US Resorts Close Early After Very Poor Winter
26th March 2026
Last modified on March 29th, 2026
Several ski resorts are closing much earlier than planned because there isn’t enough snow to keep them open. Warm temperatures also mean they are unable to make snow. UPDATED
In Utah the ski resorts have experienced one of the worst winters on record.
Deer Valley Resort closes this weekend, three weeks before its originally planned closing date of April 19th.
An unprecedented stretch of warm, dry weather has reduced the mountain’s snowpack to levels the resort says are no longer safe or skiable.
It is one of the earliest closing dates Deer Valley’s 45-year history.
“This has been an incredibly difficult call to make,” said resort spokesperson Allison Mercer.
“Our snow management team has worked around the clock, but at this point the mountain simply cannot sustain the quality experience our guests expect and deserve.
“The safety of our skiers and our staff has to come first.”
The Utah Department of Natural Resources said the snowpack across the Wasatch Range has dropped to just 41% of its historical median for late March.
“We still have snow on the upper mountain, but it’s patchy, it’s icy in places, and the lower runs are simply gone,” said Kyle Hanson, Deer Valley’s director of mountain operations.
“Trying to push through another three weeks in these conditions isn’t responsible.”
Deer Valley had to delay its opening despite a huge expansion of the ski area this winter.
The resort doubled its ski terrain with 100 new ski runs, seven new chairlifts and a 10-person gondola.
It opened 185 ski runs during the season.
Here at PlanetSKI we have been reporting on the continuing poor conditions in the USA:
In Colorado Aspen Highlands and Beaver Creek are also closing early.
Aspen Highlands will have its last day for skiing on Sunday, March 29, due to “current snow conditions,” according to the Aspen Skiing Company.
Aspen Highlands was originally scheduled to close April 12.
This follows the early closure of Buttermilk on Wednesday March 25th, a week and a half before it was originally scheduled.
Beaver Creek also closes on Sunday,
Beaver Creek vice president and chief operating officer, Bobby Murphy,said closing the resort early was not an easy decision.
“It came only after careful consideration of mountain conditions, safety, and our responsibility to operate thoughtfully,” he said.
Several ski towns in Colorado had record-breaking temperatures last week, with some having their hottest day on record in 65 years.
Aspen reached a high of 75 degrees on March 21, the hottest day of the heat wave, according to the National Weather Service.
The previous record of 70 degrees was set in 1959.
Steamboat Springs saw a temperature of 78 degrees, which surpassed a high of 64 recorded in 2017.
68 degrees was recorded in Breckenridge and 70 degrees in Vail.
The resorts of Ski Cooper and Sunlight Mountain closed last weekend.
For the last five years hundreds of women have gathered at Boot Tan Fest in Sunlight Mountains to celebrate ‘womanhood’.
It culminates in the famous ‘naked lap’ during which the ladies strip nude before shredding the mountain.
The sixth annual ski festival will go ahead from April 10th to 12th,but will not include skiing as the resort is closed.
The weather is set to cool down over the coming week, but there is no significant snow in the forecast for Colorado.
In California it has been slightly better than the other US ski states after decent snowfalls in mid-February with further snow earlier this month.
Eight resorts in California are still planning to stay open into April, but closing dates are all conditional on the weather.
Palisades Tahoe has announced it will end its season roughly a month earlier than planned.
The move follows a record-breaking March heatwave that has decimated the Sierra Nevada snowpack, forcing the region’s largest resort to abandon its traditional Memorial Day closing target in July.
Historically the last major resort in the Lake Tahoe region to close each season, Palisades had originally aimed to operate through May 25.
No date has been set for the closure but it is likely to be in late April according to conditions.
PlanetSKI visited Mammoth Mountain and Palisades Tahoe in three years ago when there was bumper snow into May and beyond.
Palisades Tahoe, California. Image © PlanetSKI
In Canada it has been very good in places and rather poor in others.
There was record breaking snow in the resorts around Banff in December when PlanetSKI was fortunate enough to be based there:
Lake Louise, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
Last weekend there was another snowfall in Kicking Horse and again we were fortunate enough to be in the resort for more fresh powder.
Kicking Horse, British Columbia, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
Kicking Horse, British Columbia, Canada. Image © PlanetSKI
See our report from Kicking Horse on Sunday 22nd March:
However, it has been a poor winter further west in Whistler where conditions have been warm.
The city of Vancouver in British Columbia has not seen any snow fall this winter, for the first time in 43 years.
In the Alps it has been a generally good winter with favourable end of season conditions.
PlanetSKI has just been visiting and handful of resorts in the French Alps:
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