Vail Resorts have acquired a sixth resort and their second in California – Northstar at Tahoe.
While other big North America resort owners like Intrawest, Booth Creek and the late American Skiing Company seem to snap up resorts quickly during boom years with their empires rising and falling over just a few years, Vail's approach is more measured, only buying top quality resorts every five years or so.
Northstar-at-Tahoe may be little known internationally but it has been a major development resort over the past five years. One of a dozen or so ski areas around Lake Tahoe, it has been investing first in some state-of-the-art new lifts, then in excellent facilities beyond downhill skiing, and most recently a large Ritz Carlton Hotel has opened there.
Northstar is not too far from Vail's other Californian resort, Heavenly, also be Lake Tahoe, and the company will be offering joint resort incentives.
Northstar had been operated for quite a few years by Booth Creek which also operates Sierra-at-Tahoe as a sister resort. Booth Creek will continue to operate Sierra-at_tahoe.
"We are thrilled by the opportunity to bring Northstar-at-Tahoe into our family of world-class mountain resorts. With substantial and diverse ski terrain, a completely renovated and modern base village and outstanding guest service, Northstar-at-Tahoe has been one of the fastest growing mountain resorts over the past few years," said Rob Katz, chairman and chief executive officer of Vail Resorts. "We believe guests of Heavenly and Northstar will greatly appreciate the flexibility to enjoy both the north and south shores of Lake Tahoe as we introduce pass and lift tickets products that offer access to both resorts starting with this coming 2010-2011 ski season."
Vail's other four resorts are all in Colorado – Vail itself, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge.
