Utah’s ski industry is in a unique position, with one eye focused on serving customers during the current and upcoming ski seasons, and another eye on preparing for the 2034 Olympic Winter Games.
At a recent ski season kickoff news conference, Nathan Rafferty, president and CEO of Ski Utah, listed various projects occurring at Utah’s resorts, some that will be in place this season and others being implemented over a couple of years. In all, the projects’ capital spending between fall of 2024 and spring of 2026 amounts to nearly $600 million.
“Any one of these items would be a headliner for a ski season, but we just have tons and tons happening,” Rafferty said.
Nov. 24 represents the Olympics being 3,000 days away, and Rafferty predicts the state’s 15 ski resorts will keep the energy and investment in place.
“I think that momentum is going to keep going and I think those dollars are going to keep pouring in. … It’s really getting your house in order before the world has their eyes on us in 2034, and I think you are going to see no slowing down in terms of upgrades and improvements for our resorts.”
Also expected are what he calls “boring but important” state investments in infrastructure improvements in the form of roadways, interchanges and transportation that will benefit the industry, with the Olympics serving as both a catalyst and deadline, he said.
“The Olympics are going to come and go, and everybody that lives here is going to be able to take advantage of the improvements in transportation, the new mountain upgrades — whether it’s chairlifts or restaurants or whatever,” he said. “Whether it’s going to be a half-billion dollars every year, I don’t know, but you’re going to see significant upgrades every year between now and 2034, I have no doubt.”
One thing out of the industry’s control is the weather, and Rafferty had this advice for those eagerly awaiting a chance to hit the slopes this season: “Enjoy the hiking and mountain biking while you can, because we’re going to be skiing really, really soon.”
He admitted that he used to worry about the weather’s impact on resorts’ opening dates.
“I just don’t worry about it anymore,” he said. “It says ‘Greatest Snow on Earth’ on our license plates, for a reason. Sometimes it comes in early November, sometimes it comes in late November. When it comes, it comes, and you’ve got to remember that our worst seasons are most regions’ best seasons.”
Utah benefits from having built great brand recognition and “these amazing mountains,” and the challenge now is to refine the customer experience, he said.
“And it’s such a subtle tightrope to walk, between serving the most amount of people that we can and sharing that experience with the most amount of people that we can, with a finite amount of places to do it,” he said.
While resorts have added runs and equipment over the years, Utah essentially has the same number of ski areas as it did when he grew up. “We have twice as many gas stations and twice as many grocery stores as when I grew up,” he said, “but the same amount of ski areas.”
Another constant has been Ski Utah itself, this year celebrating its 50th year.
“That’s 50 years of the ‘Greatest Snow on Earth,’ 50 years of growth, 50 years of strong partnership that makes this industry what it is today,” Rafferty said. “If you look back at where we were in ’02 and the previous Olympics, boy, we’ve come a long way. The future is looking really, really bright.”
The industry’s recent past has shown a nice rebound from the struggles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The 2024-25 ski season resulted in $2.51 billion in skier/snowboarder spending and $342.6 million in state and local tax revenue, according to a fact sheet issued by the Kem C. Gardner Institute at the University of Utah.
The spending total made the most recent season the industry’s fourth-best ever, short of the record $2.78 billion in 2022-23 and short of the 2021-22 and 2023-24 seasons. For comparison, the figure was about $1.7 billion in 2010-11.
The number of skier days last season totaled 6.5 million, short of 7.1 million in 2022-23 and 6.7 million in 2023-24.
The industry last season supported 31,800 direct jobs. Spending averaged $306 per skier per day, with 72 percent staying in paid accommodations. Average per-day spending included $59 on lift passes, $62 on lodging, and $61 on restaurants/food.
“Utah’s ski industry remains a vital component of the state’s economy,” said Jennifer Leaver, senior tourism analyst at the Gardner Institute. “The 2024-25 ski season demonstrates the industry’s resilience and its ability to attract visitors from around the world, contributing significantly to local communities and the state as a whole.”
Ski season opening dates are subject to change because of weather:
• Already open: Brian Head Resort and Alta.
• Nov. 27: Snowbird, Solitude
• Nov. 28: Snowbasin Resort and Woodward Park City.
• Dec. 1: Deer Valley Resort.
• Dec. 5: Sundance Mountain Resort.
• Dec. 12: Powder Mountain.
• Dec. 19: Eagle Point Resort.
• To be announced: Park City Mountain, Brighton Resort, Cherry Peak Resort, Beaver Mountain and Nordic Valley.