3 replies to this topic

[NHskier13]

^title

I mean, I know that if you lose a significant percentage of guests due to lack of natural snow, you're going to lose money, especially if you gotta make more than usual and such.

But, after looking at NewEnglandSkiHistory, it seems like the northeast, which didn't have a particularly good season for 2016, has resorts getting thrashed financially.
http://www.newenglan...php?storyid=432
http://www.newenglan...php?storyid=457
http://www.newenglan...php?storyid=397
(last one technically, Waterville's Green Peak makes an exception depending on how you look at it)

What I really wanna know is how badly the recent bad season on the west side of the US affected resorts financially. Cannon's in the red, Gunstock needs $1mill, Peak Resorts is pretty rough, and nobody's installing a new lift hinting that other people may be pretty low money-wise as well.


But anyways, how badly was the west affected by their bad season recently?

[skierdude9450]

This past season was at least average or above for most of the West, and so many areas saw increased visits. Colorado had a record-breaking year in terms of tourism dollars spent. The PNW saw a huge rebound from an abysmal 2014-15 season which saw many areas closing by mid-February. A bad snow year hurts any resort, but it's usually the small areas that take the hardest hit financially.

[SkiBachelor]

I've seen the affects of how one bad snow year can drastically affect the operation of a ski area decades later. Of course, it all about how management handles the situation. A lot of ski areas will cut costs drastically from marketing budgets and laying off key staff members to simply balance the budget and then also recoup last year's losses. It's this type of action that will destroy an operation. The best thing I think one can do is negotiate with their lenders and there are also government SBA loans which a ski area may qualify which have low interest rates.

[Smacpats]

The longest line I waited in during the entire season was 5 minutes on MLK weekend. If intrawest didn't own steamboat, they'd be as baknkrupt as magic right now!