Challenging early season conditions and inclement weather over critical holiday periods severely impacted Mt. Bachelor’s business through the first half of the season, but visitation over the remainder of the winter rebounded, allowing the resort to post seasonal results just 1.5 percent below 2010-2011 totals.
The US Snowsports industry as a whole suffered its worst season since 1991 with a 15.7 percent drop in visits over 2010/11. The Pacific Northwest region, which fared far better for natural snowfall than any other region of the US this year, still experienced a decline in visits of 5.7 percent. Thanks to improved weather, a deep snowpack, and pent up demand from a poor early season, visits in late March through May at Mt. Bachelor have been consistently and significantly above last year’s levels.
Following a lackluster President’s week in February, Mt. Bachelor’s visits were tracking 12 percent behind the same timeframe last year. At this point in time resort management made adjustments to operations in an attempt to mitigate the loss of revenue associated with reduced visitation. The combination of those tactical decisions with the resilience of the skiing/riding community locally and across the west, along with improving weather and deep spring snowpack at Mt. Bachelor, provided the right formula for a strong finish to the winter season. April and May visitation in 2012 will be the greatest since 2007, with average daily visitation in April exceeded that of January, 2012. Given the weather and economic challenges faced by the Snowsports industry this winter, especially over the vital holiday periods, Mt. Bachelor deems the 2011/12 season a success.
Dave Rathbun, President and General Manager states, “I’m proud of our team of managers and front line staff and the efforts they made to maintain one of the best on-mountain experiences in the west. We attracted additional local and destination traffic late into the spring season. With the good weather and changes we’ve made, we’re excited to be finishing strong and on a positive note considering where we were just three months ago.”
Successes this spring were not limited to improving skier visits. Mt. Bachelor also received national recognition this year for its ‘Ski or Ride in 5’ learn to ski/ride program, which was awarded the National Ski Areas Association’s “Conversion Cup” for the best beginner program in America. Locally, Mt. Bachelor’s annual Charity Ski Week program set a record, with cash donations to nine local non-profit organizations of $99,200.
Memorial Day marked the official close of Mt. Bachelor’s 2011/12 season, operating the most spring terrain in the US and one of the longest ski seasons in North America. Announcements will be made in the coming weeks with details for Mt. Bachelor’s summer operations and summer capital improvement projects. The resort will also evaluate the snowpack and weather forecast through June to determine if it can re-open for public alpine skiing/riding for the June 30-July 1 weekend.
