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Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, Snow King Mountain Resort and Grand Targhee Resort all need more snow.
Each have postponed their planned openings and are not saying yet when their lifts will start to turn for the ski season
Jordan Wilsted with Grand Targhee says two things need to happen: consistent low temperatures to make snow and more natural precipitation, snowflakes.
“We’re taking it day by day as we kind of evaluate the weather,” Wilsted said.
This fall has brought near-record-setting warm temperatures, according to meteorologist Alan Smith. That’s curbed typical snowmaking efforts. The warm temperatures are a trend in the Rocky Mountain West. A report from research nonprofit Climate Central shows that since 1970, Teton County’s average fall temperatures have warmed 3.1 degrees Fahrenheit.
“So we’ve certainly had slow starts to winter,” Wilsted said, “This one seems particularly slow. It seems like it’s really across the West, from Montana to Colorado to Idaho and Wyoming.”
University of Wyoming experts have warned that climate change could mean less snow.
The decision to delay opening days temporarily halts lodging sales, forces credited or refunded tickets and pushes back some employee start dates at Snow King, Jackson Hole and Grand Targhee Resorts.
Still, they’ve seen this before. Grand Targhee Resort was last delayed opening in 2021. Jackson Hole last delayed in 2016 and Snow King in 2023.
“It’s always a bummer to not have skiers up here before Thanksgiving like we normally do,” Wilsted said, “but ski resorts are prepared to weather this kind of storm and we know that winter’s just around the corner.”
Three-month forecasts show below-average temperatures and above-average snow due to La Niña weather patterns for most of winter, though Smith says those patterns are “weak.”
