Schweitzer Mountain

Schweitzer's summit reaches 6,401 feet, dropping 2,401 vertical feet to a base at 4,000 feet across 92 runs spread over 2,900 acres above Sandpoint, Idaho. Terrain splits 40 per cent intermediate, 35 per cent advanced, 15 per cent expert and 10 per cent beginner, with average annual snowfall of roughly 300 inches. The resort carries Ikon Pass access and is Idaho's largest ski area by acreage. Ten lifts, including three quad chairs, one six-person chair and two triple chairs, serve the mountain alongside two double chairs, one surface lift and one t-bar.

Schweitzer's setting above Lake Pend Oreille gives it panoramic lake views uncommon among Idaho resorts, alongside terrain extensive enough to support genuinely varied skiing across two connected bowls. The resort's scale as Idaho's largest ski area supports a diverse mix of terrain parks, tree skiing and open bowls. Its Ikon Pass affiliation, gained through Alterra Mountain Company ownership, brings destination-level visitor traffic to what began as a modest local mountain.

Jim Brown recognised Schweitzer's potential as early as the 1930s, and Spokane advocates Jack Fowler, a dentist, and Grant Groesbeck, an architect, joined him in pushing for its development. Brown, Fowler and Groesbeck formed a partnership in the early 1960s, and Schweitzer opened on 30 November 1963 with a day lodge and a mile-long double chairlift. Brown later bought out the other stockholders, making Schweitzer a family-run business until his death in 1989.

Brown's daughter Bobbie Huguenin then led the resort through further additions and improvements. Harbor Properties purchased Schweitzer from US Bank for 18 million US dollars on 31 December 1998, partnering with the McCaw family of Mission Ridge to bring the resort out of bankruptcy. Following Harbor Resorts' dissolution in 2005, Seattle's McCaw Investment Group became sole owner until MKM Trust sold the resort's operations to Alterra Mountain Company in 2023, bringing Ikon Pass access. Adult daily tickets run from 89 to 119 US dollars, with season passes from 899 dollars.