Boise, ID – A federal bankruptcy judge on Monday cleared the way for a ski and snowboard season this winter at Idaho’s financially beleaguered Tamarack Resort. If creditors have their way, however, it may be the last.nThat’s because the resort’s lenders, led by Credit Suisse, are urging U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Terry Myers to move the resort’s bankruptcy from reorganization to liquidation. Proceedings are expected to continue through this week in a Boise courtroom. Should the facilities at the ski area near in Donnelly, Idaho be sold piecemeal, it could the final death knell for Tamarack.

Tamarack was North America’s newest ski and snowboard resort when it first opened in 2004. Its lifts ran silent in 2009, however, when resort principals were unable to continue payments on a $300 million construction loan after a stalled economy stifled real estate sales. The resort’s assets were subsequently placed into bankruptcy.

Judge Myers’ decision delivered late Monday approved the use of equipment that serves as collateral to the construction loan for skiing and riding this season. The Tamarack Municipal Association, a consortium of resort homeowners, plans to operate some of Tamarack’s lifts Thursdays through Sundays for 15 weeks this season beginning Dec. 20.