Choteau, MT – Montana’s Teton Pass ski area, purchased by New Zealander Nick Wood last year, will remain closed this winter due to a lack of insurance.

“Unfortunately due to technical issues with obtaining/retaining insurance for the 2011-12 ski season Teton Pass Resort will not be open this winter,” officials of the 400-acre resort located northwest of Great Falls posted on the ski area’s website. “For those that purchased a season pass they will be 100 percent refunded for this season. We will be able resolve the technical issues by next summer and will be open for the 2012-13 ski season. We have exhausted all options for getting these issues resolved in time for this holiday season.”

Wood, the founder of one of New Zealand’s largest Internet providers, has already sunk $1.8 million into Teton Pass to revive the resort’s base lodge and lifts and to add several new runs. He had hoped to increase the ski area’s vertical drop by 40 percent to 1,400 feet by adding new lifts as well. With the closing of the ski hill this winter the status of those plans is unclear at this time.