They laced miles of rope along treelines and most of it remained up all season. They stuck tens of thousands of sticks of bamboo into thin snowpack to mark hazards. They shuffled and scraped piles of snow around hills to keep trails skiable. They bombed bowls in 50-degree temperatures to release sloppy wet slides.
As Colorado’s ski resorts limp through the final lap of the ugliest season in 50 years, it’s time to hail the groomers and ski patrollers who made this season happen. In a sunny stretch when resorts typically boast wide open skiing, hardy patrollers and grooming crews are working with about half the snow they expected and a little more than half the terrain they typically have open.
Every morning, ski patrollers across the state this winter would open and close runs, stretching nylon ropes for miles along unskiable trees. As the season winds down with beach temperatures this week, they are opening runs for the brief early-afternoon window between frozen mank and boot-deep slush. As temperatures drop in the middle of the night, the groomers are churning the frozen chunks into a Tetris-like puzzle, connecting runs and patching bare spots.
“Ski patrol has worked extremely hard this season to open and close trails depending on the conditions,” Copper Mountain boss Dustin Lyman said. “They have put up and taken down more miles of ropes than ever.”
Like wizards, the snow farmers and ski patrollers saved this season. On paper, it looks like a disastrous ski season, with snowfall at a 50-year low. On the mountain, it actually wasn’t so bad. Vacationers had fun and powder seekers made do.
So this early spring, as that dang high pressure dome heats our slopes with record-high temperatures and resorts start closing like they’re back on the precipice of a pandemic, high-five your resort workers who kept the season alive. Buy ’em beers, coffees and sandwiches. Let’s put this season in the rearview, but don’t forget it. The memories of 2025-26 will keep us giddy next winter.
“I’ll be happy to put this season behind me, but I’ll have the awful snow stat to remind me,” Winter Park ski patrol director Brendan Irving said.
Here’s the updated list of projected closing dates and snow bases as of March 24. If the end of this week delivers rain as forecast, these dates most certainly will be moving up. They already are as this extraordinary heat kicks this ski season into the record books.
ARAPAHOE BASIN — June 14 with 36% open and a 30-inch base.
ASPEN HIGHLANDS — April 12 with 38% open and a 50-inch base.
ASPEN MOUNTAIN — April 19 with 47% open and a 24-inch base.
BEAVER CREEK — April 12 with 78% open and a 30-inch base.
BRECKENRIDGE — May 10 with 74% open and a 34-inch base.
BUTTERMILK — April 5 with 89% open and a 16-inch base.
COPPER MOUNTAIN — May 10 with 46% open and a 38-inch base.
CRESTED BUTTE MOUNTAIN RESORT — April 5 with 88% open and a 43-inch base.
CUCHARA MOUNTAIN PARK — Closed March 15 with, apparently, zero snow.
ECHO MOUNTAIN — April 12 with about 70% open and a 23-inch base.
ELDORA MOUNTAIN RESORT — April 19 with about 80% open and 20-inch base.
GRANBY RANCH — March 29 (was April 5) with 15% of terrain open and an 18-inch base.
HOWELSEN HILL — Closed March 22 with a 16-inch base.
KEYSTONE — April 5 with about 45% open and a 34-inch base.
LOVELAND — Early May with 95% open and a 41-inch base.
MONARCH — March 29 with about 70% open and a 30-inch base.
POWDERHORN — Closed March 23 with a 16-inch base.
PURGATORY — March 29 with about 25% open and a 24-inch base.
SILVERTON MOUNTAIN — March 28 with 100% open and a 30-inch base.
SKI COOPER — Closed March 22 with a 12-inch base.
SKI SUNLIGHT — Closed March 22 with a 16-inch base.
SNOWMASS — April 12 with 70% open and a 46-inch base.
STEAMBOAT — April 12 with 63% open and a 27-inch base.
TELLURIDE — April 5 with about 50% open and a 35-inch base.
VAIL — April 19 with about 45% open and a 44-inch base.
WINTER PARK — April 19 with 61% open and a 42-inch base.
WOLF CREEK — April 5 with 90% open and a 54-inch base.