Earth — While many people focused on golf, hiking, and mountain biking this summer, several significant ski industry news stories occurred. Various mountains were sold, wildfires raged throughout the West, and the Southern Hemisphere was in the midst of its ski season. With it now being fall (we know, meteorological fall started 23 days ago), it seems like a good time to reminisce over a busy summer in the ski industry. Here’s a recap of what happened across the ski industry this summer.
Beartooth Basin Doesn’t Open, Lists For Sale: If you want to ski in the summertime, Beartooth Basin is usually one of the best places to go. It didn’t snow much in Beartooth Pass during the winter of 2024, which resulted in the Wyoming ski area not operating this spring/summer. In addition, the owners announced a month later that Beartooth Basin was for sale. No word has emerged yet as to whether somebody has bought the Wyoming ski area.
Deer Valley Opening First Phase Of Expansion This Winter: Over the past several years, a new ski resort complex has been developing right next to Deer Valley. Alterra was announced as the operator of these new lifts last year, and their ski resort expansion plan has quickly been formulated. Earlier this month, Deer Valley announced that part of the expansion will open during the 2024-25 season. Over twenty trails and three chairlifts will debut at Deer Valley this winter. The signature lift will be the Keetley Express, a detachable high-speed six-pack bubble chairlift. Most of the terrain and lifts from this expansion will debut during the 2025-26 season.
Killington Sold To Local Investors: One of the most surprising stories this past summer was Killington & Pico’s sale to local investors. It was a shock because not many knew that this transaction would take place and that it didn’t sell to a major corporation. POWDR will stick around as a minority investor, and Killington will stay on the Ikon Pass for this winter. The Mountain Times wrote a great article about the new owners, which you can read here.
POWDR Selling Three More Ski Resorts: In addition to announcing the sale of Killington & Pico, POWDR revealed that they will also sell Eldora, Mt. Bachelor, and SilverStar. Over at Mt. Bachelor, two locals are leading efforts to try to acquire the Oregon ski resort. According to Castanet, POWDR has also received interest from companies looking to acquire SilverStar.
Southern Hemisphere Ski Season Recap: Some ski resorts did great, while others experienced a roller coaster ride. Australian ski resorts struggled, with a late start, a decent heart of winter, and a warm and wet spring, leading to early closures. Lesotho’s only ski resort reopened this winter, but they didn’t see much snow. New Zealand has had an up-and-down winter, but it has had a snowy stretch lately. South America saw a lot of snow in the early season, opening many ski resorts early. The rest of the season has been feast or famine, but it’s considered one of their best seasons in the past decade.
Wildfires Wreak Havoc Across Western North America Ski Industry: No ski resort was severely damaged like Sierra-at-Tahoe was in the summer of 2022, but several ski resorts got close to being damaged. In Canada, the Jasper Wilfire Complex damaged many parts of Jasper National Park. It got very close to Marmot Basin, but it didn’t cause any damage to the ski resort.
Wildfires also got close to ski resorts like Big Bear Mountain Resort, Mt. Baldy, Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe, Ski Apache, and Sky Tavern, but the wildfires didn’t damage their properties.
A wildfire swept through Mountain High Resort nearly two weeks ago, leading to some scary photos and videos. Thankfully, their base area facilities and lifts weren’t damaged, but they have canceled all their fall events to clean up. It’s unclear how much damage the ski resort is facing. Another casualty was the Alto Ski Shop in New Mexico, which burnt down. A GoFundMe has been started to help them rebuild.
The World’s Largest Indoor Ski Resort Opens: China’s latest indoor ski resort is a record-breaker. The over 968,752-square-foot facility features several trails, various lifts (including a gondola), ski-in/ski-out villas, a snow train, a zipline, and more attractions. It held pre-opening trials in August, with its grand opening on September 6th.
Image/Video Credits: Killington Resort (Featured Image), Beartooth Basin, Deer Valley Resort, Mt. Bachelor, Ski Portillo, Marmot Basin, Sky Tavern, Mountain High Resort, France 24 English
