Wyoming Ski Season 2026-27: When to Go

As a regional pattern, the earliest Wyoming areas usually start turning lifts around November 20, and most of the state is running by about December 5. Thanksgiving is the anchor for the big two. Smaller community areas often wait for natural cover and can start weeks later. Opening day for any individual area is the area's own announcement, and it changes every year, so check the area's website before you drive.

February and early March. Deep midwinter cold keeps the snow dry, and the Teton snowpack usually peaks in late March or early April. By the NOAA NCEI 1991 to 2020 normals at Moran 5WNW (6,805 ft, about 19 miles from the nearest listed area), the snowiest months here are Dec, Jan, Feb. Weigh that against the crowd calendar: the busiest weeks of the year are Christmas to New Year, the mid-January holiday weekend, Presidents' week in February, and the March spring-break weeks.

Dec first, then Jan and Feb, at the Moran 5WNW reference station used on this page. That station averages about 175 inches of snow a year at 6,805 ft. It is a valley or mid-mountain gauge, not a summit reading, so treat it as the shape of a normal season near the ski terrain rather than as what falls on the runs.

NOAA's Climate Prediction Center Dec to Feb outlook, issued August 20, 2026, reads as milder than normal for temperature and equal chances (no lean) for precipitation at Wyoming's reference cities. A milder tilt with no precipitation lean usually means snowfall slightly below normal — fewer days cold enough for snow, not necessarily fewer storms. A tilt is a probability shift, not a promise: CPC forecasts by region rather than issuing one call per state, and taken from CPC's official Dec–Feb probability map at each state's three reference cities, since CPC publishes probabilities by region rather than a call per state.

Most areas usually wrap up around April 5, with the last holdout nearer April 20. Spring conditions arrive from about Mar, the first month where the reference station's normal high reaches 38°F while nights still average at or below freezing. That freeze-thaw pair is what makes corn snow: hard in the morning, soft by late morning, slush by mid afternoon.

OpenStreetMap currently maps 7 operating lift-served downhill ski areas in Wyoming that meet the size floor used on this page. The largest by vertical drop is Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, at about 4,070 feet from 6,328 to 10,398 feet. Those figures are computed from OpenStreetMap run and lift geometry, not taken from resort marketing, so they can differ from a resort's own published numbers.

Yes. USDA NRCS runs SNOTEL, an automated network that physically measures snow depth and the water held in the snowpack. Wyoming has stations near several of its ski areas, and this page reads them live. A SNOTEL site is a forest clearing rather than a ski run, so it tells you what is on the ground nearby, not what is groomed or open.

Today's conditions are on each area's own website: base depth, lifts open, runs open and opening day are the resorts' own facts, published by them. This page is about timing across a season in Wyoming: which weeks historically deliver, what this winter's outlook implies, and when the crowds arrive.