12 U.S. Ski Areas Re-Opened This Winter, 5 Closed
Triumphant comebacks for Norway Mountain and Hatley Pointe, fizzling in California, and dad-gummit Alabama turns at last
Counting active ski areas is like counting seashells on a beach. Take a snapshot and it’s Instapost-ready. But four seconds later, a wave rolls in and slightly reorders things. Then another wave, and another. We never have the same set of seashells for long.
Here’s how the seashells scattered across the U.S. ski universe this winter:
3 ski areas re-opened after multi-year closures
9 ski areas opened after missing only the 2023-24 winter (1 more may join them in May)
5 ski areas – 4 of them in California – missed the 2024-25 winter after operating last year (none of the closures is likely permanent)
8 ski areas remained closed for their second consecutive winter following some period of stability
2 ski areas that typically operate chairlifts were only able to operate surface lifts on beginner terrain - both due to lack of snowmaking
I removed 2 ski areas from the active lift-served ski areas list that once ran surface lifts, but have removed them.
All of which adds up to 501 active U.S. ski areas for the 2024-25 ski season, if Beartooth Basin, the nation’s only summer-only ski area, opens next month, as announced. That’s a decrease of eight ski areas from my preseason estimate of 509, a mix of administrative error and operational failure.
My research also uncovered a handful of ski areas that I had thought were active for the 2023-24 winter, but were actually shuttered, leaving us with a 2023-24 total of 494 ski areas.
I’d say that’s my final count: 501 active ski areas, up seven from the previous winter. But the waves keep coming, which is why this is a living list.
Sometime next month, the NSAA will release their annual number of operating ski areas (their list is not public), that will differ from mine. Part of that difference is in what we count as a ski area. Resort operators will often count one or more physically separate hills as a single ski area. This is fine if you can ski or ride a lift between them, or walk across the street from one to the other, as you can at Dartmouth Skiway in New Hampshire. But if you have to drive or take transit, it is a separate ski area, no matter what the marketing materials say, so I count two ski areas, not one, each for Big Bear (Snow Summit, Bear Mountain), Mountain High (East and West), Loveland (the main hill and Loveland Valley), Sun Valley (Bald and Dollar), Snowriver (Black River Basin and Jackson Creek Summit), Summit at Snoqualmie (Alpental and the three interconnected Summit ski areas), Snowshoe (the main hill/Western Territories and Silver Creek), Jack Frost Big Boulder, and Boston Mills Brandywine. Conversely, I count one ski area for separate but lift-connected Palisades Tahoe and Sugarbush. The NSAA also counts some things that I don’t, like this carpet-skiing operation in Virginia. I’m not a snow snob, but I only ski on snow.
Anyway, here’s a rundown of every U.S. ski area that went through some sort of status change over the past year, and what I think it means for their individual futures: