Wednesday, April 21, 2010

It’s a wrap

Sun Valley Resort squeezes past 400,000-season goal by 23 skiers


By TREVON MILLIARD
Express Staff Writer

Hailey resident Mike Kelly leaves Bald Mountain for the season’s last time on Sunday, ready to trade in his skis for his motorcycle.

Sun Valley Resort squeezed past its 400,000-skier goal for the 2009-10 winter season, topping the mark by a mere 23 skiers for Bald and Dollar mountains.

The 143-day season ended Sunday, April 18, surpassing the previous season's skier count by about 69,000 skiers, an increase of 20 percent. Resort spokesman Jack Sibbach admitted that the 2008-09 winter isn't a good benchmark. It was a "down year," drawing in 331,239 skiers and boarders—the lowest count since the 1990-91 season's total of 236,627, and the 12th worst since skier number data began to be collected in 1971.

Still, this season is above the past decade's average of 383,800, though only by 4 percent. Only three other seasons since 1999-2000 have exceeded the 400,000-skier count. And the season's length of 143 days is only one day shy of the decade's average.

Though the season started on Thanksgiving and lasted up to the planned closing date, Mother Nature was somewhat skimpy with the snow, dropping only 186 inches. That's 2 feet, 10 inches less than the average. Nonetheless, storm patterns managed to provide an ample snow base throughout the winter and to keep skiers coming back for more.

Scarce snow was responsible for Sun Valley's worst skier count on record, 1976-77, when only 80,000 people were drawn to the slopes.

A season's success hinges on snowfall, even in this recession. That's the message of Michael Berry, president of the Colorado-based National Ski Areas Association. About 320 American alpine resorts belong to the association, accounting for more than 90 percent of the skier/snowboarder visits nationwide.

Berry said the association doesn't give nationwide skier-count numbers until its season-ending convention held on May 2-5. Sun Valley also didn't give any skier numbers until the season's end, a first for the resort. Sibbach said he doesn't know if that would be repeated next year.

Berry said he is able to give a "sense" of the season without giving away skier-count totals.

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"It's not going to be a record year for the industry," he said, "but a good year, nonetheless."

He said California and the West Coast did well. Eastern resorts had abundant snowfall, bolstering skier numbers to unprecedented levels. However, many Rocky Mountain resorts experienced a late start because of lack of snow.

"But people were there spending a little more than last year," Berry said, calling it a "rebuilding year."

This rebuilding seems to be true for Sun Valley, which improved over the previous year. Schweitzer Mountain Resort in northern Idaho also experienced the same trend, seeing 217,000 skiers, a 7.5 percent increase over 2008-09. The mountain did this while receiving about half the previous year's snowfall, only 177 inches.

As part of its improvements, Sun Valley started an on-mountain survey this season at Baldy to gauge the satisfaction level of customers. General Manager Tim Silva said at a presentation on April 14 that 1,097 customers participated. The most important question asked was their willingness to recommend the resort to a friend, on a level of 1 to 10.

He said the resort set a goal of 70 percent for 9s and 10s. The final tally was 74 percent.

"(They're saying) there's something here that we can't get anywhere else," Silva said.

Sibbach said the survey would most likely be conducted again in 2010-11.

"It's nice to have a benchmark now," he said.

Trevon Milliard: tmilliard@mtexpress.com

Fire on the mountain

Bald Mountain's Warm Springs side experienced a small fire on Sunday from fireworks used in the closing-day celebrations, but it was quickly extinguished.




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