VAIL — Early-season skier traffic to Vail Resorts’ 37 North American ski areas was up 12.5% through Jan. 8 compared with the same period last season, the company reported earlier this month.

That bump is not evident in Colorado, where the company’s five resorts are seeing pretty mellow traffic despite well-above-average snowpack. Vail Resorts, in its early-season report to investors, said even though continent-wide visits were pacing above last year’s record numbers, visits to its resorts in Colorado, Utah and California were “below expectations,” citing “extreme weather” and the airline industry’s struggles during the holiday season.

Breckenridge saw an annual dip in December holiday traffic as well as over Martin Luther King Jr. weekend. The number of times parking structures have filled and forced cars to park on Vail’s Frontage Road is below this time last year. Crested Butte locals reported empty T-bars spinning over MLK weekend. 

Even though Vail Resorts expects to see traffic at its Western U.S. resorts pick up later this season, the company told investors to expect annual resort revenue to fall in the lower half of the projected range of $893 million and $947 million that the company estimated in September.

Read the full story on ColoradoSun.com.