Last winter, Wildslide Tahoe ran its first tubing session on Tuesday, December 30, 2025. That was after Christmas, KOLO reported. This year the banner across the top of the Wildslide site says "Opening Thanksgiving 2026."
Mt. Rose Ski Tahoe put nearly $2 million into improvements ahead of 2026-27. The announced list covers the tubing area, the Main Lodge lobby, ticketing, snowmaking and grooming, and it includes no new terrain. For anyone in ArrowCreek who uses the mountain on short notice, the calendar matters more this season than the trail map does. The weekend the tubing hill hopes to open is also the weekend three of the four season passes are void.
The tubing hill gets the holiday it missed last year
Wildslide is a winter park with up to 20 lanes, each 750 feet long, served by a dual conveyor lift. Last season it opened with its own snowmaking, a lodge, and a lot with more than 350 spaces. The lot sits three-quarters of a mile west of the Mt. Rose Main Lodge entrance, at 22600 State Route 431. If you have only skied Mt. Rose, that address is the first thing to know. Tubing traffic turns off at a separate lot and never reaches the main lodge.
In September, Mt. Rose announced three changes for this winter's tubing area, according to Moonshine Ink:
- An enclosure over the tubing lift, so riders are out of the wind and snow on the ride up.
- The Wildslide Lodge will open with food and beverages, indoor seating, ticket sales and retail.
- A new LED sign at the tubing lift will post updates.
Last season was a short one, so the basics are worth restating. Sessions are sold in two-hour blocks, with a new one starting every 15 minutes. Riders must be at least 4 years old. Every child rides in their own tube, with no lap riding, and the limit is 250 pounds per rider. After the opening week last winter, the park ran Friday through Sunday plus holidays and offered private midweek buyouts Monday through Thursday.
As of mid-October, a few things are still open questions. Individual ticket sales for 2026-27 are not live yet. Right now the site is only booking private events and corporate buyouts for the season, and it invites visitors to sign up for notice when ticket sales go live. The pricing page shows $45 for ages 16 and up and $35 for ages 4 to 15. Those match the rates KOLO reported for last season's opening, so treat them as last year's prices until Mt. Rose posts new ones. Wildslide's own pages also list different hours. The park information page gives Saturday hours of 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., and the pricing page lists 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. for Friday through Sunday. Check the site the week you plan to go.
Thanksgiving weekend is also when the passes go dark
Mt. Rose posted its 2026-27 pass lineup in early October, and the void dates are where Wildslide's new opening target runs into the ski calendar. Thanksgiving falls on Thursday, November 26, this year. The next two days, November 27 and 28, are void on every pass except Premier.
| Pass | Renewal, adult | Regular, adult / child | Void dates and limits |
|---|---|---|---|
| Premier | $875 | $1,175 / $515 | No void dates |
| Classic | $675 | $975 / $415 | Nov 27–28, Dec 26–30, Jan 16–17, Feb 13–15 |
| Off-Peak | $475 | $775 / $365 | Nov 27–28, Dec 18–Jan 2, Jan 16–17, Feb 13–15, plus every weekend in January and February |
| Select | $375 | $425 adult only | One weekday of your choice each week. Same holiday void dates as Off-Peak |
Child renewal rates are $415 for Premier, $315 for Classic and $215 for Off-Peak.
Mt. Rose bills itself as 25 minutes from Reno, so for nearby households the void dates do most of the deciding. The Classic pass's Christmas void runs December 26 to 30. That window includes December 30, the day Wildslide opened last year. The Off-Peak and Select void stretches from December 18 to January 2, which covers all of winter break on those two passes. Mt. Rose describes Select as a pass for one fixed weekday each week, aimed at locals and people with flexible schedules. For someone whose schedule allows a regular Tuesday or Wednesday, Select costs $750 less than Premier at regular adult prices.
If your family splits up over the holiday weekend, with skiers on one lot and tubers on another, the plan comes down to the void dates more than the snow. A Premier holder can ski November 27. A Classic holder cannot.
Mt. Rose's lift-ticket page lists daily rates for people without a pass. Online advance tickets use dynamic pricing, and the discounted rate requires buying by midnight the day before. The flat window prices on that page are labeled for an earlier season, so this post leaves them out.
What the ski side actually got
The upgrades on the mountain itself are maintenance-heavy and hard to see from a chairlift. According to the resort's September announcement, published by Snow Industry News, the list includes:
- A replacement of the snowmaking system's main line.
- A new PistenBully grooming machine.
- A summer retrofit of The Chuter lift, which means every lift at Mt. Rose now has restraint bars.
- Two new utility ATVs for the operations team.
The announcement does not include a new lift or new terrain. Its facilities section covers the Main Lodge and ticketing. The lobby has been redesigned, and Guest Services and season pass sales have moved to make it easier to get through the space. There is also a new e-commerce site and new rental equipment options. Lessons, rentals and tuning are all on the Main Lodge's lower level at 22222 Mt. Rose Highway. That is where the new rental options will be.
You may notice construction along the access road this season. Preliminary site work started over the summer for an $11 million Mountain Operations building off the road to lot 7. The resort says the building itself will go up next year. It will add vehicle maintenance bays and bring all outdoor mountain operations into one central area. It is a 2027 project, so it will not change anything this winter.
Opening day is still a weather call
The resort's announcement ties opening day to the weather and snowmaking. Mike Pierce, the resort's marketing and sales director, said in the announcement that the team is "ready to get the season underway as soon as Mother Nature and our robust snowmaking system allows." Visit Reno Tahoe's roundup of 2026-27 opening dates lists Friday, November 20, for Mt. Rose and labels it a projection. The resort's pass page says Mt. Rose is known as one of the first resorts to open and one of the last to close. The new snowmaking main line is the upgrade most closely tied to that early-opening reputation. Mt. Rose has not published a snowmaking start date.
The highway itself has no new construction schedule on record for this season. The most recent disruption came from weather. During the February 18, 2026, storm, the Reno Gazette Journal reported several SR-431 closures. One closed the road between the Mt. Rose Summit lot and Tahoe Meadows for avalanche control. Another closed the stretch between Fairview Boulevard and Douglas Fir Drive. Mt. Rose's snow report says parking is free and encourages carpooling.
The bottom of the hill stays the same
Most of the change this winter is up the hill. Down at the Wedge Parkway end of the corridor, the regular stops are where they have been.
Raley's O-N-E Market, 18144 Wedge Parkway. This is the grocery stop on the way up, with a café open 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily, a bakery open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., and a deli open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. The café is one of Drink Coffee Do Stuff's locations.
Mofo's Pizza & Pasta, 18180 Wedge Parkway. It sits next to Raley's in Galena Junction and opens at 11 a.m. daily. The timing works for a group coming down after a morning tubing session.
The Lodge Bar & Patio, 17025 Mt. Rose Highway. Its most recent posted schedule is labeled August hours, opens at 10 a.m. on weekends, and lists Tuesday as closed. Confirm winter hours before planning a stop on the way home from a midweek Select day.
A bigger change may be coming at this end of the highway. In May, the Reno Gazette Journal reported permit applications for development on just under 33 acres off Wedge Parkway, south of Mount Rose Highway. No tenants have been named. For now it is a proposal.
If you're thinking about how a home in ArrowCreek or elsewhere along the SR-431 corridor would fit your winter routine, Patty DuHamel can walk you through it street by street. Let's Connect.