An anomaly? How Utah’s record-low snowpack hurt the state’s ski resorts

SALT LAKE CITY — A few opinions come to mind when Alison Palmintere is asked to describe Utah’s past snow year. If anything, she says it was probably anomalous.

“I think the big takeaway from this year is that it really is just an anomaly, and the ski industry here in Utah is really at the mercy of Mother Nature,” said Palmintere, spokeswoman at Ski Utah, a nonprofit organization that promotes Utah’s 15 ski resorts.

This past winter wasn’t the worst on record for the ski industry, but it’s one the industry would like to forget.

Approximately 4.8 million skier visits were recorded at Utah’s 15 resorts throughout the 2025-2026 ski season, according to new Ski Utah visitation data. That’s 26% below last season’s figure and the lowest since resorts were forced to close early during the 2019-2020 season over the COVID-19 pandemic.

It was also a large drop-off from the record-setting 7 million visits recorded when Utah received a record-high snowfall during the 2022-2023 season.

This year’s poor numbers are tied to Mother Nature dealing Utah a bad hand. Utah experienced its lowest snowpack on record, which reflects the amount of water in new snowfall, but many resorts also struggled to maintain operations because of record-warm temperatures throughout most of the snow collection season.

Long, warm periods between storms and warmer storms that produced more rain in higher-elevation areas that typically receive snow crushed many resorts, while also making it difficult for them to manufacture their own snow.

Alta Ski Area only collected 321 inches of snowfall this year, which was less than 60% of its average snowfall and a little more than one-third of the total it collected three years ago, when Mother Nature provided an “unprecedented” record-high snowfall.

It was worse for resorts in lower elevations. Nordic Valley closed on March 8, weeks after temporarily closing in February due to its conditions. Many others also closed in March, as June-like temperatures melted off even some high-elevation snow.

Some late-season snowstorms helped some resorts stay open a little longer. Brighton and Snowbird ultimately lasted the longest among Utah resorts, closing down on May 10 — a month earlier than the record 2023 season, in Snowbird’s case.

This past year also showed how resilient Utah’s ski industry is, Palmintere adds. Despite the hardships, she said it was a pretty good year for beginners learning how to ski or snowboard, skiing on machine-groomed slopes or enjoying various off-slope amenities.

She credits some of that to investments that many resorts made after the equally tumultuous 1976-1977 season.

“While conditions sometimes weren’t optimal, I think those who were out there consistently on the mountain and skiing were still having a great time,” she said.

It’s unclear yet what the skier visit drop-off meant economically for Utah. The previous season’s 6.5 million skier visits translated into $2.51 billion in spending, spurring $342.6 million in state and local taxes and supporting 31,800 direct jobs, per the University of Utah Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute.

Utah certainly wasn’t alone in the challenges, though. Snowpack levels were well below normal or hit record lows across the West this past winter. Preliminary data indicate that nationwide skier visits fell by about 14%, largely due to weather patterns in the West, the National Ski Areas Association reported in May.

“Few seasons demonstrate as clearly as this one how dependent our industry remains on regional weather patterns,” said Michael Reitzell, the association’s president and CEO, in a statement at the time.

The hope is that the 2025-2026 season is a one-off, remaining an anomaly in the record books. If there’s hope, Reitzell added that many lower-snow seasons are followed by a “strong rebound.”