Saturday, November 7, 2026
Snowboarders take over The St. Bernard at Schweitzer tonight, Saturday, November 7, for Rally for the Riders II, an evening of live music, awards, and fundraising from 7 to 9 p.m. on the mountain. Hosted by Snowboard Northwest, the night celebrates the mountains and the people who ride them, with live music by the Whiskey River Band, the second annual Snowboard Northwest Awards, and a silent auction, and all proceeds benefit the Snowboard Northwest team. It is the kind of gathering that makes the wait for winter feel shorter, and the wait is now twenty days: Schweitzer is scheduled to open for the 2026-27 season on Friday, November 27, weather permitting.
The mountain is in full countdown mode. The resort's own Mountain Report this morning showed the village at 42 degrees and cloudy with the wind barely registering from the west-southwest, while the summit stood at 34 degrees and cloudy with a southwest wind at 18 miles per hour. The snow report fields still show dashes across the board, with no base depth and no new snow to report, and the mountain remains closed for the season at zero of ten lifts, zero of ninety-two trails, and zero of twenty-nine hundred acres open. The resort's daily message, dated November 5, reported that snow is falling and that lifts are spinning for testing as crews prepare for opening day. The village forecast calls for a mostly cloudy and windy Saturday at 43 and 37, a windier Sunday at 36 and 32 with winds near 25 miles per hour, and a cloudy Monday with rain likely at 35 and 34.
Did you know the clock is also ticking on the season's best pass prices? Schweitzer's pass sale ends on Sunday, November 15, eight days from today, and prices go up after that date. The resort's 3-Pack lift ticket package offers three days of skiing or riding for 249 dollars, as low as 83 dollars a day, and the multi-week youth programs, Funatics, Mountain Xplorers, and Freestyle Camp, also see their prices rise after November 15. First-time skiers ages thirteen and older can still look at Learn to Ski in 3, a 425-dollar program with three group lessons, lift access, instruction, and rentals, where completing all three lessons earns a free Grad Pass for unlimited skiing and riding from March through closing day. Early-season lodging adds its own incentive: Stay and Ski Free adds two free single-day lift tickets for every night of a stay, for bookings made by December 16 and stays between November 27 and December 18.
Saturday is also a fine day to enjoy the lake below the mountain. The Lake Pend Oreille Anglers Club Fall Fishing Derby is in its final weekend, running November 4 through 8 on Lake Pend Oreille, so anglers are out on the water today while the summit waits for snow. Fire danger is low in Bonner and Boundary counties, a quiet note for a cloudy November weekend, and Idaho 511 listed no road advisories this morning for the drive up. In panhandle sports news, the Bonner County Daily Bee reported that Sandpoint's football season ended Friday night with a 52-21 loss to Columbia in the state quarterfinals, a tough finish for the Bulldogs.
Tonight's events calendar is stacked from the village down to downtown. The other big ski gathering is Warren Miller's seventy-seventh film, Days Off, at the Panida Theatre at 300 North First Avenue, with doors at 6 p.m. and the show at 7 p.m. Tickets are 18 dollars at the door or online, and the evening benefits the Independence Race Team, a nonprofit that provides skiers ages seven to sixteen with free coaching, equipment, and insurance. An intermission raffle offers four prizes, including a multi-day Schweitzer vacation for two, and the silent auction includes a Schweitzer season pass. Also tonight, the Sandpoint Lions Club hosts Turkey Bingo at Sandpoint Community Hall, doors at 5 p.m. and bingo at 6 p.m., the Panhandle Conservation District holds its dinner at the Bonner County Fairgrounds beginning at 5 p.m., Michael Lewis and One Street Over play the Pend d'Oreille Winery from 5 to 8 p.m., and the Monarch Mountain Trio plays Barrel 33 from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m.
The week ahead keeps the winter theme rolling. Tomorrow, Sunday, November 8, the Nordic Winter Welcome runs from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Outdoor Recreation Center on Pine Street in Sandpoint, a friendly on-ramp for cross-country ski season. On Thursday, November 12, the State of Schweitzer presentation is free at the Heartwood Center, with doors at 4 p.m. and the leadership team's season preview from 5 to 6 p.m. Then on Saturday, November 14, the SARS Ski Swap fills the Bonner County Fairgrounds from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m., admission five dollars per person or ten dollars per family, with seller check-in on Friday, November 13, from noon to 7 p.m.
If you are coming up for opening weekend or for one of these November gatherings, we would love to welcome you to The Village Overlook, our condo on the hill above Schweitzer's ski village. It is a warm place to land after a night at the Panida or an evening at The St. Bernard, and mornings here start with the mountain right outside. Come stay with us and be here when the lifts carry their first skiers on November 27.