Ski Industry Profits Sliding Away

A soft ski season is melting hopes of big profits pouring into Idaho’s economy.

For every $1 spent on a lift ticket, the community takes in $9 on expenditures for gas, lodging, food and equipment, according to the National Ski Areas Association in Lakewood, Colo.

That makes skiing Idaho’s most lucrative outdoor sport, generating about $500 million for the state’s economy each year.

But making money will be a struggle this year.

It is too late for Idaho’s ski industry to recover millions of dollars lost from the sluggish and late-starting season. Last year, many of Idaho’s resorts, hotels and ski shops earned record profits, thanks to one of the earliest and deepest snowfalls in several decades.

This year is different.

So far, the snowpack in the Boise river basin is 88 percent of normal, compared with 117 percent at the same time last year. As a result, the Bogus Basin ski area opened Dec. 17, about a month later than last year.

Through the first week of January, Bogus attracted 23,500 skiers, down from 103,000 at the same time last season, said spokesman Lew Peterson. That amounts to more than a $500,000 loss to Bogus.

Through Jan. 7, Brundage has seen 30,200 skiers this year, compared with 38,900 last year. For the same period, Sun Valley is running 27,442 skiers behind last year because it, too, opened late.