sun valley

The 2020-21 season was a record-breaking winter for Idaho ski resorts. Ski Idaho announced that 2.15 million guests shredded at the ski resorts in the state, beating the prior record of 1.88 million people that was set in the 2018-19 season. It also achieved the fifth most skier visits per capita in the United States, only getting beaten out by New Hampshire, Utah, Colorado, and Vermont.

From my discussion with Ski Idaho, it sounds like the 2021-22 season wasn’t a record-breaking year. While mountains like Bogus Basin had a record amount of snow in December, the rest of the winter saw little snowfall. In spite of this, they are bound for a rebound season for this upcoming winter.

In my opinion, there are a few factors to Idaho’s growth in skier visitation. Idaho, and its capital city of Boise, are some of the fastest growing states and cities, in the country respectively.

Secondly, multi-resort season passes are on the rise. The Epic Pass did have Sun Valley on its pass, but the ski resort has since moved to Ikon, which strengthens its offerings. The Ikon Pass now features access to Schweitzer and Sun Valley. Additionally, the Indy Pass has a huge presence in Idaho, with seven resorts currently offered.

Lastly, many ski resorts in Idaho have recently expanded. Sun Valley underwent their Sunrise expansion for the 2020-21 season, Lookout Pass is adding a new peak this winter, and Schweitzer is opening a new base area for the 2023-24 season. In the future, Bogus Basin, Brundage Mountain, and Tamarack Resort are aiming to expand onto new terrain pods. With all this change and press coverage, Idaho is on skiers’ and riders’ radars.

The official press release from Ski Idaho is below:

Winter 2020-21 Brought Record Visits to Idaho Ski Areas

BOISE, Idaho (Sept. 13, 2022) — Rebounding from the COVID-19
pandemic, Idaho ski areas experienced record-breaking skier and
snowboarder visits during the winter of 2020-21 according to an
economic impact report Ski Idaho commissioned from Boulder,
Colo.-based research firm RRC Associates.

Idaho ski areas achieved 2.15 million skier and snowboarder visits
during the winter of 2020-21, exceeding its previous record of 1.88 million set during the pre-COVID winter of 2018-19 by 14.3 percent and
extending what Ski Idaho president and Bogus Basin general manager
Brad Wilson says is a long-term growth trend.The COVID-19 pandemic brought the winter 2019-20 ski season to an early close and visits to Idaho ski…