East
Despite the warmest and one of the driest winters on record, New England was holding its own up until March when the weather turned even warmer and the bottom fell out.
“Through the end of February we were still on track for a great season,” said Greg Sweetser, executive director of Ski Maine.
Instead, most New England resorts are now talking 10-year average.
“Over the last 10 years, which includes our three best-ever years, we’ve averaged about two million skiers,” said Alice Pearce, executive director at Ski New Hampshire. “We’ll be pretty close to that average this year, either up or down slightly depending on how the month of March turns out.”
There were some individual standouts—Bretton Woods, up 13 percent over last year, and Sunapee with its second best season ever.
Dave Dillon, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, also expected Vermont to hit its 10-year average of about 4.1 or 4.2 million skier visits, well off last year’s 4.5 million.
“Three or four areas did as well or better than last year,” Dillon said, including Jay Peak and Okemo. “But that was not the norm.”
The community areas led the way in Maine where Sweetser expected total skier visits to drop 5 to 10 percent over last year’s record 1.32 million. Black, Titcomb, Camden and Lonesome Pine all had good community support, while new management at Mt. Abram and Lost Valley, and new capital improvements at Big Rock helped those mid-size areas to good seasons. Shawnee Peak had another good year, and a strong Canadian market helped fill beds at Sugarloaf and Sunday River through mid-March.
In the Southeast, a late start (most areas could not even make snow until December), multiple warmups, drought conditions and an early finish summed up the 2001-02 winter season.
“A lot of areas never got more than 50 percent of their trails open,” said Steven Showalter, president of the Southeastern Ski Areas Association. “Most everybody’s down 20 to 25 percent over last year.
“But compared to an average year we’re only down about 10-15 percent.”
Operating days help tell the story: Most southeast areas average 90 to 95 operating days. Last year’s record season went as long as 105 days at some resorts. This year the average was only 80 to 84 days open. Tubing was one bright spot for at least two areas: Cataloochee, N.C., and Wintergreen, Va.
“Those extra sources of revenue help soften the blow a little,” Showalter said.
West
Good snow conditions propelled the Pacific West and Rockies to strong seasons and salvaged the season in both Colorado and Utah.
Snowfall at Mt. Baker, Wash., gives an indication of just how good the season was in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. In the first 15 days of March, alone, Baker received 100 inches to bring its season-to-date total to 706 inches.
“We’ve had phenomenal snowfall in March,” said Scott Kaden, president of the Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association. “That has kept folks going to the mountains.”
The resurgence in rubber tire travel following last fall’s terrorist attacks also helped the region’s resorts which rely almost entirely on day travelers.
Abundant, consistent snowfall also helped California to a strong season, despite the collapse of the Japanese and South American, particularly Argentina and Brazil, markets.
“When you look at the lingering effects on business travel and some other tourism sectors in California since the 9/11 attacks, we’re pretty happy,” said Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association. “Areas had to discount less this year, and yields and revenues are as good as they’ve ever been.”
Mammoth had an especially good season, up 10 percent, as did southern California, Heavenly and other Tahoe resorts. Overall, Roberts predicted skier/snowboarder visits would be “well into the 7.4 million range.”
Colorado did not fare as well where late snow and huge declines in air travel since September 11 cut deep into the ski business. Through the end of December, skier visits were down 14 percent over last year. By the end of February resorts had cut that gap to five percent.
In Utah, a successful Winter Olympics, great snow and last-minute bookings helped that state avoid what looked like a disaster. Utah resorts had expected a decline in business this year because of the Olympics, but not the 35 to 80 percent declines resorts were reporting heading into the Games in February.
“Once the opening ceremonies began, the phone finally began to ring and we recaptured March,” said Kip Pitou, president of Ski Utah. “There have been so many changes in tourism since 9/11. The booking window has shortened dramatically.”
Thanks to the second best March on record, Pitou said Utah should wind up with a decrease of about 10 to 15 percent over last year.
“It’s about what we expected,” Pitou said. “The Olympics were an investment in the future.”
Midwest
Business was mixed in the Midwest with most areas anywhere from five percent up or five percent down over last year’s best-in-a-decade season. Patterns were hard to find. Some southern areas did very well, including Hidden Valley, Missouri, Mad River Mt., Ohio and Perfect North Slopes, Ind. Chicago and Detroit metropolitan areas like Wild Mt., Minn., Nub’s Nob, Mich., Crystal Mt., Mich. and Sunburst, Wis., with good trial and conversion rates for new skiers and riders, also posted excellent seasons.
“We started out feeling quite dismal, but in the end business turned out to be very strong,” said one midwest ski area operator.
Canada
The same winter weather pattern— snowy in the west, mild in the east—will probably mean another average year in Canada as well. Colin Chedore, president of the Canadian Ski Council, predicted skier visits will about match last year’s 17 million. Early, season-long snow got Canada West off to a great start with some resorts opening in October. Anticipating a drop in air travel post-9/11, Jimmie Spencer, president of the Canada West Ski Areas Association, said resorts made a determined effort to go after rubber tire markets, “near and far.”
“It almost equated to the numbers we get from air travel,” he said.
In eastern Canada strong core business from season pass holders and group lessons helped offset an extremely mild winter.
“Overall, we’ll be down about 15 percent compared to last year,” said Claude Peloquin, executive director of the Quebec Ski Areas Association. “We’re basically where we were two or three years [ago.]
