Mild Winter Takes Toll On Southeastern Pennsylvania Ski Resorts
By Lynne Adkins
SPRING MOUNT, Pa. (CBS) -- "The winter that wasn't" has left some local ski resorts reeling.
It's been a bad winter for snow boarders and skiers, and the resorts are feeling the heat -- in the wallet.
Rick Buckman, owner of Spring Mountain ski area in Montgomery County, Pa., says revenue was down 50 percent from last winter.
"When it's 55 or 60 degrees out and there's no snow in your backyard, people don't think about going skiing," he tells KYW Newsradio. "Actually, the conditions weren't bad."
In the Poconos, Jack Frost and Big Boulder were down just 15 percent due to the shortened season, according to spokeswoman Heather Schiffbaurer. She agrees that conditions were good even though Mother Nature was fickle.
"The biggest storm we had was in October. After that we had little storms here and there, but nothing to accumulate, so all the snow we had was 100-percent made," she said today.
And making snow, she points out, just adds to the cost of doing business.
