Last ski season 2021-2022 was the busiest US ski season ever with almost 61 million snow visits

[MidnightJester]

Last Ski Season Was The Busiest In US History (New Regional Visits Breakdown)

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced back in May that Winter '21-'22 was the busiest ski season in US history with nearly 61 million

unofficialnetworks.com

With the busiest ski season now apparently being a fact and fresh in everyone's minds I have to say I wasn't stuck on any wild lift line or road waits on any mountains in Vermont luckily. Some Stowe people might have a different road and parking opinion though. Was on mountain in Vermont 16 times or so this season spread around on a couple SKIVT-4pass shotgun blasts on storm days and weekends

 

[BodeMiller1]

Around here I think everything was off, butt it's neat to see the industry get better, even with the WhoVillians operating most of the Big Mountains.

Meow

 

[2Planker]

Depends on how you look at it.....

Thousand more season passes is not necessarily a good thing.
Operation by Skeleton Crew is gonna come back and haunt some resorts.
Example: Deferring routine maintenance only to have a loaded chair fall off the lift...
$25M lawsuit pending. For which Vail was recc to settle asap.

Around the MWV all the Kids (free) school programs are gone, as are the free learn to ski/ride programs offered by many mts.

 

[deadheadskier]

Depends on how you look at it.....

Thousand more season passes is not necessarily a good thing.
Operation by Skeleton Crew is gonna come back and haunt some resorts.
Example: Deferring routine maintenance only to have a loaded chair fall off the lift...
$25M lawsuit pending. For which Vail was recc to settle asap.

Around the MWV all the Kids (free) school programs are gone, as are the free learn to ski/ride programs offered by many mts.

They got sued $25M for the snowcat failure?

What did they have to settle for?

 

[2Planker]

They got sued $25M for the snowcat failure?

What did they have to settle for?

NO - A snowboarder was seriously injured when his chair fell from the lift w/ him in it....

Hip, Neck & Back injuries w/ many months in the hosp and then in a ReHab hosp.
Pt will never walk normally, and will always have chronic pain for the rest of his life.

In NY it'd be $50M

 

[Newpylong]

If that was the busiest season on record, I think it goes to show just how much capacity there is at non-Epic resorts...

I still don't buy it. There was no such thing as RFID or scanning in the late 80s and early 90s to tell how many visits there were. Back then you not only had all of the feeder NELSAP hills still operating but places like Killington put today's busy Saturday's to shame. It sure as hell seemed busier EVERYWHERE back then.

 

[BodeMiller1]

In N.H. you cannot sue for stupidity (on your part). No one knows why. Maybe, The State owns a couple of areas. I was at Cannon early season a couple of years ago after the top was blown. at the bottom of the pod it was a rushing "brook" of water / slush just starting to set up as the sun went down. If I got hurt, bad on me.

At Attitash on the top of the old mountain I was stuck on a chair for 10 minutes, seemed like an hour. If I freeze it's on me. If the line skipped the rollers????



2PLANKER is spot on, deffered maintenance at a ski area is a recipe for disaster.

 

[cdskier]

If that was the busiest season on record, I think it goes to show just how much capacity there is at non-Epic resorts...

I still don't buy it. There was no such thing as RFID or scanning in the late 80s and early 90s to tell how many visits there were. Back then you not only had all of the feeder NELSAP hills still operating but places like Killington put today's busy Saturday's to shame. It sure as hell seemed busier EVERYWHERE back then.

I completely agree. While I think we can somewhat reasonably say that the numbers today are pretty accurate from many resorts thanks to all the scanning and RFID tracking...many of the numbers from the past are pure guesses (particularly when it comes to season pass-holder usage).

 

[drjeff]

If that was the busiest season on record, I think it goes to show just how much capacity there is at non-Epic resorts...

I still don't buy it. There was no such thing as RFID or scanning in the late 80s and early 90s to tell how many visits there were. Back then you not only had all of the feeder NELSAP hills still operating but places like Killington put today's busy Saturday's to shame. It sure as hell seemed busier EVERYWHERE back then.

No doubt Killington in particular was busier, and by a few hundred thousand more visits a year than now back then in the late 80's/early 90's.

Just wondering if some of the current perception that it's busy now, but maybe not as busy as it was then has some component based in that fact that so many more resorts, but not all by any means, have a lift system today with a much greater uphill capacity now than it did then, which can certainly make a resort seem less busy, even when there may be more folks on the hill on average than compared to back then.

Also it does seem like midweek day skiing visits are up at many resorts compared to back then, which certainly plays a role in the overall seaaon numbers

 

[deadheadskier]

?? Snowcat ??
NO - A snowboarder was seriously injured when his chair fell from the lift w/ him in it....

Hip, Neck & Back injuries w/ many months in the hosp and then in a ReHab hosp.
Pt will never walk normally, and will always have chronic pain for the rest of his life.

In NY it'd be $50M

I thought you were referring to the Snowcat Lift failure at Wildcat last season.

 

[2Planker]

In N.H. you cannot sue for stupidity (on your part). No one knows why. Maybe, The State owns a couple of areas. I was at Cannon early season a couple of years ago after the top was blown. at the bottom of the pod it was a rushing "brook" of water / slush just starting to set up as the sun went down. If I got hurt, bad on me.

At Attitash on the top of the old mountain I was stuck on a chair for 10 minutes, seemed like an hour. If I freeze it's on me. If the line skipped the rollers????



2PLANKER is spot on, deffered maintenance at a ski area is a recipe for disaster.

Correct, I was at SR for many years when we got sued by the Boston dentist who died after falling on White Heat in Bulletproof conditions.
Skull and Crossbones sign w/ NO FALL TERRAIN was up, and he went right past it. Lawsuit took 9 years but SR won and that victory led to the removal of the signs at all resorts nationwide. Skier/Boarders are responsible for their actions

Now, a loaded chair falling off the lift is a whole 'nother story....
Wildcat was screwed when two Lifties admitted that maintenance was deferred due to staffing issues.
OUCH, that's gonna cost $$$ in the long run.

 

[Newpylong]

No doubt Killington in particular was busier, and by a few hundred thousand more visits a year than now back then in the late 80's/early 90's.

Just wondering if some of the current perception that it's busy now, but maybe not as busy as it was then has some component based in that fact that so many more resorts, but not all by any means, have a lift system today with a much greater uphill capacity now than it did then, which can certainly make a resort seem less busy, even when there may be more folks on the hill on average than compared to back then.

Also it does seem like midweek day skiing visits are up at many resorts compared to back then, which certainly plays a role in the overall seaaon numbers

I think that perception is absolutely true to some extent but you also have to consider all of the secondary / overlapping lifts that have been made redundant and consolidated over the years. In the case of Killington with Northeast Passage an entire base area was abandoned as visits tailed off (among other reasons).

So in the past you had the pileups at all lifts, now it's mostly at the core lifts because they happen to be high speed and draw people to them.

 

[drjeff]

I think that perception is absolutely true to some extent but you also have to consider all of the secondary / overlapping lifts that have been made redundant and consolidated over the years. In the case of Killington with Northeast Passage an entire base area was abandoned as visits tailed off (among other reasons).

So in the past you had the pileups at all lifts, now it's mostly at the core lifts because they happen to be high speed and draw people to them.

Agree!

Overall though in New England one could argue that since the late 80's/early 90's with the exception of say Magic (although if the Black spins this year it changes), Smuggs, MRG, Wildcat, Sugarloaf and arguably even Sunday River prior to the Jordan 8 going in this year, most all of the other big/bigger players have seen significant upgrades in their uphill capacity since those years, when I fully agree it sure felt more crowded to me than it does now most days at most areas

 

[BenedictGomez]

I was at SR for many years when we got sued by the Boston dentist who died after falling on White Heat in Bulletproof conditions.

Being sued is bad enough, but getting sued by a zombie dentist is terrifying.

 

[2Planker]

Being sued is bad enough, but getting sued by a zombie dentist is terrifying.

Ha ha.
OK. Sued by the family of the dentist who died…

 

[Newpylong]

Agree!

Overall though in New England one could argue that since the late 80's/early 90's with the exception of say Magic (although if the Black spins this year it changes), Smuggs, MRG, Wildcat, Sugarloaf and arguably even Sunday River prior to the Jordan 8 going in this year, most all of the other big/bigger players have seen significant upgrades in their uphill capacity since those years, when I fully agree it sure felt more crowded to me than it does now most days at most areas

We at least seem to be trending in the right direction again (getting overall skier visits up and more people into the sport) even if the numbers indeed are questionable from the past.

 

[BodeMiller1]

Correct, I was at SR for many years when we got sued by the Boston dentist who died after falling on White Heat in Bulletproof conditions.
Skull and Crossbones sign w/ NO FALL TERRAIN was up, and he went right past it. Lawsuit took 9 years but SR won and that victory led to the removal of the signs at all resorts nationwide. Skier/Boarders are responsible for their actions

Now, a loaded chair falling off the lift is a whole 'nother story....
Wildcat was screwed when two Lifties admitted that maintenance was deferred due to staffing issues.
OUCH, that's gonna cost $$$ in the long run.

I screamed by the handmade skull and crossbones on Shockwave back in the day. Everything was fine until I dropped into boilerplate whales. There were 3 snowboarders behind me sliding down on their butts, my goal was to get off the trail before them. Pretty steep trail and the downhill side of the whales was (you could reach out and touch them.
One skier passed me and asked if I was okay. "No, I'm in over my head, butt I'll be okay"

Meow

 

[BodeMiller1]

Ha ha.
OK. Sued by the family of the dentist who died…

There's no place in this world for antidentites…

If that was the busiest season on record, I think it goes to show just how much capacity there is at non-Epic resorts...

I still don't buy it. There was no such thing as RFID or scanning in the late 80s and early 90s to tell how many visits there were. Back then you not only had all of the feeder NELSAP hills still operating but places like Killington put today's busy Saturday's to shame. It sure as hell seemed busier EVERYWHERE back then.

Back in the day skiers skied and snowbunnies meowed at the bar. Now, and I hate to say it butt, there is far too much meow. On both sides.

Urban Dictionary : "An attractive female skier informal. A sexually active young female attracted to the promiscuous"

Some of these women can ski.

 

[Smellytele]

I screamed by the handmade skull and crossbones on Shockwave back in the day. Everything was fine until I dropped into boilerplate whales. There were 3 snowboarders behind me sliding down on their butts, my goal was to get off the trail before them. Pretty steep trail and the downhill side of the whales was (you could reach out and touch them.
One skier passed me and asked if I was okay. "No, I'm in over my head, butt I'll be okay"

Meow

I have been on that trail in the same condition. What a cluster fuck. Why have that open at all.

 

[2Planker]

I have been on that trail in the same condition. What a cluster fuck. Why have that open at all.

Because it is one of the best trails at SR.
"Double Black Diamond" so it's always Ski at your own risk.

Guests don't bitch if it's open, But they sure will if it's closed....