The first snow of the season has the region’s ski resorts eager for opening day.
After the area’s first big storm this week, Jackson Hole Mountain Resort started advertising that winter is “waking up.”
The 2025-2026 winter brought dismal snow totals to resorts across the Mountain West. Teton County’s three resorts fared better than Colorado but still saw 80 inches less than its 400-inch average.
“You’re going to see lots of images of any time it snows in the next few weeks on social media,” said Snow King Mountain Resort General Manager Ryan Stanley.
Tourists often delay in booking vacations, or wait until the last minute, after a less-than-ideal ski season in what Stanley calls the “snow hangover effect.
“They’re not pumped up [like], ‘Let’s go buy a season pass,’” he said.
The resort added a dozen snow guns this year with the funds from businesses and nonprofits. Stanley hopes that will help avoid a repeat of cancelling the annual popular end-of-season snowmobile competition.
While the snow line is still in the high alpine above about 9,000 feet in elevation, Stanley hopes the Tetons’ first dusting of snow this week will alleviate anxieties from last year’s poor snow season. The Town Hill is gearing up for a Dec. 3 open date. JHMR plans to open the week before.
Meteorologist and backcountry skier Jim Woodmency said this season’s super El Niño, or warmer ocean currents, could bring less precipitation to the region. Eleven of the past 15 El Niño winters have yielded below-average snowpacks.
“Just discount anything that happens in October. It doesn’t portend what the winter will be like,” Woodmency said. But he added: “I’ll take Jackson Hole in a bad year over just about anywhere else, even a good year.”
What’s good for resort marketing doesn’t necessarily bode well for the backcountry. Precipitation can melt and re-freeze, and that weak layer can lead to more avalanches.
“I prefer to not see early-season snow,” said Frank Carus, director of the Bridger-Teton National Forest Avalanche Center. “Obviously my preference has no bearing on the situation.”
The Tetons are a “battleground area” for storm systems, especially with the unusual jet stream this winter, Carus said. “We’re going to need arctic air masses to come down from Canada now and again to make sure some of the precipitation that we get traveling this way is snow and not rain.”
There’s no reason for skiers to be too pessimistic, said Mike Rheam, a forecaster for JHMR and the avalanche center. Two of the last four super El Niño years have been above average, including in 2015-2016 and 1997-1998, he said.
JHMR made some snowmaking improvements of its own after last season. The flagship resort hasn’t seen a dip in bookings but said this week’s storm is helping boost sales.
