Join the WRESJA Rota-Ring Fundraiser!
January 25, 2026
Buy a Rota-Ring for $25 and join the WRESJA Rota-Ring Fundraiser!
You can help support Rotarun as one of the three non-profit beneficiaries of the 2026 Wood River Ski Joring races by purchasing a race ring for $25! The event takes place February 14-15 in Bellevue, ID.
During the races, WRESJA will stage a purple "Rota-Ring" for each rider-pair to collect on their way through course. Each Rota-Ring that makes it across the finish line will receive a donation match of $25 by WRESJA. While the "Rota-Ring" is not a physical ring you take home, your Rota-ring is a tax-deductible donation to Rotarun.
Join the Rotarun crew at the event to cheer on local teams and watch your ring in motion! You can purchase your Rota-Ring on the Rotarun website. Those who plan to attend the event can pick up a purple cowbell at the Rotarun ticket shack before February 14 to show their support at the races!
We are thrilled to be supported by this organization and the WRESJA team at-large. Our communities and audiences are deeply intertwined, and our missions naturally align in bringing fun, inclusive recreation experiences to the Wood River Valley and beyond. We are excited to stir up new energy at the event through the RotaRing fundraiser by introducing a playful way for spectators to become part of the action.
Purchase Your Rota-Ring Here
Volunteer With Rotarun
Register To Ride
Wood River Ski Joring Event Info:
Tickets $10
11:00 AM Start
February 14-15
81 Browning Lane, Bellevue, ID
For event information, race registration, sponsorship, volunteer information, or online sign‑ups, visit woodriveresja.com.
A dedicated team‑up page on Facebook is also available for competitors seeking partners at www.facebook.com/groups/wresja.teamup/.
WRESJA Photo Galleries:
2024 Race Event Images: Credit Photographer Mark LaRowe
2025 Race Event Images: Credit Photographer Mark LaRowe
Silent Disco is Back for 2026!
Come for the skiing, stay for the dancing. Rotarun and Bright Lights Disco are transforming the little ski hill into a dance floor—three music channels, wireless headphones, and the chance to ski, spin, and boogie under the Friday Night lights. There are a limited number of headsets (40), so purchase your tickets ahead of time to guarantee a spot!
Dates: January 23, February 6, and February 20
Time: 6-9pm
Tickets: $10/person/headset
Lift Tickets:
If you plan to ride the lift, you must purchase a lift ticket in addition to the event ticket. Youth lift tickets are $10, adult lift tickets are $20, and children under the age of 5 ski for free. The magic carpet is free to ride for all ages. Tickets are available at the ticket shack at the base of the Poma lift.
If you have not skied at Rotarun yet this season, you will need to sign a liability waiver, which can be accessed here if you would like to complete the waiver ahead of time.
You can purchase your event ticket in advance or when you arrive 👉 PURCHASE SILENT DISCO TICKETS HERE
What does skiing in headphones at Rotarun look like? 👉 Instagram
Rotarun Beneficiary of 2026 Banff Film Festival in Sun Valley
Banff Mountain Film Festival 2026
Sun Valley, Idaho
It’s a 50-year celebration for the Banff Centre, and this year the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour will be at the Sun Valley Opera House for another three-night run of 18 films. Shows will start on Friday night, January 30th, at 7 pm, Saturday night, January 31st, at 7 pm, and Sunday night, February 1st, at 7 pm. Tickets are $25 in advance and $30 at the door. All tickets are sold through the Sun Valley website at https://www.showpass.com/banff-centre-mountain-film-festival-world-tour-3/
This year, there are 18 new films on tour, and a description of each can be found at www.mountainfever.us. As with each new “Banff” year, a wide variety of films encompassing mountain sports, humor, and culture will take over the Panida screen. This year, the 2025 Best Film on Mountain Sports and the winner of the Audience Choice Award is “Best Day Ever,” which follows the stories of mountain bikers Greg Durso and Allie Bianchi as they navigate the relentless challenges of life with humor and attitude. The film has won over 13 awards worldwide to date. Set in the Green Mountains, this is a story of grit, independence, and what’s possible when community and creativity come together. At its heart is the world’s first fully adaptive trail network—built to prove that everyone belongs outside. Banff is always about finding films that you would not see elsewhere, and the short, quirky film “Jaunt” is no exception. We follow Justice, who makes sense of the world of deadlines and endless to-do lists, with some good advice for all of us! “Robson” was first presented in Banff, Alberta, during the town’s 50-year celebration in November. It is about Christina Lustenberger and Guillaume Pierrel’s attempt at the daring first descent of Canada’s Mount Robson’s South Face.
Since first bringing the program to the Sun Valley area in 2000, the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival has been about community, and this year is no different. Once again, a portion of the Banff Sun Valley shows proceeds will support the Rota-Rippers youth program at Rotarun Ski Area. A community-supported, tuition-free learn-to-ski and snowboard program, Rota-Rippers is dedicated to offering 5 to 11-year-old participants the opportunity to get out and discover the lifelong pursuit of winter recreation. Rotarun provides an affordable, inclusive ski area that celebrates winter sports and the mountain’s own culture through accessibility and community outreach.
The Banff World Tour immediately follows the Banff Centre Mountain Film and Book Festival in November, where a selection of the top films submitted to the Festival go on a tour worldwide. The World Tour reaches over 550,000 audience members through more than 1100 screenings in 500 locations in 40 countries. In some years, films are even screened in Antarctica. From its humble beginnings in Banff, Alberta, where a couple of filmmakers got together, it truly spans the globe.
For more show information, contact: Michael Boge / 208.661.3857 / mountainfever1@frontier.com / www.mountainfever.us
For more information on Rotarun and the Rota-Rippers contact Liz Chamberlain / (208) 788-6204 / liz@rotarun.org
Rotarun Gets A Carpet for Christmas
Rotarun to open with magic addition — New magic carpet installed after journey across the world
Originally published in the Idaho Mountain Express on Dec. 24, 2025
Words by Noah Fishman
"Rotarun Ski Area is set to open for the winter on Friday, Jan. 2, if conditions allow, with a brand-new 60-meter magic carpet that will bring skiers and snowboarders up the hill without needing to rely on the ski area’s other lifts.
“The rope tow was just so prohibitive to young kids and families,” said Scott McGrew, executive director of Rotarun. “There was like this threshold of strength and ability. We were really missing that kind of first-step piece.”
The magic carpet was a move to align the reality of Rotarun with its kid-friendly identity in the community. While the slope that the carpet serves does not have an official name, McGrew said the staff is liking his suggestion, “The Magic Meadow.”
“This has been part of our strategic vision for the space,” said McGrew. “It is a family-focused, kid-centric outdoor community center, period.”
Magic carpet journeys to Hailey
The carpet can move at different speeds, but during normal operations it will transport users upward at a rate of roughly 3 feet per second, said Rotarun Mountain Manager Julian Tyo.
It was constructed in Austria by Sunkid over the course of three months, sent to Los Angeles by boat, transported to Salt Lake City via train and finally trucked to Hailey in sections, McGrew said. He said the initial purchase was approximately $130,000, and installation fees were an additional $20,000. The price was up in the air at points in the process, however, due to U.S. tariffs which went into effect in August.
“That was such a moving target, [we were] not quite sure what the final price tag was going to be,” said McGrew. “Sunkid, the producer, they actually worked with us and covered a meaningful part of the tariff cost, which was awesome because that was sort of an unbudgeted question mark.”
The magic carpet arrived in Hailey on Thursday, Dec. 4, and construction was completed on Wednesday, Dec. 17, McGrew said.
“An upside of this warm weather is that we had great installation conditions,” McGrew said.
Like a Christmas miracle, the snow and rain did not come until after the project was completed.
Heather Foster, head of donor relations at Rotarun, said the magic carpet was made possible by Deida and Duane Runswick, Cynthia Carroll and Woody Marshall, the SPUR Community Foundation’s Community Grant Program, Rixon Excavation, Merrick Construction and Conrad Brothers Construction.
Read the full article by Noah Fishman at www.mtnexpress.com/news
2026 Opening Date Delayed
Dec. 29, 2025: Opening Day Update
Our big dreams of opening on December 26 were drowned out by the holiday week's atmospheric river and consistently warm temperatures. Thanks to the post-Chritsmas cold front, our snowmaking team was able to produce 500,000 gallons worth of snow with our snowmaking system and will be pushing that out across the hill over the next couple of days. Stay tuned for a new opening date as we wait out this unseasonably warm start to winter.
Have You Heard?
Rotarun Gets a New Sculpture
By: Briana Miller for Idaho Mountain Express
Published 12/10/25
Several years ago, a sculpture at Rotarun Ski Area that had been in place for many years was taken back by its artist. The sculpture had been in the lodge for so long that no one could remember when it first arrived.
Rotarun’s associate director, Mimi Crocker, described the metal and glass sculpture as a “snow kachina” that people would throw pennies, dimes or even $100 bills in, as a kind of wishing well. They also deposited love letters to the ski hill in it. The sculpture had been at the lodge under what amounted to an informal loan agreement. There were no hard feelings that the artist chose to take it back, but it was missed.
Last spring, Crocker began discussing a new sculpture with an anonymous patron. They were taken by the work of Wes Walsworth, a third-generation woodworker who has recently turned to sculpting. His wood and metal “totems” can be seen in the Hemmings Gallery in Ketchum.
The donor liked a piece called “Blackwing” and requested something similar for the ski hill. Rotarun’s sculpture, christened “SnoWing,” is about 10 feet high, making it one of the taller pieces completed by Walsworth to date.
It’s more than that. A series of three stacked metal boxes rises from a low concrete base. Each rectangle is faced in reclaimed wood that Walsworth collected from the Hagerman area in southern Idaho. The wood held back spring water for more than 50 years, washing it out to a warm gray and etching it with soft grooves. Shiny aluminum spacers sit between the three rusticated steel segments.
Burnt alder “wings” extend from either side of the top box. Walsworth inlaid a strip of sapele mahogany into this segment and affixed a vertical strip of wood set with three donut-shaped pieces of turquoise next to it. These are the “eyes” of the sculpture.
Read the full story at Idaho Mountain Express
View more photos of the install on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Hailey Homegrown
Join us on December 19 at the Liberty Theater for a special South Valley rendition of the Homegrown Film Festival, pulling together a lineup of the best films from this season and the past decade to share with the Hailey community ahead of Rotarun’s opening weekend on December 20. We have a stellar line up of raffle prizes to supplement the show, with proceeds benefitting Rotarun and The Sawtooth Avalanche Center.
The evening will focus on showcasing community members and hometown heroes near and dear to the Wood River Valley—both young and old—including Elliot and Will Burks; SV DeVo and SV Skimo coach Jackson Long; St. Luke’s nurse and professional skier Lucy Sackbauer; SVSEF snowboard team member Charlie Eddie; Nomadic Vans and the Sun Valley Mustard; and many many more.
Tickets: $10 advance / $15 door
Doors: 6:00pm / Show: 6:30pm
Rotarun Ski Swap 2025
The annual Rotarun Ski Swap is back and set for October 18 at Sturtevants in Hailey! Your donations to the Ski Swap are an essential component to Rotarun’s annual fundraising efforts. A percentage of the sales from the Ski Swap directly support the programming and operations at Rotarun Ski Area, including the tuition-free Rota-Rippers after-school program and free public ski evenings for our community.
GEAR REGISTRATION:
Pre-register at MySkiSwap.com – https://myskiswap.com/skiswap_views?ssid=6fc7cdb0-70a4-013e-87c2-1eca67fba657
+ Make sure your contact and address information is up-to-date and accurate. This is the information we use to send sellers their payout checks.
+ Sign up for text/email alerts if you would like to be notified when your items sell. Notifications are particularly useful for those who want to keep their unsold items.
GEAR DROP OFF:
Tuesday Oct. 14 (4-7pm)
Rotarun Lodge (25 Rodeo Dr., Hailey ID)
Wednesday Oct. 15 (3-6pm)
SVSEF Warm Springs Training Center (215 Picabo St., Ketchum, ID)
Friday Oct. 17 (3-6pm)
Sturtevants – Hailey
At drop-off: A label with a sale barcode will be printed for each of the items pre-registered on myskiswap.com. Our staff and volunteers will label and sort your gear, and transport your items to the Sturtevants Hailey location.
You will be asked if you want to pick up or donate your gear. We will add a color coded sticker to each item.
*Day-of donations will not be accepted. You must register items by Friday Oct. 17 @ 6pm.
GEAR PICK UP :
*NEW PICK UP TIME THIS YEAR! Gear pick up will be held at Sturtevants in Hailey after the ski swap is over from 4-6pm on Saturday. Your items must be marked as “save for pick-up” or “donate” during gear drop off. Our team will mark each item with a color-coded sticker.
GEAR SALES:
- Sellers take home 75% of the final sale price, 25% of all sales go to support Rotarun programs and operations.
- All goods designated by sellers to be included in the “fire sale” will be 50% off during the final hour of the ski swap from 3-4 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 18
- Sellers can choose to donate any unsold gear or pick up unsold gear up at the end of the Ski Swap sale.
- Payout checks will not be processed and mailed until the first week of November.
MySkiSwap registration link – https://myskiswap.com/skiswap_views?ssid=6fc7cdb0-70a4-013e-87c2-1eca67fba657
See you on October 18 at Sturtevants in Hailey, ID!
Questions? Email liz@rotarun.org.