Conditions Report
Report From Saturday, March 7-9, 2026
Although the locals may not say it out loud, there’s been this slow, unspoken idea that Idaho will become the next Colorado and Utah. The mountains are big, beautiful, and raw. That’s exactly how Idahoans want to keep it.
However, the secret has been out; Idaho is the place to go to avoid the crowds, traffic, and costs of skiing in Colorado and Utah. Tamarack Resort has 1,610 acres of skiable terrain, a vertical of 2,800 feet, and 57 runs, with many off-piste options as well. The four-season resort is located 90 miles north of Boise and takes about 2 hours to get to from the airport.
My first day on the slopes was on Saturday; however, the mountain was not crowded at all. The temperatures were in the upper 30s, little to no wind, and the conditions were soft. There was cloud cover that started at mid-mountain, which sits at about 6,700 feet in elevation. Another 1,000 feet up at the summit of Tamarack, visibility was low, but manageable.
Showing up to a ski resort and not being able to see the whole mountain when driving up to it is frustrating. It makes it nearly impossible to get any sense of bearings or how the mountain is laid out. Sure, trail maps give you an outline of the mountain, but they really don’t help skiers or snowboarders out much when it comes to poor visibility. The best case is just to take it slow and easy until you figure out literally where you are.
I stayed mostly on the upper part of the mountain that day. There was almost a line on the mountain where the mid-mountain lodge sat. If you skied above the lodge, conditions were good; below the lodge, the conditions were slushy, icy, and had some bare spots. I chose to stay above the mid-mountain that day, even though visibility wasn’t the greatest.
I stayed mostly on packed groomers that day. In the glades, the snow was crusty and just nasty. I had no desire to ski in that. I just poked around that day, got my bearings, and hoped that the next day would be better.
On Sunday, the visibility was much better than on Saturday, and you could see Cascade Lake at the bottom of Tamarack. It stretches almost 22 miles wide, and it is one of the features that makes Tamarack the only true four-season resort, which offers winter activities, a world-class golf course, and boating and water activities as well.
The snow conditions and weather were pretty much the same as they were on Saturday. The big difference was the visibility. Although you could see farther than the previous day, you still couldn’t see for miles, with cloud cover still hovering around 7,000 feet.
I went out and just took it easy and explored as much as I could, while just relaxing, and checked out the mountain.
Monday was the day when fellow SnowBrainer, Zach Armstrong, joined me at Tamarack. He lives down in Boise and has skied the mountain before.
That night, the temperatures dropped below freezing, and the conditions that day were cold and windy. Most of the slopes were hard-packed corduroy, which felt like you were skiing on solid ice. The snow felt bulletproof, and no one wants to wreck on that.
What made conditions worse was the wind at the top of the mountain. Wind gusts were no joke and were strong enough that if you were facing the direction, the wind could push you down a cat track with ease. Those strong gusts of wind also just stripped any loose snow or powder off the trails, leaving nothing but the hard base layer. It felt like skiing in the East on ice. Those conditions are when the edges of your skis or snowboard better be sharp, or someone is going for a ride.
Armstrong showed me around the mountain, and I got to check out terrain that no one else was on. We didn’t go off-piste or in the glades; we decided the conditions were too poor to ski any of that, and just stuck to the groomers.
However, those weren’t the best either. Some of the trails and terrain we checked out that day would have been great if the snow conditions were better. The terrain on the northern section of the resort was beautiful. Aspens and Tamaracks were lining the trails that wound down the mountain. Unfortunately, most of the trails and slopes that day were just hard, icy, crunchy, and not a lot of fun.
It almost felt like you had to rip certain sections of the trail or slope. Trying to carve on those sections of the mountain was sketchy, especially near the summit. I was skiing on rentals, and I will give credit to the rental shop; the edges on those skis were sharp, and they were able to hold.
My favorite run was Tamarack, which is an intermediate run that was narrow and steep. It was choppy and icy in some places, but it made it challenging and fun to navigate.
It’s been such a weird ski season out West. I was honestly just grateful that there was snow to ski on when I visited. There are some resorts that have already closed because of poor conditions, lack of snow, and warm temperatures. Fortunately, Tamarack Resort was still open for business, and Tuesday morning was blowing snow on the mountain.
Overall, I was very surprised by how much terrain Tamarack offered. It’s 1,610 acres of skiable terrain that give skiers and snowboarders plenty of options to choose from. The resort does have off-piste options, which require avalanche gear. It also boasts several bowls in the northern and southern sections of the mountain. The resort has tree skiing off of every groomed trail on the mountain I skied on.
Given that the weather conditions were not cooperating on my trip, I can’t knock Tamarack. If conditions were just a little better, I have no doubts that the mountain would be so much fun to ski. There is so much diverse terrain to explore in the mountains.
The mountain was also not crowded. Locals say that it usually isn’t. Being a two-hour drive from Boise may keep crowds smaller. This Idaho ski resort does offer anything a skier or snowboarder could want. Hopefully, next season, Mother of Nature will cooperate and allow more people to see what Tamarack has to offer.
Mountain Stats
- Summit Elevation: 7,700’
- Mid-Mountain Elevation: 6,700’
- Base Elevation: 4,900’
- Vertical Drop: 2,800’
- Named Runs: 57
- Skiable Acres: 1,610
- Average Snowfall: 300”
- Acres Covered by Snowmaking: 306
- Novice Terrain: 17%
- Intermediate Terrain: 45%
- Advanced Terrain: 38%
- Lifts: 7
- Terrain Parks: 3
- Longest Run: Bliss (2 continuous miles)
How much is Tamarack paying you for all these pro-Tamarack stories this year? Why didn’t you mention that they let homeowners cut in front of you in the lift lines?