For only the third time in its nearly 70-year history, Mammoth Mountain Ski Area in California stayed open until August this year, finally closing on Aug. 6 with about 2,000 people skiing and riding on the last day.
That late close helped the resort recoup losses it suffered early in the season when the mountain received too much snow and skiers and snowboarders couldn’t make it to the mountain.
The season totaled 715 inches of snow at the base of the mountain and more than 900 inches at the summit, breaking records as officially the snowiest year to date.
Summer Skiing, Riding Helped Balance Finances
Sprinter vans and campers dotted the parking lot consistently since May, according to Justin Romano, communications coordinator for Mammoth. He said the crowd was a mix of newbies and regulars.
“It’s been some amazing spring and summer riding all the way,” he said. “We’ve been stoked to see how many people stuck with this summer’s shredding.”
The Alterra Mountain Co.-owned resort had a historic year, with challenging conditions at the beginning of the season, when record snowfalls shut down the mountain and caused a loss in revenue.
Keeping the mountain open until August helped to make up for that loss, said Chris Bulkley, vice president of mountain operations at Mammoth.
Photo by Peter Morning. Courtesy of Mammoth Mountain.
“We fell behind on budgeted skier numbers starting in December and into February and March,” he added. “Just due to weather. People couldn’t get here. Too much snow.”
With the late closing date, the resort’s overall ski and snowboard traffic ended up about 8% better than last year, with 1.5 million-1.75 million people on the lifts this year, according to Bulkley.
However, the extended snow season strained the traditional summer side of the business, which includes mountain biking and hiking. Typically, the mountain bike park is open in May or June. Thru-hikers and day hikers also use the mountain in the summer.
“With all the snow, none of that happened (as normal),” Bulkley said.
Even though the snow season cut into the summer business, the late closing day helped the mountain recover those early-season financial losses, he added.
Staffing Challenges
While snow sports may be a big draw for Mammoth, Bulkley said the summer business has grown steadily over the past 15 years to be almost as busy as the winter business. That boomed in particular during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“(People) were looking for something to do outside when we were all quarantined, and we received a huge increase in non-skiers,” he added.
Another challenge this year was keeping staff around into the summer to run the lifts and the groomers, for example, Bulkley said.
To make it work, the resort shifted staff from their usual duties at the bike park to work on the snow side.
“Our resort relies pretty heavily on seasonal employees,” Bulkley added. “Of course, they all have summer jobs they have to go off to, so it was a challenge.”
Photo by Peter Morning. Courtesy of Mammoth Mountain.
Digging Out
As July started to warm up, the resort began rolling out more of the normal summer offerings, including some of the lower and mid-mountain trails.
Romano said it’s been slower than usual because the team needed to dig out the trails and assess the damage to the wooden features for mountain biking.
The resort has about 15 trails open. In a normal year there would be about 40 bike trails open by now.
“Usually we’d have the bike park open simultaneously with our skiing and riding that would be on around Memorial Day,” Romano said. “This year that wasn’t the case. We didn’t start biking until the end of June.”
The late snow situation will also prevent the resort from opening its via ferrata.
“There’s a lot of give and take on a big winter,” Romano said. “We’re used to it, but this was an exceptionally big one.”
Photo by Andrew Miller. Courtesy of Mammoth Mountain.
Now the operations team is working quickly to get all its maintenance work done on the mountain before the ski season starts back up in about 90 days.
The long ski season put a lot of hours on the equipment, including the lifts, snow removal, and snowcats.
“It’s a short summer,” Bulkley said. “Now it’s a scramble to get all of the maintenance done and everything back into shape to do it again next year.”
Bart Schaneman can be reached at bart@ordaily.outdoorretailer.com.
