Utah’s Eagle Point Ski Resort suffered devastating losses in this summer’s Cottonwood Fire. As a result, the ski area announced the difficult decision to forego operations for the upcoming 2026-2027 winter season.
The resort saw approximately 300 of its 600 acres burn in the fire that began June 22 and scorched nearly 100,000 acres in total throughout Utah. Four of Eagle Point’s chairlifts were destroyed, as well as the Canyonside Lodge.
Notably, Eagle Point is also home to year-round residential homes, cabins, and seasonal resort condos — 145 of those were also lost in the fire.
“Our first responsibility is the safety of our guests and employees,” owner Shane Gadbaw said in a statement Monday. “The damage to our lifts is significant, and the full extent of that damage is still being evaluated. We are scheduling rope inspections, non-destructive testing, and manufacturer inspections, and we believe it is likely that portions of our lift infrastructure, including several haul ropes, will require replacement. Those components can take months to manufacture and deliver, making it impossible for us to responsibly plan for winter operations this season.”
The original version of this article appeared on The Inertia.
Rebuilding Efforts
Eagle Point launched BeaverTUF last month as part of its larger community rebuilding efforts. This includes evaluating large-scale forest restoration over about 2,000 acres of land in the area.
“Healthy forests help protect our community, our water resources, our roads, our homes, and the long-term future of Beaver County,” Gadbaw said. “Many grant opportunities require local matching funds, and donations to BeaverTUF help position our community to pursue those larger funding opportunities and bring additional resources into the area.”
As for missing the upcoming season, Eagle Point has offered its pass holders three options. They can either receive a full refund, transfer their pass to the 2027-2028 season, when they will presumably reopen, or they can donate all or some of the money from those passes to BeaverTUF.
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