“Everyone’s making the most of it and having a good day,” said Phil Stenseth, who was visiting on a business trip from Oklahoma City.
Still, he acknowledged the unusual conditions.
“It’s a bit like Armageddon when you look up at the hills and they’re all barren and brown,” he said.
Deer Valley’s March 29 closure came three weeks earlier than its planned mid-April closing. The resort’s decision followed a weeklong heat wave that sent temperatures soaring 30 degrees above average across the Wasatch Back. This winter, the resort saw less than half of its typical snowfall.
Skiers noticed.
Nicki Bain has been skiing for 60 years and lives in the Silver Lake Village. She said she’s “never” seen a winter like this.
Still, Bain logged 80 days this winter and with multiple runs below the Sterling Lift holding snow, she said it’s a miracle there was anything to ski.
“They’ve done really well considering the amount of snow they got,” she said.
The passable conditions are a credit to Deer Valley’s elaborate snowmaking operations, which the resort said are some of the most robust in the United States.
Deer Valley has employed other tactics as well. In recent weeks, groomers worked through the night to redistribute remaining snow and create skiable terrain amidst 70 degree weather.
Despite the lackluster season, skiers did make the trip.
At the JANS Mountain Outfitters outlet in the lower level of Silver Lake Lodge, Christine Blatt doled out sunscreen and energy bars to straggling skiers. Throughout the winter, many visitors were “disappointed” by the weather, but impressed with the resort’s conditions, she said.
As someone working in the snow recreation industry, the increasing unpredictability of winters in the Mountain West causes concern.
“You always say that no season repeats itself,” Blatt said. “I mean look at what we got in 2023, when we had a 500-inch base. We didn’t think we’d get that again, but certainly we didn’t think two years later we'd have this drought. So, you’re always concerned that this weather pattern can repeat. But it’s a fleeting thought. It seems impossible that it could get any worse.”
Like others on the mountain, Erin Shaffer made the best of the season, skiing 80 days. But she’s done waiting for the winter that never came.
“Oh gosh. I’m ready to switch seasons. It’s been a season to remember, for sure,” she said.
By noon on Saturday, the rising temperatures sent many heading for lunch on the Silver Lake deck where the costumes, beer pints, and bare skin attested: it must be closing weekend.
Deer Valley Resort is a financial supporter of KPCW.
