Dec. 28--The stock price of American Skiing Co., which owns Steamboat ski area, closed Thursday at a record low of 47 cents a share. 

From its mountaintop pinnacle in November 1997, when its stock went public at $17 a share, American Skiing stock has endured steady and steep declines that mirror the black diamond runs at its eight ski resorts. Since that day in November more than four years ago, American Skiing has never even neared its initial selling price. 

The largest ski resort operator in the country, American Skiing is also one of the country's most financially troubled publicly held companies. 

"Why it's even trading at 47 cents is something we can't even understand," said Brad McCurtain, president of Maine Securities, which tracks all publicly held companies in Maine and one of the few financial analysts who still watches American Skiing. "The stock is effectively worthless. The company has run up the largest amount of losses of any company we are aware of in Maine's history." 

In the past year, the company has jettisoned its founder, Les Otten, who still owns a large chunk of the company's stock; sold its Sugarbush ski hill in Vermont; sold its new gondola at its Heavenly resort in California and then leased it back; and is still trying to sell Steamboat ski area. 

In March, a deal to merge with the 110-hotel Meristar Hotel & Resorts foundered. 

The sale of the Steamboat ski area has been delayed, and it's unlikely the company will close the deal by the end of the year, according to American's mid-December earnings release, when it posted a $65.5 million loss for the first quarter of fiscal 2002. That earnings release showed American was predicting a $75 million loss on the Steamboat sale and taking tax benefits for that loss before the sale was completed, McCurtain said. The proceeds from the sale will go only toward paying down American's debt, which is almost $300 million. 

That means American will probably sell Steamboat for about $75 million less than it paid. In 1997, Maine-based American paid $288.3 million for Steamboat and Heavenly ski area in California. The details of the deal were never released, but American has since spent $80 million on a 327-room lodge at the base of Steamboat ski area. 

The company's stock took a nose dive Monday when an unnamed stockholder dumped more than 300,000 shares, triggering a rush of activity. For months, the stock has been trading for about $1 and averaging 30,000 to 35,000 shares traded a day. On Monday, the company saw almost 800,000 shares change hands. 

"I think that's people looking at the company, saying this is going to take a while to work out, and I need some losses for my tax situation," said Phelps Hoyt, an analyst with ADP Investment Advisors in Vermont. 

The company's fight to find stable financial ground and address its debt in the past year has prompted several refinancing steps that has placed its principal investor, Oak Hill Capital Partners, in control of the company's board of directors. "The stock has no value for the common shareholder," McCurtain said. "Next year looks pretty bleak." 

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