Another record ski season for Utah!

Is Utah a magic place? It could very well be, at least as far as skiing goes, because in spite of a rather mediocre snow season, staffing problem and dismal management at Park City Mountain, our state managed to increase its skier visits by a roughly10% over last season, setting a new record of 5,829,679 statewide skier visits for 21/22. 

Last year was already record year with 5,301,766 skier days! The truth is that after the pandemic, American skiers love to ski more than ever before, don’t hesitate to travel around to do it and take full advantage of the multi pass options available to them. It’s in fact a nationwide trend. 

The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) reported earlier this year an all-time high of 61 million skier visits nationwide during the 21/22 season. The Rocky Mountain region (Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico) recorded the highest number of visits, at 25.2 million, while Colorado ski areas also set a new record last winter, with over 14 million visits recorded statewide. 

Vail Resorts, owner of Park City Mountain and dozens of other resorts across the country, said skier visits were up 12.5% at its North American resorts last season compared to the year prior. Remarkably, season pass sales now represent around 52% of all lift tickets sold. Since companies don’t report resort-specific skier visits for Utah, I make it up for you. 

I just hope I’m pretty close to reality. If you don’t agree, please chime in!