Vail Resorts' sales of season passes increase 13 percent.

VAIL, Colorado — Vail Resorts Inc.'s season-pass sales rose 13 percent in September as skiers eager for powder prepared to make tracks a year after the financial crisis.

"This year, the economy is still struggling, but there is more confidence that it's not getting dramatically worse," Robert Katz, chief executive of Vail Resorts, said in an interview. "The economic issues that we faced last year started right at the beginning of ski season and got worse until the end of the season."