Dennis Nazari, the owner of Salt Lake City, Utah, snowboard shop Salty Peaks, has a blunt assessment of this year’s snow season so far.
“Worst in decades,” Nazari said. “But there is no need to panic. It’s coming. Just like last year, it’s a bit late. If we move Christmas to the end of February, we’ll be right back on track!”
While sales at Salty Peaks are down this year, Nazari is maintaining his sense of humor. Across the West, retailers, resorts, and industry leaders are grappling with a snow drought that has some saying drastic change is needed to combat climate change, and in the meantime, brands and retailers will have to change how they’re working together to manage the glut of inventory due to poor snow conditions.
The snow drought is especially severe in Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. More than 80% of all Snow Telemetry stations in those states are showing snow water is below the 20th percentile this winter.
Nick Sargent, president of Snowsports Industries America (SIA), said the situation in Park City, Utah, where he is based, is historically grim.
“It’s very dry, sunny, and warm,” Sargent said, noting he’s seeing people mountain biking instead of hitting the slopes. “Three winters ago, we had over 900 inches. Then we got 600 inches. Then we got like 300 inches, and now we’ve got like 30 inches.”
In January, temperatures hovered around 55 degrees in Park City, he said. Landscapes that should be buried in white are brown, with dirt showing through thin cover on trails and forests completely bare. In nearby Alta, which is typically a snow magnet, the area is seeing historically low levels of snow, comparable to conditions in 1976.
“All the Chickens Have Come to Roost”
The impact extends far beyond Utah. In Missoula, Montana, Todd Frank, owner of The Trail Head, said the outdoor specialty store had a demoralizing start to the season.
“We actually had a very wet December that was just too warm, so much of the moisture came in as rain,” Frank said. While high-elevation snowpack above 7,000 feet managed to hold on, lower elevations suffered. “The lack of any real weather for all of January had a major dampening effect on skier morale.”
Frank reported that sales for early 2026 have been very soft, a result of multiple factors stacking up at once.
“It feels like all the chickens have come home to roost at the same time,” Frank said. “Price increases due to tariffs are real, lack of weather is real, consumer confidence given the national level chaos is real. Lots of job insecurity among federal and state level employees. Many factors are stacking up. That said: if it was NUKING snow all January, things would feel different. I like to say the economy doesn’t mean sh*% if it snows a ton.”
An East Coast Anomaly
While the West yearns for snow, the East Coast has been walloped. Sargent noted that New England is experiencing one of its best winters in recent memory.
“I was there over Christmas, and I have to tell you, it was all-time,” Sargent said. “There were people on my plane with ski boots and helmets from Salt Lake to Boston, going to Vermont to see snow. Usually, it’s the other way around.”
Bryce Phillips, founder and CEO of evo, acknowledged the headwinds in the West but pointed to the strength of a diversified geographic footprint across its 11 North America locations.
Phillips said that the absence of snow in Colorado and the West is creating difficult business decisions, with many retailers forced to “trade margin for revenue” to move inventory. Evo’s Salt Lake City store has been resilient due to the “rising tide” of the historic Granary District, with its breweries, restaurants and other businesses nearby. And other regions have been strong, offsetting weakness in the West.
“We are grateful to have had a strong year in the Midwest and East (evo.com), and in Japan between our Rhythm Japan locations and the evo Hotel.”
The Climate Reality Check
The erratic weather patterns have brought the conversation about climate change to the forefront of the industry.
“The No. 1 threat to this industry is climate change,” Sargent said. “It’s hard to really say that this is not climate change. It’s 55 degrees out and sunny… in February.”
The industry’s response to these existential threats was the focal point of the recent Ski Industry Climate Summit in Bolzano, Italy. Hosted by Atomic, Protect Our Winters Europe (POW), and The Winter Sports Sustainability Network (WSN), the summit gathered brands, resorts, and organizations to discuss supply chain decarbonization and circular economy models.
Sargent said there was a stark contrast between how European and American entities are responding to the crisis. French resort group Grand Massif, for example, presented a 25-year plan to retire trails that no longer hold snow and move infrastructure to higher elevations and north-facing slopes.
“I haven’t seen anyone in the U.S. that’s moving their resort on their current property to be better positioned to hold snow better,” Sargent said. He warned that the U.S. industry feels “sluggish” to accept these changes compared to Europe, where regulations on sustainable products and circularity are becoming law.
Fixing a “Broken” Prebook Model
For retailers on the ground, the immediate solution isn’t just about moving ski lifts — it’s about fixing the business model of buying and selling gear. Both Nazari and Frank argue that the current system of pre-booking inventory months in advance is failing.
“The ski industry… is simply a broken model,” Frank said. He estimates that nearly 70% of gear sold each season is carry-over or close-out product, leaving very little sold at full margin. “It is not sustainable unless your shop is in a resort market.”
Nazari said the industry needs to abandon its reliance on the “crystal ball” of pre-booking and shift toward data-driven, at-once ordering.
“The early order deadlines are why we are in the overstocked industry in the first place,” Nazari said. “There is no real data. It’s all guesswork and optimism.”
Nazari is adjusting his strategy by reducing pre-book orders and relying more on buying inventory in-season. He argues that if retailers commit to smaller initial orders, it lowers false optimism and reduces the glut of product that inevitably leads to panic-selling and slashed prices when the snow doesn’t show up.
“The quicker we get rid of the ‘crystal ball’ and get back to ‘real data-driven’ ordering later in the season, the quicker we can get back to a healthy industry,” Nazari said.
Nazari said he’s hopeful that the snow season will improve in the coming months. As for evo’s Phillips, he said it’s more important than ever for outdoor retailers to focus on what their customers need.
“As we observe and feel the tension and pressures of life in the U.S. right now, what we do — creating opportunities for people to connect outside — has never been more important,” Phillips said.
Kate Robertson can be reached at kate@shop-eat-surf-outdoor.com.
