Winter business update

“We’ll ride that wave”

It’s about two months into the ski season, a couple of busy holidays are behind us, and word on the street is that business is good on the mountain. Better than last year. Even the typical post-New Year’s lull was busier than usual.

Justin Hastings, co-owner of Treasury Liquors and The Store in Mt. Crested Butte, says winter has been solid so far. “The holidays were really good. And usually it dies off after New Year’s, but all of January has been pretty good. Martin Luther King weekend was really good, too; there were lots of families up here. January is a lot busier, and having the groups in is helping a lot. Somebody did a good job of getting people here those first couple of weeks of January, because it’s usually pretty dead. It’s just dipping down now, a little bit of a lull until Presidents’ Weekend and Spring Break.”
Andy Eflin, manager of Peak Sports/One Track Mind at the base area, says, “We are moderately up and that’s a good thing. We had some good groups over MLK weekend, which bumped our numbers up—things are looking positive for sure. Anytime you are up over last year it’s a good thing, even if it’s just a little bit, so we’ll ride that wave as far as it takes us.”
Eflin continues, “It was a good Christmas, steady but not out of control. We had good snow and pretty good business. I’m hearing good things about Spring Break already. Hopefully we’ll have a good strong Spring Break and everyone will be happy at the end of the winter.”
Crested Butte Mountain Resort is showing good numbers as well. Vice president of sales and marketing Daren Cole reports on December, “On the skier day side we were up approximately 7 percent over last year and lodging was up approximately 13 percent. Although the heavy snow presented some challenges, we did not see any cancellations as a result of the storms.”
Cole also says, “Our season pass sales are up approximately 20 percent in the number of units sold.” For MLK weekend, he says, skier days were up 15 percent and room nights up 24 percent.
As for upcoming business, CBMR has a large group of 450-plus skiers, the International Airline Ski Federation, lined up for March 6-11. They will come here from Europe, Asia, New Zealand, Australia, Canada and the United States. These are airline employees—pilots, flight attendants, baggage handlers, executives and beyond. The IASF group will be sponsoring the World Airline Ski Championships on Crested Butte Mountain Resort and at the Crested Butte Nordic Center throughout the week. Opening ceremonies begin Sunday, March 6 at Butte 66. This event will add a big punch to Spring Break.