How The Ski And Snowboard Industry Is Changing In 2022 (And What Comes Next)

The 2021-22 snow season is just about closed, with a few resorts that have been on the right side of the weather extending their lift hours to take advantage of the lingering snow.

It was a season marked by immense change, as the industry continues to grapple with the ongoing effects of Covid-19 and climate change but also sees increasing advancements in technology, sustainability and retail.

As of the conclusion of the 2020-21 season, 462 ski areas were in operation in the U.S., per the National Ski Areas Association, with 337 in the organization’s membership.

In the first season affected by the pandemic, 2019-20, the total number of ski and snowboarder resort visits nationally dropped to 51.1 million (from 59.3 million in 2018-19); however, as resorts learned how to safely operate during the pandemic—and also due to the natural cycle of resorts closing and opening—the number rose to 59 million in 2020-21.

U.S. visitors to U.S. resorts, meanwhile, had reached a high of 10.3 million in 2018-19, up from 8.6 million in 1996-97, before dropping to 9.2 million in 2019-20 (with the season ending prematurely due to the pandemic). Participation was back up to 10.5 million in 2020-21—and more than 1 million of those were first-time skiers and riders, which bodes well for industry growth.

As Adrienne Saia Isaac, NSAA director of marketing and communications, points out, skier visits as a metric is often driven by weather or big economic events—like the gas crisis in the ’80s and the ’07-08 recession. The biggest years (like ’10-11, with 60.5 skier visits) correspond to good snow years.

We’ll soon have the numbers for the 2021-22 season, which will allow us to draw more conclusions about the present and the future of ski resorts and the growth of the industry in the U.S.

Over recent seasons, we’ve seen developments in sustainability, especially on the resort level; the business side of lift ticket sales; technology, including how we navigate the mountain; avalanche and backcountry awareness as more people took to self-guided tours of the slopes during the pandemic; the hard and soft goods business; and growth of the indoor resort model.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the changes afoot in the industry and what to expect as the 2022-23 season opens and beyond.

Step-On Bindings: Disrupting a Market (Again)

Since Jake Burton Carpenter founded his eponymous snowboarding company out of his Vermont barn in 1977, Burton has been both a disruptor and an innovator in the snowsports space.

Though the brand faced little competition as it established itself as at the top of the market, companies like Salomon, RIDE and Arbor Snowboards gained a foothold in the space, forcing Burton to continue innovating and growing. Today, it’s valued at approximately $700 million.

In 2017, Burton shook up the snowboarding space yet again when it launched its Step On technology, a manifestation of Carpenter’s long-held belief that snowboarding should be more convenient and more accessible.

While the technology has largely remained the same since it launched, in Winter 2022, Burton expands its size offerings on both sides of the spectrum—up to men’s 14 and 15 with XL bindings, as well as down to 3K in kids’ sizing.

According to Chris Fidler, Burton’s VP of global merchandising, the company is seeing Step On setups representing 50 percent of boots and bindings sales through its channels. “Five years in, that’s pretty substantial,” Fidler told me. “We’ve been watching that grow season over season.”

Burton has also licensed its proprietary Step On technology to third-party boot makers DC (in 2021) and Nitro (in 2022). Nitro had attempted to develop its own mechanical binding systems but in the interest of more choices for consumers and easier handling for retailers, will now focus on manufacturing boots that are compatible with Burton’s tech.

“The goal with trying to license Step On was to get it to become more of an industry platform—it’s more about Step On than it is about Burton Step On,” Fidler said. “Collectively, we’re changing the way people can get their boots and bindings. If it’s easier to ride, we can get more participants.”

With Step On’s market share established, in 2022 Burton is debuting two new models that provide a higher-end, softer, more playful ride, a new lace boot with extended sizing, new soft boots and more kids’ and men’s sizes. The goal is for, eventually, Step On riders to have the same scale of product offering as those who prefer traditional bindings.

Step On technology has also made snowboarding more accessible and inclusive. Adaptive snowboarder and Burton team rider Kiana Clay, whose dominant right arm is fully paralyzed, says Step On bindings save her valuable time in the gate in competitions so she can mentally prepare rather than work on her bindings.

Burton freestyle riders on the whole don’t use Step On technology when they compete, preferring the customizability and feel of traditional bindings. Time will tell whether we start to see this setup being used in competitions. But for an adaptive racer like Clay, the technology saves precious minutes.

“From a brand-level perspective, we’re definitely looking at what do we need to do to continue to grow Step On, and how do we build trust in that system and educate people in it,” Fidler said. That education has included demos in certain regions, test ride centers, tips and tricks clinics and videos on Burton’s website.

Lift Ticket and Season Pass Insurance: Peace of Mind in the Covid Era

The prospect of getting injured on the slopes has always been present at resorts. But Covid-19 added a new level of unpredictability to the mix when planning ski trips.

Back in 2020, Covid-19 hit in mid-March, the second-highest revenue-generating month of the season after December. Most of the nation’s 460 ski areas in 37 states shut down, and the majority didn’t open again before the end of the season.

Ikon Pass and Epic Pass purchases for the 2019-20 season were not refunded as a result of the unexpected closures. Alterra, which operates the Ikon Pass, did extend the deadline for early renewals and the payment plan deadline at the time, while Epic announced it would offer season pass holders from the 2019-20 season credits of up to 80 percent to apply to a 2020-21 pass, depending on how much they used their pass.

Starting in 2020-21, Epic Passes included Epic Coverage with every pass, which will provide refunds associated with “personal events and certain resort closures,” including those for Covid-19. “We understand that times have changed so Epic Coverage completely redefines your pass protection,” the company said.

Ikon Pass announced Adventure Assurance, which initially gave 2020-21 Ikon Pass holders the choice to defer for credit toward the 2021-22 season for any reason with no fee. Now, Adventure Assurance comes free with every 2022-23 Ikon Pass, giving pass holders credits in the case of COVID-related closures.

What about non-Covid injuries? There’s nothing worse than a ski trip cut short when a run ends in a broken bone—or worse. In 2021, Utah’s Powder Mountain—North America’s largest ski area—became the first resort to offer injury insurance coverage to its season pass holders and for an additional $5 per day for those who purchase individual passes through Spot, a subscription, on-demand injury insurance provider.

Later in 2021, after raising $17.5 million in funding, Spot partnered with Telluride Ski Resort for the 2021-22 season to offer zero-deductible accidental injury coverage with any daily lift or season pass, up to $25,000 in accidental medical expenses. The resort became the first in the U.S. to offer this coverage complimentary with the purchase of lift ticket products.

In the summer, Spot also offers this coverage for mountain bikers and cyclists. Its partners include USA Cycling, USA BMX, National Ski Patrol, Alpenglow Expeditions and more.

For 2022-23, Ikon Pass holders can also opt to purchase additional protection through Spot to provide coverage if they “can no longer use their pass due to eligible covered events any time after pass purchase.”

Climate Change and Sustainability

In mid-December, Aspen Skiing Company released its 2021 Sustainability Report, which the company has put out since 1999. Aspen Skiing Company describes sustainability as “the ability to stay in business forever.”

“When corporate sustainability first gained traction in the ’80s and ’90s with leadership from companies like Interface and the Body Shop, it was all about reducing your impact. And that’s how ASC’s programs began too, with a huge emphasis on energy efficiency and waste reduction,” the report reads. “But it soon became clear that climate was a far more pressing threat.”

The report points out that some resorts (like Hidden Valley in New Jersey) have already closed permanently due to lack of cold temperatures and snowfall, while others have had to close lifts due to lack of snow and glacial retreat, like Whistler in 2020.

Aspen Skiing Company urges those involved in the climate movement to begin “playing the same game as the fossil fuel industry” by getting “more and bigger superPACs” to address climate as a short-term path forward absent large-scale political reform.

On the brand side, Mont Gele Gear made headlines in November 2021 when it funneled its marketing budget into a transparency report, which provided detailed information on raw material origins, manufacturer wages, product carbon footprint and production costs and profit.

“We believe all brands in our industry should make relevant information readily available and put it at the forefront of their communication,” said Mont Gele Gear founder and CEO Thomas A. Bata.

Nitro Snowboards is another brand that wanted to move beyond empty virtue signaling on social media and enact meaningful change.

The bottom line is that snowboarding is not sustainable. A snowboard cannot be fully recycled; producing and selling a snowboard creates emissions, with raw materials making up on average 50 percent, production about 25 percent and end-of-life, shipping, and general emissions making up the rest, per Knut Eliassen, global VP of marketing at Nitro.

To that end, Nitro worked with ClimatePartner to assess its snowboards’ life cycle and find ways to improve emissions, such as eliminating plastics from packaging, using recycled materials, utilizing solar power energy in its production facilities—things many brands do.

Wanting to take more immediate action, however, Nitro and ClimatePartner calculated the total amount of climate emissions for the brand’s entire 2021 snowboard production and invested the dollar amount of these emissions into offsetting projects to make a 100 percent climate-neutral board line through offset. Currently, Nitro and Season Eqpt are the industry’s two brands that offer 100 percent climate neutral snowboard collections.

Sustainably producing and selling products is, of course, a double-edged sword within the industry. “The most sustainable snowboard product and outerwear is the one that lasts and is used the longest,” Eliassen said. To that end, Nitro believes snowboard hard and soft goods should be built to last and hopefully resold into the market.

Burton Snowboards plans to balance out all annual emissions and then some by 2025. “Call it climate positive or carbon negative, we are committed to using offsets not as the solution but as a tool for accountability and as a way to take action while low-carbon opportunities develop,” said Emily Foster, Burton’s senior manager, environmental and social impact.

Very few industry brands have earned B Corp certification, designated as meeting the highest standards of social, economic and environmental commitment. Burton and Patagonia are two of the few; on the ski area side, New Mexico’s Taos Ski Valley was the first and, for a time, only resort to earn B Corp status.

To achieve its aim of eliminating plastic from all packaging by 2025, Burton’s product teams are relying on new material innovations like bio-based resin and water-based adhesives. “I think we can expect to see more recycled and plant-based materials scale and become industry standard,” Foster said.

Climate and sustainability issues were at the forefront of February’s Beijing Olympics, the first Winter Games in history to feature 100 percent man-made snow. That was a popular hook in headlines of articles written about what place these Games occupied during a looming climate crisis, but climate organizations argued that it misses the point.

Beijing’s reliance on man-made snow, as Sochi (80 percent) and Pyeongchang (up to 98 percent) before it, is partially to blame for higher crash and injury rates, per a January 2022 research article in the journal Current Issues in Tourism.

But if emissions are not drastically reduced, climate warming will make venues that have hosted the Games primarily on majority natural snow too warm to do so in the not-so-distant future.

According to the article, of the 21 locations that have previously hosted a Winter Games, only one could reliably do so by the end of the century if global emissions continue on the same trajectory of the last two decades.

On the other hand, per the report, “In a low emission scenario aligned to the Paris Climate Agreement, the number of climate reliable hosts remains almost unchanged throughout the twenty-first century (nine in mid-century, eight in late century).”

Under former president Donald Trump, the U.S. left the Paris Agreement in November 2020 but rejoined in February 2021 under President Biden.

Protect Our Winters (POW), founded in 2007 by pro snowboarder Jeremy Jones, seeks to mobilize what it terms the Outdoor State—the approximately 50 million outdoor enthusiasts, including skiers and snowboarders, in the U.S.—who together form a voting bloc larger than any single state’s population around advocacy to reduce emissions and slow global warming.

“The apex issue that we must focus on is a transition to clean energy,” said Mario Molina, executive director of Protect Our Winters. “It calls on us to reduce emissions at a global scale through investments and policies that upgrade our grid, increase renewable electricity, and incentivize electric transport. This transition will move us towards energy independence and it is absolutely necessary to protect our seasons, snow and everything that lives downstream of a healthy snowpack.”

Ahead of COP26 (the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow in 2021), POW worked on an initiative called “Moving Mountains of Money,” calling on outdoor brands and outdoor enthusiasts to examine the connection between their financial institutions and their funding of fossil fuel extraction.

The aim is to redirect funding by severing the connection between new fossil fuel development and the necessary financing—the banks that fund fuel deposit reserves. Many experts say this is the most effective move to curb fossil fuel production in favor of clean energy.

However, POW cautioned against relying on international diplomacy alone to solve the climate crisis, instead stressing that direct engagement at the local and national level is the most influential driver of systemic change.

In the meantime, snowmaking will continue to play an increasing role in the industry. The vast majority of U.S. resorts (about 87 percent) rely on snowmaking in some capacity. Recent advancements in technology mean man-made snow is highly customizable—dense snow can be laid down as a base in high-traffic areas, and lighter snow can soften things up. It’s also often necessary to build jumps and other features.

Resort marketing is largely tied to natural early-season dumps, but many guests, due to location or cost restraints, don’t get to experience riding that snow throughout the season (or, given cost and geography, ever). Moving forward, snowmaking infrastructure will likely be as important as a resort’s natural snowfall to guests’ on-snow experience.

As the effects of climate change continue to worsen, however, water availability and rights will become a major part of the conversation around snowmaking. In the last few decades, ski resorts have been acquiring more water rights, increasing their water storage abilities and upgrading their snowmaking systems to mitigate dry years.

Because that can use a lot of energy, many resorts have committed to more sustainable operations, looking to renewable energy. In 2004, Aspen Skiing Company was the first resort in the industry to build a a solar array and, soon after, a micro-hydroelectric plant for its snowmaking system.

These days, ASC and its partners have turned a former coal mine in Somerset, Colorado, into a plant that converts waste methane into energy. The Elk Creek Mine produces 3 megawatts of baseload power—equivalent to the amount of energy ASC uses annually across its four resorts.

Elsewhere in the U.S., Big Sky Resort, Montana, is powered by 100 percent renewable electric energy as of 2021, part of The Forever Project. A wind farm in Eastern Idaho fully powers Jackson Hole Mountain Resort in Wyoming. At the beginning of 2023, electric usage by Park City and Deer Valley resorts will be 100 percent powered by an 80-megawatt solar farm in Tooele County, Utah. Jiminy Peak in Massachusetts can boast being the world’s first ski resort with a wind turbine.

Advances in snowmaking have also made for improved offerings in indoor snowsports facilities. Popular in Europe and Asia, they are set to ramp up across the U.S. in the coming years.

Democratizing Access to Snowsports with Indoor Snowsports Facilities

Though popular in Europe and elsewhere in the world, evidenced by Ski Dubai (UAE), SnowWorld (Netherlands) and Snowplanet (New Zealand), indoor snowsports venues have been slow to catch on in the United States.

In fact, America’s first indoor ski resort only opened in 2019; it’s located just outside New York City.

Hugh Reynolds, CMO for Snow Partners, the company that owns and operates Big Snow American Dream as well as traditional outdoor Mountain Creek Resort in New Jersey, doesn’t see a time where indoor ski areas will replace outdoor resorts. Nevertheless, they will likely soon be an essential and well-attended supplement.

“We can’t replace the beauty of nature or the grandiosity of outdoor mountains, but we provide a nice supplement to that when you can’t get to those mountains or those mountains don’t have snow on them,” Reynolds said. “And for new participants in skiing and snowboarding, we provide a great entry point…particularly at Big Snow, we try to remove the traditional barriers of entry that prohibit people from getting involved—accessibility, cost, access to equipment, time commitment.”

If you’ve never set foot on a ski or snowboard and don’t even own snow pants, you can still show up at Big Snow in street clothes and be on the slopes within minutes. “Clothing is a major barrier to entry,” said Isaac. “One of the first ski areas to rent clothing decades ago was Appalachian Ski Mtn. in North Carolina. That’s what more and more ski areas and these indoor areas are doing is making it a holistic experience. You don’t have to come with anything but yourself and a desire to try.”

Big Snow opened on December 5, 2019. On March 15, 2020, it closed its doors due to the spread of Covid-19. The park reopened in September 2020 and was operational for a full year until it had to close again in September 2021 due to a fire. Big Snow estimates a Memorial Day 2022 reopening and hopes to finally gain traction without interruption.

The U.S. indoor snowsports industry is about to see a major expansion thanks to the arrival of disruptor Alpine-X. The Virginia-based development company plans to open its first venue, Fairfax Peak, in Northern Virginia in early 2025, followed by 20 to 25 more markets across North America.

Bode Miller, six-time Olympic medalist and the most decorated American Alpine ski racer of all time, announced in December 2021 he had joined Alpine-X as its chief innovation officer and an equity partner.

Though he is an elite skier, Miller knows how frustrating it can be for beginners to spend the time and money learning at an outdoor resort and not feel like they actually honed their skills. “We can provide an opportunity for a very smooth, easy introduction to the sport,” Miller told me. “People will certainly still get all the same thrill and excitement but also a level of comfort, not have this undercurrent of frustration that a lot of first-timers do have, all within a much more contained environment. All their needs are seen to in a much more thorough way.”

These indoor facilities will also change the way North American professional skiers and snowboarders train out of season. Many had been relying on the indoor venues of Europe, many of which still utilize outdated, legacy snowmaking and grooming technologies.

“One of the reasons we reached out to Bode early on is that we wanted facilities people didn’t work their way out of,” said John Emery, CEO of Alpine-X. “We want people to be able to continue developing their skills. If we have facilities where competitive-level athletes can continue training in the offseason, they can continue to improve their skills and then transfer them to the outdoor experience.”

Given how advanced snowmaking technology has become, even intermediate to expert skiers and riders will find that indoor snowsports venues have something to offer them during times of drought or the offseason.

“If you pair the controlled environment we have with Alpine-X and this technology, we’re in the best possible place,” said Andy Wirth, an Alpine-X strategic advisor who has held high-level executive roles in the mountain resort and hotel industry. “There is no doubt that manmade snow skies a little bit differently, but with advancements in technology, particularly when you can control ambient temperature and humidity, you can make manmade snow today that skis like natural snow.”

Ski racers want hard snow surfaces. The vast majority of recreational skiers are looking for something soft and grippy they can lay an edge into. Alpine-X can carefully calibrate both types of surfaces.

Through Republic, Alpine-X led an equity crowdfunding campaign that ended April 1 and raised $1.4 million from 1,520 investors.

In March 2022, Alpine-X announced that Texas would be its next U.S. market, with at least two resorts planned. Each resort will feature an indoor snow area,with dedicated areas for skiing and snowboarding, teaching and other snow activities such as tubing; a hotel; multiple food and beverage options and an indoor adventure area.

Backcountry, Uphill Take Off—So Does Interest In Avalanche Education

When the pandemic caused the 2019-20 snow season to end early, with most resorts never reopening after closing down in mid-March, some skiers and snowboarders took to the backcountry to get their ski and snowboard fix.

That trend continued into the fall and winter of 2020; at the time, the Snowsports Industries America (SIA) participation report showed a marked spike in backcountry/AT (alpine touring) participation—to the tune of 57% (along with similar increases in snowshoeing, at 57%, and cross-country skiing, at 65%).

At the time, mountain sports manufacturers saw an unprecedented demand for backcountry skiing products, including alpine touring skis, boots, bindings, skins and poles. Supply chain issues soon made these items scarce for those who hadn’t already stocked up.

On the whole, the increased participation in backcountry participation in the 2020-21 season correlated with sobering results—by May 2021, 37 people in the U.S. had died in avalanches, per the Colorado Avalanche Information Center (CAIC), tied for the highest single-season avalanche deaths.

This high death toll wasn’t just the result of inexperience—some of it is attributable to increased density and much of it was definitely the result of a challenging snowpack, with the foundation laid by early-season snowfall being weakened by the dry conditions that followed. The CAIC said the conditions in Colorado were as bad in 2020-21 as they’d been in almost 10 years.

But alongside the touring skis and skins flying off the shelves and the increased activity in the backcountry, there was another encouraging trend—people sought out avalanche safety information in record numbers too.

By late November 2020, Adrian Ballinger’s full service mountain guide company Alpenglow Expeditions had sold out 60 percent of its capacity for avalanche courses through February—about 600 spots. That’s about six times what the company would have sold during a normal season in Tahoe, Ballinger estimated at the time.

Around the same time, the Colorado Mountain School, another instruction and guiding company, saw enrollment for its own Level 1 avalanche courses triple that of 2019.

An interesting trend in the 2021-22 season concerned the frequency of alpine touring along gender lines, per the latest SIA report; the number of men overall participating in backcountry/alpine touring is greater than the number of women (66% to 34%), but women do it more frequently.

A rise in avalanche clinics focused toward women specifically may ensure those numbers continue to grow. In February, Rossignol held an event called We Rise at Solitude Mountain Resort for female skiers and riders to learn and progress in the backcountry. Professional freeskier Michelle Parker works with an organization called SAFE AS that offers a women’s-only one-day introduction to avalanche education course.

During the pandemic, the CAIC has increased its avalanche education efforts, embracing a move toward virtual education that the organization hopes to make part of its strategy moving forward. It has embraced educational sessions via Zoom, which allow for interaction and questions.

In the 2021-22 season, backcountry/alpine touring participation once again continued to increase…but the number of avalanche fatalities fell to 15, the lowest since the 2016-17 season. A less dangerous snowpack is one factor, but perhaps increased education has already begun to pay dividends.

There are 122 ski areas on national forests, providing about 60 percent of the total capacity for downhill skiing in the U.S., according to U.S. Forest Service figures. Ski areas can charge for use of their property, but per U.S. Forest Service guidelines, provide gates to the public lands that the U.S. Forest Service believes should not be restricted.

Many skiers and snowboarders choose to leave via these gates to explore the backcountry—and if they get injured, they don’t have access to a resort’s infrastructure or ski patrol. It’s not smart, but it’s not illegal.

So for those who want to get away from the crowds on the lifts and have a more self-sufficient experience, uphilling offers the best of both words—a more exclusive experience with safety features built in.

According to Isaac, there has been a slight uptick every year—but significant over the last 10 years—in ski areas allowing uphill access. It’s more prevalent in the West, the Pacific Northwest, California and the Northeast—places where there is more space for people to spread out and maybe less snowmaking or grooming infrastructure going on. (For that reason, it’s often closed early-season, when the environment is not particularly controlled for guests.)

“The great thing about ski areas generally is you don’t have to worry about route-finding; you know where your access routes are,” said Isaac. “You don’t have to worry about finding egress like you do in the backcountry, which gets really tough—you have to know your maps and know your aspects that you’re on. Uphilling at the ski area kind of takes that away. There is still the potential for injury, but often ski areas have cell coverage or some sort of wifi so you can have access to patrol.”

Many ski areas have begun offering either an armband program or an added cost uphill pass—about $50-70 for a season—and it’s often free with a season pass. Some ski areas do a daily uphill pass, but not many because it’s harder to manage. Often, uphillers are season pass holders or those who buy a frequency product, like a four-pack.

Aspen Skiing Co. introduced an uphill armband program at its family of resorts for $69, three of which allow it during operating hours. On the other end of the spectrum is Eldora in Boulder, which charges $199 for an uphill season pass and with date and time restrictions.

Some folks aren’t happy about these increased charges and rules, given the democratic nature and wide access uphilling has long enjoyed. But increased participation means increased infrastructure usage.

“When you pay for that uphill pass at a ski area, you are paying for all that infrastructure,” Isaac said—things like parking, bathrooms, grooming, signage. “Out West especially, it’s avalanche mitigation, that’s what you’re trying to avoid. Have a more controlled environment, a more controlled ski surface to ski down on, you’re paying for use of that infrastructure that is built and upgraded.”

Access is also often free for IKON and EPIC pass holders. Many resorts, like Copper Mountain, offer private uphill tours and uphill equipment rentals on-site.

Don’t necessarily expect your local resorts (or favorite destinations) to allow uphilling, however—inside operating hours or otherwise. It’s not allowed at resorts like Alta, Deer Valley (which still prohibits snowboarding), Snowbird, Jackson Hole, Palisades/Tahoe, Purgatory, Solitude and Sundance.

On the other hand, Bluebird Backcountry, which opened in 2020, has no ski lifts at all—it’s entirely uphill terrain, with rentals, lessons, a lodge and avalanche education instructors.

As we continue to experience a Covid wave every winter, uphilling—aside from the high cost of equipment—can be a good way for people to get out on the mountain and avoid crowds. But new technologies, including heat mapping, can also help skiers and snowboarders avoid crowds at and around the resort.

Ski Apps and On-Mountain Navigation

It’s been called “Waze for mountains,” and it’s revolutionizing how skiers and snowboarders navigate the slopes safely.

Snonav, the only ski app endorsed by the National Ski Patrol for safety and advanced technology features, is one of the few that can actually lay claim to being a ski navigation app (most others are simply tracking apps).

Designed with the intent of limiting stopping during a day on the slopes, Snonav offers turn-by-turn audio navigation, start-and-end-point navigation for the best routes, tailored routes for ski ability level and live open and closed status for lifts.

Snonav, which launched in 2020 with 21,000 customers, is the brainchild of Robert Petcove. A corporate consultant who is also an avid skier, Petcove was on a ski trip at Vail with his three children when the lift stopped for five, then 10, then 15 minutes.

Petcove spied ski patrol making their way down the mountain with a skier strapped to their sled. The first thing you think in that situation, he told me, is, “Oh my god, I hope that isn’t my child.”

“How many people get hurt skiing above their ability level?” Petcove said. “People are in a predicament with a lack of information on the mountain. They’re still back in the 1930s with paper trail maps. There’s very little technology that binds the skier to the mountain. There are a lot of great tracking apps, but Snonav is the first one to offer a real-time dynamic routing engine. It takes information in and then spits information out to the user.”

The app’s features include SnoGroups, which allows friends and family to keep track of each other on the mountain and identify meet-up spots. Its cornerstone feature is in-ear navigation so that skiers and snowboarders can keep it moving on the mountain without having to stop to pull out their phone or look for a paper trail map.

Early in 2022, the app launched a heat mapping feature called SnoTraffic that allows users to receive updates on mountain crowds and activity. The app identifies hot spots and offers live skier flow status so that those who want to distance themselves for health and safety reasons—or just want a little more breathing room on the slopes—can choose their runs accordingly.

According to Petcove, Snonav’s market research showed that 65 percent of all skiers use some sort of headphones or wired headset while they’re on the slopes—and not always for music. But they want to be able to access their phone without taking it out of their pocket.

Another new feature that launched in 2022 is 3D mapping through a partnership with Mapbox that allows users to see themselves and their friends on the mountain in real time.

And while connectivity on the mountains has gotten markedly better overall, getting stuck in a dead spot with no service is still a reality. Once users download the app and the specific mountain they’re visiting, they can put their phone in airplane mode with no cellular connection needed (except for the SnoGroups feature).

“A couple people have tried to do this before using existing technology, but everything we have is proprietary,” Petcove said. “Our engine is built for on-mountain activities exclusively; we can’t use a Google Maps engine or an Apple Maps engine. Those companies use roads; they have directions, street signs, everyone understands which way to go based on principle.”

On mountains, Petcove explains, people can go up, down, left, right. The secret sauce, he says, is that every map the company builds is custom. It costs Snonav about $1,000 to build each map.

Snonav aims to include 200 mountains worldwide on its platform by the start of the 2022-23 season. Current popular U.S. resorts active on Snonav include Mammoth Mountain, Heavenly and Sierra at Tahoe in California; the Aspen Snowmass resorts, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, Steamboat, Vail and Winter Park in Colorado; Sun Valley in Idaho; Big Sky in Montana; Taos in New Mexico; Park City and Deer Valley in Utah; Jackson Hole in Wyoming; and Mount Sunapee, Sugarloaf, Killington, Stowe, Stratton and Sugarbush in New England.

So, you’re on the mountain; you have all your runs for the day mapped out with in-ear navigation; you can find your friends or call for help anytime you need. What now?

If you want to take the opportunity to dial in your skiing even more, there are plenty of developments in wearable tech that will allow you to do just that. One such example, a platform called SKEO, is from Bode Miller. The app is designed to measure, coach, and rank skiers’ performance so that they know exactly where they can improve.

Miller’s partner in the venture, Dr. Martin Kawalski—the CEO of Snowcookie Sports with a PhD in neuroscience—pioneered the concept back in 2014. Kawalski envisioned a smart connected ski that would provide feedback for improvement.

SKEO consists of a free app plus an optional upgrade with wearable sensors powered by Snowcookie. The proprietary algorithm can fine-tune body position and edge control and improve safety, enabling skiers to go faster while minimizing injury risk.

In addition to the more standard run stats—speed, turns, pace, vertical, mileage and G-force—SKEO also features a scoring ranking system, Universal Alpine Ranking (UAR) developed by Miller that tracks skiers’ progress and ranks them against anyone else who has skied the run, measuring speed, stamina (ratio of active skiing vs. resting and total distance skied), turn style (ratio of short to long turns and time spent going straight) and difficulty.

How does SKEO differ from similar systems PIQ and Carv? PIQ uses one sensor attached to a single ski boot, while Carv uses pressure-sensitive insoles installed between the shell and inner boot. Snowcookie’s technology uses three motion sensors—one on each ski and one on the upper body.

“For the average skier, instruction is really expensive,” Miller said. “It’s subjective, and for beginners that’s just confusing; one instructor will tell you one thing, one will tell you another. It’s fun if you have the ability to really self-coach and have a clear roadmap of how to accomplish these things.”

Ideally, however, SKEO isn’t meant to replace a ski instructor, like Carv is, but work in concert with him or her to improve a skier’s performance.

As with indoor snowsports facilities, digital ski instruction is democratizing the sport, providing beginners—or advanced skiers who have hit a wall—with a means to improve that’s not $800 private lessons.

It all comes back to the industry’s dovetailing goals moving forward—get more people to take up skiing and snowboarding, and protect the health of the industry from climate change so that people can do it for a long time.

According to the NSAA’s Demographic Study following the 2020-21 season, U.S. downhill sports participants identify as 87.5 percent white and 62 percent male. According to the study, historically, the gender split has hovered around 60/40 male to female.

NSAA also reports that over half of its member resorts have some kind of adaptive snowsports program in place.

The industry has made clear strides in diversity and accessibility; the data will show if the 2012-22 season and beyond will see more non-white, non-male skiers and snowboarders taking to the slopes.

More Reading

Why Producing Live Snowboarding Events Is So Difficult—And What We Can Learn From The Beijing Olympics

How Colorado’s Copper Mountain Became The Premier Training Location For U.S. Olympic Skiers And Snowboarders

Shaun White Launches Active Lifestyle Brand ‘Whitespace,’ Including Signature Pro Model Snowboard

Ahead Of Beijing Olympics, Natural Selection Tour Showcases A Different Side Of Competitive Snowboarding

Coronavirus Is Short-Term Blow For Outdoor Industry, But Climate Change Will Be Long-Term Battle