Vail: Epic Pass Sales and Strategy

[Tony Crocker]

finance company

That's Apollo Global Management, a private equity company whose first claim to fame was the takeover of Executive Life's junk bond portfolio out of its 1990 bankruptcy. George Gillett, the Vail owner 1985-1992, had overleveraged his media properties (mainly TV stations) and sold Vail to Apollo as part of bankruptcy restructuring. Katz was already working for Apollo in 1992 and was on the Vail Resorts board starting 1996 before becoming CEO when Vail went public in 2006.

Here are some details of Vail's history through 2016.

 

[MarzNC]

That's Apollo Global Management, a private equity company whose first claim to fame was the takeover of Executive Life's junk bond portfolio out of its 1990 bankruptcy. George Gillett, the Vail owner 1985-1992, had overleveraged his media properties (mainly TV stations) and sold Vail to Apollo as part of bankruptcy restructuring. Katz was already working for Apollo in 1992 and was on the Vail Resorts board starting 1996 before becoming CEO when Vail went public in 2006.

Here are some details of Vail's history through 2016.

According to the article, VR went public in 1997. That's when the name was changed from Vail Associates (VA) to Vail Resorts (VR). Adam Aaron was CEO then, and continued on until 2006. Aaron is now CEO of AMC Entertainment. He is not a skier. Had been leading a shoe company before being hired to lead VA/VR as I remember.

" . . .
In 1997, Vail Associates, renamed Vail Resorts, went public while simultaneously acquiring the nearby Breckenridge and Keystone ski areas via a merger with Ralston (yes, the cereal and pet food company). The conglomerate then began systematically acquiring lodging properties—including Vail’s first hotel, the Lodge at Vail—as well as retail outlets and restaurants in a series of moves that made local independent business owners decidedly nervous.
. . ."

I started learning about the history of VA/VR reading Chris Diamond's book Ski Inc. a while ago. It was too bad Diamond died before he could get a third book done about the post-pandemic era we are in with Epic, Ikon, Mountain Collective, and Indy passes all doing well. Plus Mountain Capital Partners upgrading Nordic Valley and Brian Head in Utah, as Park City continues to fight with the town over lift upgrades.

 

[Tony Crocker]

According to the article, VR went public in 1997.

Missed that.

Chris Diamond's book Ski Inc.

I read that too, overall very worthwhile but it missed a few relevant details/stories. There were some misstatements about when areas joined Mountain Collective. I think it discussed POWDR Corp's rocky beginnings at Killington but not that those issues were presaged during POWDR's earlier takeover at Mt. Bachelor. Comments were tangential, related to Vail's Australian acquisitions, but he said Perisher was highest and largest Southern Hemisphere ski area.

He said Vail paid $174 million AUD for Falls Creek/Hotham in 2019, shocking in comparison to the $38 million USD Mammoth paid for Big Bear just 5 years earlier. These areas are quite comparable in both size and skier visits.

 

[MarzNC]

He said Vail paid $174 million AUD for Falls Creek/Hotham in 2019, shocking in comparison to the $38 million USD Mammoth paid for Big Bear just 5 years earlier. These areas are quite comparable in both size and skier visits.

While they are comparable for resort size and skier visits, the regional setting is completely different between Southern California and Australia from a cultural and general population standpoint. Just as what happens for skiing in California for mountains of similar size is quite different between New England, the Midwest, or the Southeast.

It's taken VR a while to figure out how to best deal with Perisher. Been reading about it on the Aussie ski forum starting a few years before the acquisition. At least one exec who was put in charge of the Australian resorts never visited before the responsibility was moved to someone else.

 

[Tony Crocker]

completely different between Southern California and Australia from a cultural and general population standpoint

It's not clear to me how those differences would make the Australian areas more valuable. Yes they have more of a captive audience (many L.A. skiers disdain the local areas completely), but OTOH the population of SoCal is similar to the population of the entire country of Australia, thus leading to the similar number of skier visits.

I listened to the podcast this week. Stuart applauded the new half window price ski-with-a-friend program. Katz said that the multiarea season pass is a mature product now (with explicit endorsement by Alterra/Ikon) so the industry has to pay more attention to rest of the ski market. The option for the skiing friend to apply the ticket cost to a next year Epic Pass is a carrot to recruit more Epic pass buyers, and Katz intends to promote that feature.

Stuart wondered whether the Epic Pass was too cheap, contributing to overcrowding. Katz said that the complex pro-rata credits from the COVID shutdown in 2020 gave Vail a lot of data to determine what the correct pricing should be to maximize overall revenue. Katz pushed back on crowding in general, saying it was limited to a handful of peak days, and asked, "Who should we be excluding from the mountain?"

Stuart mildly questioned there being so few Epic partner resorts vs. Ikon. Katz did not answer that question directly but pointed out that the ski-with-a-friend program was only possible within the context of Vail owning nearly all the Epic Pass areas.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Fascinating how neither of them want to do anything about the killing-the-golden-goose problem.

Rob Katz seems to have some awareness of it based upon the recent interview with Stuart. The new half price ski with-a-friend program addresses one aspect, casual skiers who may have given up trips with more avid skiing friends due to the exorbitant window prices.

Alterra delegates these decisions to the individual resorts/partners. Some of them, both owned and partners, tweak their resort access via tiers:
1) Unlimited access on both Base and Full Ikon, though some places have holiday blackouts for the Base.
2) Unlimited access on Full but only 5 day with holiday blackouts for the Base.
3) 7 day access on Full and 5 day with holiday blackouts for the Base (most but not all partner areas).
Some areas also require reservations

The Base Plus has been abolished for 2025-26.

The tier 2 areas are Steamboat, A-Basin, Crystal and Schweitzer, all Alterra owned. A-Basin joined Ikon as tier 3 but is moving to tier 2 for 2025-26. Crystal was tier 1 after its Alterra purchase but had such severe parking overdemand during the pandemic that it moved to tier 3 for a year or two but has since settled on tier 2. When Alterra was first formed, Steamboat and Mammoth were going to be the tier 2 areas. But Mammoth had its own MVP pass since 2001 and full Ikon was a $200 price increase. After some pushback, Rusty Gregory knew his market and moved Mammoth to tier 1 with with base (including blackouts) being $100 less than the last MVP.

Deer Valley has always been tier 3 despite being owned by Alterra. Same for Aspen, where ownership/partnership with Alterra is somewhat murky.

 

[ChrisC]

I honestly think both Vail Resorts and Alterra should face a Justice Department suit for collusion and price fixing.

This $250-350/day b-llshit is only possible by both companies signaling to each other that they are going $300+ and they own the top 10 most popular resorts in North America.

They do not need to penalize skiers for not buying a season pass. I assume they have calculated/assumed that the casual skier will take one vacation per year (5 days of skiing), and you need to push them into an early pass product to get $ up front (summer), guarantee a vacation, and make sure break-even is 3 days vs. 5 days.

However, I think this destroys some of Vail's business case (more so than Alterra's). Why did Vail buy all those feeder resorts in the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, the Mid-Atlantic? I assumed it was to grow the sport and send them to destination resorts. However, the pricing is so aggressive and front-loaded that it seems egregious.

I would propose that Vail/Alterra still sell pass products during the season, with the astronomical day tickets as credits against them.

Anyways, this $300+ number is not real; it's just a sledgehammer yielded unfairly.

If Zermatt, Val d'Isere, Verbier, St Moritz can price at $50-100, so can Vail; but they are NOT publicly traded - but neither is Alterra - yet.

 

[Tony Crocker]

From Triple Play thread I wrote:

It is a valid point to see how low the breakeven days can get in this pricing era. I have tracked this for Mammoth since the MVP was inaugurated in 2000-01. Mammoth's breakeven days were consistently between 6 and 7 through 2013-14, drifted down to 4.7 by 2016-17. Ikon Base renewal vs. Mammoth window breakeven days started at 3.3 in 2018-19 and bottomed out at 2.8 in 2021-22 and were back to 3.4 in 2024-25 as the climb in window prices has finally slowed at Mammoth and maybe Alterra.

Stuart's e-mail today is the first salvo of a very deep dive into Vail's pricing. As of now there's not a link to a web version. Vail has announced 2025-26 window prices. The peak window price at Vail/Beaver Creek will be $356, applicable on 52 days: the usual holiday period but also a 10-day stretch in mid-February and nearly all of March. 21 other weekend days are $335 and 42 other midweek days are $307. Breakeven days vs. Epic Local (analogy to Base Ikon) is about 2.5 vs. Vail and barely over 3.0 vs. say, Breck or Heavenly.

Stuart noted that the annual increase in window prices accelerated during the Kirsten Lynch years. For 2025-26 that continues for most flagship areas, but Stowe and Keystone have no window price increase.

The new ski-with-friend-program prices are roughly equivalent to 2015-16 window prices.

I honestly think both Vail Resorts and Alterra should face a Justice Department suit for collusion and price fixing.

This $250-350/day b-llshit is only possible by both companies signaling to each other that they are going $300+ and they own the top 10 most popular resorts in North America.............Anyways, this $300+ number is not real; it's just a sledgehammer yielded unfairly.

NASJA had a Zoom in January 2024 about lift ticket prices, which I attended even though I was in France and it was 2AM. Stuart was the featured guest. His intro:

Even though they sell them, Vail does not want you to pay $299 for a lift ticket.. When a company finds itself in the position of actively steering customers away from its product, then it’s not a good product. And the big-mountain walk-up lift ticket is a profoundly broken product that needs to be reset or killed.

Stuart's Oct. 2021 column linked in that quote is well worth a read, along with some of the comments after it. In the Zoom call he said the window price model was unstable; that it would likely be eroded, especially midweek with Copper's $99 Thursdays being first evidence.

I assume they have calculated/assumed that the casual skier will take one vacation per year (5 days of skiing), and you need to push them into an early pass product to get $ up front (summer), guarantee a vacation, and make sure break-even is 3 days vs. 5 days.

The other motivation here is stabilization of revenue, minimizing sharp declines in bad snow years, particularly important for a publicly traded company like Vail. This is another stat I've tracked over time for Mammoth. Good year to bad year declines in skier visits:
1986 to 1987: -51% (no snowmaking then)
2006 to 2007: -31%
2011 to 2012: -28%

Kottke Rockies (Colorado is close to 2/3 of that):
1980 (113% of normal) to 1981 (64% of normal): -39% (very little snowmaking then)
2011 (132% of normal) to 2012 (75% of normal): -9%
I'm quite surprised by that -9%. Yes the Rockies are dominated by inflexible destination skiers, but was that not true in 1981? Vail's Colorado resorts were actually worse at -12.6% though they were also worse on snowfall than the Rockies overall. The Epic Pass already existed in 2012, though I think only for the 4 Colorado resorts plus maybe Heavenly.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Why did Vail buy all those feeder resorts in the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, the Mid-Atlantic? I assumed it was to grow the sport and send them to destination resorts.

It would seem to me that Vail should have a Triple Play type product strictly confined to some of these feeder regions. Like the ski-with-a-friend, they can do this because they own the areas. If Stuart's Rob Katz interview had happened after the Triple Play announcement, I suspect he would have asked that question.

 

[MarzNC]

The Epic Pass already existed in 2012, though I think only for the 4 Colorado resorts plus maybe Heavenly.

By 2012, VR had bought Heavenly and Northstar. In 2012 Kirkwood was added. More importantly, that's when the first "urban" ski resorts in the midwest were bought. Afton Alps tapped in into the Minn/St. Paul market while Mt. Brighton is close to Detroit. Wilmot was added in 2016, which is an hour from Chicago. All were independent family-owned hills. VR spent a fair amount of money on lift upgrades and renovating base buildings.

Why did Vail buy all those feeder resorts in the Midwest and, to a lesser extent, the Mid-Atlantic?

Mt. Brighton is literally a man-made bump (1100 to 1330 ft). The two (three?) hills were created by fill dug up when an interstate highway interchange was built nearby. I stopped by the base at the start of a Michigan ski safari a few years ago. Place was empty on a midweek morning. However, there were half a dozen park rats lapping the terrain park, which was served by a fast--very fast--rope tow. Also saw a parent with a little one and a senior. The pictures in the hallway outside the retail shop included not only a couple of the Epic Colorado and Tahoe resorts, there was also a picture of Perisher in Australia.

The situation changed drastically when VR bought out Peak Resorts. Peak started in the lower midwest with 100% snowmaking, then expanded to the northeast and PA. It seemed as if VR wanted Mt. Snow for the NYC/Boston market and ended up with all the little hills without much of a plan for how to deal with them. The people who have been skiing the PA resorts now on Epic for decades are finally seeing some noticeable improvements. The complaint level on DCSki has been high for the trio local to DC/NoVA and the trio local to Pittsburgh.

People who live in the midwest and mid-Atlantic don't have to buy Full Epic or Epic Local if their home mountain is owned by VR. There are much less expensive regional passes. Even a few 1-location passes for the smaller hills, including a senior discount. The Epic Day Pass is reasonable for someone skiing 7 or less days, even if only at small resorts. The price depends on which locations are included and whether or not holidays are included. The Epic Day Pass for 1-7 days started in 2018, after a season with just a 4-day and a 7-day option.

 

[Tony Crocker]

It seemed as if VR wanted Mt. Snow for the NYC/Boston market

And Hunter for NYC.

Michigan ski safari

You have family in that region? NASJA lured me in 2009 to Lutsen, which is over twice the size of most Michigan hills and still well shy of Big Bear/Mt. High in subjective ski quality. Only Bohemia would lure me to return to the Midwest for skiing, and since it's at the ends of the earth there would still have to be another reason to make the trip.

 

[MarzNC]

You have family in that region? NASJA lured me in 2009 to Lutsen, which is over twice the size of most Michigan hills and still well shy of Big Bear/Mt. High in subjective ski quality. Only Bohemia would lure me to return to the Midwest for skiing, and since it's at the ends of the earth there would still have to be another reason to make the trip.

While I have relatives who live in the midwest, the MI ski safari didn't involve visiting any of them. It was simply to satisfy my curiosity. The timing of the trip was based on using Indy at Nub's during the 70 Plus Ski Club annual gathering in mid-January. On the way, I stopped to look around the base of Mt. Brighton. Then stayed the night at Caberfae. Met up with a member of NYSkiBlog who calls it his home mountain. He knows everybody there. Another former New Yorker . . . as I am.

For Nub's, I met up with a Ski Diva from Chicago who was a 70+ member. She and I checked out the Boyne mountains since we had Ikon for trips out west later that season. She didn't really learn to ski until after an early retirement in her 50s. She's become an adventurous intermediate who isn't afraid to go into ungroomed snow. Absolutely no fear of MI steeps or fresh powder. We caught a rope drop for black ungroomed terrain one day. Immediately covered by people clearly comfortable making powder turns at high speed. Mostly younger folks even though it was midweek.

I don't stop by small hills for the skiing. More interested in experiencing the vibe for comparison with comparable hills in the same or other regions. It's taking VR a long time to figure out how to effectively run the small hills in the midwest and PA that they acquired from Peak. There wasn't enough money for upgrades for the former Peak locations. Unlike when VR thoughtfully bought Afton Alps, Mt. Brighton, and then Wilmot. The locals for those hills were pretty happy by the 2nd year VR was the owner/operator.

Did you ever listen to the podcasts by Rob Katz called Epic By Nature? He started them in 2018. One was about the transition phase for the first midwest acquisitions. A few were about the pandemic period. The last one was in 2022 and about leadership.

 

[ChrisC]

I have never been interested in skiing the Midwest hills - primarily because many of them are pretty far from the large cities (Chicago, Detroit, Cleveland, etc) that I often visited for work.

Two out of three 'Big 3' Auto Manufacturers used my software, so I traveled frequently to Detroit. However, I never wanted to drive 4 hours to the Boyne Mountains or other semi-large northern Michigan ski areas for a weekend.

The same applies to Cleveland and the Western NY/Brandywine areas.

Wausau, WI, (business partner) had some decent places nearby, but I never went in winter.

Mt Bohemia? That's Nowheresville.

Lutsen, larger than most, is far from the Twin Cities.

 

[Tony Crocker]

Lutsen, larger than most, is far from the Twin Cities.

4 hours, transfer provided to me by NASJA in 2009. My practice, in those days of subsidized annual meetings on a Wednesday-Sunday schedule, was to take the whole week and visit other ski areas in the region. In order to add Bohemia to that 2009 trip, I would have had to rent a car and spend 17 hours driving a triangle route from Minneapolis.

The Northeast NASJA trip in 2003, hosted by Quebec/Charlevoix, had easier logistics. I flew into Montreal and skied Stowe, Mad River and Jay with a one-way car rental to Quebec City.

 

[ChrisC]

Some things I did do:

An exceptional NE/Mid-Atlantic Winter (2010?), I brought skis to Pittsburgh and skied Blue Knob (100% open, with a lot of natural snow), Seven Springs, and Hidden Valley on another weekend day. Blue Knob has some legit steep terrain.....

I went with friends to the Quebec Winter Carnival in 2011??! Super fun and super cold! Skied Stoneham (alone), Le Massif, and Mt. St Anne on other days. The snow quality was as good as Colorado's -- Quebec in early February with no rain for a month.

 

[MarzNC]

An exceptional NE/Mid-Atlantic Winter (2010?), I brought skis to Pittsburgh and skied Blue Knob (100% open, with a lot of natural snow), Seven Springs, and Hidden Valley on another weekend day. Blue Knob has some legit steep terrain.....

Never made it to western PA before Vail Resorts bought 7Springs, HV, and Laurel. Been reading about them on DCSki for years.

I used to make the effort to go to Whitetail for the annual demo day. Was one of the best in the region that was well attended by many brand reps. First place I demo'd the Stöckli skis that I ended up buying at Taos later that season. After VR became the owner/operator, no more demo days.

As with the former Snowtime resorts in central PA that serve the DC/NoVA market, it's taken VR quite a while to figure out how to operate the PA resorts in a way that makes long time pass holders happy. People who do day trips to Liberty, Whitetail, and/or Roundtop were spoiled by how the Snowtime owner/operator ran those resorts and invested for the future. No one in his family wanted to keep them. In particular his grandchildren who were nominally the actual owners by then. He could've sold to VR directly but instead sold to Peak Resorts. It was less than two years before VR made Peak an offer they couldn't refuse.

People local to PA resorts can get the Northeast Epic pass. The Value version is $656 as of August 2025 and Midweek is $492. The theory is that they can drive up to VT or to Hunter. Of course, if they want to head west and ski at an Epic resort then they need to get Epic Local, which is $799. I get the sense that many are simply getting an Epic Day Pass to cover a few days. Then perhaps getting Indy and/or skiing at Timberline in WV.

BK has great terrain. It's on the Indy Pass. Being in a PA state park has made it more difficult for any operator to make needed upgrades to snowmaking and lifts. Clearly less natural snow in the 2020s than a decade or two ago. There used to be an EpicSki/DCSki annual gathering that would be at BK every other year. The first time I went we were skiing in freezing rain the first day. Given that it's an upside down set up, getting to the slopeside houses people were sharing for the long weekend was tricky. Those of us who arrived before lunch time on Friday had to deal with half an inch of ice on the windshield. Very cool to walk out the door of the house after dinner to ski under the lights.

 

[ChrisC]

I am VERY interested in watching Season Pass sales for both Vail and Alterra after the worst West Coast ski season in a generation. It's been 40-50 years since Mother Nature taught skiers that a pass is naught, always a deal, even with geographically diverse ski options. Assume a decent number will not renew - or wait.

Essentially, if Vail cannot book pass revenue up front, the model breaks. Especially since Vail trained analysts to watch that number versus any individual ski resort or region. Interested to see if Vail will be forced to discount and/or prolong deadlines.

This is what I am watching:

Regarding spring season North American pass sales results, Katz noted, "Spring pass sales for the 2026/2027 season are underway, and through the April 12th deadline, we have a seen a moderate decline in pass product units and a slight decline in sales dollars. It is early in the selling period, with our first pricing deadline in May, and we will provide a more comprehensive update on pass sales trends when we report third quarter results in June 2026."

Also, waiting for a response on not being able to use my Epic Pass at Telluride over the holidays. I don't really care, but just curious to see how Vail handles its partner mountains.

https://investors.vailresorts.com/news-releases/news-release-details/vail-resorts-reports-certain-ski-season-metrics-season-date-31

Apr 23, 2026

Vail Resorts Reports Certain Ski Season Metrics for the Season-to-Date Period Ended April 19, 2026​

BROOMFIELD, Colo., April 23, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Vail Resorts, Inc. (NYSE: MTN) today reported certain ski season metrics from the beginning of the ski season through April 19, 2026 compared to the same prior year period through April 20, 2025. The reported ski season metrics are for the Company's North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas, excluding the results of the Australian and European resorts and ski areas. The data mentioned in this release is interim period data and is subject to fiscal quarter end review and adjustments.

• Season-to-date total skier visits were down 14.9% compared to the prior year period.
• Season-to-date total lift revenue, including an allocated portion of season pass revenue for each applicable period, was down 5.6% compared to the prior year period.
• Season-to-date ski school revenue was down 12.0% and dining revenue was down 11.7% compared to the prior year period. Retail/rental revenue for North American resort and ski area store locations was down 6.6% compared to the prior year period.

Commenting on the season-to-date metrics, Rob Katz, Chief Executive Officer said, "The winter of 2025/2026 has been one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S., with record low snowfall and historically warm temperatures negatively impacting visitation and spending throughout the season. March conditions saw a continuation of low snowfall and warmer temperatures well outside of historical norms, leading to weaker late-season visitation and earlier than planned closures for many resorts across the western U.S. As we previously highlighted heading into March, these dynamics increased variability and resulted in visitation declines for both destination and local guests with the largest impact in the Rockies, where visitation declined 25%. As a result of these persistently challenging conditions, we now expect Resort Reported EBITDA for fiscal 2026 to be at or around the low end of the guidance range issued on March 9, 2026."

Regarding spring season North American pass sales results, Katz noted, "Spring pass sales for the 2026/2027 season are underway, and through the April 12th deadline, we have a seen a moderate decline in pass product units and a slight decline in sales dollars. It is early in the selling period, with our first pricing deadline in May, and we will provide a more comprehensive update on pass sales trends when we report third quarter results in June 2026."

Basis of Presentation

The reported ski season metrics include growth for season pass revenue based on estimated fiscal 2026 North American season pass revenue compared to fiscal 2025 North American season pass revenue. The metrics include all North American destination mountain resorts and regional ski areas and are adjusted to eliminate the impact of foreign currency by applying current period exchange rates to the prior period for Whistler Blackcomb's results.

 

[Tony Crocker]

worst West Coast ski season

I'm working on a more detailed analysis of that. It's far from the worst season in California or the PNW; 2014-15 was substantially worse in both regions. 2004-05 was worse in most of the PNW and there are at least 5 other worse seasons in California. It was unquestionably the worst (since lift served skiing has been widespread) in Front Range/I-70 Colorado. That's very important because it's the most visited ski region (20+% of western ski visits), the core of Vail's business and the highest profile region to the mainstream media.

Season snowfall numbers in other Rockies regions (Northern, Utah and Southwest) are at least as low as 1976-77, but I contend that season was worse because its deficit was so extreme November-January that many areas could not open, especially with the limited and primitive snowmaking of that era.

1980-81 is in third place for the overall booby prize behind 1976-77 and 2025-26. Overall US skier visits (Kottke) fell 18% from 1979-80 and Rockies skier visits fell 39%. We don't know about 1976-77 because Kottke started in 1978-79. The only other times US skier visits have ever fallen more than 10% were 2011-12 (16%, bad season after record high season) and 2019-20 (14%, COVID mid-March shutdown). 1980-81 is the only time Rockies skier visits have fallen more than 10% aside from 18% with the COVID shutdown. But note above for Vail's resorts:

largest impact in the Rockies, where visitation declined 25%.

 

[EMSC]

It was unquestionably the worst (since lift served skiing has been widespread) in Front Range/I-70 Colorado.

As I keep telling friends back east, etc... it's not the worst season just barely. Its the worst by a very long shot that is not even close to 2nd worst.

Interestingly, the average temp in Denver so far in April is identical to the average temperature from the whole month of March. But it is supposed to be cooler with some rain and unsettled weather for the final week of April which should easily push April as slightly colder than March. Pretty extreme/rare for that to occur in Colorado.

2004-05 was worse in most of the PNW

I'm curious about this statement with so many ski areas in the PNW not open for long stretches. I probably wasn't intimately aware of 04-05 in the PNW, but it sure felt like this season had much worse weather than I recall in that region (lots of warm, lots of rain, etc... not just looking at official snowfall totals).

 

[Tony Crocker]

Pacific Northwest 2004-05: November storms had fairly high snow levels and were mostly rain in the ski areas. Early December storms dropped 1-3 feet but still substantial rain at low elevation. This was a very poor holiday season by the standards of the usually snowy Northwest despite some new snow in late December. Early January snowfalls were modest, so the Northwest was devastated from Whistler to Mt. Hood by the "Tropical Punch" storm of January 17-21. Only Mt. Bachelor (which still closed a record early May 15) was high enough and far enough south to be spared much damage and remain in full operation. At the end of January Whistler was only 55% open and most other areas were closed. This was nearly unprecedented and after a mostly dry February and first half of March this was the worst overall ski season ever experienced in the region. In early February there was up to a foot of new snow, so Mt. Baker and Mt. Hood partially reopened and Whistler improved to 85% open. By mid-March Whistler was down to 50% and everyone else except Bachelor was closed. Late March storms dropped 4-5 feet of snow at higher elevations, bringing the best conditions of the year to Whistler and Mt. Bachelor and reopening most terrain at Mt. Baker and Mt. Hood. Heavy April snowfall reopened some runs at Crystal, Stevens and Alpental and finally raised season totals above the record low season of 1976-77.

Area​	Nov​	Dec​	Jan​	Feb​	Mar​	Apr​	Total​	Pct. of Normal​
Alyeska	94​	84​	30​	97​	102​	50​	457​	88%​
Whistler Alpine	31​	51​	16​	18​	56​	78​	250​	62%​
Mt. Rainier	44​	77​	45​	38.5​	96.3​	62.2​	363​	58%​
Mt. Bachelor	10​	54​	32​	20​	54​	24​	194​	53%​

Pacific Northwest 2014-15: The entire season was characterized by storms with a high rain/snow line. Thus the Whistler alpine had a manageable base of 4-6 feet most of the season but much of the lower mountain was marginal and melted out by mid-March. Mt. Bachelor's Summit opened Dec. 13 and attained a 6-7 foot base, but the pre-Christmas storm iced the Summit lift and closed it for the next 3 weeks. The 20 inches in early February resurfaced upper terrain and gave Bachelor the best conditions in a mostly miserable region. Other Northwest areas had excessive early season rain and only opened just before Christmas on a limited basis with base depths less than 3 feet. Conditions improved with 2+ feet of snow during the holidays and early January, but late January rain closed some terrain and the February Pineapple (rain to 5,500 feet at Whistler and 6,500 farther south) closed even more. The entire region had warm weather, more rain and less than a foot of snow mid-February to mid-March. Mt. Baker closed March 11, soon followed by Stevens Pass. 2-4 feet of snow since mid-March improved skiing at the upper elevations of Whistler, Crystal and Bachelor but were too little and too late for terrain below 5,000 feet that had previously melted out. Crystal closed April 19, Bachelor May 10 and Whistler June 7. There were some record low snowfalls worse than 1976-77 at lower elevations that had mostly rain in 2014-15.

Area	Nov	Dec	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	Total	Pct. of Normal
Whistler Alpine	52	63	39	31	48	27	260	62%
Snoqualmie Pass	24	34	16	6	4	20	100	26%
Mt. Hood	38	76	16.5	17	24	23	184.5	41%
Mt. Bachelor	54	69	11	29	17	21	201	52%

Both of these seasons were as rain plagued as the current one but they had substantially less snow at most places. Mt. Bachelor was the exception, much drier this year than in 2004-05 or 2014-15 and thus worse this year.

Few people outside the PNW would remember 2004-05 negatively because it was a huge year in California and Utah and close to average elsewhere in the US Rockies. US PNW skier visits fell 56% in 2004-05 and 41% in 2014-15 vs. the prior seasons, not surprising where those visits are nearly all local and minimal destination.