Four alpine ski racers at the 2026 Winter Olympics came through the same Utah-based program: Rowmark Ski Academy. 

Those athletes include Team USA’s Breezy Johnson, a three-time Olympian who won gold in the women’s downhill, Katie Hensien, a two-time Olympian, Mary Bocock, who made her Olympic debut, and Madison Hoffman, a two-time Olympian competing for Australia.

Now in its 44th year, Rowmark, which is based out of Salt Lake City-based private school Rowland Hall, has sustained an Olympic presence at every Games since 1988, and continues to expand its reach at the highest level of the sport.

So what is it about the school that keeps producing Olympians?

According to Rowmark Ski Academy Program Director Per Lundstam, the system that builds those athletes is not centered only on results. It is a structure that asks athletes to manage competing demands of academics, training and travel while developing the independence to help them fulfill big goals — in sport or otherwise.

“Our mission statement itself is to create really good humans and create humans the world needs,” said Lundstam. “That is a big part of our DNA.”

There are only around 35 athletes in the academy, a scale that allows for a higher coach-to-athlete ratio and more individualized attention across both training and academics. Coaches and teachers work in close coordination, adjusting schedules, offering additional sessions and maintaining constant communication to keep athletes on track.

“We are trying to help the athletes through this dynamic mechanism to help them and support them, and teachers go way beyond what they normally do to teach these students, and the same goes for the coaching staff. So it is a pretty amazing and unique program that way,” said Lundstam.

As a K-12 school, Rowland Hall allows academy athletes to share classrooms with students outside the ski program, while giving families the option to keep siblings in the same school as they support their racers’ development at Rowmark.

“I wanted to be somewhere I could still have a high level of academics, while also ski racing,” said senior Alden Rhodes. “And also have friends outside of skiing.”

During the winter, athletes attend classes from 8:30 a.m. to midday before heading to the Utah Olympic Park for afternoon training, often followed by strength work, before they return home for several hours of homework.

For student athletes like Ruby Rosh, senior and team captain on the Rowmark team, evenings can stretch late, especially for athletes commuting back to Salt Lake City. Much of the academic work gets done immediately after training to avoid sacrificing weekends.

“It just takes a lot of commitment and discipline,” she said.

At the Utah Olympic Park, Rowmark athletes train alongside collegiate teams and, at times, World Cup racers — occasionally former classmates who have moved through the same program. Coaches can set courses and shape snow surfaces to replicate the conditions athletes would face in higher levels of competition.

“It’s super cool to be able to share the venue with some really high-level ski racers, and try to emulate that,” said Rhodes. “It is cool to see those athletes in training and to be able to try to reach for that.”

In the gym at the Utah Olympic Park, chalkboard walls are covered in the signatures amd names of athletes and teams from around the world who have trained there, marking different Games cycles and training camps, turning the room into a running log of elite performance. 

It’s the same space where bobsled and skeleton athletes warm up to compete on the world stage, where international teams prepare for World Cups and their Olympic debuts, and where Rowmark athletes now lift and train as part of their daily schedule.

For Rosh, it’s a daily reminder of what’s possible.

“You almost feel it,” she said. “The athletic greatness, and that everything has happened here, and you’re literally a part of it.”

That proximity reshapes how Rowmark athletes see the sport. Olympians aren’t distant figures; they’re recent graduates and training partners, like Elizabeth and Mary Bocock, who joined the World Cup circuit together in 2023, the same year Elizabeth graduated from Rowmark Ski Academy. 

“They were literally me three years ago,” Rosh said. “It makes it feel so much more attainable. We’ve trained with Breezy a couple times, and just seeing them competing on the world stage, it’s crazy to see how easy they make it look.”

Ski racing may be an individual sport, but Rowmark leans heavily on the team bond and shared progress, said Rhodes and Rosh.

“There’s definitely competition,” Rosh said. “But in a way where we’re all trying to push each other to be better and we’re always having fun, even within our own rivalries.”

Rhodes agreed: “Everyone genuinely wants to see each other succeed on this team, and I think that’s actually pretty rare.”

Rosh missed large portions of two seasons after multiple shoulder surgeries, setbacks that can often isolate athletes from their teams. Instead, she described a system that kept her fully integrated, even when she couldn’t train.

“I was still very much a part of the team,” she said. “People were checking in on me. It never felt like I was on the outside.”

Older athletes mentor younger ones through the program when they can, Rosh said, helping them navigate the same pressures they once faced.

“When you’re younger, everything feels like the biggest deal,” Rosh said. “And then you realize it’s not, so it’s a lot of working with shared experience and talking through things, and offering a lot of encouragement. I think that has been really impactful for them, but also for me, being able to give the advice that I wish I had got at that age.”

Lundstam said the program is shifting to better support how athletes improve over time, starting to bring age groups together more often in training and keeping a consistent approach across all levels to help them develop faster.

“We really want to have the same methods — the Rowmark DNA and science — going into all the different age groups. We really want to accelerate athletes’ trajectories and make sure that they get exposed to the absolute best predictive development,” said Lundstam.

That system is backed by a coaching staff with experience at the highest levels of the sport, along with ongoing development that brings in national and international perspectives. Looking ahead, the program is also expanding its use of sports science, with new facilities designed to mirror the kind of testing and performance analysis used at the national team level.

“We have a very strong coaches development program in place. We’re getting exposed to world-class ideas,” said Lundstam. “I think we have a lot of merging factors that will continue to fuel us as a very strong team.”

For the director, those pieces are what allow the program to produce results that outpace its size, especially as they are built on a system that gives coaches the ability to individualize training and focus on each athlete’s development.

“It’s the ratio with phenomenal coaches and very strong ability to look at the athletes and pay attention to details, be a lot more focused on their development and put more time into each athlete, and then also the amazing facilities that we have around us in Utah,” he said.

As Rosh looks ahead to college, what stands out from her time at Rowmark is how prepared she feels to handle what comes next — skiing or otherwise.

“I can’t control the weather. I can’t control the conditions,” she said. “But I can control how I ski and how hard I choose to work.”

Years of balancing school, training and competition have forced her to get comfortable operating in uncertainty, and knowing that, regardless of anything else, hard work will help her reach her goals. 

“It’s one of those sports where you get back what you give to it,” she said. “I love that the harder I work, I can literally see it paying off. And there’s just no better feeling than going super fast down the side of the mountain. It’s like being on a roller coaster.” 

Not every Rowmark athlete follows the path to the world stage. Some continue skiing in college, others step away from competition entirely. Rosh and Rhodes are both headed to college next year with a focus on academics, but are excited to keep skiing in whatever capacity they choose, whether on a team or not.

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Funding held steady for the Utah Avalanche Center this winter, even as low snow conditions pulled attention away from avalanche safety.

The nonprofit runs on a mix of funding from corporate partners, community donations and programs that bring in revenue. One of the biggest is its discounted lift ticket program, built in partnership with ski resorts across Utah. 

Resorts donate lift tickets to the nonprofit, which are then resold at a discount to the public and funneled back to support forecasting and education. That program alone brought in more than $115,000 this year, with Park City Mountain tickets from the Utah Avalanche Center’s partnership with Vail EpicPromise accounting for nearly half of that total.

“We’re thrilled to have that community support still, even even in these thin snow times,” said Development Director Kate Waller. 

Even in a historically lean snow year, the tickets still sold out, just like they do every year. That revenue feeds directly into the organization’s core operations, particularly forecasting and education in the Park City area. With the help of those funds, the center produced roughly 350 daily forecasts for the Park City zone alone this year, said Waller. 

“From a forecasting perspective, nothing’s changed,” Waller said. “The forecasters are still out there every day, and, regardless of anything else, there’s always some sort of avalanche problem to discuss.”

Fewer storms and a shorter season made avalanche safety less urgent to casual recreationists, evidenced by how people engaged with education. Waller said the center’s on-snow courses did not sell out this year as they have in years prior.

“It just wasn’t front of mind for a lot of people,” said Waller.

Waller said that while the Utah Avalanche Center’s work does not change with conditions, public urgency does. In lean snow years, fewer people sign up for formal training, even though avalanche risk still exists.

Maintaining daily forecasts ensures that backcountry users have up-to-date information about snowpack instability, terrain hazards and weather patterns that could trigger slides. And while paid course participation dipped, free educational outreach saw an increase this year. 

The center delivered 138 “Know Before You Go” presentations statewide this year, a free avalanche awareness initiative aimed at both students and adults, 40% more than they offered last winter. The nonprofit held 14 presentations in Summit County alone. 

These presentations serve as a first step for many people heading into avalanche terrain, covering basic decision-making, hazard recognition and risk management.

Funding from the center’s partnership with Vail EpicPromise helps make that possible, directing support specifically toward forecasting and programs like “Know Before You Go” so the Utah Avalanche Center can offer them free to the public. 

The organization’s year-end campaign exceeded its goal by nearly $45,000, while its spring campaign fell short by about $10,000 — a gap Waller attributed to an early shift out of winter recreation.

Those campaigns are driven in part by online and in-person auctions — with the help of their sponsors and corporate partnerships — where the Utah Avalanche Center sells donated items like lift tickets, golf rounds, dining credits and gear. 

The auctions run multiple times a year, including preseason, holiday and spring campaigns and are typically promoted through the center’s website and fundraising events.

“Looking at that across the fundraising spectrum for the year, we held strong, which is great. And again, this is a huge testament to the community,” said Waller. 

Even as spring funding tapered off with the start of an early mountain-biking season, the organization ended the season in a relatively strong position, buoyed by consistent community support and long-standing partnerships.

Looking ahead, the Utah Avalanche Center is working to expand beyond traditional outdoor industry sponsors and build up its membership and individual giving programs, aiming to keep funding steady and support its work keeping people safe on snow, even in the worst of winters. 

“Now we start our summer work. We’re looking at how we can refine or improve any of our programs,” said Waller. “From a fundraising perspective, we are looking at how we can bring more non-outdoor industry corporate partners into our sponsorship sphere, improving our membership program, and then we’re going to hope that next winter brings a little bit more snow.”

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ChefDance Social opened its doors on Saturday night to celebrate 45 years of Operation Smile, a global nonprofit working to provide surgical care to children with cleft conditions around the world. 

This weekend marked the 14th annual Ski and Smile event in Park City. With a mix of Olympians, actors, surgeons and students there in support, ChefDance’s sponsored meal brought tens of thousands of dollars in fundraising and support for a continued mission of Operation Smile. 

What began as a small, volunteer-led effort has grown into a global organization performing hundreds of thousands of life-changing surgeries while building local medical infrastructure in 37 countries. 

“This weekend is about bringing together our global community of hope builders,” said co-founder, president and CEO Kathy Magee. “Every person who participates helps us reach more children.”

When Kathy Magee, a pediatric nurse, and her husband and co-founder, plastic surgeon Dr. Bill Magee, first traveled to the Philippines in 1981, they did not expect the scale of need they would encounter. 

On that first trip, they were forced to turn away hundreds of patients they didn’t have the capacity to treat. As they left, one mother approached them carrying a basket of bananas — a gift of thanks for trying, even though her child had not received care. They returned home determined to build something larger.

The Magees came back the next year stronger. Every year since, they’ve grown Operation Smile into a coordinated global network that now trains local doctors, builds care systems and provides comprehensive treatment beyond surgery, including dental and speech care for hundreds of thousands of people around the world. 

“We’ve operated on about half a million people,” Bill said. “And we don’t just do the surgery, we train doctors, we build infrastructure, we stay.”

Volunteerism is central to Operation Smile’s model, with every member of the team, including surgeons, nurses and other support, donating their time and expertise on trips around the world.

That structure has shaped the experience of providers like volunteer surgeon Dr. Dan Sellers, who helped build Operation Smile’s Utah chapter. His daughter was part of one of the state’s first high school chapters, then known as the Happy Club at Bountiful High School.

“You do surgery on a child that changes their life,” he said. “Over the thousands and thousands of kids we’ve seen, it’s been the most amazing thing I can think of in terms of service.”

Bill carries a small pocketbook with him everywhere he goes. It’s filled with before-and-after photos of patients he has treated around the world, and he brings it out to show people he meets and convey the depth of need and represent why the mission of Operation Smile is so critical. 

He flips through faces and stories he remembers by heart, pointing to the face of a mother watching over her child before surgery, the stress visibly fading from her features in the post-op photo. 

“All of a sudden, they can go to school, they are confident, productive. They can eat again, laugh again,” he said.

He points to a photo of a young boy who had struggled with bullying at school and withdrawn from his community before surgery. The boy then returned to school with a new sense of self, proud enough to talk with his classmates and was seen smiling with his new kindergarten girlfriend. 

“That smile is who they are. I think it’s important when people see that, because most people in the United States, if you’re born like that, you can get it fixed. One in every 500 children in the Philippines is born with a cleft lip and palate condition,” said Bill. 

But the impact goes beyond confidence. Untreated cleft conditions can make it difficult for children to eat, speak and grow properly, often leading to malnutrition, speech challenges and social isolation from an early age. 

Surgery, paired with follow-up care like speech therapy and dental treatment, addresses those barriers and makes it possible for children to communicate, develop and participate in daily life, often for the first time in their lives.

In the world of childhood impact, Operation Smiles extends its emphasis on youth involvement to high schools around the world, building opportunities for young people to get involved, travel and assist care teams abroad and lead their own chapters of the nonprofit in their hometowns. 

Kathy described how high school volunteers play an active role on surgical trips, leading activities for children waiting for care, teaching basic hygiene and nutrition and helping create a sense of normalcy in often overwhelming environments.

Youth involvement expanded into college programs and national networks, and what started as a handful of high school clubs has grown into a broader network of young people connected through programs like Operation Smile’s Cleft Connect Chat, a monthly virtual gathering where students born with cleft conditions meet, share their experiences and support one another across countries and time zones.

For some, like Glenwood High School student Willy Sikora, that space has become a community of friendship, leadership and service, allowing him to forge his personal experience into advocacy. 

On Saturday night, Sikora received the Cotto Changemaker Award, an honor recognizing young leaders driving impact within the organization. His involvement began four years ago when he was asked to play violin at an Operation Smile fundraiser, where he met Bill and Kathy, along with their daughter, Brigette Magee Clifford, who was working to start the Cleft Connect Chat. 

For Sikora, who was born with a severe cleft lip and palate, the Cleft Connect Chat helped him build relationships with peers across the country who share that experience, giving him a foundation not just for connection, but for helping shape a new generation of Operation Smile rooted in that same understanding.

“We’re all bound together by the same mission,” he said. “You find that commonality and use it to build something bigger.”

Last summer, Sikora traveled to Bolivia on a surgical program, where he met some of his closest Cleft Connect Chat friends from other cities in the U.S. and saw the work of Operation Smile firsthand, observing procedures and interacting with patients and local teams.

“It’s so different to experience it and be there,” he said. “It gives you a deeper appreciation for what Operation Smile does.”

Before finding his “forever family,” he said, living in an orphanage in China, Sikora was once among the children the organization aims to serve.

“Operation Smile is giving people like me the chance to live their life to the fullest potential,” he said.

Sikora described how the model has helped expand the organization’s reach into new regions and demographics, particularly among younger volunteers who bring new energy and visibility to the cause.

“There’s just so much fun here,” Bill said. “It’s a way to celebrate the year together.”

As Operation Smile marks four decades of work, organizers emphasized that the need and opportunity continue to grow.

In many regions, access to surgical care for cleft conditions remains limited or nonexistent. The organization’s current focus includes expanding local training programs and strengthening healthcare systems so that care can continue year-round.

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Under softening spring snow and a bluebird Easter sky, skiers and riders stretched six lifts and 13 open trails into a full day at Park City Mountain, filling Canyons Village with bunny ears, clown wigs and short sleeves for the final turns of the season.

Music from Pixie and the Partygrass Boys carried across the base area at the Canyons Village free concert, soundtracking the final laps as riders slushed through turns and linked what runs remained. Kids sprinted across the base area searching for hidden Easter eggs.

A 6-inch April Fools’ Day storm had briefly brought the mountain back to life, but a quick return to warm temperatures erased any chance of a late season push. By Friday, the resort announced it would close on Sunday.

Evie Eastman and Beth Limerick spent the afternoon skiing together and closing out another season on the snow. Between them, they bring nearly a century of skiing experience, and closing day offered one last chance to be out there doing what they love.

“We’re getting outside,” Eastman said, “celebrating Easter at the church of the up and down.”

For both, the winter still delivered, even if it looked different from what was expected. Park City Mountain recorded 171 total inches of snow this season, well below its 277-inch average and last year’s 279-inch total, according to OnTheSnow.

“I don’t think I got on snow as much as I wanted,” Limerick said. “But it was a pretty satisfying winter nonetheless, even with the marginal snow conditions.”

Even with limited terrain, they said what remained was enough to carry through the day. The snow softened through the afternoon but continued to hold together across the open runs.

“I can hardly think of a better way to spend a winter day than skiing,” Eastman said.

 Limerick added: “It’s fun, it’s freedom, it’s floating and flying and everything good.”

They plan to keep skiing beyond Park City Mountain’s closure, shifting to higher elevation terrain in the cottonwoods for as long as they can. 

At the base, skis and boards were stacked in the sun as people moved between the Red Pine Gondola and the concert and paused to take in the scene. 

Sherry and David, a couple, were visiting from Ohio without realizing it would be the final weekend and learned about the closure after the announcement on Friday. They adjusted their plans and focused on making the most of the time they had.

“We’re just here for the weekend,” Sherry said. “We’re here to get outside, enjoy God’s earth and get some exercise.”

Despite the early end to the season, the couple was excited to take advantage of the opportunity to ski at all. They said it ended up working in their favor.

“We’re really glad to have made it in time,” Sherry said. “It’s been great.”

Michigander Lisa Bjork’s dedication to skiing rivals even some of the most diehard Park City locals. She committed to skiing every single weekend in the Upper Peninsula, rain or shine. 

“We weren’t able to cancel our reservation for the week, so we said, ‘Well, we’re coming and making the most of it anyway,’” Bjork said.

This was Bjork’s first time in Park City, and, having driven from Michigan, she took a few stops at Colorado resorts along the way, hoping to maximize her ski time on her trip out West. 

“This is our first time ever at Park City, so we’re a little bummed that we didn’t get the skiing we had hoped for. But it’s so sunny and beautiful, and it’s just a gorgeous view anywhere you look here,” she said. “We don’t have this in Michigan.”

Bjork, who has been skiing since she was 13, said she was grateful to get a day on skis at Canyons Village and is using the rest of the trip to spend more time exploring town.

“Any day on skis is still a day on skis,” she said. “We’re really enjoying it. We’ll definitely be back, hoping for a bit better snow.” 

For Emil Harry, skiing on closing day isn’t optional. He’s attended every year since he was 6 years old, when he first learned to ski in Boise, Idaho — a streak that now stretches more than three decades.

“I have to ski closing day, no matter how bad conditions are,” he said. “I’m really superstitious. If I don’t make closing day, it weighs on me,” he said.

This winter, he shifted a lot of his skiing energy to work on skills in the park, spending much of his time at Woodward Park City as conditions changed. 

“Woodward was a godsend,” he said. “So I skied park pretty much all season.”

He said in a low snow year, park skiing offered the most consistency and made for a successful season, even as big mountain terrain remained limited.

Closing day, though, is exactly his kind of skiing. He said spring conditions are his favorite, making the final day less of an obligation and more of something he genuinely looks forward to. 

Deirdra Walsh, vice president and COO of Park City Mountain, said the day reflected the tireless effort of resort teams and the guests who continued to show up through a challenging season.

“It has been a season of creativity, commitment, dedication in ways that I don’t think anybody has had to do in a long time here,” Walsh said. “I’m so incredibly proud of every team member who made this possible.”

She pointed to both employees and guests as central to the experience, describing how people responded to the conditions by continuing to show up and make the most of each day.

“The best antidote in a season like this is to actually go out and ski and have chairlift conversations where people are making the most of it,” she said. “Having fun and great times with their friends and family — that’s just, at the end of the day, what it’s all about.”

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Flags, cowbells and poster boards filled Main Street on Friday as Park City welcomed home athletes from the Milano Cortina Winter Games.

The Olympic and Paralympic Homecoming Parade, organized by the Youth Sports Alliance, has been held every four years since 2006, bringing together current Olympians and Paralympians alongside athletes from past Games who now call Utah home. This year, that group included 91 athletes who competed in Games spanning from 1960 to 2026. 

“It’s really just a day to celebrate the Olympic heritage and welcome home the current Olympians and Paralympians,” Youth Sports Alliance Executive Director Emily Fisher said. “I don’t know many communities that can pull together 100 Olympians and Paralympians.”

Lugers Ashley Farquharson and Matt Greiner, speedskater Casey Dawson and ski jumpers Josie Johnson and Paige Jones led the parade as grand marshals.

All five athletes came up through local programs and are products of the organizations that paraded down the street behind them; local athletes packed cars, and members of the Youth Sports Alliance’s seven-member clubs danced down the street behind them.

The Wasatch Luge Club walked alongside athletes in USA Luge coats. Park City Speedskating Club athletes followed, mixed in with Olympians like Eric Heiden and Derek Parra. The Park City Figure Skating Club flitted down Main Street with young skaters landing single axels in their sneakers. 

Wasatch Freestyle athletes, Winter Sports School students and kids from teams across Park City Ski and Snowboard flooded the street in a blanket of American flags, with coaches riding alongside them on unicycles and in vintage ski gear.

Viewers lined the bridge and packed the base of Main Street, eagerly hanging off streetlights and upper-level balconies to watch the almost 100 athletes gather and sign autographs after the parade. 

“This kind of celebration does not happen everywhere,” said Fisher. “Many of the athletes standing on this stage once stood exactly where you stand today.”

Kids in hats peppered with signatures from past parades compared autographs and mapped out their next stops.

Park City resident Kaci Warner said she brought her family to Main Street to share the Olympic spirit with her kids, who, like many others in town, are involved in multiple sports throughout the year. Moments like this, she said, shape their sense of what’s possible.

“We love raising these little athletes,” Warner said. “Any exposure they get to this matters.”

That Olympic spirit defines growing up in Park City, where pushing the limits of what’s possible lives in next-door neighbors and schoolmates. 

Dori Schmalzle watched as her daughter, 2018 Olympic ski jumper Abby Ringquist, walked down Main Street, inspiring the next generation of ski jumpers and girls in sport. Schmalzle said the environment in Park City gives kids access to sports and role models that are hard to find elsewhere.

“Here, their friends are ski jumpers, bobsledders, downhill racers,” she said. “You don’t get that everywhere.”

That same environment is where many of the athletes in the parade began. Speedskater Casey Dawson traces his path back to a Youth Sports Alliance program that introduced him to the sport as a kid.

“I wouldn’t be standing here today if it weren’t for those programs,” he said. “Competing in the Olympics, it was the biggest stage of our lives, but coming back home and sharing this with everyone has been one of the greatest things. With 2034 around the corner, I’m looking forward to a lot of these kids standing up on this stage and sharing these moments as well.”

Ski jumper Josie Johnson remembered attending the parade as a kid, walking alongside and meeting athletes like Billy Demong, a five-time Olympic Nordic combined skier, before she knew ski jumping would be a huge part of her life. 

“I remember walking in this parade when I was 6,” she said. “I didn’t even ski jump yet, so to walk with him then and to be here now, again, it’s just crazy.”

Paralympian Sydney Peterson said returning home with multiple gold medals in para Nordic skiing never felt like an achievement she carried alone.

“I was the one carrying it across the finish line,” Peterson said, “but I had so many people, including so many people in this crowd, that supported me and helped me get there.”

For Mikey O’Hearn, a Paralympic alpine skier and National Ability Center athlete, his first Paralympic Games were the product not only of his grit and dedication to sport, but also of the people and programs that made the sport accessible to him in the first place.

“This journey is not just about myself,” he said. “It’s about my community, being empowered by my community.”

Coming back to Park City and being recognized at the parade, he said, reinforced that sense of belonging.

“It’s so enriching,” O’Hearn said. “To come from a place as someone with a disability who might not always feel the most capable, to now, leaving my first Games knowing I am capable and performing at 120%, I will never doubt myself again.”

If Park City were to have competed as its own nation in the 2026 Games, athletes would have finished 14th in the medal standings, tied with Finland and Australia.

Leading the Olympic cohort was Paralympian Sydney Peterson, who returns to Park City with three gold medals and a silver in para Nordic skiing, followed by athletes Kaila Kuhn, Chris Lillis and Connor Curran with a gold in mixed team aerials. 

Kate Delson added a gold and silver medal to Park City Nation in para snowboard. Speedskater Casey Dawson won silver with teammates Ethan Cepuran and Emery Lehman in the team pursuit, while Ashley Farquharson brought home bronze in women’s singles luge. 

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On the heels of March 29 closures at Deer Valley Resort and the Mountain Village side of Park City Mountain, Woodward Park City is fighting the odds just a little longer, closing to the public at the end of day Saturday.

After months of steady work across the season, crews repeatedly reshaping and rebuilding features to keep terrain usable, crews will move all remaining snow into the event footprint as the resort shifts its focus fully to building up the course for The Uninvited Invitational.

The event, which runs April 9 through 11, centers on a custom street-style course and an all-women’s competition created to address long-standing gaps in opportunity within the sport, bringing 75 athletes from more than 20 countries to Woodward Park City.

“The key has been salt and a whole lot of hard work from our teams,” said Luke Giacopelli, brand activation and events manager at Woodward Park City. “With the last week of over 70-degree days, they have to hand-build, physically rebuild the park every day.”

Warm daytime temperatures frequently softened the snow to the point that features degraded within hours, while overnight refreezing locked in hard, rutted and often icy surfaces that required crews to rebuild takeoffs and smooth out landings before they could reopen in the morning.

That process included repeated maintenance cycles within a single day, as crews addressed wear on terrain that would typically hold its shape longer in colder conditions.

“When snow is super soft, the lips of all the rails and the jumps get pretty beat up really quickly,” said Giacopelli. “It just takes so much more work to reshape everything and keep it riding well.”

Janel McInnes, Woodward’s senior manager of safety and risk, said the team focused early on figuring out what terrain they could realistically maintain and pooling their resources there. As coverage stayed limited, crews began concentrating snow and features into a smaller, more manageable area.

“From day one, we’ve been concentrating on making this little Woodward glacier and making a plan,” said McInnes. “If this gets gnarly, what do we survive with, what do we sacrifice, and how do we still provide a good product?”

Crews pieced together a rideable map of terrain, opening and linking whatever sections they could as conditions allowed, while focusing maintenance on key zones where they could move snow, rebuild features and keep a continuous line open.

“We could utilize guns in certain spots to make piles and have kind of a zigzag pattern down the mountain,” McInnes said.

McInnes said crews relied heavily on their knowledge of what sat beneath the snow, like the summer dirt work that had shaped berms and built up landings, allowing them to prioritize areas that would hold structure longer and require less snow to maintain. 

Rather than trying to keep full runs open, teams focused on connecting durable sections into a continuous, rideable line while making ongoing decisions about what to maintain and what to let go.

“We hit January and knew we would have to reassess and make a plan for what we are going to do,” Giacopelli said. “We just condensed everything, and that’s how we’ve been able to keep it open and riding well and fun too.”

Giacopelli said Woodward’s focused layout allowed it to continue operating its terrain park into late season, with a clear goal of sustaining enough coverage and structure to support the upcoming event.

“It’s been a year of adapting,” Giacopelli said. “We’ve just been on our toes, working with the blows we’ve been dealt.”

Those operational decisions have allowed Woodward to host The Uninvited Invitational for a third year in a row and welcome athletes to the event’s fourth edition.

Founded by professional snowboarder Jess Kimura, the event began in 2017 as a film project made to center women, girls and non-binary snowboarders who had historically received limited visibility and opportunity within the sport. 

It has since developed into a competition series in which those athletes are the primary focus, with the now-$60,000 prize pool working to close the long-standing gap in pay within women’s snowboarding.

 “This is about inspiring confidence in a group of people that confidence doesn’t necessarily come naturally to. It’s not even about the riders — it is, to a degree — but it’s also about all the little girls in the audience watching, all of the women in the industry watching, anyone who feels like an outsider, who feels like no one’s ever given them a chance like that. It means something to them,” said Kimura.

Hosting the invitational has required coordination across Woodward’s operations teams and The Uninvited organizers, particularly in designing and constructing the custom course under limited snow conditions.

“We could not pull this event off without the level of effort and care that Woodward puts into this event,” Kimura said.

Friday’s qualifying day will also feature a Youth Day from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., bringing riders ages 17 and under to connect with pro riders, take part in activities at the Woodward tent in the Partner Plaza, complete a bingo challenge, make signs and enter a raffle for prizes.

The full Uninvited Invitational event schedule:

Thursday, April 9 — Qualifying Day One
Riders on course: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.

Friday, April 10 — Qualifying Day Two and Youth Day
Riders on course: 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Youth Day: 11 a.m.-3 p.m.

Saturday, April 11 — Finals Day
Finals: 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
Awards Ceremony: 2:30 p.m.

The post Through a tough winter, Woodward Park City makes way for The Uninvited appeared first on Park Record.

From the start of the season, warm temperatures, limited snowmaking opportunities and a lack of natural snowfall have forced crews at Park City Mountain to rethink how they build and maintain the resort, adjusting daily to changing conditions.

“We’ve really had to get super creative with how we’ve been managing both the natural snow and the manmade snow,” said Lynn Offret, director of mountain operations, snow surfaces. “We’ve been really stretching ourselves to be as flexible and strategic as possible to keep the mountain open and operating safely despite the incredibly unconventional weather we’ve seen.”

So, mountain operations teams adjusted daily to manage inconsistent snow and keep terrain open, Offret said. In a typical year, sustained cold temperatures allow snowmaking crews to run around the clock, building a base early and expanding terrain steadily into December and early January. 

But this winter that never materialized and high temperatures kept mountain teams from making snow during some of the most essential weeks of the year, limited to brief cold windows through mid-February, weeks later than usual. 

“We had crews coming in early, staying late, basically working to maximize our cold weather windows that were few and far between,” Offret said. “Normally, we have cold trends that allow us to make snow 24/7, and that just didn’t happen this year.”

Even as snowmaking efforts ramped up, terrain remained limited early in the season, delaying openings and compressing the timeline for building out the mountain. Park City Mountain was forced to delay its season opening to Dec. 5, two weeks later than the initially planned Nov. 21 date. 

Without consistent snowfall, crews turned to increasingly creative solutions to build and preserve terrain.

In the early season, that looked like track packing, where crews used snowcats to compact early snowfall and create a base that could hold what little snow did fall. As conditions worsened across the course of the winter, they relied on more aggressive tactics to maintain snow quality and keep key runs safe and skiable.

“Some of the really heroic efforts came with what we’ve affectionately come to know as farming snow — basically taking snow from one area and getting it to another area,” said Offret. “That’s the key to getting open.” 

To keep critical routes open, crews moved snow from multiple runs and redistributed it where it mattered most.

“In order to keep Home Run open and operating as long as we did, we peeled snow off of Silver Queen, Payday, King’s Crown, and had our snowcats pushing snow down onto Home Run,” she said.

To move larger volumes of snow, crews outfitted snowcats with oversized bucket attachments. Offret said the buckets allowed them to carry snow across longer distances instead of just pushing it downhill, turning each cat into a kind of mobile snow hauler. 

It was a solution she hadn’t seen used at that scale before, but one that became essential as crews worked to relocate snow from wherever it existed to wherever it was needed.

As conditions tightened, the priority shifted from expanding terrain to maintaining it and ultimately prioritizing the routes that allow the mountain to function at all.

These runs make up the connective infrastructure of the resort — the roads, traverses and beginner-access runs that link lifts, different terrain zones and base areas. 

“They include runs that help us keep things like the Quicksilver Gondola connection, but also making sure that beginners were able to access lifts,” Offret said.

At times, keeping those routes open required constant intervention and all hands on deck. Ski patrol teams moved snow throughout the day, sometimes hauling it by hand in toboggans just to keep thin sections skiable until the groomers could start their work after closing.

“There were certain times where patrol would be moving snow just to make it through the day,” Offret said. “It truly was a full resort effort.”

That level of adaptation around temperatures climbing into the high 60’s by mid March required coordination well beyond any single team.

Groomers adjusted nightly to a snow surface that changed dramatically with each freeze-thaw cycle. Warm days softened the snow into slush, pushing it around and thinning coverage in high-traffic areas. Overnight, temperatures dropped and that same surface refroze into firm, uneven conditions, often locking in ruts, bumps and exposed patches.

As the surface changed by the hour, crews were constantly reassessing how to work the snow and where to focus their efforts.

“It definitely makes for much more challenging grooming,” Offret said.

Instead of following a consistent nightly plan, operators had to read each section of terrain individually, deciding where to break up hardened snow, where to preserve what coverage remained and where grooming might do more harm than good.

Veteran operators helped guide newer team members through the tough conditions, sharing techniques for managing inconsistent surfaces and preserving snow coverage where they could.

Crews also had to keep snow in place at lift entrances, exits and base areas where coverage melted fastest. At Town Lift, for example, they transported snow downhill in barrels loaded onto chairs to build ramps and keep the plaza loading areas operational.

Despite visibly thin coverage across more off-piste parts of the mountain, Offret said feedback from skiers has remained overwhelmingly positive — especially from those who have seen firsthand what it has taken to keep terrain open.

“It was so encouraging to hear from the guests how much positive feedback we did get up on the mountain,” she said. “It really helped to keep the team going.”

This Thursday, a cold front through northern Utah brought 6 inches of fresh snow to the remaining runs open on the Canyons Village side of Park City Mountain. As of Friday morning, six lifts and 10 runs were open at Canyons Village, with the added snowfall offering a chance to reset conditions for likely the last time this season. 

Crews will use the new snow to smooth out surfaces, reinforce high traffic areas and maintain the limited terrain that remains open. With colder overnight temperatures, grooming crews have something fresh to work with this weekend. 

“They’re going to be pretty excited to work with the natural snow that we get over the course of the day today,” Offret said Thursday. “Every inch matters.”

John Kanaly, Park City Mountain’s senior director of communications, added, “We understand that there is a passionate group of skiers and riders out there who want to make as many turns as possible in the season. We’re keeping the season going as long as we can for that passionate core group of skiers.”

In 35 years of working on the mountain, Offret said she had never seen a season like this one.

“As challenging as it’s been, it’s been honestly super fun working through whatever challenges Mother Nature sends our way. We’ve been pretty excited to keep taking it one day at a time,” Offret said. “I’ve never seen anything quite like this, but I am just super proud of the team for what we’ve been able to accomplish. And I hope we can keep it going for as many days as we can.”

The post Park City Mountain pieces winter back together  appeared first on Park Record.

A century-old Utah legal precedent protecting workers from employer liability waivers may no longer extend beyond the workplace.

In a March 26 decision stemming from a 2020 Deer Valley Resort accident, the Utah Supreme Court ruled that employers can rely on liability waivers when injuries happen outside an employee’s job duties, even if they occur on resort property.

The decision stems from a snowmobile crash involving two former lift operators at Deer Valley who had returned to the ski area after being laid off in March 2020. The court found that because their injuries were not work-related, the waiver they signed as employees could still apply.

William Olson and Lark Pyper had worked as lift operators during the 2019-20 winter season. That season ended abruptly as the COVID-19 pandemic forced resort closures across Utah, and Olson and Pyper were laid off on March 15, 2020. 

Two days later, they returned to Deer Valley to turn in their uniforms and went to join a gathering of coworkers celebrating the end of the season on the mountain. A supervisor still on duty offered them a ride on a company snowmobile to reach it when they crashed. 

Like other seasonal employees, Olson and Pyper were required to sign a liability waiver releasing Deer Valley from responsibility for injuries sustained during a wide range of activities on resort property. The waiver applied both on and off duty, but the court’s ruling determines when Deer Valley can actually enforce it.

In a rule dating back to a 1907 case, Utah courts have held that employers can’t use those waivers to avoid responsibility when employees are injured on the job. In this case, the Supreme Court said that protection applies only to work-related injuries, meaning Deer Valley may still rely on the waiver if the injuries happened outside the employees’ job duties.

Olson and Pyper later sued Deer Valley for the injuries they sustained in the crash. They argued the resort should be held responsible for their injuries.

Deer Valley was liable because the crash was caused by one of its employees acting within his job duties, they argued. But in its decision, the court found there was no evidence the supervisor was acting within the scope of his job when he gave the ride.

“Throughout the deposition, the employee consistently maintained that he gave the Plaintiffs a ride because they were friends and he ‘just wanted to help them out,’” the Supreme Court ruling states.

The supervisor also acknowledged the ride violated resort policy and amounted to leaving his job duties. Without a clear connection to Deer Valley’s business interests, the court concluded the resort could not be held liable.

However, Olson and Pyper also argued Deer Valley itself was negligent in how it hired, trained and supervised the employee, raising the question of whether the waiver they signed prevents them from suing the resort directly for negligence.

The lower court had relied on Pugmire v. Oregon Short Line Railroad Co., the 1907 Utah case that broadly held employers cannot require workers to waive liability for injuries caused by employer negligence. 

Rather than applying Pugmire broadly, the justices concluded it must be “confined to its facts,” limiting its reach to injuries that occur in the course of employment.

“Thus, we do not extend Pugmire to the circumstances here, where two former employees were injured outside of work,” the Supreme Court ruling states.

Because Olson and Pyper had already been laid off and were on the mountain for personal reasons, the court determined their injuries were not work-related, and as a result, the rule limiting employer waivers didn’t apply.

This ruling sends the case back to the Third District Court for further review, including questions about how the waiver applies.

The post Utah Supreme Court rules on liability waivers in Deer Valley injury case appeared first on Park Record.

Utah leaders returned from the Milano Cortina Games with a clearer sense of what it will take to deliver in 2034 and what makes Utah different from other Olympic hosts.

“When was the last time that a winter organizing committee hosted a Games again and had some of the same team members plan the Games the second time and use the same venues they used the first time? Never,” said Utah 2034 CEO Brad Wilson.

Utah’s bid relies heavily on venues that have remained in use since the 2002 Winter Olympics, along with a network of organizers, venue operators and sport leaders who have already worked through the process once. Wilson said the organizing committee began its work roughly three years earlier than a typical Olympic cycle, giving Utah additional time to plan, coordinate and prepare for 2034.

So what will it take to bring the Games back to Utah better than ever?

‘Plan early, plan early, plan early’ 

“I learned three lessons. Plan early, plan early, plan early,” said Scott Doughman, director of strategic initiatives and Olympic planning at the University of Utah.

Leaders pointed to Italy’s results as an example of how host countries benefit from long-term preparation. Athletes competed in familiar environments, with access to venues and sustained investment behind them.

“The home field advantage was real,” said Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of U.S. Ski and Snowboard.

She described a Games where experienced Italian athletes performed at a high level under pressure, supported by a home crowd and years of preparation on home ice and snow. 

“The home team really always does rise to the occasion when the Games are in their country,” said Colin Hilton, president and CEO of the Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation.

Both Hilton and Wilson pointed to Utah’s legacy venues as a big advantage heading into 2034. Unlike most Olympic hosts, the state is working with venues that have remained active since 2002, hosting large-scale, international events regularly. 

Those include the Utah Olympic Park, Soldier Hollow Nordic Center and the Utah Olympic Oval, all of which continue to host national and international events, along with Olympic venues like Deer Valley Resort, which has remained a regular stop on the World Cup circuit.

Wilson said that being prepared also includes planning for challenges and conditions that simply can’t be accounted for ahead of time, particularly as weather patterns become less predictable.

“To be a good skier, you have to keep your knees bent,” said Wilson. “We don’t know what those things will be, but what we can do is plan early, get out ahead of all the must-haves, and be prepared to pivot.”

This winter, Utah’s snowpack reached the lowest levels on record and peaked weeks earlier than normal, with statewide totals at roughly half of typical conditions. Many ski areas delayed openings due to low early season snow and warm temperatures and closed weeks earlier than usual as those conditions persisted throughout the season.

The Intermountain Health Freestyle International World Cup at Deer Valley was moved out of Utah this January due to snow and weather conditions, ending a three-decade run of successful hosting at the resort.

“We can’t control the weather,” Wilson said. “Would it be challenging? Yes. Are we prepared if it happens? Absolutely.”

Leaders said that familiarity can support performance if it is paired with continued investment in athlete development and coordination across governing bodies. Wilson said the extended timeline allows that work to begin earlier and progress more deliberately.

“We are not planning an event for 17 days. We are planning for decades,” he said.

Practice makes perfect

Leaders focused on how experienced venues translate into operational consistency. In Italy, sites that host regular competitions operated with fewer disruptions and more coordination.

Jack Gierhart, CEO of U.S. Biathlon, said that was clear at the biathlon venue that runs annual events in Antholz, where staff, volunteers and organizers had built familiarity over time. 

“However you can prep and do test events as much as possible is really important,” he said.

Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of Park City Chamber/Bureau, saw that level of preparedness and execution at Antholz — despite the massive complication of securing controlled rifle and ammunition storage, along with managing access through accreditation checkpoints, all while still operating the course at Olympic standards inside a venue built for nearly 19,000 spectators.

“The team, the media, the visitors, the volunteers, the staff, they knew exactly what they were doing,” she said.

Hilton said Utah has built that same kind of system over time. Since 2002, the state has continued to host major competitions, including World Cups, world championships and junior-level events, such as North American Cups and junior world events, which introduce developing athletes to local venues earlier in their careers.

“What that does is provide a series of experienced technical volunteers,” he said.

That builds familiarity across multiple levels, leaders said, with a benefit to athletes getting to know the venues and staff and volunteers gaining experience running events at different scales.

It also supports Utah’s role as a training hub. Gierhart said international teams are increasingly interested in training at Soldier Hollow and other venues, both to prepare for 2034 and to access high-quality facilities. That activity builds energy around the sport locally while raising the level of competition for U.S. athletes.

Utah’s advantage comes from the fact that this system is already in place, they said, and the focus now is on expanding that to match the scale of the Olympics.

Riding the bus 

For Park City and Summit County, that repetition and experience with hosting big events extends beyond competition sites. Events at Deer Valley and surrounding venues bring in spectators, media and support staff, which tests transportation systems, lodging capacity and community coordination.

Wesselhoff said that a broader ecosystem is what needs to be practiced and perfected.

“It’s not just the event,” she said. “It’s the entire ecosystem of what it takes to put on a global event.”

Transportation emerged as one of the most immediate challenges for 2034, particularly in Park City and Summit County. 

“Transportation and transit was an … emotional experience,” Wesselhoff joked. “It reflects everything about your guest’s experience.”

She said access, timing and movement between venues affected how visitors perceived every event she experienced in Italy. Wilson said the scale of the 2034 Games will increase that pressure. Park City Mountain and Deer Valley will host more events than in 2002, and those events will take place daily, given the number of events added to the Olympic calendar in the last two decades. 

“We have 40% more events in ’34 than we had in 2002,” he said. “Pretty much everybody will be busing into Summit County for events.”

Wesselhoff said local officials are using the Games as a catalyst to move forward with long-planned transportation projects, including bus rapid transit systems and expanded access routes. She said those improvements will support Olympic demand while also addressing long-term growth in Park City and Summit County.

Athlete experience 

Leaders also focused on how athletes experience the Games outside of competition, and how that experience shapes performance.

The last Winter Games at the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics were held under strict COVID-19 protocols, with no spectators and limited family access. Milano Cortina marked the first time in eight years that athletes competed in a full Olympic environment, with crowds, family and the public interacting with athletes across venues.

“It was the first time that we were back together in eight years,” said Catherine Raney Norman, vice president of development and athlete relations for the 2034 organizing committee.

She said athletes consistently pointed to that environment as a defining part of the Games. Competing in front of family members and full crowds changed how the event felt, not just emotionally but competitively.

“The number of athletes that came and shared how excited they were to have fans, to have spectators, to have a community that wanted to celebrate their sport was really an incredible experience,” she said. 

That feedback has shifted how Utah is approaching planning and decision-making around how athletes can interact with spectators, how families access events and how the broader environment supports them throughout the Games.

“How do we bring about a holistic athlete experience?” Raney Norman said.

It will include planning for every part of an athlete’s day, she said, from where they stay, how they get to competition and where they store equipment, to where they meet with coaches and sponsors and how they recover after an event. 

Utah’s existing venue system allows organizers to focus less on building new spaces and more on improving how athletes live and move within the system that already exists, they said.

“The lights don’t go out in 2034,” she said. “How do we leave a better world through sport?”

The post Utah Olympic leaders see preparation, experience as key advantages for 2034 appeared first on Park Record.

Spring break in Park City felt more like a beach vacation than a ski trip this year, as warm temperatures turned spring snow to slush, forcing early terrain closures and leaving sunburned visitors to explore Main Street rather than the rocks beneath their skis. 

A late start to snow in December, inconsistent conditions through the winter and early resort closures in March reduced the number of peak booking days across the 2025-26 ski season, limiting visitation and leading to lower occupancy, shorter stays and more price-sensitive travel behavior across the lodging industry, according to local industry leaders.

By late March, bookings slowed significantly and did not recover as terrain availability declined at Park City Mountain and Deer Valley Resort, temperatures remained well above average and Utah’s snowpack fell to among the lowest levels on record. 

This was a challenge all season. As warm temperatures and limited snowmaking windows delayed terrain openings across Park City’s ski areas, visitation slowed in December, pushing many local businesses to reduce their seasonal staff levels and working hours until much later in the season, and setting the season off to a rocky start. 

“We had delayed bringing on some of our seasonal employees by up to a month,” said Heleena Sideris, general manager of Park City Lodging. “Now we’re on the flip side of that, where I’m letting go of seasonal employees that typically would be here till mid-April. That’s a compression on both sides that we’re seeing.”

As many guests delayed booking until conditions improved — and with little improvement by mid-winter — occupancy remained below typical levels throughout the season, according to the Park City Chamber/Bureau.

February occupancy declined 12.5% year over year, and March is pacing down 15.5%, said Jennifer Wesselhoff, president and CEO of the Chamber/Bureau. 

Sideris said occupancy across her portfolio is down 17% year over year, with bookings slowing significantly after March 20, as deteriorating conditions forced Park City Mountain Village and Deer Valley Resort to close March 29, nearly three weeks earlier than in years prior. 

Wesselhoff said February rates increased 4% year over year, while March rates declined by less than 1%. Over the past six months, occupancy fell to 43%, down 4% year over year, while average nightly rates declined 1.8% to $714.

“Lodging performance shows softening in occupancy levels, while rates have remained relatively stable, indicating continued demand for the Park City experience,” said Wesselhoff. “Overall, while the season may not match the exceptionally strong performance of recent years, Park City continues to demonstrate resilience.”

Rachel Alday, co-owner and co-founder of Abode Luxury Rentals, said her bookings increased 13% year over year, but revenue fell 7% and average stay value dropped 18%.

“Big picture, it feels like demand didn’t disappear, but guests are definitely more price sensitive,” Alday said. “Likely booking shorter stays, lower price points or waiting longer to book.”

Sideris said average daily rates, which had steadily increased in the years following the pandemic, declined this season back toward pre-COVID levels, reflecting a broader pricing reset that was compounded by weaker demand tied to snow conditions.

“That traveler is waiting and deciding closer to the trip,” Sideris said.

Snowpack across Utah peaked at roughly half of typical levels and weeks earlier than normal, making conditions less and less predictable throughout the winter. By March, late season conditions eliminated a portion of ski travel.

“We, (in) early March, performed really well with some spring breaks,” Sideris said. “But once the second half of March hit, there was hardly any business coming in.”

Still, people love to vacation, she said. Particular holiday weekends performed well, offering slivers of hope throughout the spring, as Presidents’ Day travel remained stable and early March saw an increase in visitation tied to school breaks, said Sideris. 

“Spring break travelers aren’t necessarily going to wait to chase the snow,” Sideris said. “They’re coming because of the timing of school breaks and family schedules, and they’re going to make the most of it.”

But those high demand windows were shorter and more concentrated than in a typical year, and they did not offset the slower early season or the early end to the season.

Lodging operators had to get creative to maximize those booking windows and maintain occupancy. 

Sideris made an effort to be as transparent as possible with visitors, informing them of resort closures or terrain challenges and reducing minimum stay requirements at Park City Lodging, including during peak holiday periods that previously required week-long bookings. 

“We’re really pulling those levers, and just knowing that any business is good business,” Sideris said.

Despite it all, guest feedback remained positive, said Sideris. Visitors adjusted expectations and spent more time on off-mountain activities, including dining, events and other offerings in town. Some chose to proceed with planned trips regardless of conditions, while others used flexible booking policies or trip insurance options to delay their trips to next year. 

Broader changes in the lodging market also amplified the season’s challenges.

An estimated 600 new, short-term rental units entered Park City over the past year, increasing competition and putting pressure on occupancy and pricing, said Sideris.

Those factors, combined with variable snow conditions, have required operators to more actively manage pricing, availability and homeowner expectations.

Sideris said bookings for next December are already pacing approximately 25% ahead of last year, indicating continued interest in holiday travel. 

How that demand will ultimately take shape is still unclear, she admitted, as travelers become more responsive to snow conditions and less predictable in how they plan trips.

For Sideris, after years of warning signs, she said the combination of low snow, warm temperatures and compressed demand has made it harder to rely on consistent winter conditions as the foundation of the local economy.

“There’s a part of me that a little bit celebrates this season, because the reality has finally arrived,” Sideris said. “Those of us in the climate space have been calling this for a long time, and now the proof is all around us.”

She pointed to efforts like green business programs as one way to give visitors clearer options to support companies committed to environmental and community-focused practices, and said adapting to more variable winters will require greater flexibility in pricing and booking strategies.

“It’s really just going to be about recalibrating people’s expectations,” she said.

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