If last winter was epic in terms of the number of skiers and snowboarders on the slopes of Mt. Bachelor, then March of this year was the second-best in the past 11 years, officials said.

March snowfall rescued what otherwise would have been considered a low-snow, slow winter tourist season in Central Oregon. Snow at the base of the mountain was less than 100 inches deep for most of February but topped 100 inches during most of March, according to data at www.onthesnow.com. “We’re pacing this year to be the second-best year in the past 11 years,” said Drew Jackson, director of sales and marketing at Mt. Bachelor. “It’s all because of March. We were not pacing this way November through February.”

At Bluebird Day Vacation Rentals, owner Paige Robinson said at a recent Visit Bend meeting that most of the bookings for March were last-minute.

“Other than skiing there’s not a lot to do,” Robinson said. “In the winter, people have skiing on their minds or they have the idea of playing in the snow for the weekend. We get a lot of people from Seattle and Portland coming to get out of the rain.”

Even though snowfall has been moderate this year, March reinvigorated the bottom line at Skjersaa’s ski and snowboard shop on Century Drive.

“We definitely felt March was a strong month for us,” said Jeremy Nelson, Skjersaa’s owner. “It reinvigorated skiing. People were excited about skiing. When it snows, we get business.”

Hotel occupancy and revenue data bear out anecdotes from ski companies and vacation rental firms. From Jan. 13 through the week of March 3, occupancy in area hotels was below last year, but exceeded or was on par with last year for the rest of March, according to data provided by STR, which tracks hotel occupancy for Visit Bend. No data was available for vacation rentals.

Despite a trend in skiers preferring to stay in vacation rentals, hotel occupancy showed a 5.3 percent increase in demand for March. Hotel revenue per available room also increased 3.5 percent this March, compared to last, according to the STR data.

“That’s a healthy indicator, which we track to gauge overall interest in the destination, and to see it increase that much over the month shows a continued level of visitor interest in our destination,” said Nate Wyeth, Visit Bend vice president of sales and marketing, in an email. “What we’re seeing is a continued increase in overall demand for our market, which is increasing revenue and room tax collections from visitors because of that increased demand.”

Heading into Presidents Day weekend in mid-February, Mt. Bachelor was seeing a decline in ski and snowboarding by as much as 10 percent, Jackson said.

Mt. Bachelor has 4,300 acres of lift-accessible terrain for skiing. The mountain is known by skiers for its light, dry snow and long seasons and its 101 runs.

“Last year was the high water mark for us,” Jackson said. “Still, we had 40 percent more visitors this March over last.”

Much of that was because traveling conditions were hard last year, both in mountain passes and in Bend, the closest lodging area to the ski resort, which is located entirely in the Deschutes National Forest.

Last year’s epic snowfall brought winter fatigue, Jackson said. It’s a feeling people get when there’s too much snow. It also affected spring break, a traditionally busy two-week period for Mt. Bachelor, he said.

“Last year spring break saw low attendance,” said Jackson. “People wanted to vacation where it was warmer. People where winter fatigued. This year they were snow-starved.”

— Reporter: 541-633-2117, sroig@bendbulletin.com