CBMR sees big numbers during sunny holiday week

January projections up over last year

By Alissa Johnson

The holidays might be over, but winter is still in full swing at Crested Butte Mountain Resort. After a bustling New Year’s weekend—the number of skiers and riders hit 6,800 on Thursday, December 29—the North Face Lift opened to about eight inches of fresh snow on Monday, and January is up significantly over last year.

According to CBMR’s vice president, Erica Mueller, the fact that Christmas fell on a Sunday did change guest travel patterns and slightly shortened the holiday period. Peak visitation, however, still fell on December 29, 30 and 31, with more than 6,000 guests on the hill each day.

“From an operations standpoint, our team did awesomely,” Mueller said. “There were lines in various areas throughout the days, but they handled it with excellence. And most important, our guests have been happy. From what I saw in and around town, this sentiment was across the board. Thankfully, Mother Nature really helped out with absolutely beautiful sunny days, which were appreciated by all of our visitors.”

Mountain Express saw healthy numbers as well, but according to transit manager Chris Larsen, not quite as high as last year. Between December 28 and January 1, the free bus service carried a total of 36,780 passengers. The peak landed on New Year’s Eve (no surprise, perhaps) with 8,980 passengers. Last year, the total was 38,165 for the same time period and the peak on New Year’s Eve was 10,020.

In terms of what to expect the rest of the ski season, Mueller says January is looking good compared to last year. Room nights are up 32 percent for the month, and Mueller expects the resort to be up 24 percent for overall business.

“January has been strong since our early season booking. We have more groups in town over last year, but in addition, our airline buy-down program for January was a good driver, too,” Mueller said, referring to airline travel incentives. Last-minute bookings continue to come in as well, and the snow has certainly helped. “We anticipate to up those percentages, but with more last minute bookings—and more great snow!—we could even see that number increase.”

The Martin Luther King holiday weekend will be the next big rush, and Mueller says the weekend will be busier than in the past. This year, it coincides with the Mountain High Music Festival as well, which runs January 11-15.

Between then and President’s Day Weekend in February, Mueller expects to see weekends increase in business levels and midweek to trail off. February as a whole is down over last year; one contributing factor is the timing of Mardi Gras, which is late February/early March. That has pushed some guests to come later in the month.

Mueller is optimistic, however, about making a dent in February business. CBMR is doing a lot of last-minute efforts to promote bookings during that time, and there’s still time to increase those numbers.

“We are confident our weekends will fill, especially with the snow message we have out there right now, but we are [promoting] midweek business and destination visitors to come visit,” Mueller said.

And of course, as spring break starts kicking in, business levels should ramp back up and be steadier throughout the week.

“Right now March is looking fantastic with early bookings. Texas and Oklahoma spring breaks fall during the same week this year, so we can expect to be maxed out the week of March 11-19,” Mueller said.

The following week, the Ski Tour Operators Association will be in town. The organization selected Crested Butte for its annual conference this year, and that means travel companies and suppliers doing business in the mountain travel industry will be checking out CBMR and Crested Butte.

“It is an excellent opportunity for us to showcase all that our community has to offer,” Mueller said.

Finally, spring break for the Front Range hits the last week in March.

And while it might feel like the end of ski season is a long way off, one additional thing to note is that the resort stays open until April 9 this year—so that’s an extra week of skiing for anyone who’s counting.