Record Warmth Forces Park City Resorts to Close Earlier Than Planned

Lifts at Deer Valley Resort and Park City Mountain's Mountain Village stopped spinning Sunday, capping a season squeezed on both ends by record-low snowfall and a March now on track to be the warmest ever recorded in the region.

Deer Valley president and chief operating officer Todd Bennett announced the closure Thursday, March 26, cutting the resort's season nearly three weeks short of its original April 19 target. Park City Mountain's Mountain Village followed the same timeline, ending operations after just 114 days on the snow. That total runs nine days shorter than the resort's March 22, 2020, pandemic shutdown and stands as one of the earliest closing dates in Deer Valley's history, behind only its March 15, 2020, closure.

The compressed finale came after Salt Lake City logged record high temperatures on five of the seven days between March 19 and March 25, according to the National Weather Service. Deer Valley received 144 inches of snow across the full season, less than half its historical average. The warmth accelerated snowmelt on lower-elevation terrain, forcing resort operations teams to reconfigure staffing, grooming schedules and lift availability to keep skiers off exposed and unsafe runs.

"These sustained warm temperatures have really taken a toll on the mountain," said John Kanaly, senior director of communications at Park City Mountain, crediting grooming and operations crews for stretching the season as long as they did.

The bookends of the 2025-26 season tell the full story. Park City Mountain delayed its opening by two weeks, launching Dec. 5, while Deer Valley held off until Dec. 6. That late start, combined with the early closure, leaves both resorts with one of their shortest operational windows in recent memory, roughly three weeks less than a typical season.

Not all of Park City Mountain shuts down immediately. Canyons Village will remain open as long as conditions allow, and the Mountain Coaster at Mountain Village is expected to run into next week. Deer Valley planned a passholder appreciation weekend to close out operations, with music and complimentary lunch for season ticket holders.

The economic toll extends well beyond the ski runs. Park City's winter service economy, encompassing lodging, restaurants and seasonal employment, depends on sustained skier-days through late March and into April. Shortened seasons compress payrolls and reduce hotel occupancy at the period when margins are typically strongest. Some downtown businesses moved to offset losses by organizing late-season events aimed at capturing the final wave of visitors before the mountain economy pivots to summer.

The broader pattern is becoming harder to dismiss. Several other Utah resorts struggled through the same warm, dry winter: Nordic Valley closed Feb. 24 and never reopened, and Cherry Peak ended its season March 11. Across the Mountain West, climate variability has repeatedly truncated winter operations, renewing pressure on mountain communities like Park City to accelerate summer tourism development and reduce economic reliance on a single season that is proving increasingly difficult to count on.