“Normally, it wouldn’t be a problem to send the survey out a month early,” Kottke said. “But this season has been a little out of the ordinary.”
Out of sight is more like it.
After a near disastrous start for most of the country east of the Rockies, the snow started falling, and falling, and falling, raising the question, “When do you finally call off the season?”
Kottke’s survey normally puts an unofficial lid on the ski season. But this year he asked operators to return the survey by March 31 so he could tabulate the results in time for the NSAA convention May 3. No problem — normally.
But going into this April the snow was still falling in many parts of the country, leaving many ski areas in mid-season form.
Snow certainly dominated the news this season, but there were other stories as well. The media itself was a story in at least two states — Utah rode great press to a record season; California, meanwhile, had only an average season after being snowed under by too many negative weather stories.
“Out of bounds” skiing also grabbed more than its share of headlines this year when five skiers in Colorado and three snowboarders in California went off the trail. The five skiers were found safe; the three snowboarders died.
Also in Colorado, the much-publicized “gay rights issue” and promised boycott failed to materialize as the state skied to yet another record season.
And in the East and Southeast, Martin Luther King Day came into its own on the ski calendar.
NORTHEAST
The three-day MLK Day weekend in mid-January was not only a record-breaker for the northeast, it was the season-starter for much of the region.
After an early cold snap, December turned warm and rainy. Five areas in Maine never opened for Christmas. New Hampshire came out of the week 15 percent down; Vermont 10 percent behind.
“Christmas really left us behind the eight ball,” said Alice Pearce, executive director of New Hampshire’s Ski the White Mountains. “We had to spend the next three months playing catch up.”
Most of the Northeast did not catch up until the end of March. Despite record snowfalls in February and March, too many weekend storms cut into business. But the weekend storm pattern and bountiful conditions created a number of phenomena:
- In New Hampshire, Waterville Valley’s Käthe Dillman noticed a striking correlation between good snow and nice weather Monday through Friday and parents pulling their children out of school to go skiing.
- Midweek business also helped boost Vermont to its first back-to-back increase in skier days since the 1985 and ’86 seasons.
- In Maine, skiers “playing hookey” from work helped push that state to its 11th record season in 12 years. “Our weekday traffic was way up,” said Mike Reynolds, executive director of Ski Maine. “That’s what made the difference for us this year.”
- The snow also brought old-timers out of the closet (along with their equipment). “There was a lot of old equipment on the slopes this year,” Reynolds said. “K2 Kings, those old leather boots with the skinny metal buckles, safety straps. There was a lot of pentup demand on display.”
- In New York state, Rob Megnin, executive director of Ski Areas of New York, said demand in that state was not only pent up, in many cases, it was brand new.
“This was the year of the small areas,” he said. “Because of all the natural snow, the small areas are putting up some huge numbers. A lot of those numbers are new skiers. That’s going to help everybody down the road.”
SOUTHEAST
The snow, the season and the story line were much the same in the southeast — poor early start ending with a big bang.
“January was the culprit this year,” said Grady Moretz, president of Appalachian Mt., N.C. and past president of the Southeast Ski Areas Association. “By the second week of January, all of North Carolina and most of Virginia had to close.”
As in the Northeast, Martin Luther King Day turned the season around. Many areas posted their biggest ever one-day, weekend and holiday totals. Snow kept falling, and by the time the “Storm of the Century” blew through, leaving up to three feet of snow in its wake the second weekend of March, “We didn’t need it,” Moretz said. “We already had all the snow we needed.”
By April 1, four areas in West Virginia, including Snowshoe, Timberline, WinterPlace, and Canaan were still open.
MIDWEST
The “white color” recession turned parts of northern Michigan a little blue this season despite record amounts of white stuff.
“The resorts farther north haven’t had a bad year,” said Chris Stoddard, executive director of the Midwest Ski Areas Association. “They just haven’t seen as much growth as some of the others.”
Stoddard blamed executive layoffs around Detroit which cut down on weekend destination travel north. Among some of the other highlights:
- Boyne Mt.’s “sixpack” chairlift was a crackerjack success. The first-in-the-nation six-passenger chair was not only an operational success, but a marketing one too.
- Minnesota, Missouri and Ohio all had uniformly strong seasons, paced by “best ever” years at Wild Mt., Minn., Hidden Valley, Missouri, and Snow Trails, Ohio.
“Demand is there,” Stoddard said. “As long as the weather cooperates.”
CALIFORNIA
The weather was a little too cooperative in California this year. “Too much of a good thing,” said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association.
On the up side, the record snowfall helped put to rest all those negative drought and global warming stories. On the down side, the snow created a whole new set of negative stories. “The media hasn’t had a good gloom and doom weather story in a decade,” Roberts said. “And they really seized on this one. We found ourselves with a lot of work to do to overcome all the negative weather stories.”
Three highly publicized snowboarding deaths in deep powder didn’t help the public’s perception of the heavy snowfall. The result was a poor Christmas and January despite the tremendous conditions The lingering recession in southern California also cut into the totals at some areas. All in all the state should come about even with last year’s 6.3 million skiers, thanks to a strong March and April.
The brightest spot on the California scene this year was the international market, which continues to expand, particularly from the U.K.
NORTHWEST
The weather patterns were reversed in the Pacific Northwest but the outcome was the same — a good year; no record. “It could have been a great year if it had continued to snow after February 1,” said Doug Campbell, president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association.
Despite the driest February on record, yields are up across the region, Campbell said. Another bright spot: Fallout from the thousands of layoff notices going out at Seattle-based Boeing appeared to have little impact on the ski industry. Washington’s totals are up slightly over last year; Oregon’s will be up even higher.
UTAH
In Utah, good snow and even better media attention combined to lift that state to what will likely turn out to be a record year. “We had some good early publicity pushes that really helped publicize our snow conditions,” explained Randy Montgomery, executive director of Ski Utah. Prime-time international coverage began in November with the World Cup at Park City, followed two weeks later by the “Tournament of Champions” at Deer Valley. In February came the NBA All-Stars game covered by 900 journalists from 85 countries. “A lot of them skied and wove skiing into their coverage,” Montgomery said. “We got a lot of free on-air mention about our skiing.”
The good press notices continued with the opening of the Winter Sports Park in Summit County, Utah, America’s choice for the site of the 2002 Winter Olympics luge, bobsled and jumping competitions.
COLORADO
Colorado was also the recipient of much media attention this year — none of it solicited or particularly wanted. First, there was Amendment 2, the voter-mandated proposition striking down gay rights laws in three Colorado communities and prohibiting similar measures in other towns. Boycotts were promised over the issue, and although Denver has lost an estimated $25 million in convention business because of the amendment, the state’s ski areas apparently came through the winter unscathed and on track to top last year’s record 10.4 million skiers, perhaps even pushing 11 million. The skier’s priorities apparently remain intact.
The intense media coverage of five skiers lost in a blizzard turned out to be mostly a freebie plug for the state’s record snow conditions. “Areas did get some calls from people worried that the conditions were too dangerous because of all the snow,” said Mike Lane, spokesman at Colorado Ski Country, “but most people were elated when they saw all the snow on TV.”
Whether this season’s phenomenal snows in Colorado had anything to do with it or not, it’s hard to say, but April brought a rash of major ski resort sales. Somewhere between letters of intent and final contract were deals on Breckenridge, Powderhorn, Aspen Highlands and half of Aspen Ski Co.
SUMMARY
All in all, the ski area industry was feeling pretty good about itself as the season (reluctantly, it seemed) ran down. There was even talk of beating the old skier visit mark of 53.9 million, set in 1987-88. It’s wonderful what snow will do!
So what would it have been with snow and a strong recovery?
