It’s been a brutal year for skiers.
Vail superstar Lindsey Vonn nearly lost her leg after she was injured in a catastrophic fall at the Olympics in Italy last month. Nine experienced backcountry skiers died in avalanches in the Lake Tahoe area this winter. And Colorado is seeing one of its worst snow droughts in history.
It’s not exactly great advertising for Colorado’s signature sport.
Even the Presidents’ Day weekend didn’t bring the traditional crowds, and if it wasn’t for ski industry lobbyists, we might not even celebrate that national holiday.
It’s depressing, economically as well as psychologically.
The Sun’s Jason Blevins reports occupancy in ski area hotels and rentals in Colorado and Utah is way down, while skiers flee to places like Vermont or upstate New York in search of snow.
Last week Snow Mountain Ranch took the extraordinary step of asking skiers to stay away, just days after the images of superhuman cross-country skiers racing through the Dolomites provided some of the best advertising the sport has ever had.
But the snow on the Nordic trails at the ranch is so thin, the managers are telling visitors to, please, find something else to do. A walk in the woods, maybe.
Add to that the impact of President Donald Trump’s ruthless deportation policies and his snarky diplomatic offensives and the situation gets even more desperate.
Fears of arrest, detention or harassment from ICE have kept international tourists away in droves and Canadians, among the most loyal visitors to the U.S. — and Colorado specifically — are staying away out of serious patriotic pique.
The number of visitors to the U.S. from Canada dropped 28% in January. They’re understandably pissed off, so they’re spending their money elsewhere.
Can you blame them?
Ski tourism supports hundreds of small businesses — restaurants, ski shops, coffee houses, brew pubs — that operate on thin margins and just barely survived the pandemic. Thousands of people depend on income from providing ski lessons or working on the ski patrols. A year like this puts a lot of people out of work.
Sure, there’s more to Colorado than just skiing, but face it, it’s a big deal. The state has the largest ski tourism industry in the country and it generates billions in revenue. A study in 2015 estimated that skiing produced $4.8 billion annually in revenue and something like 46,000 jobs in Colorado. And that was more than a decade ago.
The marketing budget for the Colorado Tourism Office has been flat for a decade, and the damage from the bleak 2025-26 season can be long-lasting, especially if the state doesn’t get to work to win back the lost business.
We need to convince travelers that Coloradans are welcoming and open to people from all over the world. And the state needs to up its game to compete for tourism dollars.
The corporate ski industry should do its part, too.
It operates mostly on public lands and depends on taxpayers to fund highways and services to the resorts while charging $200 or $300 or more for lift tickets and delivering its shareholders hefty profits.
It oozes exclusivity.
My daughter rode a chairlift with a skier from France last year who was delighted with the sunshine and the skiing in Colorado but truly amazed by the cost.
In Europe, lift tickets were a fraction of the price and the infrastructure was much better, she said.
Chairlifts had bubble covers to protect against wind and snow, and most had heated seats. The food in the restaurants was better, more varied and cheaper, and there was no need to have a car to travel to resorts and then pay for parking at the base.
“What do they do with all the money?” she asked.
Maybe we’ll find out this year when they don’t have so much of it.
But as this wretched season winds down, it’s time to look to the future.
Next year’s snow conditions likely will be better (fingers crossed), so the industry should begin planning to find ways to lure skiers back.
Targeted advertising, discount family ski packages, programs to expand snow sports to wider audiences all could be good ideas.
And here’s another one. For all those season passholders who got 40% less terrain to ski on this year, a break on next year’s pass makes sense. Sure, it’s not the fault of Vail Resorts, Inc., or Alterra Mountain Company that winter was a bust, but resentments still simmer.
Season passholders can’t help but feel ripped off. Cut them some slack.
Call it a loyalty reward or an investment in the future. Call it whatever you want. It’s a small price to pay for some good will toward the dedicated skiers who stuck with it and all those little ones who hit the slopes believing that if they work hard, some day they just might become the next Lindsey Vonn.
Diane Carman is a Denver communications consultant.
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