The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) announced back in May that Winter ’21-’22 was the busiest ski season in US history with nearly 61 million estimated skier visits.
The NSAA considers a skier visit whenever somebody uses a lift ticket or a pass at a ski area.
They had this to say about the milestone:
“This record visitation signals that the U.S. ski industry is healthy, and that the demand for outdoor recreation remains strong. There were signs of this during the 2020-21 season as the realities of the Covid-19 pandemic led more people to seek outdoor activities.”
The NSAA has now published a more in-depth list of estimated skier visits per region. You can click here for the full report, or keep reading.
Let’s take a quick look at skier visits per region for Winter ’21-’22 according to the NSAA. You can scroll left and right on the table below. All numbers are in millions.
| Northeast | Southeast | Midwest | Rocky Mtn. | Pacific Southwest | Pacific Northwest | Pacific West (Total) | National Total |
| 12.666 | 4.405 | 6.816 | 25.250 | 7.407 | 4.150 | 11.557 | 60.695 |
It’s clear that the Rocky Mtn. region, as defined by the NSAA, dominates this list with over 25 million skier visits last season. That’s not necessarily surprising, but I was a bit shocked by how much it outweighs the other regions across the United States.
I’m also surprised that the Northeast ‘only’ has 12.666 million visits. I always assumed that the Northeast totaled close to the same number of skiers as the Rockies, but I’m clearly an idiot.
That’s probably a good thing now that I think about it. Most of our Northeast mountains are over-crowded anyways…
^Glade Optics on UnsplashÂ
The ski industry is alive and well. Don’t let anybody tell you differently.
The fact that the country set a record for skier visits during a fairly poor snow year across the West and Northeast is incredible.
Will we break last year’s record for skier visits if La Niña delivers like she did back in 2010 (the 2nd busiest ski season in history)? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
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Featured Image Credit: Greg Rosenke on UnsplashÂ
Header Imager Credit: Colin Cassidy on UnsplashÂ