SAM Magazine--Copper Mountain, Colo., June 14, 2007--Colorado Ski Country USA announced that the state set a new visit record during the 2006-07 season with 12.56 million skier visits. It's the second year in a row that Colorado's 26 ski and snowboard resorts have set visitation records, although this past season's 12.56 million visits bested last year's by only 30,000 visits. Overall, Colorado accounted for nearly 23 percent of nationwide visits.

Breaking it down even more, the Aspen Skiing Company also announced its visits. The company reported that the skier visits remained identical to the 2005 - 2006 season. The final tally for 2006 - 2007 was 1, 444,647 for the season.

Skier/snowboarder visits to the four mountains of Aspen/Snowmass were as follows:

• Snowmass: 769,570

• Aspen Mountain: 327,750

• Aspen Highlands: 193,496

• Buttermilk: 153,831

Looking at the bigger picture again, once again Colorado hosted the most skier visits in the U.S. California hosted the second most and Utah the third. Vermont, which was overtaken by Utah last year, remains in fourth place this year. \