CBMR preparing for winter season

Snowmaking to start Nov. 1 weather depending

The first of winter’s snows have already come and gone, and now the clock is ticking for the purchase of Crested Butte Mountain Resort season passes at reduced rates. The last day to purchase the Peak pass for $599 or the Peak Plus pass for $799 is this Friday, October 24.

“There are only a few days left to get your season pass at the reduced price,” said Erica Mueller, CBMR’s director of innovations and relations. “Prices will go up after Friday, and then again after opening day on November 26.”
This is the second year in a row that CBMR has offered its Peak pass for $599. Compared to other resorts such as Aspen, where a season pass is $1,699, or Jackson Hole, where it will cost you $1,760 to ride the lifts for the winter, CBMR’s price is at the lower end of the cost spectrum.
According to CBMR, last year’s pass pricing created a lot of buzz within the ski industry, and the $599 price was a strong driver in increasing regional traffic to the resort. Now, the resort is hoping that the word has truly gotten out about Crested Butte in the Front Range and other markets within driving distance.
“Already we’re seeing good numbers in winter bookings,” said Mueller. “We’re ahead of where we were at this time last year, with December, January and February all looking up.”
This increase in bookings is not unique to CBMR. According to DestiMetrics, a Denver-based organization that tracks mountain lodging bookings at 19 western mountain resorts in six states, aggregate winter bookings for November through March are already showing a 7.4 percent increase over last year, with resorts in the Rockies and intermountain west doing much to pull that percentage higher. This is due in large part to last year’s snowfall, which saw the Rockies prosper while the Cascades and Sierra suffered near-drought conditions.
“The Rocky Mountain resorts are tracking 8.9 percent higher in occupancy with a 16.4 percent increase in overall revenues,” according to a report from DestiMetrics. “The Far West resorts are experiencing the opposite effect. As of September 30, their aggregated occupancy was down 6.5 percent and related revenues are down 7.7 percent.”
This “snow equity,” should help keep bookings strong for CBMR, but if December comes and the storms aren’t happening, it’s hard to say what can happen.
“We’ll start making snow November 1, weather-dependent,” said Mueller. “All the towers are up around the mountain and we have the new pipe installed on Warming House Hill. Right now, it’s looking like we could have storm patterns similar to last year, but weather is never a for-sure thing. We’ll be doing everything we can to get the mountain ready for opening day.”