Targeted Closing Day Revealed for Timberline Lodge's Summer Ski Season

For skiers in North America, the winter season is over. It’s time for activities that usually don’t involve snow, like biking, golfing, and rock climbing.

That’s one way to see summer, at least. But on Mt. Hood, Oregon, at Timberline Lodge, a different program endures. 

Heralded as North America’s summer skiing mecca, the resort draws a varied crowd during the warmer months, including racers, elite freestylers, and dirtbags who aren’t ready to give up on skiing quite yet. Currently, there’s no other place on the continent where you can enjoy outdoor, lift-served skiing on real snow.

Timberline is aiming to remain open through August 20, 2025, according to John Burton, Timberline Lodge’s director of marketing and public affairs, during a recent phone call with POWDER. “Sometimes we go a little longer, sometimes we go a little shorter,” he explained. “I checked in with our mountain manager this morning, and he was feeling pretty good about that date. So we'll see what the weather brings.”

Two lifts are open for summer operations daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m., the Magic Mile and Palmer. The lifts deposit skiers and snowboarders at the nexus of summertime ski activity: the Palmer Snowfield, where in the winter, Timberline Lodge harvests snow to prepare for the warmer months, cutting wave-like structures into the slopes. The structures, called “windrows,” prevent prevailing winds from blowing snow off the mountain and help to establish a solid snowpack.

"The basis of the summer skiing, it starts in the winter, right?" said Burton. "We're preparing, we're snow farming ... really getting those depths we need."

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