SAM Magazine—Neihart, Mont., Jan. 12, 2024—A few days after Showdown Montana opened for the season on Dec. 23, the ski area extended an offer for season pass holders at Blacktail Mountain Ski Area to ski for free until their home area can open. This started a trend of other open Montana ski areas extending a similar offer in response to the slow start to winter for some mountains.

On Dec. 28, Showdown Montana posted to its social media: “Our friends at Blacktail haven’t been able to open (yet!) due to lack of snow. Snow dances & prayers are out in full force and this can change at any minute but in the meantime & in an effort to support our friends, we’re offering free lift tickets to anyone with a current Blacktail season pass until Blacktail opens.” Adding “Keep the stoke alive!” and “We love you Blacktail.”

The following morning, Discovery Ski Area invited Maverick Mountain pass holders to ski for free until Maverick was able to open. Shortly thereafter, Showdown expanded the offer to pass holders at Maverick and three other Montana ski areas that had yet to open: Montana Snowbowl, Teton Pass, and Turner Mountain. 

Then on New Year’s Day, Bridger Bowl followed suit by offering the pass holders from any Montana ski area that had yet to open up to three free midweek visits in January (except MLK Monday). 

“We are taking a page out of our neighbor's playbook (Showdown Montana and Discovery Ski Area) to help get our fellow Montanans on the snow!” Bridger Bowl posted to social media.

Showdown Montana guest experience manager Munya Majongwe said, “We were overwhelmed by the responses these announcements received from people all over the region and beyond. It is the culture here in Montana; see an opportunity to help and do what we can.”

Showdown general manager Katie Boedecker (SAMMY honoree, 2022) explained that small ski areas especially cannot afford refunds of any passes or lose future pass sales that are normally expected. This can seriously impact cash flow for small ski areas operating within very tight margins.

While Montana Snowbowl was able to open with limited operations on Jan. 6, the others have yet to start their seasons, but that will soon change for some of them.

Maverick Mountain plans to open tomorrow, Jan. 13, after more than a foot of snow has fallen in the past week. It’ll be a chilly start to the season as the West is enveloped in arctic air. Maverick’s forecast is calling for a high of 0 degrees Fahrenheit tomorrow and the area is under a Wind Chill Advisory through Sunday. 

Turner Mountain Ski Area plans to open Monday, Jan. 15, and begin its normal Friday-Sunday operating schedule starting Jan. 19. 

Blacktail and Teton Pass, however, are still waiting for Mother Nature to cooperate.

The operations update posted to Blacktail’s website on Jan. 11 said: “Our mountain operations team has been working around the clock as weather allows to ensure that they are doing everything they can to prepare the mountain. We are all very anxious to get open as soon as possible; however, at this time we are several inches away from a limited opening. We are hopeful that these storms will produce, and we look forward to seeing you soon.”

The main page on Teton Pass’s website implores visitors to “Pray for Snow!” and the mountain’s tentative opening has been postponed until winter arrives.

Even if Teton Pass had enough snow to open, operations may have been interrupted this weekend anyway. The area is under a Wind Chill Warning through Sunday afternoon with the National Weather Service calling for wind chill values reaching -65 degrees Fahrenheit. 

As a side note, the weather across North America will be varied, to say the least, for this MLK long weekend. Some ski areas in the West didn’t open today due to dangerously cold temperatures, including Bridger Bowl. It plans to “reassess” for Saturday.

Further west, resorts in the Rockies, Cascades, and Sierras have been in an active pattern as of late and many are expecting a multi-day wallop of snow over the weekend. For example, Mt. Hood Meadows, Ore., reported nearly three feet of snow in the past 48 hours as of this morning. Snowbird, Utah, has gotten more than four feet in the past week and is expecting several more feet to fall through Sunday night.

Conversely, Hidden Valley Ski Resort in Pennsylvania has been enduring an extended stretch of mild weather and has yet to open for the season. It announced that it won’t open for MLK weekend, but is eyeing colder temps in the forecast next week for snowmaking. 

Much of the Northeast is expecting yet another snow-to-rain event Friday night into Saturday, with several inches of snow forecast to land before it changes to rain on Saturday morning.