Rutland Herald
By BRUCE EDWARDS
A year ago, Vermont’s resorts were on their way to the best ski season on record — 4.67 million skier visits.
This year it’s quite another story.
A dearth of natural snow combined with too many unseasonably warm days and nights, making snowmaking difficult or impossible, has meant fewer skiers hitting the slopes of the state’s 20 resorts.
Looking out his office window last week, Killington Resort spokesman Michael Joseph said rain was coming down and the forecast for the coming week wasn’t encouraging with temperatures well above average.
On Sunday, Killington, the state’s largest ski area, had 65 of 155 trails open. Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow reported 65 of 121 trails open.
Although the state’s skier visit totals won’t be released until June, there’s no question business will be down from the 2014-15 ski season.
“It certainly won’t be like last year, which was a record year,” Joseph said.
He said the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period was disappointing but business did pick up for the Martin Luther King holiday in January and Presidents’ Week in February.
And the season would be a whole lot worse if not for the investment Killington made over the years in its snowmaking operation.
“What we’re seeing here, though, is a low snowfall season that we haven’t seen in a long, long time,” Joseph said, “but I think more than ever this year has shown the incredible difference the snowmaking fire power has made across the state.”
Parker Riehle, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, said the season in some ways harkens back to the 2006-2007 and 2011-2012 “that were relatively slow going.”
For the state’s 20 ski areas, the season got off to a very slow start with only 12 percent of statewide terrain open by the start of the Christmas-New Year’s holiday.
Like Joseph, Riehle emphasized the critical difference the enhanced, energy-efficient snowmaking technology has made across the state, allowing resorts to make snow in adverse weather conditions to “match wits with Mother Nature.”
“The (skiing) conditions are actually pretty good but it’s obviously very difficult to get people excited about skiing and riding when the constant drumbeat of the season has been very little or no snowstorms throughout the year,” Riehle said.
Of the three holidays, Presidents’ Week was the strongest holiday and not far off from last year, he said.
“Christmas and New Year’s was very disappointing and MLK was OK but obviously it’s a much shorter holiday period just being a longer weekend,” he said.
Killington has stopped its snow guns for the season with the exception of spot work when temperatures permit.
The resort hopes to keep at least its expert Super Star trail open into April and May.
The Skyeship base area and the Sunrise triple lift are already closed for the season.
Pico Mountain, Killington’s sister resort, has curtailed operations and is now open only on Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the season.
Two other resorts, Magic Mountain in Londonderry and Mad River Glen in Waitsfield are open only on weekends.
Unlike a year ago, resorts had to rely more heavily on snowmaking this season and continue to make snow later into the season than usual.
“We pumped 30 percent more water this year than we typically do, mostly because the warmer temps and lower natural snowfall required us to do so,” said John Bleh, a spokesman for Sugarbush Resort in Warren.
Bleh said the “toughest part” of the season for snowmaking was the warm spell leading into the Christmas holiday week.
“We only had a handful of trails open at that point because of small snowmaking windows,” he said.
To put the season in perspective, Bleh said this was the worst season in terms of snowfall since the 1979-80 season. However, Sugarbush was able to recover to the point where it had 100 percent of its terrain open several times this year.
The bottom line: Bleh said skier visits are down around 25 percent with overall revenues off 15 percent.
He said the 2015-16 year will be a “far worse year financially that the past three.”
Sugarbush plans to stay open as late into April as possible.
Business has been a mixed bag in and around the Ludlow area, home to Okemo Mountain Resort.
Marji Graf of the Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce said while midweek was slow, business on weekends picked up quite a bit.
“The restaurants did great on the weekends,” said Graf, the chamber’s CEO. “Midweek business was slow everywhere.”
She said when skiers weren’t skiing they found other things to do like shopping. A prime example is Vermont Country Store, which Graf said had its best year ever.
Like restaurants, she said lodging establishments enjoyed a good weekend business but midweek was down.
“No one is ever going to make up for our lack of business Christmas-New Year’s and February break,” she said. “First of all you can’t compare it to last year because last year was a banner year for everyone.”
In northern Vermont, Jay Peak had 100 percent of its trails open until late last week. But like other resorts the weather proved to be a drag on business.
“The wild weather ride has caused the lift ticket business to be off about 12 percent against last winter,” resort spokesman JJ Toland said in an email.
Jay Peak has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in lodging and amenities, including a water park and hockey arena, to keep skiers busy when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
“The waterpark has acted as a kind of firewall against the destination visitor cancelling during the holiday periods and we’ve hosted a number of 16-team hockey tournaments this winter,” Toland said, “which is turn boosted lodging and F&B (food and beverage) revenues during a time when we could have been off pace due to weather.”
Toland said revenues at Jay are off 6 percent from a year ago. But he said the resort hopes to close that gap this month with an influx of holiday skiers from Quebec and Ontario.
“If we can get Mother Nature to be just a bit more polite, we might just finish the winter flat to last year. And that would be a win,” he said.
Faced with a far more difficult season are the Nordic ski areas. As of Sunday, only four of the state’s 30 cross-country areas remained open, according to the VSAA website.
When skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes, their spending has a ripple effect on ski shops, hotels, restaurants and convenience stores. In turn, that benefits the state’s tax coffers.
Riehle said while business is off from last season, sales tax and rooms and meals tax revenues “have held up better than expected.”
This year it’s quite another story.
A dearth of natural snow combined with too many unseasonably warm days and nights, making snowmaking difficult or impossible, has meant fewer skiers hitting the slopes of the state’s 20 resorts.
Looking out his office window last week, Killington Resort spokesman Michael Joseph said rain was coming down and the forecast for the coming week wasn’t encouraging with temperatures well above average.
On Sunday, Killington, the state’s largest ski area, had 65 of 155 trails open. Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow reported 65 of 121 trails open.
Although the state’s skier visit totals won’t be released until June, there’s no question business will be down from the 2014-15 ski season.
“It certainly won’t be like last year, which was a record year,” Joseph said.
He said the Christmas and New Year’s holiday period was disappointing but business did pick up for the Martin Luther King holiday in January and Presidents’ Week in February.
And the season would be a whole lot worse if not for the investment Killington made over the years in its snowmaking operation.
“What we’re seeing here, though, is a low snowfall season that we haven’t seen in a long, long time,” Joseph said, “but I think more than ever this year has shown the incredible difference the snowmaking fire power has made across the state.”
Parker Riehle, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, said the season in some ways harkens back to the 2006-2007 and 2011-2012 “that were relatively slow going.”
For the state’s 20 ski areas, the season got off to a very slow start with only 12 percent of statewide terrain open by the start of the Christmas-New Year’s holiday.
Like Joseph, Riehle emphasized the critical difference the enhanced, energy-efficient snowmaking technology has made across the state, allowing resorts to make snow in adverse weather conditions to “match wits with Mother Nature.”
“The (skiing) conditions are actually pretty good but it’s obviously very difficult to get people excited about skiing and riding when the constant drumbeat of the season has been very little or no snowstorms throughout the year,” Riehle said.
Of the three holidays, Presidents’ Week was the strongest holiday and not far off from last year, he said.
“Christmas and New Year’s was very disappointing and MLK was OK but obviously it’s a much shorter holiday period just being a longer weekend,” he said.
Killington has stopped its snow guns for the season with the exception of spot work when temperatures permit.
The resort hopes to keep at least its expert Super Star trail open into April and May.
The Skyeship base area and the Sunrise triple lift are already closed for the season.
Pico Mountain, Killington’s sister resort, has curtailed operations and is now open only on Saturday and Sunday for the rest of the season.
Two other resorts, Magic Mountain in Londonderry and Mad River Glen in Waitsfield are open only on weekends.
Unlike a year ago, resorts had to rely more heavily on snowmaking this season and continue to make snow later into the season than usual.
“We pumped 30 percent more water this year than we typically do, mostly because the warmer temps and lower natural snowfall required us to do so,” said John Bleh, a spokesman for Sugarbush Resort in Warren.
Bleh said the “toughest part” of the season for snowmaking was the warm spell leading into the Christmas holiday week.
“We only had a handful of trails open at that point because of small snowmaking windows,” he said.
To put the season in perspective, Bleh said this was the worst season in terms of snowfall since the 1979-80 season. However, Sugarbush was able to recover to the point where it had 100 percent of its terrain open several times this year.
The bottom line: Bleh said skier visits are down around 25 percent with overall revenues off 15 percent.
He said the 2015-16 year will be a “far worse year financially that the past three.”
Sugarbush plans to stay open as late into April as possible.
Business has been a mixed bag in and around the Ludlow area, home to Okemo Mountain Resort.
Marji Graf of the Okemo Valley Regional Chamber of Commerce said while midweek was slow, business on weekends picked up quite a bit.
“The restaurants did great on the weekends,” said Graf, the chamber’s CEO. “Midweek business was slow everywhere.”
She said when skiers weren’t skiing they found other things to do like shopping. A prime example is Vermont Country Store, which Graf said had its best year ever.
Like restaurants, she said lodging establishments enjoyed a good weekend business but midweek was down.
“No one is ever going to make up for our lack of business Christmas-New Year’s and February break,” she said. “First of all you can’t compare it to last year because last year was a banner year for everyone.”
In northern Vermont, Jay Peak had 100 percent of its trails open until late last week. But like other resorts the weather proved to be a drag on business.
“The wild weather ride has caused the lift ticket business to be off about 12 percent against last winter,” resort spokesman JJ Toland said in an email.
Jay Peak has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in lodging and amenities, including a water park and hockey arena, to keep skiers busy when the weather doesn’t cooperate.
“The waterpark has acted as a kind of firewall against the destination visitor cancelling during the holiday periods and we’ve hosted a number of 16-team hockey tournaments this winter,” Toland said, “which is turn boosted lodging and F&B (food and beverage) revenues during a time when we could have been off pace due to weather.”
Toland said revenues at Jay are off 6 percent from a year ago. But he said the resort hopes to close that gap this month with an influx of holiday skiers from Quebec and Ontario.
“If we can get Mother Nature to be just a bit more polite, we might just finish the winter flat to last year. And that would be a win,” he said.
Faced with a far more difficult season are the Nordic ski areas. As of Sunday, only four of the state’s 30 cross-country areas remained open, according to the VSAA website.
When skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes, their spending has a ripple effect on ski shops, hotels, restaurants and convenience stores. In turn, that benefits the state’s tax coffers.
Riehle said while business is off from last season, sales tax and rooms and meals tax revenues “have held up better than expected.”
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