Industry News
Vail Resorts’ numbers are in, and there is no sugar coating it: it’s been a terrible season for the Rockies. The world’s largest ski company reported today, April 23, that skier visits across its North American resorts fell nearly 15% for the season to date, while visitation at its Rocky Mountain resorts collapsed by a quarter. Even Robert Katz admitted it was “one of the most challenging winters in history” — an extraordinary admission by the company’s CEO.
Season-to-date total skier visits across North American resorts operated by the company were down 14.9% compared to the prior year period, while total lift revenue — including allocated season pass revenue — fell 5.6%. Ski school revenue dropped 12%, and dining revenue slid 11.7%. The lift revenue decline being significantly smaller than the visitation decline is one of the few silver linings for the company, thanks to the Epic Pass model, which cushions the company against such drastic drops. The fact that lift revenues declined into the single digits, while skier visits and all other revenues declined into the double digits, shows that the season pass model helps cushion the financial impact on the conglomerate.
CEO Rob Katz described the 2025-26 season as “one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S.,” citing record low snowfall and historically warm temperatures that hammered visitation and spending throughout the season. March, historically a peak month, saw conditions “well outside of historical norms,” leading to weaker late-season visitation and earlier-than-planned closures across western resorts.
The Rockies bore the brunt. Katz confirmed that the largest impact was in the Rockies, where visitation declined 25%. The Rockies include flagship assets such as Vail Mountain, Breckenridge, Park City, Keystone, Beaver Creek, and Crested Butte. A 25% demand shock in a business with high fixed costs and short operating windows is not a rounding error. It is a season-defining catastrophe; however, the Epic Pass model has cushioned a lot of that blow.
The other number worth watching is forward pass sales. Spring pass sales for the 2026-27 season showed a moderate decline in units and a slight decline in dollars through the April 12 deadline, though Katz noted it is early in the selling period with the first pricing increase coming in May.
The Epic Pass is Vail’s most important strategic asset — a pre-committed revenue stream that partially insulates the business from exactly the kind of weather volatility it just experienced. A softening in pass uptake, even early-cycle, is worth watching closely. A poor season across the Rockies could lead to lower pass sales for 2026-27 as some pass holders may not have reached their break-even point and could be looking for other options for next season.
Katz guided that Resort Reported EBITDA for fiscal 2026 is now expected to be at or around the low end of the previously issued guidance range. That’s analyst-speak for: it’s about as bad as we warned you it might be.
For now, the Epic Pass model continues to provide a buffer against volatile winters. But as climate variability increases, the industry’s challenge may shift from managing bad seasons to maintaining consumer confidence. This winter showed that skiers will stay home when conditions deteriorate. The next test is whether they still choose to commit months in advance.
