SAM Magazine—Cambridge, Vt., Jan. 3, 2024—Good snowmaking conditions, timely—and in some cases abundant—snowfall, and high demand from skiers and riders were among the contributing factors that ski areas across North America cited as the catalysts for strong business over the extended holiday period of Christmas to New Years.  

WEST

Photo credit: Alta Ski Area/Tyler StrussAfter a historically dry start to the 2023-24 season, La Niña has been providing a steady stream of atmospheric excitement for resorts in the Pacific Northwest from Oregon to British Columbia to start 2024-25. 

Mt. Hood Meadows, Ore., opened for the season a couple weeks ahead of schedule and visitation has been high “due to the incredible amounts of snow we saw in November,” said general manager Greg Pack. “The holidays are very solid,” he said, thanks to a total of 234 inches of snow so far on the season and a 106-inch base. “The vibe is good in Oregon and we have been consistently beating our budgeted numbers every day so far, and we see that continuing,” he said. 

Nearby Timberline is in a similar situation thanks to consistent snowfall—a major turn from how last season began, said mountain manager Logan Stewart. “This time last year was a disaster—only one or two lifts open and we didn’t really get going until January,” he said. 

This season, however, Timberline is reporting 259 inches of snow season-to-date. “Early snow was great this year, boosting us Thanksgiving through Christmas,” said Stewart, who reported that all business units are hitting goals or above budget. “It's pretty rare for everything to align as planned, but it is, and we’re happy. It's nice to have a normal year, plus some good luck with weather and business on our side.”

Whistler Blackcomb in British Columbia had 7,250 skiable acres open across both mountains for the holiday period, “which certainly helped spread guests around,” said senior manager, communications Dane Gergovich, who conceded that there were some long lift lines out of the Village on days with heavy snow accumulation and winds, which delayed some terrain openings as patrol did their work, but the lift ops teams “managed the lines masterfully,” he said. 

Christian Knapp, vice president and chief marketing officer for Pacific Group Resorts Inc., reported Mount Washington, B.C., was sitting on a 128-inch mid-mountain base for the holiday season. A striking difference after enduring a difficult snow year last winter. He said PGRI has seen its 4- and 6-pack advance commitment products experience “significant growth” as of late. “This was not the case a month ago and we’ve seen a strong rebound in demand with the solid start to the season,” said Knapp, noting the company’s decision to freeze or reduce pricing on several products contributed to the overall success of the season so far. PGRI owns Mount Washington, Powderhorn, Colo., Wisp, Md., Wintergreen Resort, Va., and Jay Peak, Vt., and operates Ragged Mountain, N.H.

In Utah, where there was an unusual dry spell in early December heading into the holiday, resorts breathed a sigh of relief as storms restored a sense of normalcy for holiday travelers. Lexi Dowdall, communications manager for Alta Ski Area, said the shift in weather patterns should bode well for the coming weeks and even months, even if a few weary travelers made the call to cancel ahead of the holiday. 

“The independently owned lodges near Alta did see a handful of cancellations due to lower-than-average snowfall totals in the drier weeks leading up to the holiday period,” said Dowdall. The weather pattern has changed dramatically since then—Alta has picked up more than 4 feet of snow since Christmas Day and is reporting 163 inches on the season so far. 

For Brighton Resort, marketing director Jared Winkler credited snowmaking for helping to keep things together leading into the holidays. “Weather conditions presented some challenges in the lead-up to the holiday period,” said Winkler. “Our snowmaking capabilities allowed us to maintain consistent operations, though with a more limited trail count than we typically offer during this period.” He added that the recent storm cycle has brought “renewed excitement to the mountain.” 

Brighton saw robust pass sales and early booking indicators, all pointing to high demand, according to Winkler, who reported steady traffic so far this season and a good outlook for the next holidays. “The current storm cycle has significantly improved conditions, and we're seeing a corresponding uptick in booking interest,” he said. “Our advance bookings for upcoming holiday periods (MLK and Presidents Day) are showing positive trends, suggesting strong demand for the remainder of the winter season.” 

Lake Tahoe’s Diamond Peak, Nev., has seen a few smaller storms outperform their forecast, “providing a series of mini refreshes throughout the holidays and getting customers excited about the prospect of fresh snow,” said marketing and communications manager Paul Raymore. 

Thanks to the snow, Diamond Peak was able to open a backcountry gate at the top of the Crystal Express lift, and guests were able to access the resort thanks to favorable road conditions. “So far we’ve been lucky to have the roads to Tahoe generally open and clear during the busiest days for commuting to the mountains from the Bay Area and Sacramento regions,” said Raymore.

While ski areas in the northern part of California have been doing pretty well so far, SoCal areas have been starved for snow and cold. “It’s a tale of two parts of the state,” said Karl Kapuscinski, CEO of California Mountain Resorts Company, which owns Mountain High in SoCal, and China Peak, Bear Valley, and Dodge Ridge in central/northern California. “It’s been the worst start in my 28 years at Mountain High” as temperatures remained above normal for most of December, he said, allowing for only about 75 hours of snowmaking compared to the typical 250-300 hours by this time in a normal year.

As a result, Mountain High was down 42 percent for the holidays year-over-year. However, the three areas to the north were up a combined 132 percent (although Dodge Ridge didn’t open until Jan. 6 for the 2023-24 season). The relatively new Cali Pass, which includes access to all four resorts, may be a contributing factor as sales were up 15 percent compared to last year.

MIDWEST

With enough opportunity to lick wounds from an at-times dreadful 2023-24 season, Midwest operators are pleased so far with this winter’s turnaround. 

Rick Schmitz, owner of Crystal Ridge, Little Switzerland, and Nordic Mountain, Wis., said despite a slightly later start to snowmaking than he aimed for, the season is on track for success. “When temps came, they were great,” he said. “We got all three of our properties 100 percent open at our second earliest date ever. We saw increased demand thanks to natural snow in the week before Christmas and passed our year-to-date three-year averages at all three properties.” 

Through Jan. 1, all three hills were either having their best (Crystal Ridge) or second best (Nordic and Little Switzerland) year-to-date due to record visits in the days leading up to Christmas, followed by steady business, despite some challenging weather, after Christmas.   

“Snowmaking, marketing, and teamwork have finally convinced our customer base that we will be open with snow even when weather isn't ideal,” said Schmitz.

Trollhaugen, Wis., which is celebrating its 75th season, saw things turn around quickly after an unusually warm start to November. Marketing director Marsha Hovey said guest turnout has been strong since opening day. “We were able to open up right before Thanksgiving, and then we were full steam ahead after that,” said Hovey, reporting that demand has been high after the lackluster 2023-24 season and Trollhaugen is off to a strong start compared to last year. 

“We had a much better holiday season than last year, even with some poorly timed rain and warm weather,” she said. It has been one of better holiday breaks in recent years for Trollhaugen, though it’ll fall short of the record-breaking Covid seasons. “We are really grateful for our team, and really proud of the snow quality and level of customer service we were able to provide during an unusually long holiday break.” Kids in Wisconsin don’t go back to school until Jan. 6.

Crystal Mountain, Mich., picked up an impressive 3 feet of natural snow in the month of December and ran snowmaking for nearly 300 hours, which resulted in high demand, according to director of communications Brittney Primeau. “It appears there is a lot of pent-up demand to ski and ride,” she said, adding that season pass sales were up 14 percent year-over-year by early December. For the holidays, she said, lodging reservations and skier visitor turnout “is impressive.”

Primeau said Crystal benefits from being a destination for families regardless of the conditions. “This year on Christmas Eve, I spoke with a family who said they had 31 cousins, parents, grandparents, aunts, and uncles from multiple states staying at Crystal celebrating the holidays,” she said. “They said they came last year and had so much fun they wanted to do it again this year, so they did. Not only are they spending time on the slopes, but they’re ice skating together, dining together, exploring Michigan Legacy Art Park and other activities right on site.” 

Up at Giant’s Ridge, Minn., general manager Fred Seymour reported a favorable trend amongst the holiday crowd after the warmer November weather passed. “Traffic was off slightly, down 7 percent from the previous December,” said Seymour. “However, holiday period traffic so far is up 25 percent.” Giant’s Ridge wrapped its snowmaking in time for the holiday season, credited to a new automated snowmaking system and increased equipment on the hill. 

As with other Midwest operators, Seymour feels good about the rest of the winter. “After a poor season in the Midwest last year due to warm temperatures and lack of snow, we are very optimistic about the rest of this season.”

EAST

Ski areas in the East are also off to a strong start, and the holidays have been a success despite a meltdown in many areas right after Christmas. 

Mount Southington, Conn., was able to offer more terrain and programming than last year for the holidays thanks to more favorable snowmaking weather in early and mid-December. “Business volumes were up as a result—December 26 and 27 were the busiest days of the holiday period,” said general manager Jay Dougherty. “Overall, skier visits were near double those of the previous year for the holiday period, which is in line with the five-year historic average. I’m very pleased with the results.”

Mountain Creek, N.J., “had an amazing holiday week, up 4X over the prior year,” said SNOW Partners chief marketing officer Hugh Reynolds. “The early arrival of winter leading into the holiday allowed us to get terrain and connectivity open across all four of our peaks, and guest demand responded. Even with the rain in the second half of the holiday period, our slowest days this year outperformed our best days last holiday.”

SNOW Partners’ indoor facility, Big SNOW, was up 20 percent, “closing out our best year at Big SNOW from a visits and revenue standpoint since we opened,” said Reynolds.

After undergoing a variety of capital improvements under the watch of new owner and GM Erik Mogensen, Black Mountain, N.H., is enjoying a strong holiday. “We set revenue records three days in a row, and our NYE event was likely one of the biggest attended events in the history of the mountain,” said Mogensen. “We went big on snowmaking and have had one of the best holiday weeks in recent memory in terms of terrain open, as well.” 

After making improvements to the ski area, part of Mogensen’s plan is to transfer ownership of Black—which was at risk of closing a year ago—to the community and have it run as a co-op in the future. “The interest in purchasing co-op shares continues to swell as more and more people come to Black for the first time,” he said.

Also in New Hampshire, county-owned Gunstock Mountain Resort also had a successful holiday, according to president and general manager Robert Drake, who reported revenue was up 20 percent and visitation was up 25 percent compared to last year. “Timely snow, good snowmaking weather to get terrain open, and the number of lifts and trails open for the holiday period” contributed to the success, along with the holidays landing midweek, said Drake.