American Skiing to sell resorts in Vermont, New Hampshire

American Skiing Co. said Friday it agreed to sell Vermont's Mount Snow and New Hampshire's Attitash ski areas to Peak Resorts Inc. of Missouri.

Park City-based American Skiing will sell the two resorts along with Grand Summit Hotels at both locations for $73.5 million, said David Hirasawa, the company's investor-relations manager.

Peak Resorts also will assume $2 million in debt and other liabilities at Mount Snow and Attitash, the company said.

The purchase will give Peak Resorts, based in Eureka, Mo., its first major ski areas. That company operates half a dozen tiny ski areas in Missouri, Ohio, Kentucky and New Hampshire.

American Skiing said it will use the money to reduce debt and for working capital.

The sale is set for the end of April and will leave American Skiing with five resorts in the Northeast and Utah.

American Skiing already has agreed to sell Colorado's Steamboat Springs resort to Canadian resort operator Intrawest Corp. for $265 million. Hirasawa said Steamboat is expected to change hands by March.

American Skiing has been investing heavily in The Canyons, its flagship 3,700-acre resort in Park City, which added terrain and lifts this winter. It also owns Killington and Pico, neighbors in central Vermont, and Maine's Sunday River and Sugarloaf/USA.

The company said Mount Snow, the closest major Vermont resort to the New York City metro area, is the fifth-most-popular eastern U.S. ski area. It has an 18-hole golf course.

Attitash is a smaller, 280-acre ski hill in the heart of New Hampshire's Mount Washington Valley. It has a water park and alpine slide.

Both resorts sit partly on national forest land, and the sale will require the consent of the U.S. Forest Service. Stockholder approval also will be required.

Hirasawa said the sale also is subject to an antitrust review by the U.S. Justice Department.

Executives at Peak Resorts Inc. didn't immediately return a phone message seeking comment.