The climate crisis hitting Utah’s ski industry hard 

“Three Utah ski resorts have closed. When will the others follow?” reads a Salt Lake Tribune headline following a record-warm 2025-26 winter season. This past winter was officially Utah’s warmest in over a century. 

While many of us enjoyed sunshine and unseasonably high temperatures last week, it comes with the harsh reality of just how much is at stake. The climate crisis is not some far away future threat. It’s here and it’s impacting Utah. 

The impact of a shorter ski season means a lot more than some grouchy season pass holders.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that “Utah’s backcountry skiers in ‘considerable’ danger amid record March heat wave.”

Snowpack is Utah’s largest natural reservoir, and when it declines, so does the water supply that sustains our communities, agriculture, and the Great Salt Lake. Less snow means earlier runoff, reduced streamflow in late summer, and intensifying drought conditions across the state. Great Salt Lake lake-effect snowfall contributes to about 5-10% of the snowpack in the Wasatch Mountains. 

From a public health perspective, these changes are deeply concerning. As Great Salt Lake shrinks, the more exposed lakebed becomes a source of toxic dust containing heavy metals like arsenic, which can be carried into nearby communities and worsen respiratory and cardiovascular disease. At the same time, hotter temperatures and drier conditions contribute to more frequent and severe wildfires, increasing particulate pollution that already plagues Utah’s air.

At the same time Utah is facing all of these threats and impacts from the climate crisis, state officials are trying to double, even quadruple down on fossil fuel extraction and use: extending the closing dates of two of Utah’s most polluting power plants in central Utah (Hunter and Huntington), pushing the Uinta Basin Railway. 

While our priorities and motivation for our work on the climate crisis is the health of residents and our environment, the ski industry is a $2.5 billion industry in Utah. The central Wasatch mountains attract more visitors annually than Utah’s National Parks. It has long been de-bunked that fighting the climate crisis isn’t profitable. And with Utah expected to host the 2034 Olympics, officials need to get serious about preserving a future for residents and visitors. 

UPHE will continue to bring light to the hypocrisy and advocate for ways to protect our health and environment.