mike wilson backflip squaw valley granite chief
mike wilson backflip squaw valley granite chief
Mike Wilson chalking up YET another skier visit at Squaw Valley. photo: Ryan Salm

The National Ski Areas Association just announced that USA ski resorts set an all time record this past winter with 60.54 million skier/rider visits. This was according to the Kottke End of the Season Survey.

We’d reported on Kottke’s preliminary numbers in May stating that the USA had had the 2nd most skier visits ever at 60.1 million skier/rider visits in 2010/11.  However, May was no where near the end of the ski season in the USA this year as many ski areas stayed open into June and even July.

shot ski 4th of july squaw valley skiing4th ‘o’ July ShotSki at Squaw Valley USA, 2011.

4th of July weekend saw 12 ski resorts open in the USA with somewhere around 50,000 skier/rider visits in the USA that weekend.

This marks the second time that the ski industry has broken the 60 million visit threshold, representing a 0.6 percent increase from last season’s 59.8 million visits, and a .1 percent increase from the industry’s previous record of 60.5 million visits set in 2007/08. –nsaa.org

headwall chair squaw valley 2011 deep snow

Headwall chair, Squaw Valley USA, March 2011.  photo:  miles clark

A big snow year and a long snow year is attributed to the record breaking season. The USA experienced snowfall that was up 29% of average and was the highest ever recorded in Kottkes 20 years of research.

Most regions experienced significant increases in snowfall, including the Pacific Southwest (up 43 percent), Northeast (up 35 percent), Rocky Mountains (up 33 percent), Midwest (up 27 percent), and Pacific Northwest (up 19 percent).  –nsaa.org

Increases in skier/rider visits were across the board in the USA:

Gains in visits occurred in most regions of the country, and the industry as a whole exceeded its 10-season average by 4.7 percent, a pattern echoed by all regions.  –nsaa.org

Unofficial Networks Newsletter

Get the latest snow and mountain lifestyle news and entertainment delivered to your inbox.

Hidden
Newsletters
This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.

2 replies on “Most USA Skier Visits EVER in 2010/2011 | USA Snowfall up 29% of avg.”