New Hampshire — A heat winter led to a lower in skier visits to the Granite State.
Final week, Ski New Hampshire (Ski NH) introduced its metrics for the 2023-24 season. Visits to all leisure actions tallied by Ski New Hampshire, together with alpine snowboarding, nordic, and snow tubing, had been down six p.c. Alpine ski areas had an estimated 2,166,857 visits, down 4% in comparison with the 2022-23 season. These numbers are just like these the U.S. ski trade collectively skilled through the 2023-24 season.
Though this was a little bit of a down 12 months, there have been nonetheless some positives. For alpine visits, it was the 14th largest all-time out of the forty years they’ve recorded. It was additionally 2.4% above the ten-year complete visits common.
For extra details about this previous ski season, Ski NH’s press launch is under.
Ski New Hampshire Experiences 2023-24 Season’s Outcomes:
Season successful regardless of difficult climate circumstances
North Conway, NH – Ski New Hampshire reported skier visits throughout their annual assembly Wednesday at Cranmore Mountain Resort, noting that alpine ski areas recorded an estimated 2,166,857 visits. Alpine visits had been down 4 p.c from final 12 months’s complete; collectively, alpine, cross-country, and tubing visits had been off by six p.c.
“Given the difficult climate circumstances this season, and evaluating these numbers to final 12 months which was our ninth greatest on document, these outcomes weren’t sudden,” mentioned Ski NH president Jessyca Keeler. “And whereas the 2023/24 ski season doesn’t make the highest 10 for alpine visits, it does are available in 14th general, in comparison with our 40 years of knowledge. Moreover, the season in contrast favorably to the 10-year alpine skier go to common, coming in 4 p.c above that quantity.”
The season was marked by matches and begins, with chilly and snowy climate kicking off the winter, solely to be adopted earlier than the crucial Christmas vacation interval with heavy rains that took a toll on path counts. Nevertheless, Mom Nature helped out throughout different key intervals, together with throughout Presidents Weekend and that February trip week, when skier visits had been up throughout a time that represents 20% or extra of many ski areas’ seasonal visitation. Two late-season storms positively impacted ultimate skier visits as nicely, notably for the extra northern ski areas, however those self same storms both got here too late or resulted in wetter and heavier snow additional south, inflicting energy outages and iced-over chairlifts, in line with Keeler. “In the end these storms resulted in a web acquire of skier visits, however that acquire was not evenly distributed.”
Cross-country areas had more durable challenges because of the season’s climate patterns. Although some areas have began to put money into snowmaking in recent times, protecting kilometers of trails isn’t simple or essentially inexpensive for smaller ski areas, mentioned Keeler.
“The manic winter we had that witnessed Mom Nature giving us snow (typically) after which taking it away resulted in a much bigger dip in year-over-year skier visits for Nordic areas,” mentioned Keeler. “These visits are estimated to be roughly 87,621, representing a drop of 14% in comparison with the prior 12 months, and a variation of -26% from the 10-year common.”
Keeler famous that there are a few Ski NH member alpine areas that even have Nordic areas that haven’t been monitoring the skier utilization of their trails for the reason that COVID-19 pandemic, which might have a small impression on the numbers, and Windblown (which was an space whose visitation was tracked within the 40-year knowledge) shut down after the 2019-2020 season. That withstanding, Nordic visits had been down at most ski areas.
Tubing operations had been impacted by the climate as nicely, coming in at 101,163 visits, which was 22% down from final 12 months. Nevertheless, final 12 months New Hampshire ski areas recorded their highest tubing visits ever, and when evaluating final 12 months’s tubing numbers to the 10-year common, tubing visits had been solely off by a a lot decrease eight p.c.
Combining all visits – alpine, cross-country, and tubing – Keeler famous that the season was six p.c down 12 months over 12 months, “however considerably surprisingly, it was two p.c up relative to the 10-year complete visits common.”
New Hampshire ski areas anticipate continued sturdy demand for the approaching winter season. Resorts are already investing hundreds of thousands of {dollars} in capital enhancements for subsequent 12 months – including new trails and widening current ones, constructing new and enhancing older base space services, and investing in snowmaking.
Many resorts have additionally resumed summer time operations, providing actions from scenic raise rides, ziplines, and mountain coasters to golf, disc golf, mountain biking, and journey parks. For extra details about Ski NH resorts, summer time actions, occasions, and mountain marriage ceremony venues, go to SkiNH.com.
Ski New Hampshire is the statewide affiliation representing 30+ alpine and cross-country resorts in New Hampshire. For extra info, go to SkiNH.com. For statewide journey data, go to VisitNH.gov.
Picture Credit: Ski NH
