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Ski resort bonanza

Good snow draws visitors to slopes at a record pace

Joanne Kelley, Rocky Mountain News

Published December 31, 2005 at midnight

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It's beginning to look a lot like a ski season for the record books.

While a few resorts in southwestern Colorado have missed out on the snow bonanza so far, many of the state's more than two dozen ski areas have been hammered by the white stuff. It's helped them attract more holiday skiers than ever.

Next up, breaking the season barrier of 12 million skier visits.

"We're on a record pace for sure," said Eldora Mountain's marketing director Rob Linde, reached by cell phone Friday as he rode a chairlift up the ski hill near Nederland. "It's sort of correlating with the snow conditions."

Winter Park Ski Resort also said 2005-2006 could shape up as its best yet.

"It's early, but where we are season to date it looks that way," said Winter Park's Darcy Morse of the potential for a record-setting season. "Visits are up over last year, reservations and bookings are up over last year and snowfall's up over last year."

Vail Mountain said it has received 17 inches of snow in the past four days. Its cumulative snowfall as of Friday: 202 inches at the top of the mountain.

Colorado Ski Country USA, the trade group for the state's ski areas, will release preliminary data on skier visits next month. Collectively, the Colorado resorts have yet to finish a season that breaks through the elusive 12-million mark for skier visits, the industry's key annual yardstick.

But given how close they have come in the past, it won't take much to shatter the record this season. Industry observers already have predicted they will best the record of 11.98 million set in 1997-1998. Last season was the third busiest, with 11.82 million visitors.

"The resorts are doing well," said Molly Cuffe, Colorado Ski Country's communications director. "They're very optimistic."

Cuffe, by the way, was also reached by cell phone as she sat on a chairlift.

While a few southwestern ski areas have missed out on the snow bonanza, Crested Butte has been fortunate.

"We're getting the snow the I-70 corridor's been getting," said Crested Butte spokeswoman April Prout. "In that sense we're tickled."

Prout said the resort is "far ahead of last year" in skier visits so far.

Telluride, which enjoyed heavy snowfall last season, reported running slightly behind last year's record visitation.

The southernmost ski areas have endured the lightest snowfall so far.

"Mother Nature has bypassed the southwest corner. It's just a cycle - we get it one year and the Front Range gets it the next," said Loryn Kasten, a spokeswoman at Durango Mountain.

Kasten said officials keep a close watch on weather systems, and sometimes "the snow seems like it's coming straight for us." But then it heads to the north or breaks up.

Still, visits are on par with last year, Kasten said, thanks partly to all the publicity about Colorado's early snowstorms.

Wolf Creek Ski Area, in the San Juan Mountains northeast of Durango, said holiday visits have been propped up by skiers coming from New Mexico and Arizona, where a snow drought has hit the ski industry.

But skier visits so far this year are just half of where they were last season.

"We're living hand to mouth," said Davey Pitcher, president of Wolf Creek Ski Area. "We're holding our own. Every time it looks really grim, we get an inch or more."

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