Only Summer-Only Ski Area in US Not opening in 2022

The Beartooth Basin summer ski area on the Montana – Wyoming state border won’t open this year.

The area usually opens from late may or early June, once the access road that’s buried for eight months of the year and then stays open so long as the snow cover lasts.

The centre’s operators said earlier this month that, on a pre-opening visit, they were concerned to find low snow cover. At the time they said they would attempt to manage snow in order to be able to open but were not optimistic, and that picture has now been confirmed.

Formerly known as the Red Lodge International Ski and Snowboard Camp, where athletes would train year-round, it was established in the mid-1960’s by Austrians Pepi Gramshammer, Eric Sailer and Anderl Molterer as an Alpine Ski Racing summer training ground.

A new team now run the centre but it has had short seasons in recent years, sometimes only a few weeks long.

Elsewhere in the US, Timberline Lodge on Mt Hood in Oregon has an unusually deep snowpack of over 200 inches (5 metres) and is currently on course to stay open through to early September.

North of the border the Blackcomb Glacier at Whistler will re-open for skiing in June and July for the first time since 2019although now only to those enrolled in club courses.

A number of other US ski areas including Arapahoe Basin and Mammoth Mountain look set to stay open in to June.