mountain Resort
• Crystal Mountain Resort
• Stevens Pass
• Mt. Bachelor
• White Pass Mountain Resort
• Willamette Pass Mountain Resort
• Tamarack Resort*
• Big Sky
• etc.

Now, the final step will be to move the dates for the show back slightly. For 2009, my recommendation would be to hold the show November 13-15.

Finally, what do we charge people to get into the show? Considering factors such as the venue, the potential exhibitors, etc., a cost of $20 would not be unreasonable. Sponsorships (including title sponsorships) could defray much of the cost and bring it down to roughly $10.

Of course, that’s if it happens; this is simply a wishlist for an improved Spokane Snow Show.

Where is the Freestyle Instruction? How to Introduce Schweitzer to the Freeskiing Environment — Open Letter #2 to Schweitzer CEO Tom Chasse

Whatever happened to freestyle instruction at Schweitzer Mountain
Resort? The Open Session — a weekly, "open" series of instruction
sessions geared toward teen riders — is gone. The Freeride Institute
– a three day series of freestyle instruction sessions featuring pro
and sponsored coaches — is gone. Meanwhile the realm of freestyle
skiing and snowboarding continues to progress at rates hitherto unseen
in the entire ski industry. The park at Schweitzer remains, largely
unchanged, but where has all the freestyle instruction gone? This is
an open letter to Schweitzer President and CEO Tom Chasse outlining a
possible new program (or set of programs) that would place Schweitzer
as an innovator within the ski industry and the action sports industry
as a whole.

STEP ONE: Create a resort account on Newschoolers (newschoolers.com).
This would help to reach potential new freeskier customers. And as
much as I hate to say it, Schweitzer's park has a very bad reputation
on NS. It couldn't hurt to clear that up.

STEP TWO: Reopen the ref•uge. It shouldn't be too hard — you should
still have signs and everything. My advice?Use the Bark Beetle Room.
Sure, it may not have gone too well the first time. But this time, try
to actually market it. You know, get the people in there. The ref•uge
is really important to the next step: the actual instruction.

STEP THREE: Schweitzer Freestyle Camp would be an ten week, fully
immersive freestyle instruction on Saturdays and Sundays from Januray
to March. The final week, the rider would compete in the Stomp Games
alongside members of his/her own group.

In addition to being supported by Schweitzer, sponsors could offset
part of the cost both to the resort and to the rider. Such
sponsorships should include rider-favorite companies, such as:

*K2 Factory Team Skis
*Line Skis
*Full Tilt Boots
*Salomon
*Saga Outerwear
*Sessions
*EC Headwear
*Smith Optics
*Oakley
*Spy Optics
*Skullcandy
*Bonfire
*Voleurz
*Freeskier Magazine
*Newschoolers
*Burton

And, what would a ski camp be without a headlining sponsor? In comes
the Schweitzer Freestyle Camp sponsored by the Sports Creel.

So, how would this supposed freeskiing/snowboarding camp be organized?
The concept would be similar to Windells in Oregon and Momentum in
Whistler. That is, you are divided into groups according to age and
ability level: beginner, intermediate, and advanced. Note that these
are not skier ability level descriptions; they are unique to park
skiing. That means that a skier could be an expert skier but an
intermediate at park skiing.

In order to make sure the riders get a quality coaching experience,
Schweitzer would bring in pros and top freestyle skiers from around
the area (and beyond) to coach the riders. To further ensure the best
coaching possible, video review would be employed.

Camp Orientation would take place the Saturday before the start of
Camp in the Caribou Room at the Lakeview. This would include the
basics of the camp session, meeting with coaches, as well as an on-
snow element that assesses a rider's ability level. According to that
level, riders would be put in groups. After a meet-your-group/meet-
your-coach session, orientation would close.

A typical Camp Saturday would look like this:

8:00-8:45 – Breakfast on the mountain. In the Lakeview, featuring the
classics that are already offered.

8:30 – Why not? Give riders first chair to get ready for the day. By
the way, on powder days, riders wouldn't necessarily be in the park
right away. Powder mornings/Park afternoons will be a virtue unless it
is dumping.

8:30-2:30 – Coaching.

11:00-1:00 – Lunch. It would be the group's discretion on when to eat.
Many options would be available for lunches. The best option would
probably to have the Alpenglow Deli (or Schweitzer) set up a camp tent
in the park for self-serve sandwiches and snacks. The other options
would include Thor's Pizza or an employee discount on food at the
Lakeview.

2:30-4 – Open Skiing. You're free to go anywhere on the mountain.

4:15-5:30 – Video review with coaches. This would take place in the
ref•uge or other spots around Schweitzer Village.

5:30-8 – Open skiing. This time, though, you're back in the park under
the lights with the coaches. No filmers would be available during the
night session.

5:30-?? – Open activities from Xbox in the ref•uge to tubing,
snowskating, airboarding, etc. As well as free weekly only-for-campers
activities put on by sponsors with prizes, swag, etc.

Dinner would not be provided, though breakfast and lunch would. This
is to accomodate for families staying on the mountain.

Here are some additional tips that would make the program even more
sick:

*Invite Will & Andy from Line's Traveling Circus out for a weekend to
ski and film an episode. This would be valuable to campers and to
others in that the series has a huge following online and you'd get
quite a bit of prime exposure.

*Keep the environment super chill. It needs to be laid-back and
relatively calm in order for riders to progress.

*Comps are great ways for riders to compete, but they are also a way
for riders to meet other riders. Embrace both aspects of them.

So, what do we price this at? You get 20 days total of coaching with
video review and free entry into the Stomp Gamps. You get breakfasts
and lunches, as well as activities like snowskating, tubing, and
sponsor activities. Considering the prices of various other summer ski
camps that provide more activities and lodging, but last only a week,
it is not unreasonable to price the Schweitzer Freestyle Camp at about
$1199. This would include a junior season pass valid for the entire
winter season.

In conclusion, I have laid before you an interesting program idea that
needs to be discussed at Schweitzer. In the absence of other quality
freestyle instruction programs in the area, this could be a boon for
Schweitzer. It would draw in money not just from the local area, but
also as far away as Seattle, Missoula and Boise. And it might just put
Idaho skiing on the map once and for all.