FAIRFIELD, Idaho — The new owners at Soldier Mountain are trying to figure out ways to get more skiers and snowboarders to visit Soldier Mountain.
This mom-and-pop shop has been around since the 1940s. It was once owned by Bruce Willis and in 2020 the Alden family took over operations.
"We need the next generation and this generation to come to Soldier Mountain and help continue this long legacy," said David Alden, the general manager."
The Alden family decided they would give every student in the Camas County school a free season pass not just this year, but every year they are in school. Soldier Mountain has invited the school to come out on February 24th.
Soldier Mountain also partnered with the Sun Valley Education Foundation to teach these kids how to ski and snowboard.
"We are going to help them along their path to becoming lifelong skiers, it’s a really cool program," said Alden. "We have a lot of students that go to Camas County school they are called the Mushers, go Mushers."
In the last two decades, there has been a change in the ski industry with resorts across the country being bought up by two corporations.Vail owns 35 resorts and Alterra has 15.
So far Idaho has dodged this trend as our resorts are still operated locally. However, the first domino fell last summer when Schweitzer up in the panhandle was bought by Alterra. This trend is why it is so important to support our local ski resorts.
"I think I would prefer a mom-and-pop resort any day over a big resort," said Gijs Hardeman. "The atmosphere is very mellow, people are super friendly and it is all very personal."
Hardeman and his buddy are traveling through Idaho visiting different ski resorts. This pair traveled to the States from the Netherlands and they have visited Grand Targhee, Pebble Creek, Sun Valley, did some cat skiing at Soldier Mountain and they will finish their trip with night skiing at Bogus Basin.
“It is an adventure and everything in Europe is really dense," said Hardeman. "It is a cool experience because we don’t have these small resorts where everyone knows each other and there are one or two lifts and it’s just happy days every day."
Soldier Mountain is a beautiful resort I would put it up against any resort in that aspect. The mountain is open Thursday through Sunday and people can usually find a blank canvas, especially on Thursday. It's also the second closest resort to the Treasure Valley if you are looking to avoid those weekend crowds at Bogus Basin.
"The most special thing about Soldier is that you can find powder days and weeks after everybody else," said Alden. "We have such a low skier density and so much acreage that there is almost always untracked snow at Soldier."
People can also rent out the entire mountain Monday through Wednesday, Soldier features outstanding grooming and one of the only cat skiing operations in Idaho. We look forward to sharing our cat skiing experience with you in the future.
