Mt. Shasta Ski Park

Mount Shasta has hosted skiing under two different operations. The first, Mount Shasta Ski Bowl, opened in 1958 and closed for good after an avalanche destroyed its main chairlift in January 1978. The current Mt. Shasta Ski Park opened on a different site in December 1985 with the Marmot Ridge and Douglas Butte lifts, added the Coyote Butte lift in 1996, and brought in a Grey Butte quad chairlift as recently as December 2022. The park sits on the lower southern flanks of Mount Shasta itself, a 14,179-foot stratovolcano, about six miles south of the summit, on private land surrounded by Shasta-Trinity National Forest.

Today’s operation runs 6 lifts, four chairlifts and two magic carpets, across 36 runs totaling 29.08 kilometers, with a 631.5-meter vertical drop from a 2,297.7-meter summit to a 1,666.2-meter base. The terrain splits fairly evenly between the middle grades, 10.33 kilometers advanced and 9.77 kilometers intermediate, with 6.38 kilometers easy and small pockets of novice and freeride terrain rounding out the mix, a profile that favors skiers who already have some mileage under them over complete first-timers.

Two Indy passes reach the park: the Indy Base Pass for 2 all-day or all-night tickets with blackout dates, and the Indy+ Pass for 2 tickets with none, giving pass holders a way to add a genuine stratovolcano to a season built around other Indy Pass stops. Night skiing and snowmaking round out the operation, alongside two dedicated terrain parks.

Redding Municipal Airport, 91.3 kilometers away, is the closest air option, ahead of Rogue Valley International-Medford at 129 kilometers and the Arcata/Eureka airport on California’s north coast at 164.4 kilometers. Chico, population around 121,300, is the nearest listed city at 180.4 kilometers, with Reno and Roseville both considerably farther south. With 6 lifts serving 36 runs, 6 runs per lift, Mt. Shasta Ski Park stays modest in scale even four decades after its 1985 rebuild, a smaller, quieter operation than its dramatic volcanic setting might suggest.

Summer operations keep the mountain active well beyond ski season, with scenic chairlift rides, mountain biking trails, and a disc golf course drawing visitors during the warmer months when the volcano’s lower flanks are free of snow. The park’s site, a private inholding surrounded on all sides by Shasta-Trinity National Forest, has shaped its slow, incremental growth pattern: rather than large-scale expansion, the operation has added terrain and lifts one project at a time, from the original Marmot Ridge and Douglas Butte lifts in 1985 through Coyote Butte in 1996 to the Grey Butte quad as recently as 2022. That gradual approach, combined with the mountain’s genuinely volcanic geology rather than the more typical granite or sedimentary bedrock found at most North American ski areas, gives Mt. Shasta Ski Park a distinct identity among Northern California’s smaller resorts, closer in scale and character to a well-run community mountain than to the large destination resorts several hours south around Lake Tahoe. Redding Municipal Airport, the closest of the park’s three listed airports at 91.3 kilometers, keeps the park within reach of a mid-sized regional hub even though most visitors arrive by car along Interstate 5, which runs within a few miles of the mountain’s base.