CRESTED BUTTE — Despite a winter of epic snow, Colorado ski resorts fell shy of exceeding last year’s record skier and snowboarder numbers, and even an extra weekend of skiing on Aspen Mountain won’t put them over the edge.
Aspen beat last season’s numbers, with increases at all four mountains, but it still failed to exceed its record 1997-98 season.
Statewide, resorts saw their third straight season of skier visits topping 12.5 million, the trade group Colorado Ski Country USA announced Thursday at its annual meeting.
State ski areas saw an estimated 12,535,913 skier visits last winter, down approximately 30,386 from the previous year. The third place is held by the 2005-06 season.
“This season has been nothing short of spectacular,” said Colorado Ski Country President and CEO Rob Perlman.
Aspen had 1,470,997 skier visits, up approximately 1.8 percent from the previous year’s 1,444,647. It saw increases at all four mountains, particularly Highlands, which was up 18 percent, to 211,635, due to an extended season. Aspen Mountain was up 1.5 percent, to 332,981. Snowmass was up 2 percent, to 771,455. Buttermilk numbers were about even, at 154,926.
A series of winter storms buried much of the state throughout the season, giving skiers and snowboarders a winter to remember. Eight Colorado resorts broke season snowfall records, and many broke monthly snowfall records. Colorado had the country’s longest ski season, 245 days, and many resorts boasted good skiing conditions even after the lifts shut down.
But Perlman said other factors, including a dry early season, a struggling national economy and good snow in resorts elsewhere in the country, played a role in keeping those numbers down. By the end of December, skier numbers were down 12.5 percent, Perlman said.
“If you consider the fact that (the snow) arrived so late, to come back and end up up by the second half of the year was gangbusters,” said Aspen Skiing Co. CEO Mike Kaplan.
Foreign visitors helped increase those numbers, Perlman said. A weak U.S. dollar helped draw international skier visits, which increased 21 percent.
Destination resorts like Aspen topped last year’s record by 1 percent. The smaller resorts, or “Gems,” saw their third straight record season. One of those Gems, Sunlight Mountain Resort in Glenwood Springs, exceeded last year’s numbers, but failed to approach its peak numbers of the 1990s. Sunlight had approximately 78,000 skier days, about 7 percent over last year’s 73,000.
“I can’t complain, but I am,” said Sunlight CEO Tom Jankovsky, who is also board chairman of Ski Country.
Jankovsky said he had hoped the banner winter would help erase the previous year’s 10 percent drop in skier numbers. Two years ago, the resort hosted about 80,000 visitors. Jankovsky said he attributes the lower numbers to aging equipment that sent visitors skiing and snowboarding elsewhere. “We just need to upgrade our infrastructure to be competitive,” he said. “We’re losing market share.”
Perlman urged attendees at the conference to head to Aspen for a last gasp of lift-served skiing, but he said Aspen’s reopening had nothing to do with boosting state skier numbers.
“They didn’t know our results until we briefed them (Wednesday), Perlman said, “and by then the plans were made.”
dfrey@aspendailynews.com