With Snow at Last, Ski Areas Have a Long Trail Back

Wally Hofmann was running about in the cold and snow of Mammoth Lakes, dashing in and out of one store or restaurant after another. He was handing out batches of flyers advertising a bike race--scheduled for seven months from now.

“If we tell skiers now, hopefully they’ll come back in summer,” explained Hofmann, who handles marketing for the Whiskey Creek restaurants in Mammoth and Bishop.

Mammoth’s early push for summer business comes as the area’s merchants, condominium operators and other businesses brace themselves after a rocky start to this winter’s ski business.

For the first time in a decade, Mammoth Mountain, which attracts the most California skiers, did not have enough snow to open for Christmas. Only six of the 13 resorts in the North Lake Tahoe area opened for holiday skiing. And warm weather delayed other downhill and cross-country resort openings until after the first of the year.

Even Snow Summit in the San Bernardino National Forest, which bucked the late opening trend and opened in December with man-made snow on the slopes, saw a 50% drop in attendance through the Christmas holidays, according to Greg Ralph, marketing director.

Now with winter storms having brought the season’s first snow, California ski resorts are operating full steam, but they face an uphill battle to make up some of the revenues that melted to nothing during the holidays. In fact, only now with the celebration of Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday are ski operators enjoying the season’s first three-day weekend with snow.

“I think this is the inaugural (weekend) of this winter,” said Bob Tanner, a condominium manager in Mammoth.

On the slopes, there was an average of 13,000 skiers a day at Mammoth Mountain, down slightly from the holiday weekend a year ago, which was a record, according to Pam Murphy, a spokeswoman for Mammoth-June Ski Resort. “Actually, it was a great weekend considering there was less snow than last year,” she said.

Nearby June Mountain had an average 2,000 skiers a day, about the same as a year ago, she said.

Meanwhile, snow-bound Southern Californians clogged parts of Angeles Crest Highway as they headed for ski and sledding areas. Congestion was so bad Sunday that the California Highway Patrol closed a section of the highway leading to Wrightwood. The highway patrol was also towing cars illegally parked along the highway.

The challenge for California and Nevada operators is ahead. They need to recoup the $70 million in ski revenues lost between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, according to Bob Roberts, executive director of the Sierra Ski Areas Assn. in San Francisco. Holiday skiing typically accounts for 20% to 30% of the $350 million in annual revenues for ski resorts, he said.

“We are going to impacted by the loss of Christmas (business),” Roberts explained. “But Easter is late this year. Whenever Easter comes later, the ski season runs later, too. If we have a good January, February and March, we could certainly recoup some business and make it up, but it will not be our best year.”

Insurance, Competition

This comes on the heels of a less than spectacular 1985-86 ski season. Attendance at Mammoth Mountain rose to 1.4 million, and Heavenly Valley and Kirkwood also registered gains.

But attendance at other Sierra resorts was off, with the count at Lake Tahoe down 10% to 20% in 1985-86. Overall, California winter resorts ended the 1985-86 season with attendance off 15% from a record 7 million the year before, according to Roberts.

In addition to the decline in the number of skiers, higher costs--particularly for liability insurance--and increased out-of-state competition cut into operating profits for California resorts in 1985-86.

Out-of-state ski areas like Colorado, Utah, Austria and western Canada are raiding California to lure the area’s skiers. They’ve developed special fly-and-ski packages to such choice areas as Aspen or Steamboat Springs, Colo. Roughly one-third of Utah’s annual 175,000 to 200,000 out-of-state skiers arrive from California, particularly the southern end of the state, according to Danny Richardson, president of Ski Utah.

Sportours of La Canada-Flintridge, which books California skiers for out-of-state winter expeditions, reports that business has been increasing 30% annually for the past five years. Ed Baltz, president, said more than 10,000 skied outside California in 1985-86. He added that the lack of snow at Mammoth until now has helped “keep our phones ringing.”

Meanwhile, in an attempt to fight off the out-of-state competition, the Sierra Ski Areas Assn. and the state Office of Tourism have launched a $1-million “Ski California” marketing campaign.

Promotional Tools

About $200,000 was spent to publish 300,000 copies of a 48-page magazine called Ski the Californias. They were distributed through AirCal, Oshman Sporting Goods stores and 77 Subaru dealers in California. California resort operators also donated $500,000 worth of lift tickets for a sweepstakes contest with Subaru as part of the marketing campaign.

A healthy summer business also can help offset some of winter’s damage. Mammoth began planning for an aggressive summer program back in September. It’s part of an ongoing program to further develop Mammoth as a year-round resort. “We push as hard as we can for summer, even before we had the bad start to winter,” explained Sam Walker, chairman of the Mammoth Lakes Resort Assn.

Mammoth will be the site for the first world championship of mountain biking this summer. The event will be added to other cycling events. Last year, Mammoth staged the Country Time High Sierra Jamboree, which included art shows, black powder shoots, horse drives, bike races and 10-kilometer runs.

‘Becoming More Aggressive’

Promotional work on the summer activities began a month earlier this year than last year. “We are becoming more aggressive,” explained Bill Long of Long On Promotions of Irvine, which helps Mammoth with its sales projects.

He has been working on extolling the virtues of Mammoth. For example, the Ken & Bob Co., a KABC radio talk show, broadcast all last week from Mammoth, and local guests discussed summer activities as well as skiing.

In addition, Long said he is working with Mammoth area businesses to pitch Mammoth’s summer virtues to its winter visitors. “It’s called cross selling,” he says simply.