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Snowsports Writers to Meet at Lutsen in 2009

Posted on: Friday, 12 May 2006, 06:08 CDT

By Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

May 12--Lutsen Mountains will have an opportunity to show off its expansion and improvements to writers from around the country when the National Snowsports Journalists' Association has its annual convention there in 2009.

"It's a big coup for us," said Jim Vick, Lutsen's marketing director.

As many as 300 journalists will attend the event, which in the past has been held at well-known ski venues such as Vail and Aspen, Colo.; Whistler, B.C.; and Charlevoix/Quebec City. This is the first time it will take place in the Midwest, Vick said.

"It's a chance to showcase Minnesota to a bunch of journalists," he said.

Vick said he convinced the organization to meet at Lutsen in March three years from now by emphasizing the variety of activities available on the North Shore during the winter.

"It's not just the skiing, it's the winter lifestyle in northern Minnesota," he said.

Lutsen plans cross-country skiing, dogsledding, ice climbing and skijoring excursions for the writers. Convention-goers also will be able to attend the North House Folk School to learn how to make wooden skis.

Lutsen is undergoing an expansion that includes upgrading lifts and chalets, new lodging, shops and restaurants. When announced in December 2004, Charles Skinner Jr. and his partner, Thomas Rider, said they were prepared to invest $5 million to $10 million in the multiyear expansion.

In the past, Vick tried unsuccessfully to interest snowsports writers of what the Lutsen area had to offer. "Prior to getting the bid, I could talk all I wanted, but they wouldn't listen. But now that our national convention is going to be here, they have to," he said.

And many of the convention-goers will probably write about the area when they return home.

"We were impressed with the diversity of outdoor recreational pursuits available at Lutsen and in Minnesota," Bob Cox, NASJA's first vice president, said in a statement. "The writers and photographers of NASJA will surely find many stories and images at Lutsen."

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Copyright (c) 2006, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Duluth News-Tribune (Duluth, Minn.)

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