After a string of warm, snow-starved winters that left New Hampshire’s ski industry anxious about its future, the 2025-2026 season delivered the kind of cold, white winter that fills parking lots and lift lines. Resorts across the state recorded more than 2.28 million visits, making it the busiest ski season in New Hampshire since 2011, according to Ski NH, the trade group that represents the state’s resorts. As New Hampshire Public Radio reported, the tally marks the third-most visits in two decades and a 5 percent increase over the prior year, a welcome rebound for an industry that has spent recent winters fighting the weather as much as the competition.
For a state where skiing is both a way of life and a major economic engine, the numbers are more than a sports statistic. Ski tourism supports thousands of jobs, props up the hospitality economy in mountain towns, and draws visitors from across the Northeast who spend money on lodging, food, and gear. A strong season ripples outward through the White Mountains and beyond, and after several lean years, resort operators have reason to celebrate a winter that finally cooperated.
A cold winter that felt the way winters used to
The driving force behind the surge was simple: it was cold and it snowed. “It was cold and snowy and people came and skied,” said Jessyca Keeler, president of Ski NH, summing up the season in a sentence. The data backs her up. The three-month stretch from December through February was the coldest in New Hampshire since 2015, according to figures from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. State climatologist Mary Stampone told NHPR earlier in the winter that the season felt like “what our winters are supposed to be like,” a striking observation in an era when the baseline for a New England winter has been steadily shifting.
That context matters because ski resorts have spent years contending with less snow and warmer temperatures. Climate research has documented that winters are warming faster than other seasons across New Hampshire and much of the country, squeezing the window for natural snow and reliable snowmaking. Against that backdrop, a genuinely cold winter is not just pleasant for skiers, it is a reprieve for an industry whose business model depends on conditions that are becoming less dependable. The 2025-2026 season was a reminder of what the sport looks like when the weather aligns, even if no single good winter reverses a long-term warming trend.
The backyard effect
Keeler credited more than the on-mountain conditions for the strong turnout. She pointed to a phenomenon people in the industry call “the backyard effect,” the idea that snow close to home is what actually gets people thinking about skiing. “If you don’t see snow in your backyard, you might not be thinking about skiing,” she said. When the whole region is blanketed in white, the impulse to head for the slopes spreads well beyond dedicated enthusiasts.
“That really made a big difference in terms of the volumes of people that were coming,” Keeler said of the wintry conditions across the Northeast. In other words, a cold winter does not just improve the snow at the summit, it shapes the mindset of casual skiers and families deciding how to spend a weekend. When the driveway needs shoveling and the trees are dusted with snow, a day on the mountain feels like the natural thing to do. That psychological pull, multiplied across hundreds of thousands of potential visitors, helps explain how a good-weather season turns into a record-setting one.
Timing helped as well. Keeler noted that key dates on the calendar, including the December holidays, weekends, and school vacation weeks, all enjoyed good conditions. Those high-traffic windows are when resorts make much of their money, and favorable snow during peak periods can lift a season’s totals dramatically. A storm that arrives on a quiet midweek day does less for the bottom line than reliable snow over a holiday week, and this year the calendar and the weather cooperated.
What it means for New Hampshire
The economic stakes of a strong ski season reach far beyond the resorts themselves. Mountain towns across the state depend on winter visitors to sustain restaurants, hotels, equipment shops, and the seasonal workforce that keeps them running. A 5 percent jump in visits translates into more guests filling rooms, more meals served, and more money circulating through communities that lean heavily on tourism to get through the colder months. After several disappointing winters, that infusion is significant for the businesses that ride the season’s ups and downs.
The strong winter also sets up a busy stretch for the state’s broader outdoor economy heading into the warmer months, when attention shifts to hiking, lakes, and family attractions. The Review has tracked that seasonal handoff in its coverage of the 2026 summer tourism outlook, and a successful ski season gives mountain communities momentum and cash flow as they pivot toward summer visitors. The same trail networks and public lands that draw skiers in winter become hiking and sightseeing destinations once the snow melts, though some routes face disruptions, as the Review noted in reporting on the Lincoln Woods Trail closure.
The long view on winter
For all the good news, the season arrives with an asterisk that the industry knows well. One cold winter does not undo the warming trend that has made recent years so challenging, and Ski NH’s own framing of the season as the third-best in 20 years is a reminder that the very good years are becoming the exception rather than the rule. Resorts have invested heavily in snowmaking technology precisely because they cannot count on the weather, and that investment is what allowed them to capitalize when conditions finally turned favorable.
The lesson of 2025-2026 may be that New Hampshire’s ski industry remains capable of thriving when the weather cooperates, but that its resilience depends on preparation for the years when it does not. Cold, snowy winters like this one are worth celebrating, both for the joy they bring to skiers and for the boost they give to mountain economies. They are also a useful baseline, a picture of what the sport can be, and a measure of what is at stake as winters continue to change. For now, though, the numbers tell a happy story: a Granite State winter that brought the cold, the snow, and the skiers back in force. Granite Staters who want to be ready for the next big winter can review the Review’s guide to building a home winter emergency kit before the season turns again.
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