Vail Resorts' Loss Widens to $190 Million, and the Weather Takes the Blame

Vail Resorts closed its fiscal year with a fourth-quarter net loss of $190.2 million, wider than a year earlier, as full-year net income fell to $147.5 million from $280 million. Resort net revenue slipped 4.5% to $2.832 billion, and Resort Reported EBITDA fell to $745.7 million from $844.1 million, numbers the company pinned almost entirely on the sky rather than the business.

CEO Rob Katz did not soften it. "This past winter was one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S. for the ski industry," he said, describing Rockies snowfall at or near historic lows in what he called the most difficult weather environment the company has ever experienced. That is a convenient villain, and a real one, but it arrives alongside a less weather-dependent problem: through mid-September, season pass unit sales were down roughly 12% and dollars down about 6%, meaning fewer skiers are locking in early, even before anyone knows what the snow will do.

Vail Resorts is still guiding fiscal 2027 net income up to a range of $158 million to $233 million and holding its quarterly dividend at $2.22 a share, a bet that one brutal winter does not undo two decades of training skiers to buy passes months before the lifts open. The real test of that bet lands this winter. If the snow cooperates and pass sales still lag, the company runs out of weather to blame.

Source: Vail Resorts (PR Newswire)

Kyle Duford, Founder & Editor, BRNDWIRE. More from Kyle →