The opens the door for a future request for a federal disaster declaration and aid. It also mandates that state agencies reduce outdoor watering.

“Today I am issuing a statewide drought emergency to support Coloradans, our economy, farmers and ranchers, and outdoor enthusiasts in the face of one of the most severe droughts in Colorado’s recorded history,” Gov. Jared Polis said in a news release announcing the declaration.

“With every county in the state experiencing drought conditions,” he continued, “activating Phase 3 of our Drought Response Plan allows us to better coordinate agencies, prepare for worsening conditions, and support Colorado communities, agriculture, water users, and our environment.”

All of Colorado’s 64 counties are ranked as abnormally dry, and 93% of the state is considered to be in moderate or exceptional drought, according to .

The central mountains are experiencing the most severe drought in the state, the data show. The entirety of Eagle and Pitkin counties, as well as large portions of Rio Blanco, Garfield, Lake, Routt and Grand counties, are considered to be in exceptional drought — the most severe category tracked by the U.S. Drought Monitor.

The state Drought Task Force will continue to meet to coordinate the state’s response to the lack of water. At the local and regional level, many water utilities — including Denver Water — have enacted outdoor watering restrictions for the spring and summer.

The state’s emergency declaration is the most extreme state action outlined in .

Colorado Ski Country USA projects that skier visits statewide declined nearly 24%, from 13.8 million during the 2024-25 season to 10.5 million this season. The record for Colorado is 14.8 million, which was set in 2022-23. Colorado resorts hit 14 million in 2023-24, the second most in state history.

Colorado Ski Country, the state’s ski industry trade association, represents 21 member resorts, but they do not include the five Vail Resorts mountains (Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte). Wolf Creek is also not a member. But Vail Resorts reported in April that skier visits to its resorts in the Rocky Mountain region fell by 25% year over year, while its total visits to all of its North American resorts declined 14.9% compared to the prior year. Lift revenue was down 5.6%, ski school revenue was down 12%, and dining revenue was down 11.7%.

Ski Country announced this year’s figures — using metrics to factor in estimated skier visits at the non-member resorts — to come up with a “projected preliminary statewide” number, which it announced at Thursday’s annual meeting in Denver.

In a news release, Ski Country said every visitor segment declined — in-state, out-of-state and international — and the average number of days resorts were able to operate declined from the 20-year average of 144 days to 129 days. Visits declined more than 20% below the five-year and 10-year averages.

“This year revealed the experience, dedication, and grit of Colorado’s resorts and the teams behind them,” Ski Country chief executive Melanie Mills said in the release. “Their work supports mountain economies, keeps people connected to the mountains, and sustains the experience that generations of Coloradans and visitors come here to share. Skier visits are an important metric, but they are far from the only measure of the health of our industry.”

The 287-acre Knapp Ranch started by Bud and Betsy Knapp is about 30 miles west of Vail and adjacent to the White River National Forest and the Holy Cross Wilderness.

Ken Mirr of the , which listed the property for sale, said in a statement that the ranch is regarded “as one of the Western Region’s most iconic mountain, fishing and conservation ranches.”

The Knapps expanded their vision beyond building an informal country retreat for family and friends to making it a working farm, using sustainable practices, according to the Mirr Ranch Group.

bought the property in 1993, their son, Aaron Knapp, said.

“The first two years were spent working with the (U.S.) Army Corps of Engineers rehabbing West Lake Creek, which runs right down the middle of the property,” Aaron said.

They reintroduced native plants, fish and insects and created pools for fish. The Knapps built cabins and then the main house on a hill.

The Knapps moved to the ranch full-time in 2006, Aaron said. The couple sold their home in Los Angeles to live in the Colorado mountains.

“We’d come up to Vail all the time when I was a kid,” said Aaron, who lives in nearby Eagle. “We took vacations all the time so it was a very natural transition for my dad to go from Los Angeles to Colorado.”

Aaron said his parents worked with the U.S. Forest Service to cut down beetle-infested pine trees and clear other vegetation. They also worked with Colorado State University, which had weather stations in the area. They consulted with the school on high-altitude farming.

The property is at roughly 9,000 feet in elevation. The family had a store for a while in Eagle where they sold home-harvested honey and produce from their farm and other area farms.

The Knapps wrote about their ranch in the book “Living Beneath the Colorado Peaks: The Story of Knapp Ranch.”

The site fronts about three-quarters of a mile of West Lake Creek. The ranch has senior water rights, ponds, creeks and aquatic systems.

The site also has a private trail network and is near world-class skiing, hiking and year-round amenities, the Mirr Ranch Group said. The ranch is within an hour of the Eagle County Regional Airport.

The spring storm system that prompted school closures and caused slushy rush-hour roads on the Front Range delivered nine inches of fresh snow to A-Basin as of Wednesday morning’s snow report. Snow continued for several hours after that.

“It’s truly dumping up here in Summit County today,” said A-Basin spokeswoman Shayna Silverman.

A-Basin is set to close for skiing on Sunday, so the bonus snowfall is some consolation for skiers accustomed to A-Basin staying open until late May or early June. That wasn’t possible this year because of below-normal snowpack and warm spring temperatures.

A-Basin officials announced on April 23 that they would have to close for the season on this past Sunday. But on Saturday, after 14 inches of snow fell there the previous week, they decided to add three days this weekend — Friday, Saturday and Sunday — after being closed Monday through Thursday.

Arapahoe Basin is consistently the last Colorado ski area to close for the season, and that will be true again this year. Last year it closed on June 15, and the year before it closed on June 16. The three previous years it closed in the first week of June.

Two lifts — the Black Mountain Express and the Lenawee Express — will be running. Lift tickets will cost only $39, and those who purchase either a 2026-27 Ikon Pass or A-Basin season pass for next season can begin using it this weekend. There will be live music in the base area on Saturday and Sunday.

Bo Yennie has made significant progress in regaining some of the independence he lost after suffering a spinal injury in a severe ski crash at Steamboat, and is confident he can make more with continued work.

But his insurance company believes he no longer needs to be in the nursing home where he receives physical and occupational therapy, which could force him to stop working on his recovery early.

Yennie’s family home is in rural Routt County, and traveling to a physical therapy center or finding someone willing to make frequent house calls is unfeasible, his son Ben Yennie said.

Yennie has a insurance plan through the . Medicare, including Advantage plans, covers up to 100 days of rehabilitation care following a significant injury or illness, if medically necessary. He started care on March 4.

But United made it increasingly difficult to get that care, requiring the family to get reauthorization every two days for Yennie to stay at Lemay Avenue Health & Rehab in Fort Collins, Ben Yennie said.

On April 10, after paying for about five weeks, United determined Yennie no longer needed residential care, forcing the family to pay out-of-pocket during the appeals process, he said.

About 99% of people in Medicare Advantage must get prior authorization for at least some services, typically high-cost ones such as nursing home care or non-emergency hospital admissions, .

Insurance companies say that prior authorization and reauthorizations as treatment progresses ensure that patients are getting the right level of care, while consumer groups see them as a way for insurers to save money by denying services patients need — or by adding enough hassles that they give up. Most authorizations ultimately go through, particularly if patients appeal.

In his appeal, Ben Yennie said his father’s and he requires treatment to raise it long enough to participate in physical therapy. It wouldn’t be safe for him to get that treatment in a setting without providers monitoring him before his sessions, he said.

They learned Wednesday that they won their appeal, meaning United will reimburse the family for their out-of-pocket spending, but another reauthorization is coming up. Ben Yennie said the company plans to review his father’s care again Thursday, meaning the appeals process could start again if it recommends discharging him.

Paying out-of-pocket for a $20,000-per-month nursing facility isn’t feasible for long, he said.

“He was a public school teacher. There’s only so much there,” he said.

United Healthcare released a statement saying that it conducts reviews to ensure plan members are getting the right care, using “peer-to-peer” conversations with providers and facilities. How often a patient’s care comes up for review depends on how complex their condition is and how it has evolved.

“We understand how difficult recovery and transitions between different levels of care can be for patients and families, especially following a serious injury. Our goal is to support members in accessing coverage for the right care, in the right setting, for the best possible recovery and health outcomes, following evidence‑based care to support that goal,” the statement said.

Kylie Thompson, social services director at Lemay, said insurance companies typically require more frequent reviews as a patient’s stay goes on, to ensure they’re still making progress, but not well enough to move to another setting. Part of her job is to help patients and their families understand their rights and navigate the process, she said.

In most cases, a review is just a phone call, but families want to focus on their loved one’s recovery and may get nervous that someone they don’t know is deciding on the person’s care, Thompson said.

“The process is not difficult… but it can be emotionally taxing,” she said. “Everything is on the line for that phone call.”

Insurers see requiring prior authorization and periodic reviews as a way to produce savings, but given the high percentage of care that they approve initially or following an appeal, no one knows if they’ve succeeded in that regard, said Adam Fox, deputy director of the .

A study found independent review organizations if the patient appealed, at least in New York.

“A lot of this is creating a huge amount of busywork,” he said.

A separate study estimated the average prior authorization request — significant, when added up over tens of thousands of customers, but far less expensive than the care patients are seeking in most cases. Since only a small percentage of people appeal their denials, insurers likely have savings in the short term, though those may not last if people experience complications from discharging too early, Fox said.

“They’re sort of gambling on that someone released early is not going to have additional care needs,” he said.

People can reduce their chances of disruption from insurance authorization by working closely with their medical providers, who are often the ones submitting the paperwork, Fox said. Everyone has a right to appeal a decision that went against them, but not to challenge how often the insurer requires reauthorization, he said.

Yennie said he has improved significantly since January, when he went over an unmarked ledge while skiing at Steamboat, essentially bruising his spinal cord in the crash. In the immediate aftermath of the accident, he could wiggle his toes, but couldn’t get his abdominal muscles to contract, which prevented him from sitting up without help. Other muscles over-contracted, pulling his arms in toward his body.

The doctors don’t know how much function he’ll regain, but they’ve warned him to expect a long process of physical therapy, Yennie said. He’s talked to people with similar injuries who aren’t back at baseline five years out, but continue making incremental progress.

At the moment, he’s working on transferring from his bed to a motorized wheelchair, as well as performing daily activities such as shaving and brushing his teeth. He needs to reach a point where he can get out of bed with only one person’s help before moving to a step-down facility, Yennie said.

“I’m not there yet, but I’m working on it,” he said.

His physical and occupational therapists have canceled sessions at times because of uncertainty about whether insurance would pay, Yennie said. United Healthcare initially reviewed his care after a week, then after four days and then after two days. He thinks the company is trying to wear him down.

“I don’t know what a person would do without advocates,” he said.

The first skier, one of a group of four skiing near Mace Peak, sent out a medical SOS at about 9:45 a.m. Saturday, according to a . Four members of Mountain Rescue Aspen were skiing in the area and arrived on scene as the injured person was sending out the SOS, sheriff’s officials said.

The Mountain Rescue Aspen crew moved the injured skier on an emergency sled to a Flight for Life landing zone, where a helicopter picked up the skier and flew to a hospital, according to the sheriff’s office.

Information about the extent of the skier’s injuries was not immediately available Sunday.

Another skier was rescued Sunday after sustaining a knee injury in the Lindley Hut area, . Lindley Hut sits south of Ashcroft near Star Peak, .

Three Mountain Rescue Aspen members who were skiing in the area evacuated the injured skier from the mountain on an emergency sled, sheriff’s officials said. A total of 16 search and rescue members helped coordinate equipment, communication and evacuation.

The skier first sent a medical SOS at 11:46 a.m., and all crews were out of the field by 3 p.m., according to the sheriff’s office.

“Mountain Rescue Aspen and the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Office would like to remind backcountry skiers to always be prepared and carry a satellite communication device for emergencies,” the release stated. “This spring season, hazards exist close to the surface and we encourage backcountry travelers to be cautious.”

Here’s another surprise: Copper announced on Thursday that it now plans to remain open a week longer than previously scheduled. The new closing date is May 3. This will be the fourth consecutive season that Copper will make it into May.

Copper Mountain credits the resort����ap high elevation and north-facing slope aspect with successful snow preservation. “Additionally, the terrain the resort plans to operate through closing day has a strong base due to early-season snowmaking,” the resort said. “Several late-season snowstorms and a cooler forecast over the next several weeks have also contributed to the decision.”

Breckenridge, however, won’t make it to May. Resort officials announced on Thursday that it will close on Sunday.

Aspen and Winter Park will also close on Sunday, while Loveland will close on April 26. Loveland’s closure will mark its earliest closing day since 1981 — excluding the pandemic closure ordered by Gov. Jared Polis in March 2020 that ended the ski season statewide — according to resort records.

Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Crested Butte, Steamboat, Snowmass and Eldora are among the resorts that have closed.

“We want to give our guests the opportunity to keep skiing and riding as long as possible,” said Dustin Lyman, Copper’s president and general manager, as quoted in the release. “Our mountain operations team has worked tirelessly throughout the winter to optimize conditions. We are still able to ski top to bottom and give people more time to enjoy the mountain.”

Copper will sell $49 lift tickets for the final week of the season through . The resort will host “Party Laps” on Friday, May 1, when anyone with a lift ticket, Copper pass or Ikon pass will be able to go for after-hours laps from 4 p.m. until 7 p.m. on the American Eagle and Excelerator chairlifts. The mid-mountain Aerie food hall will be open for food and drinks, and a DJ will provide music on the deck.

McNeirney was one of about 30 middle school and high school girls from Colorado’s Arkansas River Valley who got to hear Shiffrin speak about ski racing and pursuing life with passion. Then they skied with the Vail Valley product, who became the United States’ first three-time Olympic gold medalist in skiing at the Milan-Cortina Olympics.

“I’ve never been more excited in my life,” McNeirney said. “It����ap just really, really cool that we get to meet someone who is so famous and so generous. It makes my heart go really, really fast. The fact that she’s been giving us stories about her home life, you can tell she’s a good person and she wants to laugh with us. She’s not just all about the fame and the money from winning the Olympics.”

The girls from Chaffee and Fremont counties were there through elevateHer, a nonprofit organization with a mission to empower young women through outdoor adventure. Not all were ski racers, but McNeirney is. So is Rose Lenth, another eighth grader who wore glitter for the occasion.

“She’s one of my heroes,” Lenth said of Shiffrin. “I love her. I’m so impressed every time I watch her ski. She’s like incredible, and it����ap inspiring that she’s from Colorado, knowing that you can really do anything.”

In a Q&A before skiing, the girls asked Shiffrin how she got started, what she thinks about in the starting gate before a race and what she wanted to be when she was growing up. “A rainbow horse,” she said in all seriousness, cracking up the room. Then she asked them the same question. Among the answers were nurse, veterinarian, paleontologist and baker.

“It����ap so cool to see all of these passions in the room that are completely different, but they still get to come together and enjoy snowsports,” Shiffrin said in a quiet moment away from the group before they headed out to ski. “That����ap the most beautiful example of being in the mountains — skiing and snowboarding, these sports that we do — you’re allowed to be an individual and still share a passion, celebrating everybody’s uniqueness, all their different passions and lifestyles. It����ap healthy to get outdoors, to be in the open air and be moving your body, no matter what you want to do (for a living).”

America’s ski racing superstar ‘not ready to be done yet’

Since returning from Europe two weeks ago following the conclusion of the World Cup season, , appeared with Stephen A. Smith on ESPN, served as “guest photographer” at a Brooklyn Nets game and did several Gen Z digital media shows.

Her home is in Edwards, but she doesn’t get to spend much time there. In a few days, she will leave for a ski camp at Mammoth Mountain in California. There isn’t much of an offseason for ski racers. They train where the snow is, which includes trips to South America in the summer.

Three years ago, she broke the record for World Cup wins, which had stood at 86 for 24 years and was long considered unbeatable. Since then, she has added another 23 wins to her record. Having turned 31 last month, she’s not old for a ski racer, but she’s not young, either.

“My body feels the impact of the sport over time,” she said. “If you consulted my spine, skiing three days in a row now is hard. I used to be able to ski six days in a row with really high volume every single day. I don’t have the capacity to do that anymore.”

She is starting to think about life after skiing, whatever that transition might look like.

“What I know is that I’m not ready to be done yet,” she said in a conference room while the girls from elevateHer donned their ski gear. “I also feel different at this time this year than I have in any other year. I want to be able to make the time to connect with the snowsports community in a different level.”

The appearance at Copper was part of that.

“What I want to do is maybe explore these things while being able to stay fully committed to what I am doing in the sport,” she said. “That might mean less racing.”

Since 2024, Shiffrin has been engaged to Norwegian ski racing star Aleksander Aamodt Kilde, who won the World Cup overall title in 2020. They haven’t set a date, but that may come now that the Cortina Olympics are behind her. Her older brother, Taylor, who raced for the University of Denver, became a father a few days ago. She’s looking forward to motherhood.

“That����ap something I want,” Shiffrin said. “I cannot imagine having a child right now, absolutely not, but I also can imagine that desire coming pretty fast and pretty suddenly. Now that I’ve seen their baby … I know Aleks wants that, too, but we have not been able to stay in the same place for more than a month at any point in our relationship. Can you imagine? It����ap like, ‘We haven’t seen each other really for six months, maybe a day here and there,’ and then it����ap like, ‘Let����ap have a baby.’ It doesn’t work that way.

“It gets a little bit more complicated when you think, ‘I’m 31.’ Time’s not slowing down.”

She clearly had an impact on the girls she encountered on Saturday.

“She’s compassionate and thinks about other people,” eighth-grader Anabelle Soltz said after they skied with her. “Spending time with her, you can tell how much she cares about other people and the respect she has for her sport. It’s amazing to be around. It’s powerful to see people like that. It uplifts.”

Loveland’s slopes will close for the season on April 26, the earliest closing day — with the exception of the pandemic closure in 2020 — since 1981, according to resort records.

The April 26 closure is contingent on snow conditions, the ski area said on social media.

“Until then, we’re still going strong with 500+ acres of terrain. There’s more great spring riding ahead, with sunshine, slushy turns and a stacked line-up of events and live music,” resort officials wrote.

Loveland is one of just a handful of Colorado ski resorts still open after the mountains saw record-low snowpack this season.

The resort averaged a May 8 closing day and 186-day season , according to the company.

Even if conditions hold on until April 26, the closing day will fall almost two weeks short of the average, making it one of the shortest seasons since the 1980s.

In other ways, however, the season can be considered a success — Vail Resorts reported only modest declines in lift revenue despite the worst-case weather scenario, and the company also said it received high satisfaction scores in the surveys it conducted with guests.

Visitation was down 13% at Vail Resorts properties through Jan. 31, but total lift revenue was down only 2.9%, due to pre-sold 2025-26 passes reaching a total sales revenue that was 3% higher than last season’s pre-sold passes. Low snow years like this one show how the company’s shift toward pre-sold passes and away from walk-up window tickets demonstrates “the resilience of the business model,” Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz told investors on March 9.

With less-reliable powder days, Colorado ski resorts invest in snowmaking, push preseason pass sales

Vail Mountain’s official U.S. Department of Agriculture Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) snowpack measuring site goes back to the 1978-79 season, and prior to this season, the mountain’s lowest snowpack occurred during the 2011-12 season. .