"It's tough to remind people or get them to understand that there was snow at Terry Peak when they're looking at brown grass in their backyard," Terry Peak marketing director Linda Derosier told South Dakota Searchlight in April. She called the 2025–26 winter one of the most challenging in her 38 years at the ski area. That same winter, the mountain above Lead opened ten days earlier than the year before.
That matters this month because the 2026–27 season pass is a bet on how many days of skiing you'll get, and the price on that bet goes up when October ends.
The price change on November 1
Terry Peak's season pass page lists two prices for every pass. One applies October 1 through 31, and the other applies from November 1 on.
| Pass type | Through October 31 | After November 1 |
|---|---|---|
| Adult, ages 13–69 | $478 + $27.25 tax | $800 + $45.60 tax |
| Junior, ages 6–12 | $293 + $16.70 tax | $475 + $27.08 tax |
| Senior, ages 70–79 | $150 + $8.55 tax | $150 + $8.55 tax |
| Child, 5 and under | $20 + $1.14 tax | $20 + $1.14 tax |
| Super Senior, 80+ | $20 + $1.14 tax | $20 + $1.14 tax |
The adult pass goes up $322 before tax and the junior pass goes up $182. Senior, child and super senior passes cost the same in both windows.
You can buy online through October 31. You can also buy by phone at 605-584-2165 or in person at the Guest Service office, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., through October 31. October 31 is a Saturday this year, so Friday, October 30 is the last day to buy at the sale price in person or by phone.
How many ski days the price covers
Terry Peak says an adult pass at the October price pays for itself in six visits and a junior pass in five. Here's the math behind that, using the 2026–27 daily lift ticket rates:
- An adult full-day ticket starts at $78 Friday through Sunday and on holidays. It's $70 Monday through Thursday.
- At $478, the pass costs about as much as six weekend days, or about seven weekday days.
- At the November price of $800, it takes more than ten weekend days to break even.
- A junior day ticket starts at $58 on weekends and costs $54 on weekdays, so the $293 junior pass breaks even after five or six days.
- A senior day ticket is $35 with ID, so the $150 senior pass breaks even after five days.
A few pass perks also cut the cost of each day. Passholders get 10% off full-priced, non-counter items at the Mountain Shop in Stewart Lodge and at Freshies in Nevada Gulch Lodge. They get 10% off prepared food at Stewart Lodge Grill, and half off demo rentals, which brings an adult ski or snowboard demo setup from $60 to $30.
Every one of those break-even counts assumes the lifts are turning on the days you want to ski.
Two seasons, two opening days
The two seasons before this one both started warm and dry, with different outcomes.
| 2024–25 | 2025–26 | |
|---|---|---|
| Opening day | Sunday, December 15, 2024 | Friday, December 5, 2025 |
| Lifts on opening day | Stewart, Snow Carpet, Surprise Express | Stewart, Snow Carpet, Surprise Express |
| Final day | Sunday, April 6, 2025 | Sunday, March 29, 2026 |
| Opening day to final day | about 16 weeks | about 16 weeks |
NewsCenter1 reported that opening day is usually the first weekend in December, and that unseasonably warm weather pushed the 2024–25 opener back to December 15. That first day, skiers had Stewart Slope and the upper parts of Little Phil and Welcome.
A year later, KOTA, in a story published December 5, 2025, reported that the slopes had been brown two weeks before the December 5 opener. The station credited the early start to the snowmaking investment and favorable weather.
At the other end, the 2025–26 season closed a week earlier than the season before. Terry Peak skipped its Pond Skim "due to current conditions" and dropped lift tickets to midweek rates, $67 for adults and $51 for juniors, for the last stretch. Even so, both seasons ran about sixteen weeks from opening day to final day. The difference is that the harder year started earlier and ended earlier. That span counts calendar weeks, not operating days. Terry Peak's own season overview says the mountain opens limited terrain first and usually goes to seven days a week just before Christmas.
What the $6.5 million changed on the mountain
The early opening traces back to specific runs. Terry Peak's snowmaking project page describes a $6.5 million upgrade that tripled water pumping from 1,000 to 3,000 gallons per minute, added snow guns, and extended snowmaking to about 85% of the ski area. The first phase replaced the snowmaking pond liner and installed a new high-capacity submersible pump in time for the 2024–25 season. Phase 2, in spring 2025, added snowmaking to Missing Link, Little Hope, Upper Stewart and Little Phil.
So the 2024–25 season, the late one, was the first winter of the upgrade. The 2025–26 season, the early one, was the first winter with Phase 2 finished. "We'll also have snowmaking on Missing Link, which we've never had before," Derosier told KOTA just before the opener.
Terry Peak notes that the Black Hills usually get 150 inches or more of natural snow a year, and it describes snowmaking as the backstop for lean years. Last winter needed that backstop. According to the Searchlight report, crews often made snow overnight whenever the mountain, whose summit rises above 7,000 feet, got cold enough. Ski areas elsewhere in the country closed early or never opened. The same report cites National Centers for Environmental Information data showing Lawrence County winters trending about 4 degrees warmer and an inch drier from December through March than in the late 1800s.
In a dry year, the number of days the pass covers now depends less on what falls from the sky over Lead and more on cold nights and a pump that moves three times as much water. Derosier told Searchlight that people who skied last winter are more likely to come back and buy passes because they saw the resort keep conditions reliable.
Opening day is a window, not a date
Terry Peak's official guidance is that limited terrain opens in late November or early December, depending on weather and temperatures, and that the season usually runs through the last week of March or into early April. The listed hours are 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, holidays included. The current lift lineup is three high-speed detachable quads, one fixed-grip triple and the snow carpet.
If you're using season pass partner deals, check each merchant's terms and dates before you count on a discount, since some offers carry end dates. The Aspire Boutique offer in Lead, for example, ended September 1, 2026. Barefoot Resort lists 15% off Friday and Saturday stays and 25% off Sunday through Thursday stays for passholders who book directly, holidays excluded.
The winter calendar from here
The pass deadline is the first of several dates already on the calendar:
- Friday, October 30: last weekday to buy a sale-priced pass at the Guest Service office or by phone. Online sales run through Saturday, October 31.
- Saturday, November 7: the Annual Terry Peak Job Fair at Stewart Lodge, 9 a.m. to noon. Terry Peak is hiring in almost every department, from snowmaking and grooming to lift operations, ski patrol, instruction, rentals, food and beverage, and ticket sales.
- November 15: Terry Peak mails passes before this date if it has your signed waiver and a qualifying photo. After that, you pick your pass up at the Guest Service Office.
- December 15: application deadline for the 48th Annual Black Hills Regional Ski for Light, held at Terry Peak and Coeur Wharf in Lead January 24–28, 2027. Applications open October 15.
Last year's opener came less than two weeks after slopes KOTA described as brown. Through October 31, the adult pass costs about as much as six weekend lift tickets.
Snowmaking that keeps the lifts running through a dry year is one of the things that shape winter in Lead, and it's the kind of local detail we follow at Real Properties of Lead-Deadwood. If you're thinking about a home or cabin near Terry Peak, or wondering what your place up the hill is worth, speak with a Deadwood neighborhood expert or request a free home valuation.
