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A year ago, when real estate agent Michelle Diehl sold a three-bedroom condo near the mountain town of Steamboat Springs, Colo., for $295,000 (U.S.), the property had been on the market for only six days, and the buyers were so eager that they put up the money for the place sight unseen.

It's not so easy selling real estate in Steamboat Springs any more. Now, Ms. Diehl is trying to sell a similar condo that's in better shape, and is listed at a lower price - but has been sitting on the market for months.

"It's a different time," she says.

For Intrawest ULC, which set off the real estate frenzy when it bought the Steamboat Springs ski resort in late 2006, the swift and radical reversal is hitting hard.

As recession grips North America, consumers have little confidence in the economy and are slashing spending. Plans for fancy ski trips costing thousands of dollars to destinations such as Steamboat in Colorado or Intrawest's Whistler-Blackcomb in British Columbia are among the first luxuries to get axed - never mind buying real estate there.

So, instead of expanding Steamboat Springs in the model of Whistler to better compete with glitzy Colorado rivals Aspen and Vail, the Vancouver-based resort developer and operator and is playing a defensive game instead.

The difficult business outlook pushed talks to refinance $1.7-billion of Intrawest debt to just hours before the money came due on Oct. 23, with Intrawest owner Fortress Investment Group LLC scrambling to get the deal done.

The debt was taken on in 2006 when Fortress bought Intrawest for $1.8-billion in a highly leveraged buyout, using a two-year term loan at 6.4 per cent to finance the takeover.

Details of the refinancing were not released but Intrawest's debt had been yielding 9 per cent in the market.

Negative after negative is piling on Intrawest. Interest payments are up. Visits to ski areas this winter are set to fall. Resort real estate is moribund.

Intrawest owns 10 winter resorts in North America and one golf resort, places where it also has real estate. It has broader real estate operations in locales such as Hawaii and California's Napa Valley through its Playground Destination Properties Inc. arm. Finally, Intrawest owns boutique travel businesses, including Canadian Mountain Holidays Inc., the world's No. 1 helicopter-skiing operation.

In all areas, Intrawest is feeling stress, from its heli-ski business, where a single trip starts at $975 (Canadian) per day, to Whistler, where the local tourism office predicts the number of visitors this winter to town will slump to about 900,000 from roughly one million a year ago.

The company, and other businesses in Whistler, have reacted quickly. Intrawest, for Whistler and other domestic properties, immediately sought to capitalize on the plunging Canadian dollar, marketing more in the U.S., in Washington State for Whistler and New York State for Mont Tremblant, located north of Montreal.

At Whistler, the company is heavily marketing next month's opening of an ambitious and eye-catching $52-million gondola that connects mid-mountain hubs on Blackcomb and Whistler, crossing the valley between the two mountains.

Intrawest is also playing up cheaper airfares, offering bigger discounts for booking early and pressing its long-time visitors not to skip regular winter trips.

"Even in these challenging times, they're not taking that trip to Whistler or Mont Tremblant off their list," said Andy Wirth, chief marketing officer at Intrawest.

Skiers may still come to ski but real estate is in trouble across Intrawest's portfolio and the focus is filling up rooms with vacationers rather than selling new properties.

In Destin in northwest Florida, Intrawest has a beach and golf resort called Sandestin. Susie Kirkland, who has been a realtor for almost 40 years in the region, said she has never seen such a difficult market.

"We have no shortage of properties," said Ms. Kirkland of Re/Max Southern Realty.

In Hawaii, Intrawest is opening the first of two buildings at Honua Kai on the beach in Maui in January. The first sold out quickly in 2006 but the second is not yet fully sold and the market is frozen, leaving the company to focus on a smooth opening instead of thinking about potential expansions.

"There's no sense of urgency, people are waiting for some stability," said Hugh O'Reilly, former mayor of Whistler and a sales manager for Honua Kai at Intrawest's Playground Destination Properties.

"It's a message you're hearing everywhere. People are not in a buying mode of any sort."

While the outlook for Intrawest is weak, the privately held company should be able to manage through the recession, according to past public results.

In the post-9/11 travel slump in the winter of 2001-02, Intrawest revenue from its resort operations fell 1.4 per cent to $485-million (U.S.). But real estate prices were rising at the time and company revenues in total were up for fiscal 2002.

More recently, in fiscal 2006, just as Fortress was buying Intrawest, the resort company saw its overall revenues fall for the first time in at least a decade, slipping to $1.61-billion from $1.62-billion as real estate revenue had a rough year, down 22 per cent to $489-million from $628-million.

Rival Vail Resorts Inc., owner of five ski hills led by Vail Mountain in Colorado, and real estate, is much like Intrawest, facing precisely the same business challenges. Yet in early October, debt-rater Moody's Investors Service Inc. raised its rating on Vail debt by one notch.

Jacques Ouazana, a Moody's analyst, said obvious negatives are real estate and the recession - but added that mountains inspire fanaticism among skiing and snowboarding enthusiasts. So while people might not make long trips for their fix, places like Vail and Whistler will still draw crowds even in tougher times.

"The local customers represent a safety net for these companies," Mr. Ouazana said.

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Intrawest retrenches

The company, which calls itself an operator of "experiential destination resorts," is involved in businesses ranging from high-end ski resorts such as Whistler-Blackcomb to real estate in Hawaii. The recession will hit both and Intrawest is trying to respond.

Numbers

9 million: Number of skier visits to Intrawest resorts, more than any other North American operator

2 million: Skier visits at Whistler-Blackcomb

60 million: Number of skier visits in the United States in the 2008 winter season, a record

58 million: Estimated number of skier visits for the 2009 winter

12 per cent: Estimated decline in visitors to Whistler for the 2009 winter

What Intrawest is doing

Moving quickly: Has been promoting cheaper Canadian dollar to Americans since early October.

Offering more discounts: Booking early now saves customers 35 per cent at Whistler, up from 30 per cent last year.

Shifting markets: Dollars on advertising are being pulled closer to home, such as Whistler focusing more on Washington State and less on Britain.

Going to those you know: Heavy marketing to customers who have visited before.

Focusing on existing assets: In real estate, Intrawest is working to rent space that already exists rather than planning new projects to sell.

Sources: Intrawest ULC, Tourism Whistler, National Ski Areas

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