About last weekend...

This past weekend was a busy one for our team at Snowriver with the typical spike in visitation over the Martin Luther King holiday weekend and the additional impacts of a large youth ski race. We want to take a moment to acknowledge the feedback we’ve received and share how we are addressing your concerns moving forward.  

Some guests expressed frustration over limited terrain access due to racing operations. While these events are a longstanding tradition, we recognize that the closures were not communicated as clearly or prominently as they should have been. Part of that breakdown came during our recent transition to new websites earlier this winter. While the change was meant to improve communication long-term, delays in the rollout meant some important details — including full race information — weren’t as visible as they should have been at a time when many of you were planning trips.  

Regardless of the reason, we sincerely apologize for the frustration this caused and the perception that we intended to deceive our guests. Moving forward, please continue to check our Mountain Report page on our website for the most updated information in real time. When significant impacts are expected, like we’re seeing this week, we’ll continue to place that information right at the top of the page so it’s easy to find when you’re planning ahead. 

In addition to race-related closures, we also ran into an unexpected electrical issue with the Capstan Double early Saturday morning (January 17). Normally, we’d shift operations to the Drawstroke Double, but that lift has also been experiencing electrical issues that our team had already been actively troubleshooting. The combination of those problems had the very real impact of reducing our operating footprint further, to approximately 70% of our total terrain, during one of the season's busiest weekends. We continue to focus on getting those lifts back up and running as soon as possible, and our teams will continue working to that end through the cold days ahead. Our objective is always to offer as much terrain as possible. After all, we’re skiers too and want to enjoy the deep powder as much as you do.  

On the Jackson Creek side, we also heard from guests who were confused about how to move around race closures, particularly with Borealis and F.I.S. closed. While access routes were available to reach CloudFront and Bear Creek terrain, we didn’t do a good enough job showing people how to use them. 

While it’s possible to get around the racing to access the rest of our terrain, we recognize that we need to do a better job showing people how to go about doing that. Our team is working to add improved directional signage to help guide guests to and from the terrain on the west side of Jackson Creek for the rest of this season. As we look towards the summer and next season, we'll be looking at how we can move some dirt around to improve the flow and accessibility during race closures.  

Despite these challenges, we are encouraged by the countless guests that came out to enjoy the incredible snow over the weekend and shared their good experiences with us. We remain committed to making every visit as enjoyable as possible, and to rebuild trust with you through a swift response to your feedback and ongoing improvements to the resort and our operations. 

Thank you for your honest feedback. We are listening and taking action, because your experience matters to us. We look forward to welcoming you back to the mountain and providing a better experience that you expect and deserve. 

-Benjamin Bartz, Chief of Resort Operations