Vail Resorts reported a nearly 12% decline in pass product units for the upcoming North American season through Sept. 18, with pass sales dollars down about 6%, according to the company's fiscal 2026 results released Sept. 28. Skier visits for the fiscal year fell 13.4% to 15.3 million, and net income attributable to the company dropped to $147.5 million from $280 million a year earlier. The results arrive as Oasis Management, a Hong Kong hedge fund, has launched a proxy contest, nominated four director candidates, and raised its stake to 7.4%, per regulatory filings and local press coverage.
Daniel Kaufman, founder of the permanent capital holding company Kaufman & Company and an investor in mountain resort and workforce housing development, said the numbers show the ski industry's growth story has moved from selling more passes to keeping mountain towns livable for the workers who operate them. "A pass is a promise that the mountain will be open, staffed and worth the drive," Kaufman said. "You can argue about weather and pricing all day, but the thing no corporate office can fix from a distance is whether the lift operator, the patroller and the line cook can afford to live near the base. That is where the value of a resort actually sits, and it does not show up in the pass count until it is too late."
The implication is stark: as Vail faces shareholder pressure and the possibility that individual resorts could change hands, any owner, current or future, must underwrite housing before lifts or lodges. "If mountains start moving from one owner to another, the buyers who do well will be the ones who treat employee housing as part of the lift system, not as an amenity," Kaufman said. "We look at mountain towns the way we look at any housing market, by the data: supply, wages, and how far a worker drives to the job. A resort that gets those right does not need a record-breaking year to make money."
Kaufman & Company invests only its own capital and does not raise outside funds. Its operating company DEK Builds, headquartered in Cheyenne, Wyoming, is an integrated design, build, development, and investment firm working across custom homes, mountain resorts, hotels, and commercial construction. LandBriefing, a land and housing data platform built by Kaufman Real Estate & Consulting, recently added Mountain Watch, which tracks land and housing fundamentals in mountain resort and gateway towns. Oldivai, an aligned and independently led partner, develops workforce housing.
For an industry that has long measured success by pass sales and skier visits, the shift toward housing as a core operational metric represents a fundamental change. The proxy contest at Vail Resorts, first reported in local Park City coverage, raises the prospect of resort divestitures. Kaufman's argument suggests that buyers who prioritize workforce housing will be better positioned to stabilize operations and protect margins, even without record snowfall or pass volumes. As mountain towns grapple with affordability crises, the companies that treat housing as infrastructure may define the next era of ski resort ownership.
