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Like Utah resorts, ski areas in other parts of the country are reporting higher visitation during the 2012-13 season.
Colorado Ski Country USA said Wednesday that Utah's eastern neighbor attracted 11.4 million skiers and snowboarders to its slopes this past winter, a 4 percent increase over the 2011-12 season.
That's not quite as large of a percentage gain as Utah's 14 resorts experienced this past winter, when visitation rose 5.4 percent over the previous season to 4,031,621 skier days. But in terms of numbers, Colorado's 25 resorts attracted about 450,000 additional skiers this winter while Utah sold 200,000 more lift tickets.
Vail Resorts Inc., which recently entered the Utah ski market when it signed a long-term lease to operate Canyons Resort for Talisker Inc., accounted for almost 5 million of Colorado's visitors. Vail has four resorts in Colorado.
Elsewhere around the country, the Vermont Ski Areas Association said its resorts had their best season since 2001, luring 4.5 million skiers to 19 Alpine and 30 Nordic resorts. That was a 16 percent increase over the previous winter.
Next door in New Hampshire, Ski NH reported that Alpine resorts attracted 2.3 million visitors this season, up 21 percent over 2011-12 and almost 5 percent better than the 10-year average. New Hampshire's Nordic resorts also did much better, boosting visits by 57 percent to 151,000.
Around the U.S., the National Ski Areas Association said visitation jumped 11 percent last season to 56.6 million skier days. While that total was the best year-over-year gain in three decades, it was far below record visitation of 60.5 million in 2010-11.
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