Ski Helmets Mandatory for Kids at Vail, Aspen, Tremblant, Whistler

Thinking about winter travel? For those who own or rent vacation homes in ski areas, it's time to think about ski helmets.

Aspen requires children and teens who take ski or snowboard lessons on any of its mountains -- Aspen, Highlands, Buttermilk and Snowmass -- to wear helmets.

For winter 2009-10, Vail Resorts, too, has made helmets mandatory for children and teens who take group lessons. (Vail Resorts operates Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge and Keystone in Colorado and Heavenly in California.) In announcing the helmet rule, Vail also said its employees would be required to wear helmets while on the job.

In Canada, Mt. Tremblant and other resorts owned by Intrawest joined the kids with lids bandwagon Oct. 1. The company announced that children and teens who take lessons at any of their mountains must wear helmets, as must its instructors in those programs.

Tremblant, of course, is the Quebec resort where actress Natasha Richardson fell while taking a lesson without a helmet last spring and later died.

The Intrawest rules applies to all its properties including Winter Park, Copper Mountain, and Steamboat Ski & Resort in Colorado; Stratton in Vermont; Snowshoe Mountain in West Virginia; Mountain Creek in New Jersey; Panorama Mountain near Invermere, British Columbia; and Whistler Blackcomb, which will host alpine events for the 2010 Winter Olympic Games.

Photo courtesy Aspen/Snowmass

New Quarter Shares at Whistler

Fans of the Olympics will be able to cheer alpine and other events in 2010 from their own homes if they own one at Whistler-Blackcomb in BC -- or perhaps rent out their units for big bucks. At the huge Canadian resort last week, I saw first hand the lovely village and fantastic twin mountains where much of the action takes place. Whistler has many hotels and condos but owner Intrawest is putting a new set of quarter-share fractionals -- called Evolution -- on stream at prices beginning at $129,000 for a one bedroom.

Winter Olympics Lodging? Try Cruise Timeshares

Don't want a timeshare on land? How about one on sea? How about tossing the 2010 Winter Olympics into the mix? CruiseShip'Shares may be coming to a port near you. The ship Pacific Aurora, under a Canadian Flag, is scheduled to begin sailing in the Vancouver, BC area within the next few months. The ship's initial winter itinerary will offer a Sea-to-Ski program featuring Whistler Mountain, the site of the 2010 Winter Olympics. A spokesman said "to the best of our knowledge this is a unique vacation ownership opportunity and will be among the first for a commercial style cruise ship." First purchasers will have the opportunity to secure occupancy rights during the Olympiad. Vacation ownership unit sales are expected to start as early as mid July but the idea must first be approved by state regulators in Florida.

Intrawest Sale: Good or Bad for Second Homes?

Do you own any property at an Intrawest resort? Should you be concerned that a private equity firm, Fortress Investment, is in the process of acquiring the currently-public company? I think it's too early to judge. IDR was up for sale for months. But JMP Security's respected analyst Will Marks has downgraded his firm's rating of the stock from "strong buy" to "market perform." The resort giant has a piece of 10 mountain resorts including Whistler in British Columbia (an upcoming Olympic venue), Tremblant in Quebec, Copper Mountain and Winter Park in Colorado and Stratton in Vermont. It's building the new Snowmass Village near Aspen and has real estate projects in Las Vegas and Orlando.

The announced sale is a victory for a leading activist shareholder, Pirate Capital, which got its wish for a spike in the stock price. Fortress has valued its offer at $35 a share, a 32 percent premium over the recent stock price.