Winter 2008-2009: fewer lift tickets sold?

The new issue of Ski Magazine (December 2008), in an article entitled "Fueling Change", the former editor of Ski, John Fry, provides some insight about skiing and the "wobbly economy":

"While recessions and bear markets are linked to drops in consumer spending, skiing historically correlates weakly with economic cycles. The reason is twofold. Skiers are largely drawn from the upper economic ranks of society, so their spending habits are less affected by the market. Secondly, skiing is more closely tied to snowfall than to the economy. Typically, if it snows, people ski. If it doesn't, they don't."

We'll see...

I can't imagine the economy increasing backcountry skiers.  A season pass at many ski resorts costs about the same as a set of Dynafit bindings, let alone the shovel, beacon, probe, etc.

Don't know how it is where you ski, but at Baker most passholders alreaday have AT setups. Many have season passes for hitting the area in the AM and the nearby backcountry in ther AM, plus skiing inbounds on storm days.

I know several folks contemplating skipping the season's pass. We'll see them in the backcountry from the get go, not just in the PM. On storm days, look for them in the trees. If the Blueberry Chute crowds in the morning this year resemble those in the PM last year, expect to see noticable differences in Backcountry skiing because of the economy.

Good point, but Baker is definitely an anomaly there. I'd guess nationally well under 1% of season passholders own AT gear.

Good point, but Baker is definitely an anomaly there.  I'd guess nationally well under 1% of season passholders own AT gear.

Not that much, about a third of the passholders at Crystal have backcounty setups and I known several passholders at Alpental with backcounty setups.

A high percentage of pass holder "week day regulars" that we see at Alpental on a daily basis have some sort of a touring set up or another. Given their dedication to getting out as often as possible, I'm thinking that these are folks that will find a way to afford chasing their passion, during lean times by making sacrifices in other areas?

::sigh::

I'm standing by my comments. Yes, the majority of skiers we know who have season passes somewhere also own backcountry setups. These are not the same people who form the majority of season passes sold. If they were, you would see resorts catering to backcountry users far more than they do.

I've been working as a ski instructor for several years, at multiple resorts, and I will say I've found the majority of ski instructors not only don't own backcountry gear, they aren't even very familiar with the term "alpine touring," either confusing it with telemarking or cross-country skiing.

Nationally, 32% of all skier-days are from season passholders at their local resorts. Which means, if the majority of season passholders had backcountry gear, then about one out of every three people on the hill have a beacon at home. While that sounds reasonable at Baker, I find myself well under that statistic on any other mountain. And remember you're normally riding the double-black chairs -- many of those season passholders stay on green or blue terrain!