Newbury, NH – 2011-12 was a warm and dry winter throughout the northeastern U.S., so it should come as no surprise that skier visits to New Hampshire resorts plunged 20 percent this past season over strong numbers posted in 2010-11. What is surprising, however, is the decision by the operator of three of the state’s busiest resorts to pull out of Ski NH, the state’s ski resort marketing association.

Visitors to www.skiNH.com will now find Peak Resorts-owned Attitash, Wildcat and Crotched Mountain ski resorts noticeably absent from the web site’s list of resorts. Published reports have quoted Tim Boyd, CEO of Peak Resorts, as saying that his company is more interested in participating in a trade organization than a marketing organization such as Ski NH.

The withdrawl of Peak Resorts will result in a $63,000 cut in Ski NH’s budget and a reduction in trade tickets of nearly two-thirds, reports indicate.

Officials from resorts still maintaining their membership in Ski NH met recently at Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury to review the results from this past winter season. Alpine ski areas in New Hampshire recorded a total of 1,883,591 skier and snowboarder visits, down 13.4% from the state’s ten year average. Cross country areas also had a difficult winter, hosting 96,234 visits, down 29% from the ten year average. Areas with snow tubing parks reported 91,614 tubing visits. This number is down 13.5% from the ten year average.

The U.S. ski industry as a whole experienced its worst winter for skier visits since 1991-92 with the country down 15% from the 2010-11 winter; Northeast ski areas were down 20.2%. New Hampshire, by comparison, was down 20% from the 2010-11 winter, which was one of the best winters on record for state skier visits with 2,355,100 alpine visits. Resort officials, however, remain optimistic, buoyed by the fact that the last time New Hampshire saw alpine skier visits dip below two million alpine visits in 2006-07, the following season set the all-time record for the state’s skier visits at 2,366,000.

“We have been on an outstanding run of successful winters here in New Hampshire, with eight of the last 10 winters being in the top ten seasons in terms of alpine skier visits,” noted Alice Pearce, President of Ski NH. “We’ve got a great deal of momentum for skiing and riding in the state. We are excited to see such a steady trend of strong winters following challenging ones, and we expect that pent-up demand to result in an exciting 2012-13 ski season.”

New Hampshire saw a slow start to the season with a lack of natural snowfall and a delayed start to consistent snowmaking temperatures in November and December. Snowmaking infrastructure at the state’s ski resorts went to work consistently before the December holidays and got the slopes ready for the vacation period.

As the season progressed the slopes and trails were covered in machine-made snow and the challenge became to convince potential skiers and riders that mid-winter conditions were present at their favorite ski areas. March brought little precipitation and record-setting high temperatures, with many days reaching into the 80’s. As a result, the ski season in New Hampshire ended much earlier than normal.

New Hampshire businesses rely heavily on the ski industry. An economic impact study conducted after the 2009-10 season showed a total of $910 million dollars spent by guests visiting the state’s ski areas. Of that total, only 12% was spent directly at ski areas, with the remaining 88% spent on ski visit-related expenses such as lodging, restaurants, gas, tolls, retail, and other charges. New Hampshire Governor John Lynch issued a Commendation on June 12 to the snowmakers, grooming machine operators and general managers from New Hampshire’s ski areas for their efforts to withstand the weather conditions this past winter.

“Unfortunately in a winter such as this one our challenge is to convince our guests that we do indeed have snow on our slopes and trails even if they don’t have it in their backyard,” said Karl Stone, Ski NH’s marketing director. “Ironically, it should be ideal since they don’t have to shovel and plow it at home and can visit us to enjoy the fun aspects of winter. That said, the reality is that a lack of natural snow reduces the motivation to hit the slopes.”

In other activity from Ski NH’s recent meeting at Sunapee, the group’s membership voted to elect the board of directors for the 2012-13 term. Among those elected to serve as officers on the board were: Kris Blomback of Pats Peak Ski Area in Henniker, who will serve as chairperson; Ben Wilcox of Cranmore Mountain Resort in North Conway, who will serve as Vice Chairperson; and Rick Kelley of Loon Mountain in Lincoln, who will serve as Treasurer.

Other ski area representatives elected to the board were Jay Gamble of Mount Sunapee Resort in Newbury, Chris Ellms of Bretton Woods Ski Area in Bretton Woods, John DeVivo of Cannon Mountain in Franconia Notch, Greg Goddard of Gunstock Mountain Resort in Gilford, Bob Hoyt of King Pine and Purity Spring Resort in East Madison, Fred Baybutt of Granite Gorge Ski Area in Keene, Doug Holler of Dartmouth Skiway in Lyme Center, Ross Boisvert of McIntyre Ski Area in Manchester, and Thom Perkins of Jackson Ski Touring in Jackson.