If you like gravity pulling you down a mountain slope, skiing or snowboarding is your type of thing. Here’s a glimpse of various US ski vacations & slopes. However, due to the changing weather conditions, slushy and loose snow pack, the number of people visiting these resorts dropped dramatically over last year.
The major US ski areas/ resorts are as follows: Vail or Denver, Colorado, Utah, Big Sky Montana, Sun Valley in Idaho. These ski areas normally have special deals for the customers. The deals include room and board and lift tickets. You can opt for training, guided ski runs, deep powder, Advanced Telemark skiing and cross country skiing.
How expensive is it? It can be expensive. Gear rental can cost you couple hundred bucks in these resorts. Food in the upper chalets can be costly.There’s also room and board and travel costs involved. Most of these resorts have good deals packed into a ski vacation package.
However, even with all these options available, the percentage of skiers visiting the resorts took a nose dive last winter. The weather conditions are to be blamed. The National Association of Ski Areas in US reported a 7% drop of visitors throughout the nationwide ski areas.
Some numbers: Colorado’s 26 ski areas recorded a drop of 12.6% visitors. I think this is a huge drop despite of Colorado getting some blizzard like conditions last winter.
The South East and Pacific reported a 16% drop in skiiers. But, strong snowfall and blizzards helped the Northeast and midwest. This region only reported a 6.7% drop.
Halifax Travel insurance pricing head David Rochester recently warned us on the future of skiing and ski- resorts:
In less than twenty-five years, winter package holidays and chalet breaks may be regarded as expensive luxuries. Contemporary travel insurance pricing models for skiiers will have to be revised as the risk to participants’ increases
The reason for this dramatic fall in % of skiers can be blamed on global warming. High temperatures could melt frozen ground. Also, the threat of rock falls, mud flows and slushy terrain are keeping skiiers off the slopes. I think this is a sad issue & should be addressed as soon as possible.
Image Links: Totaltravel NZ, Stlawu, and English people
