One month’s electric bill for Bristol Mountain ski area is just over $33,000. This may not be too spectacular when put against an Aspen or a Stowe or a Mammoth, but it’s substantial when you consider that Bristol Mountain, located in western New York, has a vertical of just over 1,000 feet, has 10 slopes, three chairlifts and two T-bars.
Bristol is one of those mid-size ski areas doing a booming business partly because it is near a metropolitan center (Rochester), partly because of snowmaking and partly because of night skiing. In fact, it is the lighting and snowmaking that accounts for most of that big electrical bill. “We know that survival means we have to offset these huge fixed costs with aggressive marketing,” says Colleen Cayton, marketing director and wife of the area manager, Corky Cayton.
With this in mind the Caytons set out several seasons ago to fill Bristol’s 75 acres of lighted slopes every night as well as continue the growing daytime business. They estimate that a western ski resort with an average of 140 days of operation would log 1,000 skiing hours, while Bristol with an 80 day season would log 1,122 operating hours. This is because Bristol does at least 40 percent of its business at night and the percentage of night skiers increases annually at a rate 50 per cent greater than the increase in day-time skiers. Furthermore, a huge chunk of this business is insured because it comes from pre-sold packages.
Reasons for the growth in night skier numbers is due primarly to diligent efforts to expand the trade developed from the first sales of student ski programs eight years ago. With a good liaison and cooperative effort with area schools, Bristol now accomodates 2,951 students in its discounted $36.00 eight-session ski program. Most students arrive at 4 p.m. on a bus straight from school, take a one-hour ski lesson and ski until they are called to their buses for return. Few stay at the area later than 9 p.m.
The student program led Bristol to realize both an increase in skier growth rate and a more complete utilization of its facility. Unfortunately, as student numbers increased, so did complaints from adult night skiers who likened walking into the Bristol lodge on some evenings to walking into a high school gymnasium. Trying a number of ways to solve the problem, it was not until this year that Bristol found an answer. The solution was not in reducing student numbers or in limiting the hours students could ski, but in increasing the number of adult skiers in packaged night programs. With a better ratio of adult to student population, the younger skiers are simply absorbed in the environment.
Enrollment in Bristol’s adult package programs now totals 1,822 with heaviest concentration on Tuesday and Friday evenings when there is entertainment in the base lodge. Whether skiers enroll for the skiing or for the social benefits is difficult to say, but for at least eight weeks of the season, the bar and lounge on those evenings in particular are busy from 10 p.m. until 1 a.m. Certainly the $36 price for the ski package is a best buy. At retail, those eight visits to the slopes with instruction would sell for $92.00.
For the walk-in skier traffic, Bristol’s night shift ticket sells for $6.50. This is not a discount from the morning or afternoon shift ticket. The skier is, however, entitled to five hours on the lifts at night (6 p.m.-11p.m.) in contrast to the three-and-a-half hour morning and afternoon shift periods. If there is a ticket price incentive for night skiing, it is probably Bristol’s “night-owl” ticket, valid from 8 p.m. until closing at 11 p.m. for $4.00.
Skier traffic is slowest on Saturday and Sunday nights and for those evenings, Bristol offers several special ski deals. Most popular is Sunday family night when parents pay regular prices and each of the kids ski for $1.00 with a maximum family charge of $15.00. Special family rental rates run $3.50. Closing time Sunday is 9 p.m.
Designed for those “who’ve always wanted to know what it’s like, but who were reluctant to venture forth,” Bristol offers a “Saturday Night Frost Bite” special. Lift ticket, one hour lesson and equipment rental is sold for $8 per person, minimum 10 people and reservations required. The area also invites skiers to help Bristol Mountain celebrate it’s “Decade” season by scheduling a birthday party or an anniversary party any Saturday or Sunday night. For the “Birthday Party” special, Bristol Mountain bakes the cake and members of the party ski for $4 per person during the evening shift. Special rental rates, $3.50 per person, also apply. During the season, Bristol has baked at least one cake each weekend.
While night skiing extends Bristol’s operating season, it also means an exhausting schedule for the area’s management personnel. When the season comes and goes so quickly, nothing less than a concentrated effort with ample pre-season planning is adequate. At Bristol, they take it in stride as part of the game of “one-upmanship” on the weather. “It’s a much greater challenge,” says Cayton, a Westerner until four years ago. “Out there, you just wait for the snow, shovel out the lifts, and close down at 4:30 p.m. In this part of the country, we pray it gets cold enough to make the snow, we shovel it onto the lifts, and at 4:30 p.m., our day is just beginning. It’s a totally different business, one of producing skiing and of producing skiers. When we are able to achieve those objectives, there is ample satisfaction for our efforts.”
