Bob’s Bits for June 2025

I have a fair amount to talk about this month. I can complain about the weather, as here in the Northeast, cool and wet has been the standard fare, especially on the weekends. Not today, though, the heat has arrived. But complaining about this doesn’t do anybody any good.

I can share with you that I got my butt kicked on my Accountability in Ski Areas survey. Many people opened the survey but didn’t complete it. I’m going to try again. I included a revised version of the survey in the Steep Newslite for June 2025. If you skipped completing the survey, I kindly request that you retrieve the email and take the 30 seconds it takes to complete it.

 My question about next season tracked much better. Here are the results:

The sample size wasn’t too bad, and I think what surprised me is that after having the 3rd best number of skier visits as reported in the Kotte Report by NSAA, there wasn’t a bit more optimism for next year. Albeit the numbers have looked good for three years running.

I have chosen to revisit the ski resort business model once again.  My decision was sparked by a recent post in SnowBrains on the biggest threats to the future of skiing and riding. If you didn’t see the post here, it is https://snowbrains.com/the-7-biggest-threats-to-the-future-of-skiing-and-snowboarding/

My best to you for the summer ahead, may all your capital projects go smoothly, and give me a call if you are thinking of raising the bar in mountain operations for maintenance, dispatch and incident management, or slope/snow surface management.