ASPEN — Visitation to Colorado’s 25 ski areas is pacing toward another season with more than 12 million visits.
Colorado Ski Country on Wednesday announced total early-season visits to its 21 resorts were pacing only 1 percent below last season, when visitation to all Colorado ski areas topped a record 12.6 million. Early-season visits to the trade group’s 21 resorts were 4 percent ahead of the five-year average.
The healthy snow in the last half of December boosted visitation, especially among the highly valued destination skiers. Local skiers — whose pass purchases fuel off-season resort revenues — shied away from the slopes in the early season, when resorts endured bitter cold.
“Many in-state skiers didn’t head to the slopes at the beginning of the season, a time when most visitation is our Colorado-based skiers and riders,” said Ski Country chief Melanie Mills in a statement. “It wasn’t until mid-December that Colorado saw significant snowfall that arrived in abundance and in time for resort guests from out of state, as well as in-state, to enjoy wintery holidays.”
The numbers jibe with recent metrics released by Vail Resorts, which owns four of Colorado’s most-trafficked ski areas. The continent’s largest resort operator this month reported early-season visitation to its nine mountain resorts in three states was up 1.8 percent. Vail chief Rob Katz said visits to its Colorado hills — Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone and Breckenridge — were “particularly strong.”
Intrawest, which operates Winter Park and owns Steamboat ski area, reported a decline of less than 1 percent in early-season visitation at its seven ski areas, but Colorado visits were strong, with lift-ticket revenue at Winter Park and Steamboat up 8 percent over the previous season.
The burst of snow in mid-December was perfectly timed for the two-week holiday period. Visitors were spending more than previous seasons, according to Vail Resorts and Ski Country, with resorts reporting increases in spending on lessons, dining and rentals.
Aspen Skiing Co.’s four Roaring Fork Valley ski areas saw flat visitation through December, but a strong surge in January has the operator pacing ahead of last season. Flat is perfectly fine, said company spokesman Jeff Hanle, considering how most of the company’s resorts opened early for the 2013-14 ski season.
“We are extremely happy about how things are going,” said Hanle, noting how the snow on 15 of the last 18 days of December “made conditions for the holiday crowd just insane.”
Jason Blevins: 303-954-1374, jblevins@denverpost.com or
