After a tumultuous last few winters, ski areas are hoping that signs of increased skier interest, fewer COVID-19 restrictions and more available workers indicate a return to normal this upcoming 2022-23 season.
In an encouraging trend for the area ski industry, season pass sales are up as much as 15% at Whaleback and Dartmouth Skiway compared with last year, while Saskadena Six, which changed its name from Suicide Six in July, says its season pass sales are up nearly 100%.
“I think we are going to be busier than ever,” said Christina Mattsson, director of recreational experiences at Saskadena Six’s parent company, Woodstock Inn & Resort. “I think more people started skiing and riding during COVID, and I think we’ll also see that normal clientele that we’ve had for many years.”
Two other areas, Ski Quechee and Ascutney Outdoors, report level to slightly higher pass sales compared with this point last year.
When all those extra skiers and riders hit the slopes this year, they will find little to no COVID restrictions for the first time since March 2020, as none of the ski areas the Valley News spoke to will require masks or enforce social distancing or any other COVID-related precautions. All stressed that masks will be welcomed although not required.
“We are moving ahead without COVID restrictions, but we’re ready to transition back if necessary,” said Jon Hunt, Whaleback Mountain’s executive director. “Everything is full systems go.”
For Dartmouth Skiway General Manager Mark Adamczyk, the lack of pandemic restrictions is a remarkable change from just one year ago.
“Remember that this time last year we were at the point that we were just getting the official go-ahead from the college that we could operate, so it’s not lost on me that just a year ago we weren’t so sure we were going to be able to do this whole skiing thing,” he said. “I’ve been cautiously optimistic that people who want to wake up and go skiing will be able to do it this year as normally as they’ve ever wanted to.”
Adamczyk is less concerned about the virus’ impact on skiers than on the Skiway’s workforce.
“What makes me a little nervous COVID-wise is within the staff,” he said. “A cold or flu bug can knock out half of a team pretty quickly, and then you throw COVID in there and you can have some really bad staffing challenges quickly.”
Potential sick time aside, in an era where many industries and companies are struggling to find workers, ski area operators report moderate recruiting success.
“We feel pretty good about our staffing, but we could always use more hands,” said Hunt, pointing to the nearly continual need for lift operators and ski instructors.
“We’re a little bit short of being fully staffed, but it is better than in years past,” Adamczyk said. “We’ve seen more applications and more people interested in working. Some of that has been retirees interested in part-time work now that they are more comfortable with COVID levels and vaccinations than maybe there were two years ago.”
Saskadena Six’s Mattsson estimated that the South Pomfret ski area is about 85% staffed and has applications coming in but is still pushing to bolster its instructional staff.
“We are forecasting to be busier, so especially within our ski and ride school we are hiring even more instructors,” she said. “Even through COVID and with a full staff, because we were seeing more people coming to take lessons who were new to skiing and riding, we didn’t have enough staff to accommodate that. So we are really trying to hire up.”
Amid the positive news lies the elephant in the room for in the ski industry: snow. Or perhaps more importantly, weather cold enough to produce snow.
“We expect a continuation of wild temperature fluctuations and generally not as cold as in the past, but hoping for enough cold weather to have good snowmaking along with at least a few good snowstorms,” said Quechee Club’s membership director, Gina Beaty, who noted that the club’s Ski Quechee ski area closed two weeks earlier than normal last year due to a lack of snow.
Mattsson said Saskadena Six in particular has to pay attention to the weather.
“We don’t have (as much) elevation as some other areas, so we are constantly challenged with the weather,” she said. “We watch it closely and we’ve done a lot to prepare for, just in general, warmer winters because that’s kind of the way things are trending, obviously.”
Research released Nov. 30 by research group Climate Central backs up Mattsson, showing that the average winter temperature in Burlington has risen 7.1 degrees since 1970; Concord has seen a six-degree increase. Burlington and Concord had the first- and fourth-highest increases, respectively, out of 238 locations across the United States surveyed in the study — a worrying fact for snow-dependent industries across the Twin States.
Many ski areas have attempted to mitigate rising winter temperatures by bolstering their snowmaking operations and making them more efficient. Dartmouth Skiway, Whaleback and Saskadena Six each added to their snowmaking operations over the offseason, while Ascutney Outdoors, which does not have snowmaking capacity, focused on trail grading.
At Dartmouth Skiway, increased staffing meant they were ready to make snow one month earlier this year than in the past, but the weather wasn’t cold enough to take advantage of the new capacity early on.
“It’s really been two steps forward, one step back, and in some cases two steps forward, two steps back,” Adamczyk said.
While winter’s slow arrival has been disappointing for ski areas, there is still time to make up ground and be open for the all-important holiday season. Saskadena Six opened on Wednesday, while Dartmouth Skiway and Ski Quechee are aiming for Saturday and Dec. 22, respectively. Both Whaleback and Ascutney Outdoors plan to open on Dec. 26.
Justin Campfield can be reached at jhcampfield@gmail.com.