B.C. ski resorts are gearing up for what they hope will be a better season than last year.
Their wish is that weather prognosticators have it right in estimating a 71-per-cent chance of an La Niña winter, which brings colder temperatures and more precipitation, likely in the form of snow.
Little snow last year dampened visitor counts at Whistler Blackcomb while consumer sentiment and struggles with the cost of living were likely what led to fewer visitors across the B.C. ski-resort sector.
“Last year was a below-average year,” said Michael Ballingall, senior vice-president of marketing and sales at Big White in Kelowna. “Everyone’s expecting a much better year this year.”
This is partly because mortgage-holding skiers might have more money in their pockets thanks to four successive Bank of Canada interest rate cuts, which brought the central bank’s overnight rate to 3.73 per cent from five per cent in May.
Low inflation could fuel more consumer spending.
Ballingall told BIV he loves hearing the words “La Niña,” as his resort is at a higher elevation and further inland than Whistler, meaning that all the precipitation it gets tends to be in the form of snow.
“We don’t worry about rain at our resort,” he said. “Our battle is always fighting the reputation of Whistler, of no snow and long lineups.”
In late October, Big White had already received a couple dustings of snow, Ballingall said.
The resort, owned for the past 39 years by the Schumann family, is set to open Nov. 28, and has been marketing itself at an increasing number of ski shows across North America.
That includes the Toronto Ski and Snowboard Show held Oct. 25-27, as well as ones in Portland, Los Angeles and even Honolulu, Ballingall said.
He added that he is excited Alaska Airlines (NYSE:ALK) is readying to launch daily non-stop flights between Kelowna and Los Angeles between Dec. 19 and March 17.
All guests who travel to Big White by air will get a free lift ticket for their day of arrival when they show their airline boarding passes, he added.
Big White can accommodate 16,000 overnight visitors on the mountain, with the resort itself managing reservations for 500 housing units, Ballingall said.
Bookings are about 20-per-cent above where they were last year, he said, estimating that occupancy is already at about 80 per cent for the Christmas-through-New Year period, and in the mid-70-per-cent range for Family Day, U.S. President’s Day and March break.
About 55 per cent of Big White’s ski revenue comes from season passes, while 45-per-cent comes from single-use lift tickets, Ballingall said.
The resort raised its prices by about three per cent from last year.
No new hotels are being built on the mountain, but the resort has been building employee housing, which could help free up beds, Ballingall said.
One new hospitality option is a higher-end Italian restaurant that will operate in addition to about 20 other restaurants on the mountain, he added.
Meanwhile, over at Sun Peaks Resort in the Interior, the Nippon Cable Co. of Japan-owned mountain plans to open for skiing Nov. 16 with a new West Bowl Express chairlift, which has been under construction for three years.
“This new lift is a game changer and will completely transform the ski experience at the top of Tod Mountain,” the resort said in a news release.
Closer to home, Grouse Mountain Resort has no set date to launch its season.
The Northland-Properties-owned mountain will instead open “as soon as we are able,” spokeswoman Madelaine Twomey told BIV.
New infrastructure upgrades include a gondola that features 14 towers and 27 eight-person gondola cabins. Executives expect the gondola will be able to transport 1,000 skiers up the mountain each hour, on a continuous loop, with individual trips taking 5.5 minutes.
Passes remain on sale and will be until the resort is sold out, Twomey said.
Whistler Blackcomb executives hope for rebound
Whistler Blackcomb executives are hoping that the Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025, infrastructure upgrades, and colder and snowier weather will lure more skiers than the resort welcomed last year.
Resort owner Vail Resorts Inc. (NYSE:MTN) blamed bad weather across western North America last year as part of the reason for lower-than-expected revenue.
“The [2023-24] winter season included significant weather-related challenges with approximately 28-per-cent lower snowfall for the full winter season across our western North American resorts, compared to the same period in the prior year,” Vail Resorts CEO Kirsten Lynch said on an earnings call with analysts in June.
Season pass sales at Whistler have been strong, particularly among the resort’s most loyal renewing pass holders, who have had passes for three years or more, Lynch said.
Getting newbies to buy passes at its resorts has been more of a problem, she added.
Similarly, Vail has had trouble luring skiers who buy one-time lift tickets the day they go skiing, instead of buying season passes.
“Lift-ticket visitation did not return to typical historical guest behaviour for the spring, primarily at Whistler Blackcomb, which was down significantly relative to the prior-year period,” Lynch said in June.
In part Lynch blamed the weak ski season last year for getting customers out of the habit of buying lift tickets to Whistler in the spring.
“This past season, lift-ticket visitation declined due to weather and did not fully return to typical behavior after conditions improved, creating a smaller audience as the primary source of new pass holders in the spring,” she said.
Whistler Blackcomb and Vail’s other resorts this year raised prices for passes by eight per cent, Lynch said.
Vail’s share price has gone downhill in recent years, peaking at close to US$372.51 per share on November 5, 2021. Its shares closed today at US$174.62.
Optimism for Whistler Blackcomb’s season, which is set to start Nov. 22, comes in part because Condé Nast Traveller in October named the mountain as the best ski resort in North America, thanks to voting from 125,000 of the respected travel publication’s readers.
The resort is readying to host the Invictus Games, which takes place Feb. 8-16.
Event organizers expect more than 500 competitors from more than 20 countries to compete in adaptive sports for the first-ever winter edition of the Prince Harry-founded extravaganza.
In Latin, “invictus” means “unconquered,” and embodies the fighting spirit of wounded, injured or sick veterans who will compete in a wide range of sports events, including alpine skiing and snowboarding.
Vail is also readying to unveil new infrastructure.
It upgraded Blackcomb Mountain’s longtime Jersey Cream Express chairlift. The original Jersey Cream lift launched in 1989 and operated for more than 30 years with four seats per chair. The new lift is set to accommodate six skiers per chair and have a 29-per-cent overall capacity increase—something that will help get more skiers up the Glacier Creek Zone of Blackcomb Mountain more quickly.
The new lift has the same alignment on the mountain as the original lift and is also expected to be used for decades. One change is that it will move in the opposite direction.
“It’s one of several lift upgrades Whistler Blackcomb has invested in in recent years, showcasing a commitment to continuous investment into the guest experience at the resort,” the resort said.
Another recent improvement came last year when the resort upgraded the Fitzsimmons Express at the base of Whistler Mountain.
