Anyone who idled in the holiday traffic that inched its way out of ski resorts can tell you that Mother Nature’s winter forces arrived in the Tahoe Truckee area just in time. In the warm, dry weeks leading up to the holidays, with Americans feeling the pinch on their bank accounts, ski industry officials were holding their breath. But sure enough, as soon as the stuff locals call ‘white gold’ stormed down on the Sierra Nevada hotel phones started to ring, reservations were made and travel plans were booked.
‘The weather gods are smiling on us. It’s all we could have hoped for,’ said Janet Tuttle, who owns Donner Ski Ranch with her husband, Marshall. ‘The weather is everything. I hate to think – without the snow. It was so late. I’m just so thankful.’
Sitting in her office, perched on the third story of the Donner Ski Ranch lodge with a front row view of the resort’s snow-dusted Palisades, Tuttle said she’s ‘cautiously optimistic’ about business this year. On this cloudy morning several days after Christmas, a stream of cars drove up to the resort, filling up both parking lots. Excited skiers crowded the family-owned resort’s lobby, purchasing tickets and fitting rental equipment. Donner Ski Ranch, which spans 500-acres of all level terrain on the top of Donner Summit, sees a third of its seasonal business during these two holiday weeks, Tuttle said.
‘We have to have Christmas to make the year worthwhile,’ she said.
In an industry as vulnerable to the elements as the ski resorts are, it is true that snow seems to cure all woes. Still, Tahoe is not immune to the global economic struggle that unraveled last year. Director of Tourism Andy Chapman of the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association said that some businesses are looking just to break even this year.
‘I think, certainly, everyone’s looking at the bottom line and trying to be proactive,’ Chapman said.
Donner Ski Ranch had a ‘phenomenal’ 2007-2008 season, Tuttle said. This year, however, the ski area’s expectations are much lower.
‘My goal is just to pay my bills. I know that I’m not going to make a lot of money here,’ Tuttle said. ‘Everything above and beyond that is a bonus.’
Before Christmas, officials at the Resort at Squaw Creek were only expecting to be 80 to 90 percent full – a goal set lower than past holiday seasons which are typically booked solid in advance. The blast of snow around December 25, however, brought in above and beyond what the Resort at Squaw Creek expected. Marc Sapoznik, marketing and public relations manager, said that occupancy at the resort was nearly 100 percent, depending on the day, around the New Year.
‘We actually had pretty tremendous pick-up during that last week,’ Sapoznik said. ‘I think that last shot of snow around Christmas really was what pulled it over the top.’
In an effort to capture even more business, Sapoznik said the Resort at Squaw Creek cut rates on hotel rooms by nearly 20 percent across the board for the holidays. Still, reservations did not start coming in until the snow arrived.
‘I think that people have been holding off on purchasing decisions,’ Sapoznik said, in an interview before Christmas. ‘They wanted to make sure that the product they were coming for – the snow – was there.’
Since business exceeded expectations over the holidays, Sapoznik said the resort is hopeful about the remainder of the winter season.
‘We’re a little more optimistic now that we saw what happened,’ he said. ‘Although it was a very short-term booking window, we’re still really optimistic.’
The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association also saw an increase in visitation to their website, gotahoenorth.com, after the first storms hit the Sierra Nevada. Chapman said that online traffic jumped 25 percent during the week of December 12 to 18 from the week prior. The number one market clicking on the NLTRA’s website was Los Angeles, with San Jose and San Francisco, respectively, following close behind.
‘I don’t want to say snow trumps all but it definitely does help,’ Chapman said. ‘And frankly, it saved us this year.’
Both Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley attributed their strong holiday business to the snow fall just before Christmas. While neither ski area – both privately owned – would disclose the number of tickets they sold, both reported satisfaction in their sales.
‘It was pretty much right on,’ said Savannah Cowley, spokesperson for Squaw Valley. ‘And given the economic atmosphere, relatively, we may have even done better’ than last year.
Just down the road from Donner Ski Ranch at Java Summit Sports, a ski retail, rental and coffee shop all in one, the Walker family had an ‘extremely busy’ morning steaming milk for lattes, fitting boots and completing rental transactions. Java Summit Sports sees 30 percent of its annual revenue in these two weeks, said Taylor Walker who manages the shop with his father Pat, his mother Desiree and their three golden retrievers. According to Taylor, Java Summit Sports is ‘way on track’ in meeting their holiday quota – good news considering their slow fall and winter.
‘It’s what you got to do,’ Taylor said.
The Walker family bought their ski shop in October 2007. Starting a business is always hard, they said. But with a slow season they likened to a ‘ghost town,’ a vibrant winter is even more crucial.
‘When the snow came, the economy turned around a little bit,’ Taylor said. ‘However, what happens when the snow goes away?’
San Francisco resident Lauren Dresnick, who came up to Tahoe with her boyfriend’s family for the holidays, said she’s seen less enthusiasm about skiing this winter compared to years past. Dresnick, an associate of a public relations and marketing firm in San Francisco, comes up often, especially since she has access to a second home in the area. But the same is not true for many of her friends, some of whom have lost their jobs. People in the city are anxious about spending money where they could save, Dresnick said.
‘People are usually organizing ski trips and stuff, but nobody is really that gung ho about it this year,’ Dresnick said at a coffee shop in Tahoe City the week before Christmas. ‘It’s not that dire of a situation, but at the moment, the wind is kind of knocked out of our sails.’
During these rough economic times, it remains crucial for the North Tahoe brand to not lose momentum and remain strong in markets such as the Bay Area, Los Angeles and Sacramento, Chapman said. The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association will be launching a three-week television advertising campaign in the Bay Area starting at the end of January. Chapman said he did not believe the hard times are over, but he stressed the importance of planning ahead so that when the country emerges from this downturn, North Tahoe will retain its strong presence in the ski tourism market.
‘Eleven million people within a three-hour drive to the destination – that’s something many of our competitors do not have,’ Chapman said.
Tuttle said that Donner Ski Ranch is keeping marketing a priority throughout the season, with ads running in ski publications and plans to attend ski shows. Despite economic hardships, vacations remain important to people, Tuttle said, especially if they see the value.
‘I think it’s more important this season than ever before to get our name out,’ she said.
While the holidays may see the bulk of the season, the winter is far from over. And looking ahead, ski industry officials are hoping the storms keep coming.
‘The big vulnerability in this business is the weather,’ said Pat Walker, manager of Java Summit Sports. ‘You just got to roll with the punches.’
