As one of the busiest weekends of the winter tourist season came and went, business operators in the Sun Valley area had plenty to smile about.
The Presidents' Day holiday brought large numbers of visitors to the Wood River Valley, many of whom braved below-freezing temperatures to ski and snowboard at Sun Valley Resort's two mountains.
In the end, skier numbers at Sun Valley exceeded expectations, keeping the figures on pace to produce one of the resort's better ski seasons in recent years. On Saturday, Feb. 18, Sun Valley logged 4,726 "skier days," followed by 6,039 on Sunday and 5,494 on Monday, Presidents' Day. A skier day is defined as either a paid, discounted or promotional skier visit to a ski area for any part of a day.
Jack Sibbach, Sun Valley's director of marketing and public relations, said resort officials expected visitor numbers to be solid but thought persistent cold weather might hurt skier counts.
"We were pleasantly surprised because of the cold weather," Sibbach said. "The numbers turned out to be pretty good."
Last year, Presidents' Day weekend produced similar numbers, with skier-day counts all three days within 500 of the corresponding numbers this year.
However, this year's total skier-day count for the season at Sun Valley is still outpacing last year's. As of Monday, Feb. 20, the resort had tallied 265,332 skier days. Last year, through Feb. 21, the resort had recorded approximately 246,000 skier visits. At the end of February 2005, that number had climbed to approximately 277,000.
"We're still holding strong for the season," Sibbach said. "Hopefully, it's going to continue."
Sibbach said Sun Valley's records show that occupancy at the resort is expected to be "very good" through this weekend.
"This is a busy week," he said.
Advance reservations for March are down slightly, Sibbach said, in part because of typical fluctuations in convention business. He said the numbers appear to be "coming around" and expects the skier count in March to remain strong, barring any extreme, unanticipated weather.
It is believed that unusually warm weather last January and February hurt skier counts and winter tourism in Central Idaho, although less than in other parts of the Northwest.
Other businesses in the Ketchum-Sun Valley area also reported strong sales activity over the holiday weekend.
Ellen Gillespie, spokeswoman for the Sun Valley-Ketchum Chamber & Visitors Bureau, said Tuesday that an informal survey of area restaurants and retailers indicated that business was generally up this year. Of those business operators who responded to the survey, two-thirds said business outpaced the same weekend last year, while one-third reported that business was down from Presidents' Day 2005.
Skiers relax Monday afternoon on the patio of the Warm Springs Lodge, at the base of Bald Mountain. Skier numbers at Sun Valley were solid over the Presidents' Day weekend, keeping the resort on pace for a very good year. Photo by Willy Cook
