Sun Valley Resort has set Bald Mountain's opening for Thursday, November 26, 2026, at 9 a.m. at River Run, the first day of its 91st winter season. The two River Run-side lifts that reach the top of the mountain, Lookout Express and Christmas, are both being replaced, and the resort has them scheduled to open in December 2026.
Last season, Lookout Express was one of the two lifts that carried opening day. So this Thanksgiving the River Run side opens while its own routes to the summit are still being built, and the full River Run side starts on a December date the resort hasn't announced yet.
The lift last season's opener ran on
The 2025-26 season opened late. Warm, dry early-season weather pushed Sun Valley past Thanksgiving for the first time in more than 15 years, according to the Idaho Mountain Express. When the lifts finally started on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2025, the Express reported that College, Sunset Strip and Lower River Run opened at 9 a.m. and could be reached from the River Run base via River Run Express and Lookout Express.
This year Lookout Express is one of the two lifts under construction. As the Express described it in August, the lift runs from the top of the Lower River Run ski trail to the Lookout summit of Baldy, and Christmas carries skiers from the mid-mountain Roundhouse restaurant to the summit. Between them they are the River Run side's two summit routes, and both are on the same December schedule.
The resort has not said which lifts and runs will open on November 26. The other summit routes are on the Warm Springs side. Lift Blog lists Challenger as reaching the Bald Mountain summit and places Flying Squirrel's upper terminal in the summit area. Down low at River Run, the Roundhouse Express gondola climbs to the Roundhouse at 7,700 feet. How the resort uses those lifts in the first week depends on snow and on a lift plan it has not yet published.
What the two replacements change
Sun Valley got approval from the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management in March, and construction started in April 2026. The resort's approval announcement lays out the specs:
| Lookout Express | Christmas | |
|---|---|---|
| Route, per the Mountain Express | Top of Lower River Run to Lookout summit | Roundhouse to the summit |
| Lift it replaces | Detachable quad built in 1993 | Detachable quad built in 1988 |
| New lift | Doppelmayr UNIG 6CLD detachable six-pack | Doppelmayr UNIG 4CLD detachable quad |
| Vertical rise | 2,673 feet | 1,354 feet |
| Towers | 21 | 14 |
| Ride time | About 8.5 minutes | About 4.5 minutes |
| Top speed | Up to 1,000 feet per minute | Up to 1,000 feet per minute |
The two lifts change in different ways. Lookout Express gets more seats per chair, going from four to six, and the resort says it is a similar model to the Seattle Ridge lift finished in 2024. Christmas stays a quad, and the resort says it is the same model as the Flying Squirrel lift finished in 2023. Chief Operating Officer Pete Sonntag said in the March announcement that "both lifts play a critical role in getting skiers and riders to the top of Bald Mountain," and he named Seattle Ridge, Flying Squirrel, Challenger and Broadway as the recent Doppelmayr projects these build on.
So the work runs through the part of the mountain where River Run skiers start. The resort says the payoff is more uphill capacity, shorter waits and better reliability. The cost is that the first weeks of the season open without those two lifts.
Where the build stood by late summer
The most visible milestone came in August. In order:
- April 2026. Construction began after federal approval.
- Mid-August. The resort closed the mountain for a day while helicopters flew in the new towers, telling the public, as the Idaho Mountain Express reported, that "all guests and recreationists must avoid the mountain while this work is underway so it can be completed safely and efficiently."
- That weekend. Chinook helicopters set multi-ton steel towers on Baldy. The work started on a Saturday and continued into Monday, the Express reported on Aug. 19.
- Still ahead at that point. Crews had to finish the terminals, string the heavy steel cables along the route and hang the chairs, plus smaller steps.
- Sept. 16. The resort's season announcement kept both lifts on the December schedule.
The resort has not given a specific day in December for either lift. Its mountain report still lists the Christmas and Lookout upgrades as "Coming Winter 2026–2027."
The same work has closed the summer trails
Hikers and bikers have been dealing with the same projects since mid-September. Starting Monday, Sept. 14, the resort closed most of Baldy's biking and hiking trails so crews could work safely on the lifts. The resort's update, last revised Oct. 1, lists these closures:
- River Run bike trails, up and down: Pale Rider, River Run and Mindbender
- Hiking up those same trails, and up the middle of River Run to Olympic Lane/42nd Street to the Traverse trail
- Warm Springs Trail, for snowmaking upgrades and World Cup finish-area work
- Bald Mountain Trail, with "no estimated opening at this time"
As of that update, the only hiking and biking route to the top was Cold Springs, out and back, and Warm Springs was not an option for the way down. Part of the Bald Mountain Trail story is also a city project. The Express reported in August that Ketchum was building a Warm Springs Connector from the Bald Mountain Trail toward Warm Springs, and the resort's June summer update said that trail "will not be open or accessible until the project is complete."
The Warm Springs closure ties into the rest of the season too. The snowmaking work behind it is part of upgrades at all four Bald Mountain pumphouses, which the resort says are meant to improve the system's reliability. The finish-area work is for the Stifel Sun Valley Finals, which return to Bald Mountain in March 2027.
The dates between now and the December lifts
With the River Run summit lifts on a December schedule, the start of the season comes in steps. Here are the dates that are set:
- Saturday, Nov. 7, 4 to 8 p.m. The Pray for Snow Party returns to River Run Lodge and Plaza, with vintage costumes, a dance party, a raffle and a food drive. Five donated cans get you one raffle ticket, or you can buy tickets for $5. The food drive benefits the Hunger Coalition, and lightly used jackets go to the Shoshone Project.
- Thursday, Nov. 26, 9 a.m. Bald Mountain opens at River Run.
- Nov. 29 to Dec. 20. December Ski Free gives guests at the Sun Valley Lodge or Cottages two free lift tickets per night of their stay, so the first weeks will bring lodge guests onto the River Run side.
- December 2026. Lookout Express and Christmas are scheduled to open, and Sunny's Adventure Park on Dollar Mountain opens for its second season. The resort's Dollar Mountain page says the mountain will reopen for 2026-27 but doesn't give a date.
Two smaller details matter on opening day. The resort says 2025-26 passholders can keep using their existing RFID card this season, and new passholders will get pickup instructions by email. For visiting family and friends, the full Ikon Pass includes seven unrestricted days at Sun Valley with no reservation needed, while Ikon Base and Session passes don't include access, according to the resort's season pass page.
What the glading crews added up top
The new lifts aren't the only change on the upper mountain. Sun Valley is glading another 50 acres between Christin's Silver, Leigh Lane and Upper Broadway. That builds on 90 acres finished last summer and more than 390 acres of new gladed terrain over six years under the Bald Mountain Stewardship Project. The resort says the harvested timber goes to habitat restoration and forest health work, and donated firewood through the National Forest Foundation's Wood For Life program supports the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and local community partners.
Whether you can reach those glades on opening week depends on the same unknown as everything else on the upper mountain: which lifts the resort runs on Nov. 26. Its Sun Valley app push notifications and SMS texts are where it sends operations and weather updates.
Big mountain upgrades like these two lifts change how people move around Baldy, and over time that affects how buyers think about River Run and Warm Springs access. If you're weighing a property in the area and want to talk through what this season's changes mean for it, Jordan Jadallah can help. Schedule a free consultation.
