From the East to the West, Mother Nature dominated the headlines this season. In the East, the big story was the Big Chill. In the West, it was the Big Quake. And in the middle, it was Colorado, caught in the Big Squeeze by the bicoastal extremes. All in all, it was an extremely bizarre season. A few of the highlights:
A record cold snap in January in the East sent the mercury plummeting along with the business.
The Martin Luther King three-day holiday weekend — a record-breaker a year ago — was the biggest casualty of the January freeze. Business was off by as much as 70 percent (Killington) over last year’s record-breaker.
The cold was particularly frustrating for eastern operators since it accompanied some of the best natural snow conditions in at least a decade, enabling many areas to pull the plug early on snowmaking. Mt. Wachusett in Massachusetts, for instance, silenced their guns February 8, saving more than $300,000 in snowmaking expenditures for the season. “We didn’t even have to patch or resurface,” said Wachusett General Manager David Crowley.
Many other eastern areas also reported saving as much as 40 to 50 percent in their budgeted snowmaking accounts. Much of these savings, however, were plowed (no pun intended) into other line accounts—ones ski areas haven’t been using much lately—like snow removal. “That’s a better category,” Crowley said. “I’d rather spend money to remove snow any day than have to spend money to make it.”
The record cold and abundant snowfall translated into some unusual patterns. For one thing all the natural snow helped even out the playing field. “Everyone in New England had great snow and great skiing,” said Scott Van Pelt, marketing director at Okemo, Vt. “The industry leaders have invested heavily in snowmaking, in lifts and trails and other improvements. They charge more because they’re worth it,” says Van Pelt, “but this year the area without those capital improvements had an incredible ski product at a lesser price. There was a segment of the market that could comfortably ski for a lower price.”
Many of the big numbers and percentage gains in the East were posted by smaller areas, areas closer to urban communities, day areas and areas with flexible ticketing.
“Many Quebec areas have ‘ski-by-the-hour’ lift tickets or four-hour tickets,” noted Louise Roberge, executive director of the Quebec Ski Areas Association. “These programs greatly helped during the extreme cold. People could come out and ski for a couple of hours or a half day.”
Aided by innovative ticketing strategies, the $50+ million overhaul at Tremblant which was unveiled in full for the first time this season, and by an unfavorable U.S. exchange rate which kept many Canadians home, Quebec ski areas ended their five-year skid. “Any time we don’t have a decline in skier visits is a good year for us,” Roberge said of the 6.4 million skiers (the same as last year) who visited the province this season.
Across the border, Maine was looking at a 4-5 percent growth rate, its 14th increase in the 15 years the state has been keeping track of skiers. Small areas fueled the charge. When Hermon Mt. and Mt. Abram closed in early April, both had 100 percent of their terrain open. It was that kind of a snow year in the East.
Big spring base depths and moderating temperatures also helped take the chill off the early season numbers in Vermont and New Hampshire. Both states expected to come in about even with last year’s strong totals.
In New York, Rob Megnin, executive director of Ski Areas of New York, reported so many areas were ahead of last year (a record) “it’s scary.”
“Overall, the biggest percentage growths were at the small to mid-size areas,” Megnin said, pointing to Kissing Bridge, near Buffalo, Scotch Valley in the Catskills, Toggenburg in central N.Y., and Bristol Mt. outside Rochester as having exceptionally good years. “The wealth was really spread around this year,” Megnin said.
In the Southeast, 93-94 will become the yardstick against which future seasons will be measured. “Most areas were up about 10 percent to as high as 40 percent,” said Dan Seme, president of the Southeast Ski Areas Association. “Several resorts reported it was their best year ever. As a whole the region will probably be up about 25 percent.”
In the Midwest, the story was the same as in the East: too cold to ski in January, but with a nice rebound in late February, March and early April. “In terms of skiers we’ll be down slightly from last year (a record), but we’ll be up in revenues,” said Chris Stoddard, president of the Midwest Ski Areas Association.
All-night skiing particularly took off in the Midwest this season led by Paoli Peaks in southern Indiana and Wilmot, Wis., outside Chicago. “Paoli did as many as 18,000 skiers and 1,000 lessons between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m.,” Stoddard said.
Graveyard skiing is so popular at Ski Butler in Kentucky, the area is hiring a minister next season to deliver sunrise services to all-night Saturday skiers.
In the West, business was spotty. California areas were hard hit by the Los Angeles earthquake, which turned a strong season into an also-ran. As a whole the state will finish about even with last year’s 6.2 million skiers, according to Bob Roberts, executive director of the California Ski Industry Association. That appears to result from the ability of a number of smaller areas to make up for the hits taken by the likes of Mammoth and Heavenly.
“Spotty” was also the word for the Pacific Northwest. A very dry January was followed by too much snow in February. Crystal Mt., Wash., received 65 inches in one day; Baker got 10 feet in less than two weeks. The late snow produced a banner spring season, lifting the region to about 3.3 million skiers, the same as last year, which was itself the second best behind 1988-89.
Utah was the only region contacted that reported a decline (about five percent) from last year. It was hurt by poor early snow, and like Oregon and Washington, too much snow when it finally came. Alta received 55 inches in one 24-hour period. Utah also felt the emotional aftershocks of the LA earthquake which kept many Californians home despite $59 airfares from California cities to Salt Lake City.
Also feeling the aftershocks of the California quake and the northeast chill was Colorado. The earthquake kept nervous Californians close to home, while the big chill sent many east coast skiers, weary of cold and snow, vacationing anywhere but a snow state.
“We saw some serious strength in our front range business, particularly areas such as Loveland and Eldora,” said Doug Cogswell, executive director of Colorado Ski Country. “That was really the separation point for us. Our destination business was off quite a bit. Both Vail and Steamboat were down.”
In Canada, the patterns were similar. Quebec and Ontario froze in January along with the eastern U.S., while Canada West, like the western U.S., was buried by snow in February (10 feet in three days at Whistler/Blackcomb). Business mirrored the weather — Quebec ended up even with last year; Ontario and Canada West were up slightly. “Overall, we had a very good season,” said Don McIlveen, president of the Ontario Ski Resorts Association. “Compared to the rest of the tourism business in Canada, that’s good news. The rest of the industry is really on its knees. Skiing is one of the few bright spots.”
Finally, no overview of the ski season would be complete without a word about snowboarding. Three snapshots sum up this segment of the industry: In New York state, snowboard visits increased five percent and now account for 15 percent of all ticket sales; the Washington State Ski Industries Association picked up 44 new members, all of them snowboard shops, most of them located around Seattle; and finally, Wachusett, Mass. had 40 snowboards in its rental shop this year (up from 10 last year), and plans to have 300 rental boards in stock next year.
