As winter-sports enthusiasts prepare to take to the mountains to catch big air on their skis and snowboards, ski hill owners have prepared for the 2016-17 season by taking their cues from the aviation industry.
More than any single improvement at a particular resort, the upcoming winter-sports season will be marked by more North American ski resorts than ever offering their versions of multileg trips and codesharing, both through continuing consolidation and broadening the reach of multiresort season-pass partnerships.
Vail Resorts continues to lead this trend. The company, which secured a long-term lease on Utah's Canyons in 2013 and acquired nearby Park City the following year for the purpose of linking the mountains with a gondola, acquired British Columbia's Whistler Blackcomb in October for $1 billion.
Vail, which debuted its Epic Pass in 2008 for those looking to ski multiple resorts, now gives its pass holders five days at Whistler in addition to unlimited skiing at Colorado's Vail, Beaver Creek and Breckenridge; Utah's Park City; and California's Heavenly, Kirkwood and Northstar.
Not to be outdone, the organizers of the MAX Pass added six resorts to its stable,  including British Columbia's Fernie Alpine Resort, the Kicking Horse Mountain Resort and the Kimberley Alpine Resort, bringing its total to 39.
And with Alaska's Alyeska, Colorado's Telluride Ski Resort and British Columbia's Revelstoke Mountain Resort added to its group, the Mountain Collective now offers 14 hills for prospective skiers to explore.
Finally, Vermont's Mount Snow is introducing its Peak Pass this season, which offers skiing privileges at seven northeastern U.S. mountain resorts, including Pennsylvania's Jack Frost and New York's Hunter Mountain.
"What's really happened in the last few years is that lift-ticket pricing is more like airlines and hotels," said Trevor Crist, CEO of resort-reservation systems operator Inntopia. "There are more incentives for people to book early, lock in dates or buy in bulk, either through a season or multiresort pass. So the price at the ticket window continues to go up and up, but most skiers on the mountain aren't paying those prices."
(Northstar Travel Group, publisher of Travel Weekly, is the majority owner of Inntopia.)
With that in mind, Vail and the other resort collectives are hoping such multiresort plans will spur a reversal of last year's drop in ski visits, caused largely by unseasonably warm winter weather in the eastern U.S.
North American skier and snowboarder visits fell 1.5%, to 52.8 million, last season, the second-lowest figure since the 1999-2000 season, according to the National Ski Area Association. Due to dry and warm conditions, northeastern U.S. resorts attracted the lowest number of skiers and snowboarders since 1980-81.
Positive indications so far
So far, reservations levels, at least in the Rockies and western U.S., are suggesting early good news. As of the end of last month, ski-resort booking revenue for November through May rose 10% from a year earlier as on-the-books occupancy advanced 2.7%, according to DestiMetrics, which tracks reservations at 19 mountain communities totaling about 30,000 rooms in California, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.
Airline-ticket purchases between November and March for flights to airports in the U.S. and Canada that serve the most ski resorts are up about 10% from a year earlier, ARC said last week.
December air purchases to Colorado's Gunnison-Crested Butte Airport and Idaho's Friedman Memorial Airport, which serves Sun Valley Resort, are up 22% and 17% from a year ago, respectively; ticket purchases to Vancouver; Jackson Hole, Wyo.; Denver; and Salt Lake City are also up double digits in December, ARC said.
Visitors will benefit from a wide range of on-mountain capital improvements.
In Colorado, the Aspen Skiing Co. built its High Alpine chairlift at Snowmass while adding "full-moon" dinners at the Cliffhouse Restaurant at the top of Buttermilk Mountain. And Vail upgraded its Sun Up Express high-speed chairlift for its flagship mountain's back bowls.
In New Mexico, Taos Ski Valley will open the 80-room Blake hotel in February, and in Oregon, Mount Bachelor spent $6 million adding the Cloudchaser lift, which expands the mountain's lift-served terrain by 635 acres, or about 17% of the mountain.
In California, Mammoth Mountain, which will host the U.S. Freeskiing and Snowboard Grand Prix in February, added jumps and platforms to its Hemlocks area.
Whistler Blackcomb spent $2.4 million upgrading learning areas, including the mountain's Olympic Zone, while spending $3.3 million improving its snowmaking equipment.
In the Midwest, Vail spent $13 million on improvements to Wisconsin's Wilmot Mountain near Chicago.
Finally, Vermont's Stowe Mountain Resort opened its $80 million Adventure Center, which is located at Spruce Creek and includes shops, restaurants and an indoor climbing center.
 Vermont's Sugarbush invested $750,000 in features such as lift upgrades and snow-making improvements.
Those investments now appear to be rewarded with the type of early-season snowfall that was missing last season.
"It's looking pretty promising already this year," Crist said in an interview from his office in Stowe on Dec. 6. "I was up on the mountain this morning, and it was pretty great."

Source: Travelweekly