Many Holdout North American Destination Resorts to Open This Week, Parking Reservations at Copper and Snowbird Already Filling Up

UPDATE: Sugarbush has now postponed its opening date to December 10 due to unfavorable weather.

Several North American resorts, including Snowbird, Copper, Winter Park, Steamboat, Deer Valley, Kirkwood, Snow King, Sugarbush, and Whiteface, either opened today or are set to open for the 2020-21 season this week. In addition, Bromley opened yesterday, November 29.

With these openings, nearly every resort we’ve been to will be operating by Saturday. Stratton and Homewood are the only mountains we’ve reviewed that might not be open by then.

All of the resorts opening this week have implemented new operational procedures due to COVID-19. We’ve detailed the key access facts below.

Access Details - Kirkwood

Only multi-day and season passholders will have access to Kirkwood before December 8. Due to COVID-related capacity restrictions, all visitors must book their days in advance through the Epic website. For December 4 through December 7, reservations must be made the week of—these days will become available on December 2 at 4pm ET.

Along with week-of bookings, passholders can hold up to 7 priority reservation days at Kirkwood between December 8 and April 4. However, December 8 and December 11 are already completely booked. Other core season days are still available.

December 8 and 11—part of the core season and available for priority reservations—are already booked at Kirkwood. Spots for December 4-7 become available on Wednesday.

Access Details - Snowbird, Copper

While mountain access to these resorts is unrestricted, parking is by reservation only—including for season and Ikon passholders. Reservations can be made on the websites for Copper and Snowbird, and one person can hold up to 7 reservation days at a time.

At the time of this writing, parking reservations are booked for all of Copper’s Saturdays until February 6, as well as multiple days in December. The situation is even more acute at Snowbird—all weekends at this Utah resort are booked until March 7.

Parking reservations are booked for all of Copper’s Saturdays until February 6, as well as multiple days in December. Most weekdays are still open.

Snowbird’s parking reservations are completely reserved on all weekends until March 7. Weekdays after New Years are still entirely available.

Access Details - Sugarbush, Bromley

Reservations are not currently required to access Sugarbush or Bromley. But out-of-state visitors must ensure adherence to Vermont’s quarantine requirements.

Anyone traveling to Vermont is currently required to quarantine for 14 days before hitting the ski slopes (or 7 days followed by a negative COVID test). If you’re traveling to the state by personal car, the quarantine and test can be done in your home state.

Resorts must collect contact tracing information on each visitor, and all guests are required to complete an attestation confirming compliance with travel quarantine requirements. More information on these guidelines can be found here.

Access Details - Winter Park, Steamboat, Deer Valley, Snow King, Whiteface

Reservations are not currently required to access any of these mountains. However, lift ticket sales will be substantially limited at most of these resorts. See our guide on resort operations for specific policies set by each of these resorts.

Final Thoughts

If you wanted to make a reservation to visit Copper or Snowbird on a Saturday any time soon and haven’t done so already—and aren’t staying on-site or able to use public transportation—looks like you’re out of luck. For those needing to make reservations for mountain access, we recommend booking as quickly as possible.

For more, see our reviews on Snowbird, Copper, Winter Park, Steamboat, Deer Valley, Kirkwood, Snow King, Sugarbush, Whiteface, and Bromley.