With Thanksgiving a mere nine days away, Tahoe ski resorts are anxious to raise the curtain on the 2025-26 ski season.
A lack of snow is one reason there has been no skiing or snowboarding yet in the Lake Tahoe region. However, an unseasonably warm November is also a major contributing factor. High temperatures mean no snowmaking.
SEE PROJECTED TAHOE SKI RESORT OPENINGS BELOW
Ski resorts across the country all hope to get the lifts running by Turkey Day. A closure over the Thanksgiving holiday means missing out on revenue from lift tickets, lessons, rentals, food, and other on-site sales during a time when there is demand. It also typically means local hotel vacancies are down in the region.
“Thanksgiving is the first big week for Tahoe. That’s when a lot of ski resorts always plan their projected opening day,” said Boreal Mountain spokesperson Tucker Norred.
A year ago, there were seven Tahoe ski resorts open for Thanksgiving (Heavenly, Northstar, Sugar Bowl, Palisades Tahoe, Boreal Mountain, Granlibakken, Mt. Rose). But only Mt. Rose was open on Nov. 18, after staging its season-opener Nov. 8.
With modest snowfall coming earlier this week and more likely to drop Thursday (Nov. 20), there’s still optimism for Thanksgiving openings. Mt. Rose could once again be the first Tahoe -area ski resort to open after receiving 7-10 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours.
“The weather is trending in the right direction, but we still have a little way to go,” said Mt. Rose spokesperson Mike Pierce. “We are optimistic that we’ll make Thanksgiving (or sooner), but we need the cold temps to continue so we can support the natural snowfall with loads of snowmaking. Once we achieve a packed base of 12-14 inches, we’ll let the ‘snow cat’ out of the bag and announce an opening day.”
At Boreal Mountain, the recent storm brought the resort’s total this season to 9 inches. “We are still shooting for a Nov. 21 opening, but that date is weather dependent,” Norred said.
On Monday morning, Palisades Tahoe reported 7 inches of new snow and more of the white stuff continued to drop that day.
“We’re now less than 10 days from opening day and this latest round of snowfall is giving our base a big boost,” said Palisades Tahoe spokesperson Patrick Lacey.
Sugar Bowl is also optimistic that its ski season is imminent after getting 10 inches of snow since Sunday and cold temperatures conducive for snowmaking are in the forecast.
“We’re now targeting next Friday (Nov. 28) for opening day, conditions permitting,” said Sugar Bowl spokesperson Maggie Eshbaugh. “We’re stoked to be this close to kicking off the 2025-26 season. We’ll keep everyone posted as we get closer and finalize our operating
HEAVENLY, NORTHSTAR UPDATES: Due to lack of snow and seasonably high temperatures, the two Vail resorts in Tahoe have pushed back their opening dates.
“Mother Nature arrived fashionably late to the party, so we will not hit our originally targeted openings this Friday,” Vail Resorts spokesperson Cole Zimmerman told Tahoe Ski World on Wednesday.
Currently, there are no Tahoe ski resorts open. With another day of light snow projected Thursday (Nov. 20), that could change.
However, Zimmerman says that neither Heavenly or Northstar will be able meet their projected Nov. 21 opening. Kirkwood has a planned Dec. 5 opening that is still likely to happen.
“The good news is that snow and colder temps have arrived (this week) and the forecast ahead looks promising,” Zimmerman said. “We are making progress and our teams are ready to make snow at any and every opportunity as we work hard to get folks skiing and riding soon.”
MAMMOTH OPENING THURSDAY: Located on California’s Eastern Sierra range, approximately 100 miles south of the Nevada state line and 50 minutes from the eastern gate of Yosemite, Mammoth appears to be the first California ski resort to offer skiing and riding this season.
The projected opening is Thursday (Nov. 20).The resort says it received 18-32 inches of natural snowfall since Sunday and more is in the forecast this week. Mammoth’s original projected opening day was Nov. 14.
“Thanks to Mother Nature coming through with this past storm cycle and our snowmaking teams taking advantage of colder temps, we are making substantial progress on the necessary base needed for opening,” said a statement from Mammoth.
COLORADO SKI SEASON HAS BEGUN: Mother Nature has been more obliging to Colorado than other U.S. states. Several snow storms and cold temperatures have helped kick-start the 2025-26 season in the Rockies.
Currently eight Colorado ski resorts have opened this season. Among the resorts are Vail, Breckenridge, Winter Park, Copper Mountain and Arapahoe Basin.
Utah and Oregon ski resorts have not been as fortunate. As of Nov. 18, there are no ski resorts open in either state.
PROJECTED TAHOE SKI RESORT OPENINGS
- Mt. Rose: TBA
- Heavenly: TBA
- Northstar California: TBA
- Boreal: Nov. 21
- Palisades Tahoe: Nov. 26
- Granlibakken: Nov. 27
- Sugar Bowl: Nov. 28
- Sierra-at-Tahoe: Nov. 28
- Soda Springs: Nov. 28
- Diamond Peak: Dec. 4
- Kirkwood: Dec. 5
- Homewood: Dec. 12
- Tahoe Donner: Dec. 19
