SAM Magazine--June 11, 2013--The Utah ski and snowboard industry closed the 2012-13 winter season Memorial Day weekend with a total of 4,031,621 million visits, up over 5 percent from the previous season’s 3,826,130. The 5.4 percent increase marks the sixth time Utah has ended above four million in the last eight years, and a significant increase after the lackluster 2011-12 season, which was down 9.4 percent from the 2010-11 season.

Early season storms helped meet the pent-up demand for snow sport enthusiasts and started the season out strong. Although the season snowfall was below average, the total snowfall exceeded the pervious seasons low totals, and in-conjunction with resort snowmaking, provided excellent conditions throughout the season.

“Utah ski and snowboard resorts did an outstanding job getting the word out on early season snow,” noted Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty. “Even when the storms slowed, new and upgraded snowmaking systems ensured that all of the resorts had exceptional snow all winter.”

Total Utah statewide skier days for the past 10 years are as follows:

Season	*Skier Days	Rank
2012-13	4,031,621	6
2011-12	3,826,130	9**
2010-11	4,223,064	2
2009-10	4,048,153	5
2008-09	3,972,984	7
2007-08	4,249,190	1
2006-07	4,082,094	3
2005-06	4,062,188	4
2004-05	3,895,578	8
2003-04	3,429,190	10

*The National Ski Areas Association defines ‘skier days’ as one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night for the purpose of skiing/snowboarding.

**The 2011-12 number has been adjusted slightly due to a reporting error, adding an additional 23,594 skier day visits.