Record holidays at Eaglecrest

Hooter lift at Eaglecrest base.Photo by Rosemarie Alexander.

Not only does Eaglecrest have record amounts of snow for this time of year, it also did record business over the two-week Christmas and New Year’s holidays.

Now that the accounting is done, General Manager Matt Lillard says sales were up in all departments, from the number of day tickets sold to equipment rentals, ski and snowboard lessons, and the cafeteria.

“Percentage-wise we’re looking at over a 42 percent increase over the highest two-week period that I can track. We also had our busiest day on Saturday, December 31st, with approximately 15-hundred skiers (and snowboarders) up at the mountain,” he says.

He says the city-owned ski area also has had record season-pass sales in terms of revenue.

“Season pass sales to date are 778-thousand dollars, surpassing the record that was set in 2009 and 2010,” Lillard says. “Between the online sales and what actually takes place here (Eaglecrest office) it’s going to be probably around the 21-hundred, 22-hundred mark (individual season passes).”

Most ski areas make more money from daily ticket sales, while Eaglecrest has historically brought in most of its ticket revenue through season passes.

Eaglecrest opened the day after Thanksgiving for weekends only, then on December 16th it began operating every day through Monday, January 2nd. The holiday period is important to all ski areas, which stand to make 10 to 20 percent or more of season revenue. But across the U.S., many ski resorts had little or no snow last month.

According to skicentral.com, a database of North American ski resorts, 347 or 471 U.S. and Canadian areas are now open. Eaglecrest still has more snow than any other ski area in North America.

Eaglecrest is back on its normal operating schedule, open Thursday through Monday; closed Tuesday and Wednesday.

Sign up for The Signal

Top Alaska stories delivered to your inbox every week

Site notifications
Update notification options
Subscribe to notifications