Lack Of Snow Shuts Down Badger Pass, Joins Five Other Resorts In West
One of three ski and snowboard areas that sit within a U.S. national park has announced it will not open for what's left of the 2024-2025 winter season.
Despite getting some February storms, officials at Badger Pass -- also known as Yosemite Ski & Snowboard Park -- said that it was too little too late for the 90-acre hill that received about a third of the snowfall it usually gets.
Season pass holders will get a full refund, said national park officials, but all operations at the hill -- including concessions and cross-country trail system -- will be shut down.
This season, Badger Pass got no snow in all of January after 30 inches in both November and December, according to OpenSnow. However, unseasonable high temperatures couldn't sustain coverage until more snow arrived at Badger Pass.
Opening in 1935, Badger Pass is the oldest ski area in California. It sits southwest of Half Dome and Yosemite Falls -- a winding 22-mile mountain drive -- and has long been a favorite hill for Yosemite National Park workers and residents of the small villages that stretch off the southwestern edge of the park. It sits in the same massif as does Mammoth Mountain, which also has struggled with snowfall this season.
When open, the mountain operates four chairlifts, with a parallel pair hauling folks from the base to the 8,000-foot summit to run down four blues, four blacks and one green run.
While Badger Pass never opened this season, it joins Cedar Pass in northeast California, Sandia Peak and Ski Cloudcroft in New Mexico, and Sitzmark in Washington as mountains that never opened their lifts due to insufficient snowfall.
