This past week featured the first significant snow of the season. Many ski areas across the Rockies received 4”-10”, with locally near a foot and a half, of fresh snow.

Last year, mountain resorts were overrun by travelers in search of space and fresh air. The visitors are expected back, but now the towns have expanded activities and plans in place to deal with the crowds.

Known for intimidating steeps, bounteous snowfall, and gobsmacking Grand Teton views, Jackson Hole looms near the top of every skier and snowboarder’s tick list. World-class runs like the South Hoback and Corbet’s Couloir keep starry-eyed visitors and grinning locals alike enthralled all winter long. Only recently, however, has Jackson Hole Mountain Resort been able to generate a similar buzz come summer.

After one ski season under his belt, Sleeping Giant Ski Area owner Nick Piazza is looking to get ahead of the curve by further investing in his mountain this summer.

“In my businesses, I know things are running well if we’re not talking about things for tomorrow or next week, but we’re talking about things for two months from now,” he said.

Piazza is forgoing the summer zip line season in order to focus on construction efforts for the mountain. Although the zip line has traditionally been the mountain’s biggest money-maker, he said it only makes sense to take a season off and come back in 2022 in a more prepared state.

“It never really got big enough to really solve the issues of the ski season,” he said of the zip line. “So we had to make kind of a bet, and our bet was we really care about the ski season, so why don’t we try to make that the best it can be rather than operate a whole other business and try to learn that again.”

After closing for this season, a group of smaller ski and snowboard hills along the northern tier of the U.S. Rockies will work toward making improvements that range from new lifts to base area upgrades to snowmaking.

Kristine Harris walked from her home to Snow King recently for a last dash up the Summit Lift. She and her husband, Adam, wanted to pay tribute to the lift one last time.

The stairway to heaven may actually be a bootpack.

Jackson Hole and other popular ski resorts in the West are up and running with varying Covid rules and limitations. For purists, that’s not such a bad thing.

Tucked in the shadow of the Tetons, the town of Jackson, Wy., and surrounding Teton County is home to less than 25,000 full-time residents, but annually hosts over 2.5 million visitors.

Snow Ridge Ski Resort in upstate New York and Antelope Butte in Northern Wyoming has joined the Indy Pass for the 2020-21 season. With these additions New York now has four and Wyoming three Indy resorts giving skiers in those regions a great selection to choose from - for a total of 59 resorts across the country.

Though a "normal" future appears distant these days, three Western ski and snowboard resorts have gotten a clearer look down the road with U.S. Forest Service go-ahead for expansion projects.

The Jackson, Wyo., town council has given the owners of Snow King Mountain what is believed to be the first gondola installed on a local "town hill" in the United States

How these mothers move through the mountains can teach us all about risk assessment.

Summertime plans are beginning to take shape at Snow King and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, with attractions beginning to roll out for the season.

Ski areas may be closed in these historic times, but the weather doesn’t stop! Here’s a look at the national snow conditions through April 1.

As all but a handful of U.S. resorts either suspend operations or shut down for the season, a number of them still permit skiers and riders to climb their slopes and get a few turns.

Local hill Sleeping Giant will shut off its two ski lifts at the end of this season, as the non-profit that runs the ski and snowboard mountain can't make ends meet for winter operations.

Taking a helicopter to find untouched powder isn't only for skiers and riders in Alaska or Canada: Plenty of runs can be had in the Lower 48, too.

This season, Solitude Mountain decided that all who drive up to the Utah resort will pay for parking -- prompting an industry-wide look at overcrowded lots, traffic jams and public transport options on the way to the hill.

In the state of Wyoming, the major resorts hang tight to the Tetons in the west, while a host of smaller, town hill-type mountains spread out across much of the western half of the state.