Ski resorts shutting down soon
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) - Spring weather is coming, temperatures are warming up and this brings a slow end to the skiing and snowboarding season.
But many local resorts are not going quietly.
Ski resorts across eastern idaho and western wyoming are shutting down within the next week or two.
We talked with many resorts on Friday who said the same message about their season: it was a great success.
Despite receiving their third lowest total snowpack in their history, Kelly Canyon managed to create more snow.
"Snowmaking was great for us this year. We were open from december 15th and we'll be open till tomorrow and all of our lives and all our runs were open for the entire year," Doug Swanson of Kelly Canyon said.
Most resorts though didn't need to make additional snow.
Pebble Creek and Jackson Hole Ski Resort received near record breaking snowfall.
In fact, Pebble Creek will be open for an additional weekend on April 6 and April 7 thanks to the snow still available.
What might be more impressive is Jackson Hole is doing the same thing.
"We go all the way through Sunday, April 14. This year it's been our longest ski season in the history of the resort, 142 days of skiing. That's been really fun. As I said, we got a whole bunch of snow in the beginning of March. We got some snow over the last week or so to the 20 inches, and we have more snow in the forecast," Andrew Way said.
Most resorts were making noise to prep up some festivities to celebrate the final days.
"We have a bonus coming up next saturday where we do the Pond Skim and the Slush Cup is what we call it. Costume contest. It's a big event," Gretchen Anderson said.
Kelly Canyon and Pebble Creek are both hosting their own pond skims this Saturday afternoon.
Once the season end, we just have to look forward to the next snowfall coming next winter.
And Pebble Creek already has special plans.
"This summer, we are excited because we will be putting in a surface conveyor lift. Most likely you would know it as a magic carpet, but we're excited that we're going to be putting one of those in on the aspen this summer, so it'll be ready to go for next season," Dana Kmetz said.
They aren't alone.
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort will be replacing their sublet chair with a faster lift, and Kelly Canyon will expand their snowmaking to places higher up and they are looking into a new light system for night skiing.
