Can Colorado do more with less water?
Where Colorado will find the water it needs to thrive is a more urgent question than ever amid historic drought, undeniable climate change and unprecedented interstate conflicts over limited river supplies.
The Colorado Sun is embarking on a solutions journalism series asking who in the state is doing their share to save precious water. Our solutions-oriented reporting will assess whether specific water conservation projects can free up water at a large scale, or whether local conservation is always overwhelmed by uncontrollable natural conditions or immovable market realities.
The Colorado Sun series, “Can Colorado do more with less water?,” will create a body of work showcasing what may or may not be possible in creating water solutions across the state. From Akron to Aspen, we’re looking for signs of success or failure that will help lead us to water security.
ASPEN
Early summer looks good on Buttermilk’s ski runs.
The slopes are bright green, dotted with purple lupine and threaded with hiking and biking trails. Following one of the leanest winters in recent memory — a season that forced Buttermilk to close a week and a half early — the snow has long since disappeared from the mountain.
Almost.
Near the base area sits a massive pile of snow wrapped in thick insulated blankets. Officials at Aspen One, which manages four Roaring Fork Valley mountains, hope most of it will still be there by the time next winter begins.
Aspen Snowmass has become the first resort in Colorado to adopt Snow Secure, a Finnish snow storage system designed to preserve snow through the summer months. Resort officials say the technology could help guarantee snow coverage for terrain parks at Buttermilk and Snowmass early next season, even if autumn weather refuses to cooperate.
Aspen One estimates that the blankets now cover roughly 10 acre-feet, or 3.5 million gallons, of snow-water equivalent spread across the two mountains. Based on results from resorts in Europe and Canada, officials hope to retain roughly 80% of that snow by fall.
Although snow storage has for decades been used as a snow management tool in Europe, Aspen is among a growing number of North American resorts embracing the practice. According to Snow Secure CEO Antti Lauslahti, the company has discussed potential projects with more than 80 resorts across North America, including more than 50 in the United States. Interest accelerated after Snow Secure completed its first North American installations last year and was named one of Time magazine’s Best Inventions of 2025.
The growing interest reflects a broader shift in how ski areas are adapting to increasingly erratic winters. Instead of relying solely on snowmaking or hoping for early storms, many resorts are assembling a broader toolkit that includes snow storage, automated snowmaking systems, and other technologies designed to guarantee critical early-season terrain while reducing water and energy use.
Colorado ski areas typically use about 3,582 acre-feet of water, or 1.2 billion gallons, of water in snowmaking, according to Colorado Division of Water Resources director Jason Ullmann, who cited stats based on data collected from 2001 to 2020. Aspen’s average use over that same period is about 300 acre-feet per year.
Shoring up early season water supplies by investing in snow storage could help keep ski resorts out of the intensifying battles for water as climate change diminishes available supply.
Climate Central, an independent climate research organization, recently found that winters have grown shorter in 80% of major U.S. cities since 1970, shrinking by an average of nine days. Researchers also found that extremely warm winter days are becoming increasingly common across much of the country.
It’s not just Colorado resorts adapting. Last year, Sun Peaks Resort in British Columbia became the first Canadian ski area to install Snow Secure’s system. Encouraged by the results, the resort tripled the amount of snow it stored beneath the insulated blankets this spring.
Banking on a better season “next year” simply isn’t an option anymore, Sun Peaks Director of Operations Duncan Currie said.
“At this point we need to plan for worst-case scenarios, not best.”
Retaining 70% to 90% of stockpiled snow
Snow Secure’s system is a modern version of a practice known as snow farming — collecting snow at the end of one season and preserving it for the next.
The concept isn’t new. European ski resorts have long stockpiled snow on glaciers and race venues where reliable early-season conditions are essential. In Levi, Finland, organizers began storing snow in 2016 to guarantee the resort’s annual Alpine World Cup race. Last November, the entire race surface was built using snow preserved through the previous summer.
Lauslahti said his company spent nearly a decade developing the insulated, reusable blankets, as well as the process that makes installation easy for ski resorts. In the spring, resorts use their own snowcats to push snow into massive mounds before covering them with the modular blankets. The piles remain untouched until fall.
“It’s not only that it works,” Lauslahti said. “It’s really important for the resorts that it’s really easy and fast.”
Typically, resorts retain between 70% and 90% of the snow they store through the summer, he said. Roughly one-third of the loss comes from the snow naturally settling under its own weight, while most of the remainder melts around the edges.
Lauslahti also says that the blankets are as much about saving snow as controlling when it’s available. Missing a major early-season opening around Thanksgiving or Christmas can cost a resort as much as 20% of its annual revenue, he said. Even during snowy winters, warm autumn temperatures can prevent resorts from making enough snow to open on schedule.
“The years are very different,” he said. “Let’s say next year is really great and there’s a lot of snow. So why not store it? Snow storage is controlling timing.”
Aspen officials first began exploring the technology in 2025, visiting European resorts that had already adopted the system and speaking with North American operators. The investment, said Chris Miller, Aspen One’s senior vice president of sustainability and advocacy, “aims to reduce our reliance on early-season snowmaking, which translates to meaningful water and energy savings, and allows us to deliver a stronger guest experience for early season.”
Miller said there were multiple positives to investing in the Snow Secure system — the ability to scale if things went well, easy installation and material that could be reused year after year — in addition to a proven track record at European ski resorts.
“The modular insulated blanket system allows us to cover and manage existing snowpack efficiently without ongoing energy input,” he said. “It was the right fit for what we are trying to accomplish.”
Snowmaking and snow storage
If anyone understands the appeal of guaranteed snow, it’s Currie. For the past year, the Sun Peaks operations director says his inbox has been filled with calls and emails from resorts curious about snow storage.
Last year, Sun Peaks covered a pile of roughly 17,000 cubic meters of snow near its Nancy Greene International Race Centre. The mound measured roughly 300-feet long, 100-feet wide and 30-feet tall. The race center sits at a relatively low elevation, where making snow early in the season has become increasingly difficult.
“We wanted to be able to have guaranteed snow there so it would give race teams certainty that we’d open when we said we would,” Currie said.
The experiment worked. Sun Peaks retained roughly 80% of the pile through the summer and opened its race venue on schedule in early November while several competing training centers opened nearly two weeks later. This year the resort expanded from one storage pile to three.
“I call it ‘Snow Sure’ because we have the snow,” Currie said.
The preserved snow has benefits beyond racing, he said. By reducing the amount of snowmaking required in one area, the resort can redirect limited water supplies and snowmaking capacity elsewhere on the mountain.
“We have a limited amount of water,” Currie said. “If we can save 5 million gallons from the race center, that’s 20% of our snowmaking that we can use in other places.”
Interest in snow storage is growing even among resorts that haven’t adopted it. At Beaver Creek, home of the annual Birds of Prey World Cup races, officials seriously evaluated Snow Secure before investing in automated snowmaking systems instead. Ron Rupert, Beaver Creek Resort’s chief of race and competition services manager, said last season exposed just how vulnerable even established race venues can be.
“We basically moved the finish line three times because we weren’t going to make it to the bottom,” Rupert said.
For race organizers, natural snow is only part of the equation. Race surfaces rely heavily on machine-made snow, and last season’s warm temperatures left few opportunities to produce it.
“We semi-joke that we don’t need any snow at all,” Rupert said. “We just need temperatures to make it.”
For this season, Beaver Creek chose automated snowmaking because it would allow the resort to take advantage of increasingly narrow cold-weather windows. Snow storage remains on the table. “It’s definitely something that I think is in our future,” Rupert said.
Whether resorts choose snow blankets, automated snowmaking systems, or some combination of both, the motivation is often the same: certainty.
That certainty comes at a cost, but Lauslahti said the economics can be surprisingly favorable. In Europe, he estimates snow storage costs less than about $2 per cubic meter each year, and he said many resorts recoup the investment quickly by opening earlier or ensuring major events aren’t delayed.
At Sun Peaks, Currie calculated that gaining just two additional operating days each year over a decade would pay for the system. In its first season using snow storage, the resort gained roughly 10 days.
“If you can guarantee an early opening or a race, it’s like an insurance policy,” Lauslahti said.
Whether Colorado resorts ultimately embrace snow blankets, automated snowmaking systems or some combination of both, one reality is becoming harder to ignore: The business of skiing is increasingly about managing unpredictable weather before winter ever arrives.
Back at Buttermilk, summer has reclaimed nearly every inch of the mountain. Hikers follow dusty trails where skiers carved turns just months earlier. Mountain bikers roll beneath idle chairlifts. Only one patch of winter remains.
If all goes according to plan, much of it will still be there when temperatures finally begin to fall, giving Aspen Skiing Co. something that has become increasingly valuable in the ski industry: a little more certainty about when the season begins.