Ski areas gliding toward successful end of season

GILFORD — Justin Pasay and his family, which includes a wife and three girls aged 7 to 10, had been intending on getting into downhill skiing. Things never clicked into place for them until this year.

The Pasays live in Lee, but at the end of last summer, they acquired a home-away-from-home at Samoset in Gilford, which puts them a short drive from Gunstock Mountain Resort. Last week, school vacation week in New Hampshire, the Pasays were on the slopes, excitedly taking their girls for their first run on a “Blue” – or intermediary – trail.

“We made it to the bottom, that’s what matters,” Justin said.

The Pasays had been working toward this family activity for years, and their timing might not have been any different had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic. But, said Justin, he and his wife have been “blessed” to not be affected economically by the global health crisis, and they have been eagerly seeking safe, outdoor recreation they can do as a family.

“We always wanted to get up on the slopes, but with three kids close in age, it has always been an expense and a logistical challenge,” Justin said. “We’ve always wanted to. This year it just happened to happen.”

Like many industries, the ski business has been upended by the pandemic. They were abruptly shut down about a year ago, then spent all summer trying to find ways to convince the state they could operate safely. As a result of those adaptations, the non-skiing part of mountain operations look quite different this winter. However, with the major school vacation weeks now in the books, ski mountains are seeing the 2020-2021 season as about average in terms of skier visits and revenue. Which, all things considered, feels like a win.

Good season overall

What’s it like to run a ski mountain this winter? It has its ups and downs.

“We had a lot of plans in the beginning to try and make sure that we could comply with the guidelines that the state set up,” said Tom Day, general manager for Gunstock. The restrictions on daily lift tickets, instituted in order to reduce crowding at places such as lines for chair lifts, meant that the big weekend spikes in traffic had to be smaller than usual. But, Day said, those who couldn’t get a ticket on a Saturday or Sunday found time during the week to come, judging from sales of lift tickets for mid-week and night skiing especially, which were higher than usual.

“Overall, the season has been really good,” Day said.

Some of the new safety hurdles turned out to be blessings in disguise, Day said. Visitors weren’t permitted to put on their gear in the lodge, so they had to do it in the parking lot. Once people got used to it, Day heard from many people that they realized how much more efficient it was, and translated to getting in a couple more runs each day.

“We’re getting killed on food and beverage,” because of restrictions in the lodge, Day continued, but the two food trucks – positioned on either side of a bathroom trailer near the base of a main chair lift – have proven popular. Skiers can make a quick bathroom visit and grab a snack at the food truck, then get back in line for the chairlift with far less time than they would have needed in any other year, when those amenities would only have been available in the lodge.

At least one of the food trucks will likely return next winter, Day said.

“All of us learned a little because of behavior modifications, because of COVID,” he added.

At Ragged Mountain in Andover, general manager Jay Gamble said it hasn’t been an easy year.

“It’s been very challenging this year with COVID, but I think with three-quarters of the season behind us, it has been successful,” Gamble said. “People very clearly want to get outside and recreate. We’re pleased with how the ski season has been.”

Since season pass holders get priority, sales of those top-dollar tickets have been up, Gamble said. Like at Gunstock, he said Ragged has seen more traffic on weekdays, when they are usually slower, which has made up for the limited capacity they can serve on weekends.

Gamble suspects that New Hampshire ski areas have benefited from relatively more stringent restrictions in Vermont, coupled with limited appetite for out-of-New England travel. Local families that might have gone to Florida for their vacation have instead had to spend that time – and money – locally.

What Ragged and Gunstock reported has been true for similar operations throughout the state. Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski New Hampshire, said her association’s members approched the season with trepadation.

“No one was really sure what to expect, how people would behave. All in all, I think we’re really excited with how the season has gone,” Keeler said.

She said that most ski areas are reporting figures within 10% of last year. In other words, within the usual fluctuation caused by weather and other factors. Speaking of weather, that’s one thing that ski area managers can’t complain about this winter. The cold weather arrived a bit later than would be ideal, but it came in time. It was cold enough for good snowmaking, and it wasn’t so cold that it kept people away.

“Being able to open in the first place is a big success,” Keeler said. “When ski areas closed in March, early, last year, no one knew what to expect. It took a lot of work in our own ranks in New Hampshire, but also the ski industry cooperating nationally,” to come up with a safe way to operate during a pandemic, she said.

“The other really important thing was demand,” Keeler said, noting that all things outdoors seemed to be popular throughout the warmer months, so it wasn’t necessarily a surprise when that trend continued to snow sports.

As the season winds down in the weeks to come, she encouraged people to continue to adhere to safety measures – even if they’ve recovered from COVID-19 or had a vaccine – until the guidelines are lifted by the state.

Keeler said this winter could be the start of a new wave of interest in downhill skiing, thanks to families like the Pasays, who either took up the sport or returned to it after an absence. It will be up to ski areas to keep that momentum going.

“Hopefully they will see this as something they would like to continue to do,” said Keeler. Lifelong skiers are people who view it as a lifestyle, rather than something they do once or twice a winter. “Winter doesn’t have to be about staying inside all the time. You can get outside and try fun things. I think we are optimistic that we will see some of these trends continue into the future.”