Utah skier visits increased 10% last season, sets new record

Utah skiing is on a record-setting trend. Photo: Kyle Cartwright // Park City Mountain

PARK CITY, Utah — Ski Utah reported a record 5,829,679 statewide skier visits during the 21/22 winter season, a roughly 10% increase compared to the prior year.

The 20/21 Utah season previously held the record with 5,301,766 skier days. The pre-Covid 18/19 season was record-breaking as well, with 5,125,441 total statewide visits.

4,392,698 skier days were recorded during the 19/20 season, which was cut short on the March 14 weekend due to the pandemic.

Ski Utah President and CEO Nathan Rafferty told TownLift in May that preliminary data showed “more local skiing than destination guests.”

It follows the nationwide trend of increased popularity in winter sports. The National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) reported earlier this year an all-time high of 61 million skier visits nationwide during the 21/22 season. The Rocky Mountain region (Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico) recorded the highest number of visits, at 25.2 million.

NSAA also reported that season pass sales now represent roughly 52% of all lift tickets sold.

Colorado ski areas also set a new record last winter, with over 14 million visits recorded statewide.

Vail Resorts, owner of Park City Mountain and dozens of other resorts across the country, said skier visits were up 12.5% at its North American resorts last season compared to the year prior. The company’s CEO said that lift ticket sales at PCMR and its Colorado resorts “exceeded our expectations.”

The company doesn’t report resort-specific skier visits data, however, a TownLift analysis of cell phone data concluded there was an 11% traffic increase at Park City Mountain last season:

Cell phone data indicates 11% visitor increase at Park City Mountain for the 21/22 ski season