Salt Lake City, UT – The Utah ski and snowboard industry closed the 2009-10 winter season this past Sunday with a total of 4,048,153 skier days, up two percent from the 2008-09 season.nThe 2008-09 winter season, hit hard by the economic recession that bloomed in late 2008, tallied 3,972,984 skier days, defined by the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) as one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night for the purpose of skiing or snowboarding. Despite this, the 2008-09 season ranked as the fifth busiest ski season in Utah’s history. The 2009-10 season finished fourth.
Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty noted that visitation numbers improved steadily after the first of the year and continued to grow through the end of the season, as snowfall in the state accumulated slowly early in the winter, but finished with a flourish.
“The incredible loyalty snow sport enthusiasts have for our sport continues to be one of the industry’s key strengths,” said Rafferty. “We are fortunate to rely on the dedication and passion of our consumer as a barrier against the uncertainty of today’s economy.”
Mother Nature extended Utah’s powder days late into the season, delivering a remarkable 152 inches of snow in Little Cottonwood Canyon in April and 58 inches in May. Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort, which closed winter operations on June 20, recorded a season snow total of 603 inches, well above the 500-inch average.
Nationwide, 2009-10 was the second best ski season on record, tallying 59.7 million skier visits according to preliminary numbers released by the NSAA in May, only 1.2 percent below the all time record of 60.5 million visits achieved in 2007-08 and exceeding its 10-season average by 3.9 percent. The Rocky Mountain region, of which Utah is a part, continued its dominant overall position in terms of total visitation, increasing by 3.4 percent over last year, and again exceeding the 20 million visit threshold. In contrast to Utah’s numbers, snowfall across the entire Rocky Mountain Region was down a substantial 20 percent this season. Visits to ski resorts in Colorado, Utah’s biggest market competitor and the most popular ski destination in the U.S., were essentially flat in 2009-10 over 2008-09, with 11.86 million skier visits recorded this winter.