Diamond Peak's Anniversary Encore: What's New This Winter and What's Being Planned for the Mountain

The upgrades at Diamond Peak this winter come down to two snowmaking fan guns, 2.5-hour beginner lessons and a waffle trailer. The decisions being set up behind them run into the tens of millions of dollars. Diamond Peak is community-owned, IVGID's board plans and funds its capital projects, and the key dates for those projects fall in the middle of the ski season.

The mountain still runs on aging systems and buildings. Diamond Peak opened as Ski Incline on November 19, 1966, and it was the first resort in the West to use a man-made snowmaking system. The snowmaking system in use today was installed between 1988 and 2002, and the district says it is beyond its useful life. The Lakeview Lift is more than 30 years old. Both are now on the district's capital list alongside the mid-mountain Snowflake Lodge.

This Winter Runs on Small Fixes

Diamond Peak plans to open on Thursday, December 3, 2026, conditions permitting. The most useful upgrade is in the base area, where several trails come together and the chairlift loading zones need deeper snow. A new TechnoAlpin TT10 tower-mounted fan gun and a TR10 movable fan gun join the snowmaking fleet there.

Lessons are changing too. Beginner group lessons at the Ski & Ride Center, for ages 7 and up, now last 2.5 hours, with sessions from 9:30 a.m. to 12 p.m. and 1 to 3:30 p.m. The Children's Ski & Ride Center, for ages 4 to 6, keeps its 2-hour lessons and adds a 12 p.m. slot for first-timers.

The rest is about the social side of the base area:

• Get Lifted Coffee + Waffles, a new food trailer, will be in the Base Area Plaza on busy weekends and holidays with espresso drinks, waffles and hot chocolate.
• Friday Fundays brings local DJ Dom Morelli to the Loft Bar in the Base Lodge on select Fridays. When the weather allows, the party moves out to the Loft Bar Sun Deck. Dates will go on the events calendar once they're set.
• Pass Holder Early Ups opens the Lakeview chairlift at 8 a.m. for season pass holders only, with a continental breakfast at Snowflake Lodge. The date is still to be announced, sometime in February 2027.
• The 60th-anniversary poster by local artist Bryn Merrell is free at Diamond Peak events and at the Diamond Peak Sports Shop in the Base Lodge.

The anniversary celebration is running a second season because the resort's birthday falls in November. Its 60th season was last winter, and the "Diamond" anniversary events are carrying over into this one.

The Resident Rate Card, Set Against the $60 Days

The biggest anniversary promotion is $60 Deal Days. On opening day, Jan. 12, Feb. 8, March 17 and closing day, every paid single-day ticket is $60 when bought online. Tickets go on sale in mid-November. No other discounts apply on those dates, and multi-day products don't qualify.

Whether that's a good price depends on your pass. An active IVGID Picture Pass, also called a Recreation Pass, gets discounted rates on season passes and daily tickets.

For Picture Pass holders, the $60 days cost more than the regular IVGID adult rate of $40 or $50, and the resident discount can't be stacked with the promotion on those dates. The $60 price makes the most sense for visiting family and friends, at least until public daily prices are posted in mid-November. Season passes are free for skiers 6 and under and 80 and over. Recreation Punch Cards work for discounted daily tickets. Neither the Picture Pass nor the punch card discounts lessons or rentals.

Snowflake Lodge, Forty Years on the List

The plan to replace Snowflake Lodge first appeared in a 1987 Ski Incline Master Plan and came up again in a 2015 Diamond Peak planning document. Both pointed to the same two problems: too little food and beverage capacity for the mountain and a building in poor condition.

The project began moving in 2025. That year, IVGID staff and SE Group started a needs assessment and worked up four scoping options. The April 2026 needs assessment put preliminary building costs for those options between $28.354 million and $49.647 million. The 11,600-square-foot option was estimated at $35.349 million. These are early planning figures, not a construction budget.

The board discussed the options at its March 25 and April 8, 2026 meetings. On September 23, 2026, it approved a contract for 30% architectural design. The design target is a lodge of about 11,600 square feet with 3,500 square feet of deck, 160 indoor seats, 175 outdoor seats and room for an event of about 120 people.

The contract is worth $811,332 and went to CCY Architects. According to the board's meeting synopsis, it covers a 26- to 28-week design process and about 3,500 hours of work across eight consulting firms. The vote was 3-0, with one trustee abstaining. Staff time for the design will be estimated at a future meeting, so the contract amount doesn't cover all of the district's effort.

Incline Village News also reported the vote.

The meeting synopsis also summarizes public comment, which was split. Some speakers backed modernizing a building that has been on the list for decades, and some raised the cost, the financial assumptions, permitting feasibility and the proposed event space. Others asked that Recreation Center upgrades come first or favored a smaller remodel.

The Rest of the Capital List

Snowflake Lodge gets the most attention, but it's one of several Diamond Peak projects in IVGID's five-year capital plan. The other big items deal with how snow gets made and how skiers get up the mountain.

The snowmaking cost has gone up since spring. The May 27, 2026 capital plan set aside $6.875 million over five years. The September update put the engineer's estimate at $8 million. IVGID's snowmaking project page describes about 29,500 to 30,000 feet of pipeline and about 83 snowmaking locations. It also says scope, cost, phasing and schedule still depend on design, permitting, funding and board approval.

Snowmaking set Ski Incline apart in 1966. Much of the underground infrastructure in use today dates to the late 1980s and early 1990s, and the newest major pipeline went in in 2002. Replacement starts the spring after this season ends. The two fan guns added this year are an upgrade to the current system.

The Lakeview Lift is being looked at separately, with the goals of better reliability and smoother skier flow. Its configuration, capacity and permitted uses are still undecided. The capital plan's $10 million for FY 2027-28 is a planning line, not a lift design.

The Spring Calendar Lands Mid-Season

Here's how the season lines up with the planning schedule:

1. December 3, 2026: Projected opening day, conditions permitting, and the first $60 Deal Day.
2. January 12, 2027: $60 Deal Day.
3. Early 2027: Staff expect to hold a community engagement session on the Snowflake Lodge concept.
4. February 8, 2027: $60 Deal Day. Also in February, on a date still to be announced, is the Pass Holder Early Ups breakfast at Snowflake Lodge.
5. March 17, 2027: $60 Deal Day for St. Patrick's Day.
6. Around March or April 2027: Staff plan to bring the 30% design and a cost estimate to the board.
7. May 2027: Expected start of the first snowmaking construction phase.

The concept session and the board's design review both fall while the lifts are running. The February pass-holder breakfast takes place in the building whose replacement is up for discussion at that very time. After the 30% design comes back, more design, permitting and construction decisions will follow before anything is final. The first look at an actual drawing and a project-specific cost estimate is expected next spring.

When the Snowflake drawings and cost estimate come out next spring, they'll give you a window into how the community's shared amenities may change around homes on the Incline side of the lake. If you'd like to talk through how plans like these fit into a home decision, from someone who reads drawings with a builder's eye, reach out to Scott Silva. Let's Connect.