By William Spain

CHICAGO (Dow Jones) -- The snow fell early and often at most of its resort properties, but couldn't keep Vail Resorts from announcing Friday that skier visits and forward bookings are in sharp decline for the season to date, sending its shares into a downward spiral.

Before the start of trading, Vail (MTN) said that from the start of the season through Jan. 6, total skier visits to its five properties were off 5.8% compared with the same period a year ago, while lift ticket revenue fell 7.5%. Bookings as of Dec. 31 are down 14.8% on a room-night basis.

Shares of Vail were down 11% at $25.69 in midday action. A year ago, it was trading north of $53 before slumping to under $15 in November.

"The current economic environment has certainly impacted the beginning of the 2008-09 ski season," said Chief Executive Rob Katz in announcing the numbers, although he added that skier visits were up during the two-week holiday period.

The drop in lift-ticket revenue was higher than that of visits largely due to more traffic from season-pass holders, according to Katz. Ancillary revenue was down sharply, with dining, retail and rentals off about the same as lift tickets and ski school, off roughly 20%.

"We believe the greater decline in ski-school revenue was due to lower guest spending on certain higher-priced items during their trip, a trend that was matched in lower check averages at certain of our fine-dine restaurants," the executive said.

Looking ahead, Katz noted that booking trends have improved from the 23.3% decline reported early last month -- an indication that "many of our guests are booking closer in, which we saw evidence of in the recently concluded current-year holiday period."

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