Not good. Photo: Mt. Shasta resort webcam.
Much of the North American ski industry has been limping through the 2025-2026 winter season. It’s been “warm and wet” across much of the West with low snow totals at popular resorts and long stretches between storms, all after many were unable to even hit opening day schedules. The entire state of Utah is sitting on its lowest average snowpack for this late in the winter, for example.
In California, the latest casualty of this dry winter is the state’s most northern resort, Mt. Shasta Ski Park, which announced this week that it’s shutting down indefinitely due to low snow coverage.
An announcement from the resort did offer hope that snow in the forecast could make it a short, temporary closure, but other posts on the Mt. Shasta Ski Area’s Facebook page leading up to the closure pointed to the weather creating a consistent challenge for its operations throughout the season.
“Mt. Shasta Ski Park will temporarily suspend operations starting February 9th due to low snow coverage. Snow is in the forecast, and we’re hopeful to reopen as soon as conditions improve,” the resort announced on Monday.
Even with a new storm on the horizon, the warm temps have hampered efforts to keep snow at elevation.
“We lost a lot of snow this week,” reads the caption on a video from the ski park. “Our team has done the best that it can and we’re running out of creative spots to patch it together for you all.” At that time, the resort decided to cut back operating hours and shut down twilight skiing.
Across California’s northern border, Oregon’s Hoodoo Ski Area was forced to to do the same just last week. Like Shasta, Hoodoo’s announcement came with the caveat its closure will last “until Mother Nature blesses us with more snow.”
“The warm weather and sunshine has taken a huge hit on the snowpack and, unfortunately, brought us to this point,” Hoodoo announced in a social media post .