Baldy Opens on Thanksgiving. Its New Lifts Come Later. Here's Sun Valley's Countdown.

"The deepest part of slack" is how Julie Johnson, owner of NourishMe in Ketchum, described November in a September interview with the Idaho Mountain Express. She told the paper that her shop usually cuts hours around then, and that slack calls for cutting costs and praying for good snow.

This year the quiet weeks end on a date with two jobs. Sun Valley Resort lists Bald Mountain's opening day as Thursday, November 26, 2026, at 9 a.m. at the River Run base area. That is the first day of the resort's 91st winter season, and it is also Thanksgiving. The two lifts everyone has watched go up on the River Run side of Baldy all summer are on a later schedule. The resort's own season announcement says the new Lookout Express and Christmas lifts are "scheduled to open in December 2026."

So this winter opens twice, and the calendar between now and December makes more sense read that way.

Six weeks, in order

The resort and valley calendars from here to the first chair:

Every event on the list points toward the snow. "Days Off" is the 77th installment of the Warren Miller film series, and the resort describes it as asking what the world's best ski athletes do with their days off. On the Humanitix ticket page, advance general admission was listed at $26.50 plus a $1.92 fee. Groups of four to nine get 10% off, and groups of ten or more get 15% off. The resort says prices go up two weeks before the show. With the first screening on October 29, that bump fell in mid-October, so the price this week is likely above the early one. Part of the net proceeds goes to the Share Winter Foundation, according to Warren Miller's Sun Valley event listing.

The Halloween Fall Festival is the cheapest afternoon on the list. The resort's event page lists treats from shops around Sun Valley Village, free outdoor skating from noon to 3 p.m., and a free family movie at the Opera House at 3 p.m. Every activity is free.

The party that does the praying

One week later, the Pray For Snow Party moves the season's center to River Run, the same base area where opening day happens. The resort's listing runs it from 4 to 8 p.m. on Saturday, November 7, with DJ Luke Ross and DJ SID3S. Vintage ski gear is encouraged, and the River Run bar will serve drinks alongside a special food menu.

The listing gives no general admission price. The money moves through the side tables:

• Raffle tickets cost five cans of food or $5 each, and the proceeds go to the Hunger Coalition.
• A jacket drive collects lightly used coats for the Shoshone Project.
• Mammut is offering discount codes and raffle prizes.

Bring a bag of canned goods and an old jacket, and the evening covers itself. It is also the last big resort gathering on the calendar before the quietest stretch of the year.

What slack looks like on the ground

The weeks between November 7 and Thanksgiving are the ones Johnson called the deepest part of slack. Each business handles them differently. The same Idaho Mountain Express report found a range of approaches across the valley:

1. NourishMe in Ketchum usually cuts hours in November, and many of its college-age staff come back to work when winter tourism returns.
2. Despo's keeps its posted hours through slack. Owner Amy Harris told the paper that on nights when no customers come in, she sometimes sends staff home and closes early.
3. Birdie's, the food and beer shack at Bigwood Golf, closes for winter along with the course itself.
4. Limelight Ketchum is a counterexample. General manager John Curnow said this September was the hotel's best since it opened in 2017, thanks to group business like conferences and weddings, and that a packed hotel in October needs as many staff as a packed hotel in February.

The Despo's approach is the one to plan around. Posted hours are a ceiling in November, so if you're headed out late on a quiet weeknight, call first.

Other places reopen on a schedule that lines up with the mountain. Sun Valley Wine Co. is on a seasonal pause, and its website says it reopens Tuesday, November 24, two days before opening day. Bronwyn Nickel, a board member of the Ketchum Business Advisory Coalition, told the Express that community support for local businesses and their workers "makes a real difference, especially during the slower season."

Opening day, on Thanksgiving

The resort's opening-day plan is short. It lists complimentary hot cocoa in a commemorative mug while supplies last, live music at River Run Plaza, and coffee and pastries at a mini Konditorei. That same Thursday, the resort is also running three Thanksgiving dining experiences, so the first ski morning of the season runs straight into the holiday meal.

The resort's opening-day page says terrain opens at 9 a.m., but it doesn't say which lifts or trails will run. The Dollar Mountain page says Dollar will reopen for the 2026–27 winter without giving a date. For the lineup on the day itself, the resort's mountain updates page is the place to check.

Why the lifts run on a later clock

The two replacements are among the most important lifts on Baldy. According to the resort's September 16 announcement, the new Doppelmayr Lookout Express is a high-speed six-pack. It rises 2,673 vertical feet in about 8.5 minutes and replaces the original lift built in 1993. The new Christmas lift is a high-speed detachable quad. It rises 1,354 feet in about 4.5 minutes and replaces a lift built in 1988.

Building them has taken all year. The Idaho Mountain Express reported in August that work started in April after the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management approved the plans. By late May the old terminals were gone. Helicopters flew the old towers off the mountain in June and poured concrete for the new foundations in July. The paper's August 19 story, On Baldy, big 'birds' deliver big towers, said Chinook helicopters had delivered the new towers, with terminals, cables and chairs still to go. As of the resort's October 1 mountain report, crews were "ramping up work across the mountain to finalize the lift projects and get ready for winter."

The Christmas replacement also explains why there has been no lift ride to the top of Baldy for hikers, bikers or sightseers this summer. For anyone who rode Lookout for its quiet laps, our earlier look at what the six-pack changes on Bald Mountain covers that side of the story.

December is the second opening

The month after Thanksgiving holds more than the two lifts. The resort says Sunny's Adventure Park on Dollar is expected to open in December. Fifty more acres of gladed terrain are being added between Christin's Silver, Leigh Lane and Upper Broadway, on top of 90 acres finished last summer. All four snowmaking pumphouses on Bald Mountain are also getting upgrades.

That snowmaking work has a cost before the season starts. The October 1 mountain report lists Warm Springs Trail as closed for the snowmaking upgrades and for work on the World Cup finish area. That finish area is for the Stifel Sun Valley Finals, which return to Bald Mountain March 19–25, 2027. It will be the second time Sun Valley has hosted the season-ending World Cup Finals, after the 2025 event.

Put in order, the season runs like this. Cocoa and live music at River Run on Thanksgiving morning, then two new lifts on the River Run side in December, then the world's top racers on the same mountain in March. The Pray For Snow Party on November 7 is the last big gathering before the quiet stretch, and November 26 is the first morning the chairs turn.

When the first chairs turn on Thanksgiving morning and December's new lifts follow, Corey Graham SIR will be watching the River Run side closely. If a home near Baldy's base is part of your plans this winter, Be the First to See New Listings.