A Colorado trade group says skier visits for the early season at its 22 member resorts were down 7.7 percent from the previous season.

Colorado Ski Country USA announced the decrease today for the period covering Oct. 15 through Dec. 31. The group didn’t release numbers of people who visited.

Despite the drop, the association said, some resorts experienced record volumes of guests during the four days of the 2009 New Year’s week, after the early-season time period.

The numbers don’t include visits to four Colorado ski resorts owned by Vail Resorts Inc., which opted not to belong to the trade group this season. Vail Resorts said this month that early-season skier visits at its five resorts, including one in California, were down 5.8 percent.