Temps in the 60s. Skiers and boarders in T-shirts and shorts. Dirt and green grass. Puddles of what once was snow.
That was the unusual scene at ski resorts around the state and Rocky Mountain region over the last week or so. Many had to close early, cutting profit losses from an underwhelming winter.
“Just looking outside right now from our main chair lift, we don't have a path of snow to any runs at this time. It's all mud at this point,” said Corwin Hoban, assistant superintendent at Casper’s Hogadon Basin Ski Area.
Hoban and his team ended three weeks early on March 22. They made the call as they watched the “white ribbon of death” – the abnormally slender path of snow from the chairlift to the ski runs – melt before their eyes.
They’re still ready to reopen for one last weekend if a spring snowstorm hits. But Hoban said it’s unlikely.
“We are looking at a high today in the 70s, which is definitely abnormal,” he said. “We typically would still be seeing high 30s at most, and lows in the teens or 20s.”
The resort averages 150 inches of snowfall in a season. This year was 59 inches.
“A lot of that melted away. So we were existing pretty much entirely on man-made snow,” said Hoban, adding that they only opened their most popular run briefly in early March.
The stats for visitation were grim, too. Typically, Hogadon sees 18,000 visitors in a season. This year saw less than a third – about 5,000.
Hoban said the resort, which is owned by the City of Casper, took a financial hit. If mild winters continue, he said they might look to summer amenities to boost revenues, like paid camping and mountain biking, a move many other ski areas across the country have taken in an effort to balance their books.
On the western side of the state near Cokeville, Pine Creek Ski Resort closed one week early on March 21. It was becoming a safety issue.
“The [snow] runoff has created a creek running down to the lift, and so for people to have to navigate through that would have been challenging,” said Alicia Etcheverry, assistant manager for Pine Creek.
The resort also took a financial hit. Even in the heart of winter, snowstorms were followed by a warm weather cycle.
“Offsetting operating costs and insurance has become more and more stressful as costs go up in the world, and so we're really dependent on skier visits meeting that. This year was a hard hit,” Etcheverry said.
A lot of Pine Creek’s customer base is from out of town. Etcheverry said that driving a couple of hours for questionable skiing is a risk some weren’t willing to take. That meant fewer people spending money at the three businesses in Cokeville: the Flying J gas station, Hideout Motel and Gold Buckle Grill.
Looking to next winter, sales for pre-season ski passes are already low.
“Once it gets to fall and winter again, snow starts coming, typically then we do see another uptick in season pass sales,” Etcheverry said, noting that she’s trusting it will reliably snow next season.
White Pine Ski Resort, near Pinedale, also closed a week early. On the last ski day, March 22, the snow liquefied beneath people’s skis. The snowy path to get onto the chairlift melted into a gravel mud puddle.
“It was a swimming pool. We should have been checking for floaties and not lift passes, it was pretty warm,” said Dalan Adams, general manager of White Pine.
The only reason the “swimming pool” existed was because Adams’ team hauled in dump trucks of snow from the surrounding forest. Ski Patrol also spray painted orange on large rocks exposed on ski runs. White Pine’s snowfall totals for the year were about half of normal.
However, Adams said finances weren’t so bleak this season.
“It felt pretty busy to me,” he said, noting he didn’t have specific numbers.
Adams credited it to a loyal customer base and a new marketing push, like a revamped website and social media presence. Adams is new to the team as part of a management change after Joe Ricketts, the founder and former CEO of TD Ameritrade, bought the resort in 2024. Despite having a billionaire owner, Adams said the resort still has to operate within its margins.
“A business is a business, and I'm gonna work hard to just keep running it that way, and work with what things we can generate here for ourselves,” he said.
Adams added that pre-season pass sales are about equal or slightly higher than last year. He said they created “a little bit more hype” by offering the 2026-’27 passes at a discount and allowing first-timers to ski for free for the rest of the season.
If mild winters continue, Adams said the resort may eventually look to snowmaking. He also has his sights on summer offerings.
Three other resorts in the state were impacted by poor snow conditions.
Jackson’s Snow King closed early and cancelled its World Championship Snowmobile Hill Climb.
Antelope Butte in the Bighorns is reopening for a final ski party on March 27 and 28, and they’re offering free lift passes to everyone.
Cody’s Sleeping Giant never opened this season, citing multiple reasons, including a lack of snow the previous winter.
This was the trend across the West. At least 68 ski resorts closed early or didn’t open at all due to the lack of snow and warm temperatures, according to Snow Brains.
Wyoming’s Jackson Hole Mountain Resort and Grand Targhee are attempting to stay open until their April closing days, even moving snow from lower elevation runs to more popular routes.
OpenSnow meteorologist Alan Smith told Jackson Hole Community Radio this winter was forecasted to see warmer and drier temps in most of the West. A weak La Niña climate pattern with an easterly quasi-biennial oscillation, a wind pattern, can cause colder, snowier weather in the northeast but leave the Rockies high and dry.
While one year doesn’t signify a trend, Smith said the weird weather this winter, and now spring, is still part of a larger overall trend toward warmer winters and extreme weather events.
“I’m not going to say that this entire winter was because of climate change, but I think there’s no way it didn’t play at least somewhat of a role,” Smith said.
