Last year I did a quick interview with John Sellers, Marketing Director of Loveland Ski Area, about the drama that is the race to open each year. This media coverage from winning this race, according to John, “is in excess of a million dollars and that is the biggest perk of being the first to open. It is exposure that we can’t afford to buy.”

With Loveland’s countdown already started up this year (just 52 days until snowmaking begins), I thought I’d share this interview again, as well as bring up this idea of countdowns. The other day on Twitter I noticed a few people scoffing at some “100 days until opening day” notices that had popped up. And it’s legit. Summer operations are still in full swing with many weeks or months left of mountain coasters, lift served biking, and concerts.

So, I guess the questions is: when is it too early to start counting down to winter?

It my book, as soon as the snow melts I’m open for a countdown. Unfortunately, my survey of one is not very representative of the industry as a whole. Is July too early? Is October or November too late? Or does it even matter? Will summer lovers ignore the countdown? Do countdowns even do any good?

The real question, of course, is who will win?

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.