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Table of Contents
Background and Overview
Environmental Management
Operations
Reasons to Change
P2 in Action
All Ski Areas links
Only Background and Overview links

Essential Links:

Greening Your Ski Area
The handbook provides environmental strategies for on-mountain operations, as well as for management...
details

National Ski Areas Association
In June 2000, the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA) adopted an Environmental Charter and a progr...
details

Green Developments Book and CD ROM
A textbook and accompanying CD ROM for developers, architects, and engineers; describes green develo...
details

Ski Areas: Background and Overview
Ski Management/background

In the 2001/2002 ski season, 493 ski areas operated in 37 states on 91,000 acres of public land with a total of 54.4 million skier visits generating $3.6 billion in revenue. A skier visit (or skier day) represents one person visiting a ski area for all or any part of a day or night for the purpose of skiing or snowboarding. Generally, ski areas in the U.S. are divided into five regions: the Northeast, Midwest, Southeast, Rocky Mountain, and Pacific West.

The table below shows the number of ski areas and skier visits (in millions) in each of these regions in the 2001/2002 season. Source of the data is: Kottke National End of Season Survey 2001/2002 Final Report, July 2002; prepared by the National Ski Areas Association. The table of contents for NSAA's industry resource guide can be found at www.nsaa.org/nsaa2002/resource_guide/cart/.

  areas visits
Northeast 132 12
Midwest 136 6.6
Southeast 56 4.6
Rocky Mountain 93 18
Pacific West 76 12

Overall, ski areas experienced a 5.1 percent decrease in skier visits during the 2001/2002 season compared to the 2000/2001 season. This decrease in skier visits was attributed primarily to the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and low average snowfall for the season. Nevertheless, the 2001/2002 ski season showed the third highest total number of skier visits in the past 20 years.

This topic hub is based primarily on information provided in a handbook titled "Greening Your Ski Area - A Pollution Prevention Handbook". The handbook was released in January 2000 and is highly recommended reading. It provides environmental improvement strategies for on-mountain operations, as well as for management functions that can impact environmental performance.

The handbook was a project of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment Pollution Prevention Program, with funding through the Environmental Protection Agency. It was produced by Tetra Tech EM Inc. It can be found in its entirety at: http://peakstoprairies.org/p2bande/skigreen/.


Hub Last Updated: 08/22/2003

The P2Rx Topic Hub Project was developed by:
The Ski Areas Topic Hub was developed by:
Peaks to Prairies
Peaks to Prairies
Contact Laura Estes (Peaks)
406-994-3451 or laurae@montana.edu