{"id":22277,"date":"2025-04-16T14:24:30","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T20:24:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22277"},"modified":"2025-04-16T14:24:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T20:24:30","slug":"baldy-ends-season-with-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/baldy-ends-season-with-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Baldy ends season with celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sun Valley Closes Its 89th Season With Music, Spring Skiing<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

BY Mark Dee<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
Skier on top of Baldy. Photo Credit: Carol Waller<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Sun Valley\u2019s spring saw our home hill host the world\u2019s best. Now, it\u2019s ending the season with a weekend for the rest.
\nThe resort wraps its 89th season with the Baldy Bash\u2014complete with music, festivities, and, of course, spring skiing\u2014at the Warm Springs base area on Saturday, April 19. Then, come back decked out in whatever costume you choose on Easter Sunday, April 20, for a proper closing day on Bald Mountain.
\nAt press time, River Run was slated to close on Sunday, April 13, leaving the north-facing Warm Springs the only way up. Terrain will stay open as conditions permit, Jess Fiaschetti, a spokeswoman for Sun Valley Resort, told Wood River Weekly.
\nWhat is set are the bands for Saturday afternoon. Sun Valley-based Moonshine Schubert opens the apr\u00e8s from 2\u20133:30 p.m. with his mellow take on beachy, reggae-inflecting alt-rock. From 4\u20135:50 p.m., the groove-heavy electric trio Cycles closes the show outside the Warm Springs Lodge with a free, jam-influenced style honed by more than 350 shows on the road.
\n\u201cDrawing influence from artists such as Rage Against the Machine, J. Dilla, Primus, Weather Report, and many more, Cycles fuse an eclectic blend of genres to produce an original sound that has become harder and harder to find,\u201d the resort says of its headlining act.
\nThe show is free, no tickets required. Parking is limited, though, so consider taking Mountain Rides down to the Picabo Street stop.
\nWhile Sun Valley plans the party Saturday, it\u2019s up to skiers and riders to carry Sunday\u2014unofficially Gaper Day\u2014with onesies, costumes, and an appreciation of every last turn before the lifts stop spinning.
\nFor Sun Valley Resort, this weekend hails a winter that saw Bald Mountain return to the world stage, hosting the World Cup Finals\u2014and thousands of rabid ski racing fans\u2014from March 20-27. Those races marked the culmination of years of work to develop, construct and maintain elite racecourses down the Warm Springs face of Baldy.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s spring, and spring at a ski resort is a combination of celebration and fatigue,\u201d said Pete Sonntag, chief operating officer of the Sun Valley Company. \u201cThere is a tremendous sense of pride in what we pulled off with World Cup Finals, and also a commitment to make all our traditional events as good as they\u2019ve ever been.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re in this business because we love it and the final days should be a blast. We will recuperate when the season is over and then jump into summer and begin planning for next winter.\u201d
\nFor Sonntag, the season was a \u201cgreat success,\u201d with a run of key storm cycles lining up with big skier weeks. As of April 10, Sun Valley logged 180 inches of snowfall for the 2024-25 season, slightly below its 220-inch average, according to Visit Sun Valley, the regional marketing alliance. But, Sun Valley is holding strong with a 98-inch base, the resort says, well ahead of the same time last season, according to the ski weather tracking site OpenSnow.
\nWith conditions lining up, Sonntag hopes the Baldy Bash offers locals a chance to celebrate their home hill.
\n\u201cObviously, the World Cup Finals were the big story and I\u2019m very proud of how our team and the community rose to the occasion,\u201d he said. \u201cThe course prep was not without its impacts and we learned so much from our first experience with it. I have to say I\u2019ve thoroughly enjoyed seeing people lapping the course since we\u2019ve opened it back up after the races. It is amazing spring skiing!\u201d
\nLooking ahead
\nFor the first time in two years, the lifts that closed on Baldy will be in line to open unchanged for the next. After overhauling the Warm Springs lift system in the summer of 2023 and Seattle Ridge in 2024, the resort plans to stand pat on infrastructure this summer, though there are \u201ctentative plans\u201d to proceed with plans to replace the Christmas lift over the summer of 2026, Fiaschetti said.
\nThe big change next year won\u2019t happen on the lift, but in the lift line. Sun Valley plans to move its passes to radio-frequency identification, or RFID, next season. RFID passes replace traditional ticket scanning, where skiers present a barcode to staff, with a tiny transponder that opens a gate at the bottom of each lift. That means skiers won\u2019t have to present their pass to scanners during the 2025-26 season\u2014and that resort employees need to install gates at every lift.
\n\u201cWe know this is something our guests have been wanting and we\u2019re excited to be able to bring it to Sun Valley,\u201d Sonntag said. \u201cAs for future lift projects, stay tuned!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sun Valley Closes Its 89th Season With Music, Spring Skiing BY Mark Dee Sun Valley\u2019s spring saw our home hill host the world\u2019s best. Now, it\u2019s ending the season with a weekend for the rest. The resort wraps its 89th season with the Baldy Bash\u2014complete with music, festivities, and, of course, spring skiing\u2014at the Warm […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":479,"featured_media":22279,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,86,18,28,30,39,42],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22277","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-ketchum","9":"category-news","10":"category-recreation","11":"category-resort","12":"category-sport","13":"category-sun-valley"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22277","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/479"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22277"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22277\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22280,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22277\/revisions\/22280"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22277"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22277"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22277"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}