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Where are skiers? Resorts 'wide open'
Business is way off at Cottonwood sites
By Elyse Hayes
Deseret News staff writer
While thousands of global visitors are gathered on Utah's slopes to watch the world's best skiers, enthusiasts of the sport apparently aren't doing a lot of skiing themselves, some officials at non-venue resorts say.
"Snowbird is wide open. Since we don't have venues, we have no lines, no barriers, no traffic. . . . We have almost no one on the mountain, unfortunately," said Fred Rollins, director of public relations for Snowbird Ski and Summer Resort.
Normally February and March are peak months for the resort. While many visitors are staying at places such as the Cliff Lodge, those visitors are Olympic sponsors and guests and are going to events rather than using the mountain, Rollins said. The same is true of out-of-towners staying downtown, many of whom normally drive to the resort at this time of year.
Rollins said resort traffic is about two-thirds of what it has been at this time in previous years, and most of the skiers on the mountain are locals.
"It's kind of like a skiers' paradise right now," he said.
The resort has recently hosted some of the international media in town for the Olympics and hopes that it will gain some exposure. Rollins said the Games will probably benefit the ski industry in the long run because of worldwide exposure for Utah skiing, but the next couple of months look bleak.
Historically, leisure traffic falls off before, during and after Olympics, Rollins said. Snowbird turned into "almost a ghost town" right before the start of the Games, he said.
"We budgeted for a drop-off, but the actual skiers and snowboarders are considerably less than we budgeted for," he said. "It's a difficult time. . . . You'd think that because we don't have a venue it would be better utilized."
Katie Day, communications manager at Solitude Mountain Resort, says the story is much the same among other Cottonwood resorts.
The resort budgeted for sales during the period around the Olympics as being about one-third less than usual, but it has turned out to be about two-thirds less. Day says she thinks local skiers are preoccupied with the Games and are going to events, volunteering and spending time downtown instead of skiing.
"We're really, really down," she said. "We're one of the least crowded resorts anyway, so when you go up there it's like a ghost town."
The story at Sundance, however, is much different.
"Things are looking great. We're all booked," said Lucy Ridolphi of the resort's marketing department. "It's a great place to ski because we're not a venue. . . . We're off the beaten path, but not too far away."
Ridolphi said many Olympic visitors have visited for a day of skiing and to eat at the Tree Room restaurant as something different to do while they are in town. She said Thursday night a group from NBC was scheduled to have dinner at the resort.
"We promoted (the resort) as the calm amidst the storm," she said.
Day says she expects ski traffic at Solitude to pick up in March after the Games are gone. She says she hopes spring skiing will be good, and, based on the number of bookings at local lodgings, it looks as if things may get back to normal in the last couple of months of the season.
"This is only three weeks," she said.
E-mail: ehayes@desnews.com
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February 15, 2002
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