NASHUA, N.H. – New Hampshire ski industry representatives say they’re optimistic about business again.

The last four seasons have seen more than 8.6 million paid skier visits to the state – one of the highest recorded cumulative totals, according to Ski New Hampshire, an industry trade group.

“Even behind closed doors, I never hear the kind of pessimism these days that we used to hear,” said Karl Stone, Ski New Hampshire’s marketing manager.

The upturn shows itself in new business ventures. Nearly 60 full-time ski areas were operating in New Hampshire in 1973. While fewer than 25 are now, several are opening – or reopening.

They include the Crotched Mountain Ski Area in Bennington and the smaller Granite Gorge in Roxbury. The Cog Railway on Mount Washington also, for the first time this year, has scheduled runs throughout the winter. Skiers, who ride up the mountain and ski back down on cleared land along the train’s tracks, are key customers.

The rebirth may partly be due to ski areas’ growing accommodation of nontraditional winter sports, including snowboarding. The number of snowboarders has tripled in a decade, while the number who ski downhill has fallen by one-third, National Ski Areas Association statistics show. The two figures are now nearly the same.

The average age of snowboarders also has increased, from 16 in 1993 to more than 19 in 2003, according to the association’s statistics.

“I think ski areas are doing a great job reaching out, not just to the expert skier,” said Thomas Carr, a University of New Hampshire clinical instructor who teaches a course on the state’s recreational skiing industry. “You go anywhere on pretty much any given day, and any mountain is going to have something that will appeal to almost anyone.”

Ski areas are offering pursuits ranging from telemark skiing, a cross between cross-country and downhill skiing, to snow-tubing, which requires neither stamina nor skill.

Skis themselves have changed. They range from “skate skis,” barely longer than boots, to “twin-tip” skis, which let skiers travel forward or backward.

“It doesn’t seem like the industry was getting lazy and resting on its laurels – it’s trying to be dynamic and develop a better product,” said Robert Robertson, coordinator of UNH’s tourism planning and development program.

Carr said other changes are more business-focused, such as selling passes that offer access to several mountains. He said the practice, common in the West, has only just begun to show up in New Hampshire.