Ski Season Closing Dates

 April Powder in Beaver Creek

Spring is many skiers' favorite time of the year. Snow is deep, temperatures have moderated and the sun ends its long winter hibernation. I always tell people that if you could introduce beginners to skiing during springtime, no one would ever quit the sport. Spring skiing is skiing without all the things even diehards don't like about the sport, things like flat light and sub-zero temperatures. Unfortunately, many resorts close year after year when conditions are great. Why?

Few people realize that for some resorts closing (and opening) dates have just as much to do with the law as they do with snow depths or skier visits.

To some extent no ski resort entirely controls the length of its season. Weather obviously plays a major role in determining when a resort can open and for how long. Just ask all those Northeast resorts that had their shortest seasons in decades in 2011-12. However, even with weather taken out of the equation, many resorts still do not control the length of their season because the duration is dictated to them. Ironically, many Northeast ski areas have complete control over their season lengths, but are constrained by the weather while many Western resorts have favorable weather. To understand why this is the case, a brief history lesson is necessary.

If few skiers realize that some of their favorite resorts' seasons are dictated by law, even fewer realize the reason is rooted in how the continent was settled. During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, colonists  landed on the Atlantic coast and quickly gobbled up all the available land. As the frontier marched westward in search of free land, homesteaders also laid down roots, but vast areas of the west remained unsettled. As a result, the federal government became a major landowner.  The map below illustrates this concept.

As the map above demonstrates, on average, less than 5% of the land in the original thirteen colonies is owned by the federal government. In the West, the pattern is quite different. The federal government is by far the biggest landowner. How does land ownership affect ski season? Simple. Many of the country's best known resorts operate in partnership with the U.S. Forest Service. 

In the West, the majority of skiable acreage is leased from the federal government. Most resorts have managed to acquire some private land. Occasionally, skiable terrain is located on private property that was once an old mining claim (e.g Snowbird).  Resorts can purchase land on the open market (if it's available) or frequently they will do a "land swap" with the forest service to obtain a small tract of useful land in a prime development location in exchange for a larger tract elsewhere in the park.  This is how many resorts have acquired private land on which to build their base villages.

The Forest Service is charged with protecting the federal land, so it imposes certain conditions on the resort's use of the leased property. One of those "conditions" is the length of the season. Forest Service lease terms typically run from mid-November through mid-April, so as not to interfere with wildlife migration during the spring thaw and mating season. Of course, skier visits dwindle as other activities come into season. Many resorts would close for lack of skiers even if their leases allowed for a later closing date, but if you ever wondered why Snowbird often stays open into July and neighboring Alta closes in mid-April,  now you know. So next time you're skiing in shorts on the 4th of July, be sure to raise a glass to the miners who staked those Little Cottonwood Canyon gold claims over 100 years ago.

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