Just three years ago, Park City Mountain Resort, and most of the West for that matter, received a record amount of snowfall. On average, Park City Mountain & Canyons receive just under 300″ of total snowfall per year, but during the 2022-2023 season we received 612″ of snowfall. Yet, here we are, wrapping up the 2025-2026 ski season and Park City has only recorded 171″ or half the average. And the lack of snow was painfully evident throughout the winter. The mountains and hills normally blanketed in at least some amount of snow from November to April were nearly brown or tan instead. Rocks were scattered around the ski resort trails because of the minimal coverage throughout the entire season. To make matters worse, the daily temperatures hovered regularly into the 40s & 50s for most of the coldest months, making it nearly impossible to hold onto the snow that did fall during the cold spells. Yet, looking back, it was somehow an incredible winter and ski season.
The older I get, the more I realize how it’s all about perspective. Obviously, I’d prefer to be skiing bottomless powder every weekend, yet his past winter made half my friends hang up the skis for the season by the middle of January. Yet, after being away from Utah for a year in North Carolina and not really getting to ski the winter before that while being on the road, I found this winter was still amazing and needed to make the most of it. Even after skiing the same mountain since 2018, I got to experience this mountain in a new way, and that was mostly finding a way to enjoy skiing groomer trails for the first time in years. I never thought that I would have a favorite section of trail because it’s the perfect pitch for a groomer to carve at high speeds without getting out of hand. And after this year, I can give you 5 examples at Park City Mountain and Canyons. Like the top roller from 1/2 Load to Claim Jumper, Upper Harmony down to the Daybreak Chair, upper section of Chicane before the slow signs, Hawkeye off Pioneer chair before the opening to Woodside, and even skiing Blanche a hundred times when family came out to visit.
What was it really like? The most prominent memory was how warm it was the entire year. Conditions normally reserved for April, started in December and never stopped. The snow was spring, mashed potatoes every day. If you wore a puffy jacket, you were sweating while in the lift lines. Court and I wore sweaters and 1/4-zips half the time. You could bring out the 78mm underfoot carving skis for the first two hours of the day, but by the afternoon, you’d need the 100mm underfoot powder skis to stay on top of all the slush. The moguls that normally form over days of skiing after a storm, were building up to knee high every single day. The snow in the base areas, baking in the sun all day, was easily boot-deep when trudging around at the end of the day.
Beyond the ski resorts, even the town was completely different. The lack of snow steered most of the tourism away throughout the winter. With less people, grocery store shelves stayed full and were never busy, traffic was next to nonexistent, and the restaurants and bars you normally avoid until summer had no issues getting a table. Many of the ski shops had excess ski gear and sales way earlier in the season with the lack of business. And the industries like snow removal and snowmobiling were drastically hit, as there simply wasn’t enough snow on the ground to have any need. I am aware that the town’s businesses struggled immensely during a winter like this, and the town cannot survive consecutive low snow years, but it was nice living in a quieter town this winter for once.
A normal year in Park City will have two or three distinct false springs, where we get warming temperatures to melt snow and provide a little bit of hope that summer is close. For the most part, that doesn’t happen until April or May. But this year, each week provided a sneak-peak of what summer has in store. We had thaws that would last for days, especially during the January dry spell where zero snow fell for 30 days, from January 10th to February 10th. The last XC ski trails melted off by middle of January, and we were out hiking trails in Round Valley and Glenwild by February. Albeit, some days were muddier than others during parts of winter. By the end of March, the trails were so dry, friends were out riding mountain bikes already, of course, to the disappointment of the fat bikers who experienced only the briefest of riding seasons this year.
Was it all bad? Of course not, even a sub 200″ season still means quite a bit of snow for parts of the season. By the middle of February, winter returned dropping over 2 feet of snow in 72hrs, and luckily, Courtney and I were able to cut out of work one afternoon and score one of the best ski days of my life. Lapping a near empty Sunrise Peak Express chair a half dozen times to get perpetually refilling powder runs over a thousand feet of descent. This was also my first true powder day on a snowboard and it was a completely new world and experience, feeling like I was surfing an endless wave down a mountain. I was physically unable to contain my stoke, involuntarily yipping and hollering the whole way back down to the chairlift. And sure, does a normal season have one of these storms a week, yes, but odds they fall on a day that I can actually make it out to ski tend to be fewer and fewer each year, so this was one day that I’ll never forget.
Other highlights of the winter were all the events and celebrations put on by the resort or town. With the olympics happening, we got the chance to go night skiing and then celebrate the opening ceremonies. Other events during the olympics brought in a version of curling to the village area during some apres. This year also was the last Sundance hosted in Park City, which held the normal amount of parties, events, and concerts, but with a little bit excitement though it was a bittersweet celebration. And with the lack of snowfall, I felt more locals got out for uphill laps before and after the resorts operating hours, meaning the main run was normally filled with headlamps hiking up the 1,500ft of vertical gain to ski human powered laps every morning and night.
All in all, yes, this winter sucked, but only in terms of how little snow actually fell during the season. At the same time, I will remember this winter as one of my favorites for so many other reasons. I’m sure this will lead us into an arid summer filled with forest fires throughout the west, and we will no doubt be choking on smoke until the fall rains return in October. Since there’s no point worrying or complaining about the things that are out of anyone’s control, like the weather, it’s nice to appreciate the little things that we normally do take for granted each year when the lifts start spinning. Here’s to next year, I’ll start praying for snow now in hopes mother nature hears me by then.
Hi there, my name is Zachary Kenney and I’m an adventure filmmaker & photographer. My passion is to tell stories that will hopefully motivate you to go live a more adventurous life. Whether that is to experience the view from the summit of a mountain, or wandering through a new town on a road trip. Currently based in the Park City, Utah.
