Future plans are taking shape at Schweitzer Mountain Resort including new lifts, which will be installed for the 2019-20 season.

Coming off a record 2017/2018 winter season for snowfall, skier visits, and lodging occupancy, Schweitzer Mountain Resort is moving forward with plans to expand. The resort spent over $1.5 million dollars in capital investments this summer including the purchase of a new grooming snow cat, updating electrical lines for Sky House, carpet & flooring replacements, extension of the Musical Carpet beginner conveyor lift from 250 feet to 380 feet in length, and lift maintenance on both the Great Escape Quad and Musical Chairs chairlifts.

The resort also began a new partnership this summer with Intermax to provide better bandwidth. This will improve the free access to Wi-Fi and internet services for guests while in Schweitzer’s village and the project is due to be completed in time for the 2018/19 winter season.

For winter 2018/19, skiers and riders will be able to use the free bus service from Selkirk Pend Oreille Transit (S.P.O.T) to connect from the Red Barn parking lot to Schweitzer’s base area. The service will utilize a new fleet of buses specifically ordered for the Schweitzer route and will operate on the established winter schedule as in seasons past. Schweitzer anticipates replacing the Snowghost double chair accessing the North Bowl with 2 new lifts during the summer of 2019. One lift will start near Cedar Park and unload at the current Snowghost midway station with the second lift providing summit access from a location near Will’s Runout and Vagabond. This summer, Schweitzer began
initial clearing of these areas and secured power to the future lift sites.

In an industry dominated by resort consolidation, Schweitzer’s status as an independently owned entity has become quite rare. The resort is even more unique in that it does not exist on US Forest Service property and owns all 7,000 acres of land on which it operates. It is located in the Selkirk Mountains of the northern Idaho panhandle and the northwest Rocky Mountains and overlooks the town of Sandpoint and Lake Pend Oreille.