Colorado’s ski resorts are reporting base depths far below what they were at this time in 2023, and the statewide snowpack is considerably below normal — a situation that stands in sharp contrast to the abundant snowfall skiers and snowboarders reveled in a year ago.
But a series of storms is forecast to arrive in Colorado’s high country over the next week — just in time for the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday weekend.
“They desperately need it,” Golden resident Michael Miller said Wednesday after skiing Keystone with his son. “It was rough. In between the bumps and the bottom of the bumps, lots of rocks, twigs, trees. We were checking our skis all day for shots and scratches.”
At Copper Mountain, Cara Luchies of Longmont found good skiing Tuesday on groomed intermediate trails at the center of the mountain, but after exploring the upper mountain Wednesday morning with her family, she decided to call it a day at 1 p.m.
“Don’t want to ding up my boards,” Luchies said. “It was pretty exposed up there — rocks and tree branches.”
Steamboat, which reported a 29-inch base on Thursday, stood at 68 inches on the same date last year. Arapahoe Basin reported a 22-inch base, as compared to 46 inches a year ago. Copper Mountain reported a 45-inch base a year ago but only 27 inches on Thursday. Breckenridge and Keystone reported 24 and 23, respectively, compared to 40-41 last year.
Winter Park was at 58 inches a year ago, but just 30 inches on Thursday.
Most ski resorts haven’t seen appreciable accumulation since Christmas, and the problem isn’t limited to Colorado. Resorts across the mountain west are pining for fresh snow.
“The mountain resort industry is variable and weather dependent, but we’re hopeful that this next storm cycle will give us some good snowfall,” said Winter Park spokeswoman Jen Miller. “And overall, the January forecast is looking good so far. Our snowmaking and grooming efforts have helped us a lot this year. We’re still working to open some of our more advanced terrain, which is typical this time of year, but most of the rest of the mountain is open and skiing great.”
At Copper Mountain on Wednesday, where it was sunny and unseasonably warm, Tobin Kern of Littleton took his lunch outside.
“Having a great time,” Kern said. “However, it feels like spring skiing. The snow is soft, almost slushy in spots, with a lot of bare spots.”
Earlier at Arapahoe Basin, Noah Rabinowitz of Dillon got in a few morning runs before heading into backcountry terrain below Loveland Pass. He was philosophical about the situation, mindful that it’s still early in ski season.
“Well, there’s enough snow to ski,” Rabinowitz said. “If you like skiing, there’s still skiing to be had. You’ve got to work on being patient. I’m still optimistic about the season. A lot of terrain is closed. There’s rocks out there. You try not to think about your skis’ future.”
At Keystone, Shane McAteer of Long Island, N.Y., said at least conditions were better there than on the East Coast.
“Where it’s groomed, it’s fine, but a lot of patchy areas, random rocks and stuff,” said McAteer, a junior at Tufts University. “There’s parts that are really good, and in between those it’s like, ‘This (stinks), it’s not good skiing.’”
According to the latest U.S. Drought Monitor update, 36% of Colorado is abnormally dry and 29% is experiencing some level of drought.
Every ski area in the state has a below-normal snowpack, according to the OpenSnow reporting and forecasting service. Crested Butte is at 89% of normal, while Beaver Creek is at 87% and Winter Park 80%. They’re the fortunate ones.
Snowpacks at Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk, Snowmass, Steamboat, Vail, Monarch and Echo Mountain are between 70% and 79% of normal. Breckenridge, Cooper, Copper Mountain, Eldora, Powderhorn, Sunlight, Telluride and Granby Ranch are between 60% and 69%. Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, Loveland, Purgatory, Wolf Creek and Silverton are between 50% and 59%.
“The entire west has a below-average snowpack, somewhere from 50 to 70% of average,” said OpenSnow founding meteorologist Joel Gratz. “Some years it all lines up great, and some years it all lines up not so great. Last year we were just in the zone, and the storms kept tracking in a favorable way. So far this year, we haven’t been.”
If there is a “silver lining,” Gratz said, it’s that the dry spell this season coincided with the coldest time of the year.
“So the snow we have has been preserved,” Gratz said. “And, we’re lucky that we had the snow that we did in November and early December, so at least we have some snow to ski on.”
In Thursday’s forecast, Gratz said double-digit snow totals are likely for most Colorado mountains through next Friday.
“We could see five storms in the next seven to 10 days,” Gratz said in an interview on Thursday. “How much snow will fall at every mountain, I don’t know. If you have storms around, even if they don’t all track great for every mountain, chances are at least some of them are going to deliver decent totals for all mountains, and the sum total over 10 days will be reasonable.”
The first wave arrived Thursday evening with several resorts reporting three to five inches of new snow Friday morning. Gratz is “cautiously optimistic” that this storm cycle will bring the snowpack to near-normal levels, even slightly above.
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