Spring Break spike coming soon

Expect 5,300 skier visits a day starting March 13

It’s feeling springy out there. President’s Day weekend, the Extreme Free Skiing Competition, and 7 Hours of the Banana have come and gone. The streets are axle-deep in slush for the first time in recent memory and you can walk the streets sans beanie. We’re about 10 days out from the summit of Spring Break. Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at the past few weeks on the mountain, and what’s forecasted for the coming weeks.

Daren Cole, Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s Vice President for Sales and Marketing, said President’s Week was pretty much on par with last year, and the resort is working to bring in more skiers. “We’re putting packages and specials out every day,” Cole said. “We have one right now where season pass holders at any resort can get a lift ticket for half price.”
CBMR’s Director of Central Reservations and Revenue Management Jeff Moffett said CBMR was averaging around 4,200 total skier visits per day over the last couple of weekends. “In this business, there’s nothing like snow,” Moffett said. “Snow drives sales for out-of-towners and local visitation.”
Looking ahead to Spring Break, Saturday, March 13 is looking like the big kickoff, and Moffett said several of the flights for Thursday and Friday, March 11-12 are sold out. He said that during the same week for 2009, the resort averaged 5,333 skier visits a day.
Moffett said, “The week starting Saturday, March 20 is looking strong as well, and with Yonder Mountain playing on the 27th, it will shore up that second week. The whole second half of the month will be pretty busy.”
Crested Butte Lodging’s occupancy is highest the week of March 14 as well. According to General Manager Wanda Bearth, they have 65 percent of their 200 rental units booked, which is on par with this past Christmas week. She said, “President’s weekend was about the same as last year; the highest occupancy we reached was 53 percent.”
Bearth reported that March occupancy is “lagging 20 percent behind last year, and is down 35 percent compared to March 2008. We’ve had a lot of group cancellations, in particular for March. Back in August and September, March was looking like a solid month. Since that time we’ve had a lot of attrition in the group segment.
“For the season, I expect to end up 14 percent to 15 percent behind last season’s numbers,” Bearth added. “It’s disappointing, but not unexpected.”
And while Spring Break may not be setting any records, at the very least those who arrive on the 13th get to witness the resurrection of Big Air on Elk Ave.