The Vill: Low snow, no tram doesn't dampen skier days

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

By Brigid Mander

The off-season exodus is well underway. Of course, many skiers’ minds have been in the desert, the tropics or places with more snow for quite some time now. All winter long, it seemed as though not very many people were skiing.

You saw no one at the hill, and all season long people claimed to have not been out to the mountain in weeks.

Yet, to the surprise of many, the end of the season numbers Jackson Hole Mountain Resort released last week show that the hill had its second busiest season ever, with 402,400 skier days.

“I understand the surprise factor,” said resort spokeswoman Anna Olsen, who is not as surprised as everyone else. “We were hitting for these numbers all season long. The last few years we have been in that 400,000 range.”

At the start of the season, word was more season passes were sold than last season. We were skeptical, but it seems there was an increase in all types of ski passes. Overall, the hill reported a 10-12 percent increase in total pass sales, with increases in all types of passes sold.

The highest increase was in sales of the 20-day pass. So passholder days were slightly up. Also, apparently there were 54 pass holders who skied 100 days or more, as opposed to last year’s 34. JHMR President Jerry Blann stated in a recent press release, “We cannot thank the local skiers and snowboarders enough” for coming out all season long.

On the other hand, destination visitors declined this season, although JHMR was expecting that as well, due to the fact the hill had no public tram. It estimated a 10-15 percent drop and was correct.

(Blann also said in the release: “I would also like to praise our operations department, who kept the ski product in unbelievable shape, every day, for all our guests.” This is high praise for hard-working departments such as ski patrol, groomers and lift operators, to name a few, but to refer to the inbounds area as “ski product”?

What is skiing becoming? Sure, from a cold, commercial perspective it’s a product for sale, and ski hills need to profit to keep afloat, but that term should probably stay in the bottom line meetings.)

In the same release, Blann said, “Our business is changing and although we still consider the skier day volume an important metric, a true reflection of the season takes into account other business segments.”

That is not a surprise, as massive development plans are changing the vibe of the mountain and the Village, and skiers are becoming less important than shoppers, diners, and second (or third) homeowners.

Nevertheless, Olsen acknowledges the winter of ’06-’07 was trying and the resort and Village businesses are looking forward with relief.

“It was hard – we are used to having snow,” said Olsen, but now, “we are really focused on summer.”

Summer business isn’t expected to be hurt by the lack of a tram, since the summer crowd is, well, a little different. “What’s there to do at the top?” is always the number one question of summer-time tram riders, Olsen reported.

The mountain is anticipating a lot of use of the Bridger Gondola by destination tourists in the summer months. With the restaurants at the top of the gondola set to open on June 14, they will have something to do – eat!

Like much of the valley, Teton Village will be busy with construction, with new hotels going up, current hotels expanding, and future plans to demolish staple buildings like the one that houses the VC, Wilderness Sports and TGR.

The giant dirt piles marking the Snake River Associates development project are moving around, and they mark the beginning of the inevitable build-up around the base area.

For the moment though, there is still skiing (regular, natural skiing, not a product) to be had in the Tetons and surrounding ranges.

So while the resort tallies up its numbers, you can still get more days and lines in-unless you have followed certain valley citizens and are on your way to a sunny warm place like Cuba.
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The Vill: Low snow, no tram doesn't dampen skier days | Planet JH News Article: Sports & Recreation

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