Warm weather, light snow: How an unusual winter has affected Idaho ski areas
For Ken Rider, much of this winter has felt like “Groundhog Day” — day after day of unseasonably warm temperatures as high-pressure systems moved over Idaho, often bringing blue skies to McCall’s Brundage Mountain Resort where Rider is general manager.
“I’d go through looking at the forecast every hour, every two hours, and I’m like, ‘I gotta stop doing this,’ ” Rider told the Idaho Statesman. “ ’I’m driving myself nuts.’ ”
Record warm temperatures in December have shifted into a historic snow drought that has Idaho water experts concerned, but local ski areas say they haven’t fared as poorly as the public seems to think, though they’ve seen impacts on attendance and finances that could stretch to next year.
Resorts in Utah, Colorado and Washington have lamented the lackluster season. But some of the ski areas closest to the Treasure Valley said they’ve been painted with the same brush as other mountains in the West that have closed down or limited terrain this season when that hasn’t been the case for them.
“One of the bigger challenges I think that we’re all facing is the fact that the message to the guests, to the skiing public, has been that skiing in the West right now has been bad, and that the conditions are bad everywhere,” Rider said.
Lack of snow proves challenging for Idaho ski areas
Local ski areas like Tamarack Resort in Donnelly had to delay opening for the 2025-26 season or get creative with their usual offerings. Bogus Basin Mountain Recreation Area near Boise, which has been open daily since Thanksgiving, lightened its season pass rules in December to allow opportunities for various passholders to access the mountain as it waited for conditions to improve.
Typically ski areas would turn to snowmaking to help bolster the limited snowfall this winter. Most mountains around the Boise area have invested in extensive snowmaking systems in recent years that have proven especially useful during other low snow years. In November 2023, for instance, Bogus Basin opened on 100% machine-made snow for the first time in its history.
Tamarack Chief Operations Officer Kara Finley told the Statesman in an interview that simply wasn’t possible this year.
“We’re really lucky in that we have a really large capacity to make snow, but you can’t make snow when it’s 45 degrees,” Finley said. “That just makes rain.”
She said Tamarack also took the downtime as a chance to get creative. It added a pop-up holiday cocktail bar, offered various kids activities, opened an art gallery and reconfigured its sports school space.
“If our guests aren’t going to have the powder days to ski, it doesn’t mean that it can’t still be an enjoyable experience, so what can we do to really make it fun?” Finley said.
Snowfall in January and February has helped ski areas bulk up their snow bases, but snow totals still remain far below normal for this time of year. By early March, Tamarack had half of its normal 300 inches of annual snowfall. Brundage had 180 inches, a little more than half of its average 320-inch annual snowfall. And Bogus Basin had 108 inches, or around 40% of its average 250 inches of annual snowfall.
Still, Brundage and Tamarack have opened their entire mountains this season. Bogus Basin has opened about two-thirds of its terrain, spokesperson Susan Saad told the Statesman.
Some of the foothills surrounding Sun Valley Resort near Ketchum were still bare Friday, and Soldier Mountain — a small ski area near Fairfield — announced the same day that it would close for the rest of the season.
“This was not a choice we wanted to make,” Soldier Mountain said in its announcement. “Like many of you, we’ve been hoping for winter to finally arrive and allow us to open more terrain and build momentum for the season. Unfortunately, the conditions simply haven’t improved enough to safely continue operations.”
Bogus, Brundage, Tamarack deal with attendance, financial impacts
Some skiers and snowboarders have opted to stay home this season, and Idaho ski areas have tried hard to coax them back to the mountains.
Tamarack and Brundage have offered deals to people who have passes at other mountains. Brundage is also offering discounts to friends and family of its own pass holders.
“We’re not seeing our own pass holders come up as much right now, and that’s understandably so,” Rider said. “They’ve got this perception out there that conditions are bad everywhere.”
Saad told the Statesman that “visitation typically reflects conditions” and noted that Bogus is “grateful for the continued support from our guests and season pass holders this season.”
At Tamarack, Finley said season pass holder visits are in good shape, but day pass visitation has been down.
The ski areas had to weigh conditions, visitation and the financial impacts from the current season as they prepared season pass sales for the 2026-27 season. The sales typically launch around Presidents Day.
Brundage and Bogus Basin froze prices on season passes for the coming season — a concession, as prices have increased steadily in recent years along with business costs.
Ski area officials are still hopeful they can finish the season strong. Finley said Tamarack is on track to close in April, which is its typical time.
Rider said after a round of snow in February helped bolster snowpack on the mountain, Brundage has seen traffic pick up and feedback from visitors has been “phenomenal.”
“Every time it snows, it just continues to get better and better and better,” Rider said. “We’re seeing a lot of season pass holders that are coming up for the first time in the last couple of weeks, and they’re like: ‘Oh, this is great. We should have come up earlier.’ ”
