White Pine is neither the oldest (Snow King) nor biggest (Jackson Hole Mountain Resort) of the three ski areas on the BTNF, but it is rich in community history. The U.S. Forest Service and the Pinedale Commercial Club first had the idea for a ski area near Pinedale in 1930. But it wasn’t until 1939 that Alf Engen, a famed Norwegian-American skier and Olympic ski coach (for the 1948 games) who, as a consulting technical advisor for the U.S. Forest Service assisted in the planning the development of winter sport areas on national forests in the intermountain West, came to the area. (In all, Engen helped with 27 ski areas in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.) He determined that Fortification Mountain at Surveyor Park would be the best site for a ski hill close to Pinedale.
The Civilian Conservation Corps, which was stationed nearby at Fremont Lake, helped build a ski lodge and a small lift house for the 125-yard tow cable, which was run by a Chevrolet motor. Surveyor Park Ski Area opened on January 5, 1940. Lift tickets were $1 and kids skied for free. The grand opening celebration on February 18, drew about 1,100 people and ski demonstrations by the Hicks Brothers from Hoback Basin included jumping, skiing through a hoop of fire, downhill runs, and a slalom course.
Mary and Lester Faler operated Surveyor Park its first season. The second year, a group of local businessmen (and women), including husband-and-wife Albert “Sunny” and Fanny Korfanta (who operated the Pinedale Drug Store), Frank Garnick, Frank Dobnick, and Ralph Wenz, took over running the tow and concessions. It was decided that the ski area would not be maximized for profit, but to set prices so that they’d cover the cost of the gas needed to run the tow rope, insurance, and the USFS permit.
The ski area closed during WWII because the equipment that had kept the road open in the winter disappeared with the CCC Fremont Camp, which was closed in 1942. “When the snow got too deep, we had to close the area because you couldn’t get up there,” Korfanta told the Pinedale Roundup in 2009. “The town didn’t have enough equipment to keep the roads open.”
But locals would trek up on their own. “Just to make it the hard way, we’d ski from town all the way up there,” Korfanta, who died in 2009, told the Roundup. “Coming back was good because it was all downhill about past Half Moon Lake. Then you had to cross the flat to the next hill. But the hard part was trudging up from Pinedale.”
The resort reopened after WWII and continued as a community hub for decades. In 1961, it changed its name to Fortification Mountain Ski Area. That same year, a Poma-type lift was purchased for $40,000 and shipped from France. At 4,200-feet-long, it was the longest ski lift/tow in Wyoming at the time and could carry 550 skiers per hour. In 1965, the original lodge, which had been built by the CCC, was replaced by the new White Pine Lodge. (The original lodge was eventually moved to Boulder, where it survives as a private home.) Around the same time, the resort’s name changed again, to White Pine.
White Pine operated until 1985. The next 10+ years saw the Pinedale Ranger District frustrated by potential permittees failing to meet requirements of taking over the permit. A May 3, 1990 newspaper article reported: “The Pinedale Ranger District has had about enough of the failed bid attempts to purchase White Pine ski area near Pinedale and is prepared to take over the facilities within the year, according to District Ranger Bob Reese.”
Before that happened, Wine River Resorts stepped in. It took them six years to complete all the required permits, but, in 1999, after a 14-year hiatus, White Pine reopened, becoming only the second-ever ski area in the U.S. to reopen after having been shuttered. For the first time in its history, White Pine was open seven days a week for the entire winter season. It was the home hill for the Pinedale High School Alpine Ski Team. In 2005, the first Sunny Korfanta Ski Race, honoring long-time ski area volunteer and ski coach, was held. The race is still held today.
White Pine’s success didn’t last, though. It closed again for the 2011-2012 season. In 2014, Robyn and Alan Blackburn and Roy and Kari DeWitt bought it and reopened it. In 2019, a fire destroyed the lodge that Wind River Resorts had built in the late 1990s. In 2024, billionaire Joe Ricketts bought the resort. “My hope is to add improvements that will ensure White Pine remains a cherished destination for all of Sublette to enjoy for years to come,” he said in a statement at the time of purchase.
White Pine has 363 skiable acres, a vertical rise of about 1,000 feet, and 27 runs. It is open Thursdays–Sundays through March 30 from 9 a.m.–4 p.m. Full-day adult lift tickets are $70; students (13-18 yrs) are $60; junior/senior (6-12/65-79 yrs) tickets are $55; under 5 and 80+ are $6.
Adjacent to the ski area are 35 kilometers of groomed cross-country ski trails for all skill levels. These are free to use and groomed with funding from the Sublette County Recreation Board; the Sublette Trails Associationhelps with some volunteer maintenance.