STOWE, Vt. – It started with a snowless November, got worse with a lackluster Christmas week and couldn’t recover despite a snowy February and March. And while some people were still on the slopes in April, the 2006-2007 ski season here and elsewhere will go down as a disappointment, officials say.

“There simply isn’t another Christmas holiday,” said Jeff Wise, a spokesman for Stowe Mountain.

Nationwide, there were huge disparities in winter weather conditions, said Michael Berry, president of the Colorado-based National Ski Areas Association, which represents most of the nation’s estimated 490 ski areas.

Skier visits, the group’s measure of volume, were probably down by 5 percent to 7 percent from the 58.9 million recorded the previous year, he said.

Final figures haven’t been released yet.

“All in all, we certainly won’t be setting any records, but I don’t think we’ll see a dramatic drop-off,” Berry said.

At Stowe, winter didn’t begin in earnest until Jan. 13, when temperatures dropped and a series of small storms started to blanket Mount Mansfield with snow. On Valentine’s Day, a blizzard dumped 40 inches, and the snow kept coming in March and into April.

For the year, Stowe got 374 inches, well above its 330-inch average, helping the resort remain open through the last weekend in April.

Still, skier visits statewide were expected to be down from the 2005-2006 season, when the state had about 4.1 million, according to Parker Riehle, president of the Vermont Ski Areas Association, which has yet to release its 2006-2007 statistics.

Other New England states had similar experiences.

“We don’t really get our ideal skiing conditions until mid-late January and they carry all the way into March or April, but at that point people aren’t really thinking about skiing,” said Karl Stone, a spokesman for Ski New Hampshire.

At Wildcat Mountain, in Pinkham Notch, N.H., 6 feet of snow fell in April, according to spokeswoman Irene Donnell.

“We had a late season gift from Mother Nature,” she said.

It wasn’t just alpine skiing that suffered.

Linda and David Bacon run the Canterbury Farm B&B in Becket, Mass., and rely in the winter on business from cross-country skiers. The inn was closed for skiing from Christmas to Feb. 14, but the season did improve after the big storm.

“I think people were all excited about the snow and when it did finally come, people went out and tried to enjoy it as much as what was left,” Linda Bacon said.

At Stowe, late-season snow helped the resort set records for skier visits in March and April, Wise said.

“It is phenomenal,” said snowboarder Mike Waring, of Burlington, who was there Tuesday. “To have this kind of temperature, clear blue skies and a big mountain to still flow down is quite a treat.”

At Killington ski area, which remains open through May 6, the consolation for the lackluster season is good spring skiing, which bodes well for next year, said spokesman Tom Horrocks.

“It’s left a really good taste in everybody’s mouth and made them excited for next year,” Horrocks said. “This year we’ve built a lot of momentum.”