A significant winter weather system that swept through the Rockies in Western Colorado and Eastern Utah left fresh powder at all 22 Colorado Ski Country USA (CSCUSA) member resorts, according to reports.

 

Accumulation at Colorado’s Wolf Creek ski area (Pagosa Springs) was 27 inches while Crested Butte Mountain Resort and Silverton Mountain each received 26 inches and Monarch Mountain  received 22 inches.
Snowfall totals were in the double-digits for many other Colorado resorts.

 

Both Arapahoe Basin (Keystone) and Loveland Ski Area (Georgetown) received 18 inches of new snow, Copper Mountain (Frisco) and Eldora Mountain (Boulder) each reported 14 inches and Aspen Highlands (Aspen)  reported13 inches. In the northwest part of the state, nearly a foot of fresh Champagne Powder fell at Steamboat Resort (Steamboat Springs) and about ten inches fell at both Aspen Mountain and Purgatory (Durango).


Nine new inches fell at Ski Cooper (Leadville), Snowmass (Aspen), Telluride Resprt and Winter Park Resort, respectively, and five inches of fresh snow was reported at SolVista Basin at Granby Ranch and Howelsen Hill (Steamboat Springs). Both Sunlight Resort (Glenwood Springs) and Buttermilk (Aspen) received four inches and Echo Mountain (Idaho Springs) added two inches to its season total.


This, of course, is good news for the snowsports community, as actual lodging occupancy was up for the third consecutive month at western resort mountain communities monitored by the Mountain Travel Research Program (MTRiP.) November 2010 was up 14.4% from last November while room rates climbed 2.2%. MTRiP representatives said the results are consistent with the six month trend, when occupancy for June-November 2010 was up 8.4% from the same period last year.
MTRiP also provided forward looking projections. Currently, bookings as of Nov. 30 for December 2010 are up 4.9% compared to the same period last year. For the next six months, overall bookings are up 2.5% with the strongest gains in March and May.

 

Reservations taking during the month of November for the remainder of the ski season (through April 2011) were also up 7.5% compared to 2009. Lodging rates remain practically flat compared to last year-down 0.2% for December and up one percent for the remainder of the season-indicating that consumers continue to secure attractive rates at mountain destinations but further discounting is not apparent.

The report goes on to predict slow overall growth for mountain destinations that will “likely be inconsistent with wide variances between regional destinations and among individual properties.”