Pacific Northwest and Western Canada
“Very Good,” “Good,” “Ordinary,” “Crazy,” “Inconsistent,” and “Awful” were reactions from ski area management in summing up this season. One general manager probably averaged out everyone’s reactions when he commented, “It was the (exp/ective deleted).”
Pacific Northwest Ski Areas Association President Keith Petrie, general manager of Multorpor-Ski Bowl, Oregon, said: “I never saw a season go from such an optimistic year to the most complete disaster. It couldn’t have fallen any farther without digging a hole.”
Petrie’s area received early snows, which permitted it to open on December 1 with all four chairlifts starting up at the same time. Then the monsoons and tropical weather hit. Multorpor-Bowl’s 100-day average operating season dropped to just 22 days through March and the usual lucrative Christmas holidays were lost completely.
Early April snows added a few more days but, “It was too little, too late by then,” lamented Petrie.
Multorpor’s neighbor to the east, Mt. Hood Meadows, had what marketing head Michael Clark described as, “A very inconsistent season.” The snow came for a December 3 opening. Then it left, forcing holiday-time closure. The area opened again on January 31, with often-time marginal conditions. Snow-hauling to cover trouble spots was done. ‘Business began to pick up in March,” Clark said, “and on April 1 we had 58 inches of snow. Last year at this time the depth was 135 inches.”
“We’re very pleased with this season,” says Mt. Bachelor President Bill Healy. He should be. “It was another record-breaking year, with February being our biggest month ever. Then March came along and we had an even bigger month.” Opening right after Thanksgiving and running steadily from then on, Healy credited midweek increases to outstanding package programs, plus a hookup with Amtrak that permitted California skiers to come north more easily than ever before. Thirtyfive percent of Bachelor’s skiers came from out-of-state this season, according to Healy.
In eastern Oregon, Anthony Lakes’ Mike Lockhart said, “It was a crazy season. We had a slow start, opening the first of December, then running continuously from then on. February and March were busier than usual, and we will end up with a normal operating season with no decrease or increase, in business.”
Timberline Lodge, Mt. Hood’s highest ski area knows no season. That is, there are lifts running 12 months a year. Luckily, they had the Palmer lift which tops out at 8,500 feet, to take up the slack when there was not enough snow to run the lower lifts regularly in December and January. “Even so, we are down 24 to 28 percent in lift and lodging revenues for the season,” reports Lodge Manager Dawson Hubert. The Palmer lift was planned to run generally during late spring, summer and early fall. ‘But we are ready to go right now, into our spring season.” says Hubert.
Bogus Basin, Idaho, was not so lucky. “This has to rank as one of the worst seasons on record,” recapped Mountain Manager Terry Lofsvold. “It was outdone only by the drought season of 1976-77, so our financial picture has naturally suffered, with 50 percent less operating days than usual.’” Located just 16 miles from Boise, the area receives 50 percent of their annual income through season passes sold before the snow even falls. Finally lift revenues were down about 25 percent, said Lofsvold.
In northern Idaho, Schweitzer had an “Ordinary year,” according to Marketing Director Shirley Hamacher. “We operated every day, all season, but it became frustrating to convince skiers we had good snow conditions. When they did show up, they were shocked to find that the snow was great.” A Thanksgiving to mid-April year Saw an increase in out-of-area skiers, but a decrease in locals, said Hamacher.
Washington state areas ran the gamut of near-zero business to poor to fair. Mission Ridge, in the center of the state, “Had a fair year with the best part from late January to this spring,” reports area General Manager Walt Hampton. “We lost the holidays, but our snowmaking helped keep us open. We were able to cover the lower slopes so beginners had snow and ski schools are a big part of our business, so we lost very little there.” Overall, Hampton said Mission was, “About even with our average years, but down one-third from last year, which was one of the best we’ve had.” Crystal Mountain, on the flanks of Mt. Rainier, had a late November start, but the snow and business did not hold up. President Ed Link tried limited snowmaking, but there was not enough cold weather to make it effective. “We had to stockpile snow, then haul it to the lower slopes and the lift ramps. We really had spring in midwinter. As a result, we are down 50 percent over last year. Season ticket sales held up, but our heavy ski school business disappeared with the snow.” – Snoqualmie Summit, located 47 miles east of Seattle’s two million ski-oriented, population, had almost nothing to report. According to General Manager Stan DeBruler, “We are usually open 140 each year. We actually operated only 34 this year. About a dozen days each in December, January and February.” Last fall the Summit bought neighboring Ski Acres and had been looking for a banner season.
Sunshine Village, in the heart of the Banff region of Alberta, had a “very good season,” said marketing head Barry Struthers. “We may have been one of the few games in town and drew a lot of skiers that hadn’t noticed the Banff areas and Sunshine before. It took a road promotional campaign to convince coastal area skiers that the Canadian Rocky mountains were different and had good skiing conditions. So evidently the campaign paid . off.” The area was in operation seven days a week from November 22 toa projected May 19 closing. Struthers said skier days and revenues were up 10 percent over last year.
British Columbia’s Big White Ski Village is located in the middle of dozens of ski areas in the eastern part of the province. They too, had the benefit of good snow conditions. Marketing co-Director Jerry Kotylak said, “It was a good season with the number of skier days and dollars up over last year. January was slow, but February and March made up for it. A Seven day week operation began December 1 and was to continue through April. We promoted our skiing on a springtime theme. Our area’s lodging facilities averaged 80 percent ocCupancy. The good year permits us to continue planning for additional housing and to build the bases this summer for two more lifts.”
Grouse Mountain, located on the coast of British Columbia, had its usual five-month season shortened to 20 days. ‘It was awful,” said Marketing Director Peter MacKay-Smith. ““We’re down 80 percent in business after operating 10 days in December and 10 in February. The winter rains wiped us off. We’re preparing for the summer tourist trade now after writing off this winter some time ago.”
—John Hoefling
California
It was an unusual ski season in California, an upside down year that saw barren slopes in January and tons of snow in April. While most resorts were either partially open or closed during Christmas week, a number reported record crowds in February and March as pent-up skiers finally had a crack at some snow.
It was a checkered season financially. “A few resorts made money, some broke even and some fell below that,” said Bob Roberts, executive director of the Sierra Ski Areas Association.
“Overall,” he added, “the industry in California will be down about 15 to 20 percent in terms of skier visits. Because of that, I’d say that almost everyone but Bear Valley will be setting their capital improvements plans back slightly.”
The drop in skier visits is not as significant as the numbers might indicate because they are comparisons with the 1979-80 year, a season that saw a number of resorts set attendance records.
At Mammoth Mountain, where a record 1.3 million skier days were recorded in 1979-80, business was 25 to 30 percent off as of April 1, according to marketing director Evan Russell. Still, Russell predicted that ‘we’ll come very close to a million skier days this season. I would expect that this will be at least a break even year for us.”
At the other end of the state, Northstar near Lake Tahoe also achieved a skier day high last season with 331,000 visits. Marketing director Vance Fox reported that “as of March 22, we were 9.5 percent behind last year in skier days. Assuming the snow holds, or we get more, it is quite conceivable we could catch up with last year. But because the momentum has gone out of the season, there is a real possibility we won’t realize that prediction.”
As early April storms continued to dust the Sierra and San Bernardino Mountains, resorts with traditional late closing dates or spring racing camps talked optimistically.
“We’ll run as late as we can,” said Mammoth’s Russell, “and close in late June or early July. We are fairly certain we have enough snow to get into the spring and summer racing camps.”
Mammoth is one of several resorts setting back capital improvement projects slated for this summer. Work that had been scheduled to start on a multimillion dollar day lodge now will be put off until the summer of 1982. “At Snow Valley in Southern California, President Jack Rindal reported that his resort will proceed with plans to build a triple chairlift and erect a concrete dam to add a lake for its snowmaking system. But a new day lodge slated to rise this summer has been scratched.
Rindal said that “we didn’t have any skiing to speak of until February 15 because the warm Santa Ana winds prevented us from making snow.” Snow Valley’s skier visits are down, said Rindal, but “our revenue volume is about the same as last year.”
Snowfall also was scarce until late January at Bear Valley. Although the resort opened on a limited basis December 5, all seven chairs were not in operation until January 29. That was pretty much the pattern at other California ski areas. Most expected to shut down in late April as usual.
“We got only about half our normal snowfall,” said Bear Valley president Dennis Rasmussen, “and around April 1 we were down about 30,000 skiers. We had 237,000 skier day visits the previous year.”
“We managed to keep costs down during the slow times. If you run an efficient operation, you can make money with two good months of business. At least, in our case we can do that.”
Bear Valley has indicated it is going ahead with plans to add two more chairlifts this summer.
Lake Tahoe’s two largest resorts, Squaw Valley and Heavenly Valley, both were affected by the slow starting season. But Heavenly, which didn’t swing into full operation until January 31, was hardest hit. While figures on the size of the skier drop at Heavenly couldn’t be obtained, resort spokeswoman Vicki Colarossi hinted that some capital improvements, such as a chairlift or two, might be completed this summer.
Squaw Valley was able to open 13 chairs on its upper mountain on December 5. While December and January were slow months, Squaw reported 35 percent more business in February than any previous February and a March that was 20 percent better than any previous March.
Squaw Valley Public Relations Director Bill Boardman said that “we are a little behind on skier days this year but we’re catching up fast. We plan to close May 3.”
Across the lake at Incline Village in Nevada, area officials decided to cut costs by not making much early season snow and betting on natural snow to provide a cover for Christmas. It was “a gamble that didn’t pay off,” according to area manager Cappy Cook. There was no snow, no Christmas season and Incline didn’t open until January 3 when lifts over machinemade snow were turned on.
“We’re down a good 20 percent,” said Cook. “I can’t remember having a season as bad as this. But our daily operating costs were held down enough to allow us to pretty well hang in there on a break even basis. However, we were unable to cover our debt service.”
One of the bright spots in the California picture was Boreal Ridge. Although only 125 inches of snow had fallen as of April 1, compared with 350 inches last season, Boreal opened November 1 with limited skiing on machine-made snow.
Boreal president Jay Price said that “we had near record crowds over the Christmas holidays. Our skier days are down less than five percent, and we should be able to continue our capital improvements plan including possibly adding a chairlift.”
After a slow start, Kirkwood steadily picked up skiers although, in a late season tally, skier days were 17 percent lower than the previous season.
Thanks to the most extensive snowmaking system in the West, Snow Summit opened November 17 and kept pace with the skier count of last season. “It will not be our most profitable year,” said Marketing Director Tim Cohee, “but it will be profitable.”
—Bob Goligoski
The Rockies
“Erratic, strange, weird.” These are the most commonly used terms chosen by ski area personnel to describe the type of winter experienced in the Rockies this season. A number of areas opened slightly earlier than usual, then watched snow conditions dwindle through December and January. February and March snow storms help cut into declining lift ticket sales and some areas actually came close to 1980-81 figures.
At Vail where lifts began running the day before Thanksgiving, a spokesman predicts skier days will hit 950,000. The figure is estimated to run 24% behind Vail’s best season to date. The Colorado skier didn’t come. out to ski until late in the season when conditions improved. The warm weather experienced by Denverites also helped cool city skier enthusiasm early in 1981. Interestingly, Vail expects to benefit significantly from late season skiing when close to half the skiers on the mountain will be Spanish speaking tourists from South America taking their traditional Easter vacations.
To the south in Colorado, Telluride opened on December 13 but was forced to close down for two weeks at the end of February. The area lost many of its March reservations when it closed down and was only able to recapture 25% of its bookings. Skiing was reportedly marginal throughout much of the season but improved considerably in March and April. The area expects to run 50% behind last season.
Colorado areas logged one million skier days in February and over a million in March after being down in December and January.
In Utah, lifts opened at Snowbird the day before Thanksgiving. Skiing as Utahns have come to expect, however, did not begin until January 28 when a four-day snow storm dumped 6½ feet. The best skiing throughout the season in Utah existed at Snowbird and Alta. Snowbird expects to log its 2nd best season in history and will surpass last year’s figures. The area posted a record 5,601 skier days on February 1. Attendance topped 100,000 in March, for the first time ever. New lifts that increased capacity by 42% contributed to increased skier days.
Elsewhere in Utah, the snowfall was less generous. Several areas experienced later opening and earlier closing dates as well as lower attendance figures.
In Idaho, Sun Valley logged a very strong season and expects to be above last year by 10% or so. Three very big storms added up to very good conditions throughout the winter. The area opened a week ahead of schedule. Depending on the last few weeks of skiing, Sun Valley could report its best year ever.
Not far away in Wyoming, Jackson Hole reported its skier days were down 50% from projections. The area opened a week early on December 7 but closed on March 20th, the earliest closing date ever. Warm temperatures and a lack of snowfall in January forced skiers to take the tram down off the mountain to avoid the bare lower sections on the mountain. Warm temperatures in the 50’s and the drought combined to create poor snow conditions. Nearby, Grand Targhee, with its higher base elevation, fared better.
—Barbara Wicks
Mid America
The 1980-81 winter will go down in the books of Midwestern ski areas in terms ranging from “the best ever” to “an absolute disaster.”
All areas contacted in a spot check for Ski Area Management, reported a shorter than normal season. In some cases, this was due to warm weather and rain that wiped out skiing in midFebruary. In others, though snow remained or was remade, not enough skiers could be convinced that hills again were skiable.
At Mount Brighton near Detroit, co-owner Bill Riskey called this the area’s best season ever. He said income topped last year’s by the end of January and his final dollar tally was 15 percent ahead of last year’s, which itself had jumped 10 percent.
But Riskey is concerned that numbers of beginners at his area have declined consistently over the last three years. This convinces him that a big push by the industry is necessary to lure more beginners into skiing.
At the other end of the scale, Carmelo Oliva, who operates Rib Mountain in northern Wisconsin, said: “A year ago was disaster and this year was worse. We got a late start and weren’t really in good shape until early February. Then we had two decent weeks of skiing.”
“Our December business was down, January’s was average and February’s was good until the thaw. We had 68 operating days out of the 100 we like to see. Getting hit two years in a row makes it rough. It stops expansion and improvements. It’s knocked out a new chairlift for us.”
Dale Lillis, comptroller of Michigan’s Boyne Country, said the firm’s total sales were up a few percent over last year, but down considerably from its best years of 1977-78 and 1978-79.
“A good season, though a little shorter than usual,” was the evaluation of Werner and Daniela Seidel, managers of Clear Fork, between Columbus and Cleveland, Ohio. They skied about the same numbers this year as last, continuing open until February 27.
Bob Byerly, general manager of Ski Starlight at Clarksville in southern Indiana, called the winter an absolute disaster. He said the worst winter in 40 years in that region permitted only 32 days of skiing during the areas first season and left it fighting for its life.
At nearby Nashville Alps, at Nashville, Ind., Frank Moynihan, general manager, said it had been a pretty good winter for his area, despite the short season. He noted a big problem in educating skiers that there is good snow and skiing this far south.
In northern Indiana, at Ski Valley, near LaPorte, owners Walter and Irene Yoost, said they attracted more skiers in fewer weeks of skiing. They were open December 16 to February 15.
At Four Lakes, in the Chicago area, manager Jackie Trinko, called the winter about the same as last year’s, when the season was condensed, too.
“We spent more energy and dollars making snow this year,” she said. “And not having natural snow on the ground in the cities was a deterrent for getting skiers out to ski.”
Joe Wachtel, operations vice-president at Sundown, near Dubuque, Iowa, said attendance there dropped 6 percent, but increased prices pulled revenues ahead of last year’s.
“On balance, it was a tougher winter than the last, but we had raised prices and tightened up on expenses,” Wachtel explained.
He added that the two disappointing winters in a row had not discouraged him or other businessmen from Dubuque and the Quad Cities area from proceeding with plans to break ground this year for a new area at Andalusia, lll., just west of Moline. Possessing a 200-foot vertical drop, it will be called Snowstar.
Fred Cimino, general manager of Alpine Valley, in southeastern Wisconsin, called this the worst winter since 1974, with roughly a third of the season lost to the mid-February thaw. Attendance dropped nearly 20 percent, he said.
“Very mediocre,” was the evaluation of the season by Larrie Isenring, operator of Blackhawk Ridge, a cross-country area in south-central Wisconsin. He said:
“Cross-country skiing was hurt more by lack of snow; we lost 23 days of an 80 day season. Our numbers were up considerably over last year’s though.”
Charles Kent, a partner in Tyrol Basin, in southwestern Wisconsin, said the winter was a disaster, though notasbadaoneasayearago. .
“Summer came in February. And when we were able to reopen, nobody came, so we lost a good 4 weeks from a 15 or 16 week season.”
At Trollhaugen, in western Wisconsin, Jim Horton, public-relations manager, said attendance dropped about 15 percent, despite some of the best conditions in 20 years, with good snow and few subzero days. Economics, publicity about poor snow conditions elsewhere and absence of snow in metropolitan areas caused the slump, he speculated.
Tom Kelly, public-relations director at Telemark, in northern Wisconsin, noted about a 15 percent decline in both downhill and cross-country skiers there, but income remained about the same this year as last, he said.
At Big Powderhorn Mountain, in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, operator Louie Gheller said, his numbers were down perhaps 3 to 5 percent. Nearby Indianhead came up just about even with last year, according to Tom Britz, marketing director.
“A lot of people who normally go west came here as an alternative,” Britz said. “We saw more people from the Dakotas, Missouri, the lower peninsula (of Michigan), Ohio, Kentucky—even some from Florida and Texas.”
Paul Augustine, a partner in Afton Alps, near Minneapolis St. Paul, said attendance continued normal through mid-February, then dropped off, leaving both numbers and income down.
“It was similar to the 1979-80 season, which was the worst in a good many years,” Augustine said.
Farther north in Minnesota, Chuck Skinner, operator of both Sugar Hills and Lutsen, said Lutsen set a dollar record even though the number of skiers slumped 10 to 15 percent. Sugar Hills was off 15 to 20 percent in both categories. Skinner said, the slump may slow development of Moose Mountain at Lutsen, where work is to start this year on an area with an 800-foot vertical drop, enough for an FIS downhill course. Condo development at Sugar Hills may proceed more slowly, too.
—Bill Hibbard
The East and Eastern Canada
If there was a pattern to the 1980-81 ski season east of the Mississippi, it might be that there was no pattern. Erratic would understate the situation. The season started early with Killington (who else?) opening at half-past October and Sugarbush kicking off its season about 10 days later, in plenty of time for Halloween skiing. And they were hanging on, despite the 70- degree weather of early April, as SAM went to press.
In between, though, there were more ‘coughs and sputters to the season than in an asthma clinic: snow, then no snow but plenty of cold, some snow again and then no snow and no cold as the February monsoons hammered the Northeast, forcing a mittenful of areas to shut down. When they decided to reopen, they found there was little or no business so they closed again.
“We were going along like dynamite,” reports Rick Carter of Ski Sundown in Connecticut, “but then the season ended abruptly—about four weeks too abruptly. That big storm that dumped a couple of feet of snow on Vermont in late February netted us zero, and another storm in March that hit New Jersey stayed south of us.
“The skier interest was there. Our lessons and rentals were up, which showed we were even getting that beginner skier,” he adds, “but then we lost it. Well, it just gives us more time to get ready for next year.”
And, in keeping with a “them what has gets” syndrome, the “haves” of the industry seemed to attract even more business while little areas and ski touring centers, in general, took a pounding. There were some exceptions, but smaller areas unable—or unwilling—to install snowmaking were the hardest hit again.
Hugh Knapp of Knapp Associates in Shelburne, Vt., the equipment broker who keeps his hand on the pulse of the industry by the volume and types of requests he receives for help in buying new or used equipment, says the industry in some ways is beginning to resemble Latin American Society with the extremes of the very rich and the very poor and a barely discernible middle class.
“The gap seems to have gotten bigger this season between the big guys like Killington, Sugarbush, Stowe, Hunter and the other major areas in comparison with the little guys. The Ski areas which have made that commitment, invested in snowmaking, once again did well. The others didn’t; it’s just about that simple,” Knapp says.
“The South had fairly good snow, upstate New York was spotty with central New York having some problems, and in New England, Vermont seemed to do pretty well but New Hampshire and Maine didn’t get a lot of snow, so that hurt.”
Knapp says he has received “as much demand for lifts, especially the shorter ones, as for snowmaking… and, of course, that’s been very strong. The skier is finally perceiving he gets better skiing at an area with snowmaking, so he’s going to those areas which have plenty of snowmaking. We’ve never had as many inquiries about snowmaking from areas as we’ve had this season, and that includes big areas which are looking to further expand their systems. Snowmaking, right now, is a wide open market.”
Echoing Knapp’s observations, the upper end of the scale for the winter has several major areas putting this winter into two words: “best ever.” Killington rolled into April 46 percent ahead of last non-winter and 22 percent up on its best previous season, ‘78-79. Sugarbush also was registering new highs; Great Gorge posted its eighth straight record season “in terms of dollars, skiers, lessons, profits and anything else you want to count,” according to President Gene Mulvihill; and Whiteface rode the mega-million dollar publicity of the Olympics to crack the million-dollar revenue mark for the first time (closing at about a million-three for the season). Snowshoe measured 962 inches of snow in March—“we had over 66 inches at one point when it snowed 10 consective days,” says VP/Marketing Manyon M. Millican—to cap a season in which a record 220,000 skiers decided to “make tracks” to the West Virginia area. Beech Mountain finished within a whisker of 180,000 skiers for its best winter, while Brodie in the Berkshires, Camelback in the Poconos and mighty Hunter in the Catskills, despited a wretched February (Hunter was down 46,000 skiers from February ‘80), also posted record seasons.
On the other hand, several areas are reported on the rocks after back-to-back disastrous season and several ski touring centers reportedly have decided to pack it in for good. A couple of ski areas, eyeing the impact of snowmaking, are looking for ways to finance snowmaking systems.
Bousquet’s* in the Berkshires doubled its snowmaking system as part of a $400,000 expansion last summer and would have been sunk without the additional capability. King Pine in New Hampshire installed snowmakers for the first time last summer and the pintsize area (14 slopes and trails on a 350-foot vertical) found machine snow was the difference between modest success and total disaster. Laure Hoyt, whose family has run King Pine since it opened in 1961, says the impact was undeniable. “We had a pretty good season because we had snow and we were able to capture skiers from areas in a 25-30 mile radius that don’t have snowmaking.
Another small area, Hidden Valley (with 10 slopes and trails, a 400-foot vertical), which is southeast of Pittsburgh, also found snowmaking to be crucial. “Last year was pitiful; we were open about four weeks from mid-January to mid-February. But we put in about $100,000 worth of snowmaking and that gave us about 80 percent of the area covered and it made all the difference,” says GM John Knupp.
Stratton Mountain in Vermont received approval just before Easter for a $9-million base area complex that will include a 55-room condo-hotel, a 12-store shopping area and underground parking. That ties in with the resort’s booming vacation home market. None of it would be possible, according to President Don Tarinelli, without Stratton’s snowmaking.
“We learned last winter how to operate almost solely on machine-made snow and that kept us going. This year,” he says, “we learned that lesson even more. Skiers simply want to be sure they’ll have snow or they won’t come. We saw no resistance to our $20 daily lift ticket because skiers knew we’d have snow for them …and we’re following up on that lesson by postponing plans for our second golf course and putting that money into even more snowmaking so we can have trails off all of our lifts protected by snowmaking.”
While snowmaking appears to be the key for Alpine areas, it remains largely unfeasible for touring centers, say Stan and Lee Allaben, who operate Viking Ski Touring Centre, not far from Stratton. The Allabens have taken leadership roles in the XC industry in recent years, helping form the National Ski Touring Operators Association and the Eastern Professional Ski Touring Instructors Association.
“Snowmaking just isn’t financially justifiable for a touring center,” Lee says. “You can lay the pipes out ina field and have enough snow for lessons and maybe a small loop, but don’t think that’s enough to make people come to Vermont for ski touring. They want the real thing.”
Attitash, King Ridge and Mount Abram, three medium-size areas, are studying the possibility of installing snowmaking. The big question, of course, comes down to the dollars. Attitash and King Ridge, on opposite sides of New Hampshire, would like to put in about $1.5-million worth of snowmaking; Mount Abram hasn’t set a precise amount, preferring to check out the options and see what financing might be available.
“You’ve got ski areas which have had not just one but two bad years in a row, and you know banks are going to find it hard to okay and loan,” says Bruce Taylor of the Maine Publicity Bureau and a former marketing executive at two areas in Maine. ‘It’s not necessarily a case of bad management on the part of these smaller. areas; they may not have even gotten a chance to manage since they had no season. The poor weather never gave them a chance to show how they could manage.”
“Take an area like Pleasant Mountain, or Mount Abram, which are nice though smaller mountains. Without snowmaking, who’s going to take a chance on a season pass there? And that problem faces other ski areas in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, probably Vermont and certainly some in upstate New York. You can hold down expenses when you’re not open, but somewhere along the line you’ve got to get some money into that till,” Taylor says.
Perhaps Dan O’Connor, sales director for Stratton and its “sister” operation across the valley at Bromley, best summed up the eastern ski industry—and maybe the nation’s: “We just need some winter.”
—Paul Robbins
*At presstime, SAM learned that mortgagee foreclosure sales were scheduled for Bousquet’s and another Berkshire area, Otis Ridge. — The Editor
