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.

As of Wednesday, more than 70 protests were scheduled across Colorado on Saturday and nearly 4,000 were expected to take place nationally, .

“This action is a collective stand against concentrated power, political intimidation, and systems that elevate the wealthy few over the many,” activists with the Denver No Kings Coalition . “We are gathering to reject the authoritarian politics of Donald Trump and his corrupt administration, as well as the broader rise of fascist movements in the United States.”

According to local organizers, Saturday protests planned across the metro area include:

• Arvada on the at the Wadsworth Bypass, 7305 Grandview Ave., from 9 a.m. to noon
• Aurora at the intersection of from noon to 2 p.m.
• Brighton on the pedestrian bridge at from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Boulder at the Bandshell at Broadway and Canyon Boulevard from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.
• Broomfield at from 10 a.m. to noon
• Centennial at the intersection of from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
• Commerce City at , 6015 Forest Drive, from 9 a.m. to noon
• Denver at the , 200 E. Colfax Ave., from 11:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Denver at the , 9651 M.L.K. Jr Blvd., from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
• Denver at from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
• Golden along Washington Avenue, , from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.
• Highlands Ranch at , 9203 S. University Blvd., from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Larkspur at , 8850 Spruce Mountain Road, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Littleton at the intersection of from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
• Northglenn on the , 261 W. 104th Ave., from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
• Parker at , 10795 Victorian Drive, from 10 a.m. to noon
• Roxborough at the from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.
• Westminster at the intersection of from noon to 2 p.m.

Denver’s largest crowd is expected to gather outside the Colorado State Capitol at 11:30 a.m. Saturday, according to the . The coalition, made up of roughly three dozen local activist organizations, estimated Wednesday that Saturday’s attendance would surpass 70,000.

Singing and chanting will start outside the Capitol at 11:30 a.m., followed by speakers at noon and a 90-minute march around downtown at 1 p.m., according to local organizers. More speakers and performers will take the stage between noon and 5 p.m., when the protest is scheduled to end.

“This is what democracy looks like!” organizers wrote on the .

Protests will not be limited to the Denver area. Events are planned as far north as Steamboat Springs and Fort Collins, and as far south as Trinidad. Western towns, including Aspen, Montrose, Fairplay and Telluride, and eastern Colorado communities, including La Junta and Fort Morgan, plan to host their own protests as well, according to the .

CEO Jared Smith will step down from his role at the end of the season, . Smith will serve as an advisor to the “office of the CEO” over the next year as the recreation company searches for his replacement.

“Serving as CEO of Alterra has been an honor, and I am deeply proud of the incredible people, capabilities and businesses we’ve added to this amazing company,” Smith said in a statement. “The commitment of the ownership group to these mountains, and to the team members and communities they serve, is truly unique. I’m confident the progress we’ve made has positioned the company well to build on that foundation in the years of growth ahead.”

No reason for Smith’s departure was given.

Alterra, headquartered in Denver, is the company behind the Ikon Pass, which provides ski and snowboarding access to dozens of mountain resorts across the world. That includes Steamboat, Winter Park and Arapahoe Basin in Colorado.

An executive committee — including ownership representatives from KSL Capital Partners and Henry Crown and Company — will join with former CEO Rusty Gregory to lead Alterra’s day-to-day operations until a new CEO is appointed, according to the announcement.

“Jared has been a valued leader at Alterra Mountain Company for many years, and we are grateful for his leadership and partnership,” Alterra Mountain Company Board Chairman Eric Resnick, who is also CEO of KSL Capital Partners, said in a statement. “Over the course of his tenure, he has made a lasting impact during a period of continued growth and operational advancement, while ensuring the company maintained the culture and commitment to our communities that make Alterra special.”

But that doesn’t mean the concept won’t materialize another day or in another way, , where affordable housing advocates have discussed bringing it forward for rental units.

Pioneered in Vancouver, B.C., and copied in Oakland and San Francisco, residential vacancy taxes are both novel and controversial. Communities facing severe housing shortages and affordability problems view them as a tool to convert empty homes into permanent residences, or to generate tax revenues to help fund affordable housing if those conversions don’t happen.

“It was disappointing to have the bill die in committee when we were very willing to continue to make adjustments and concessions. This concept has been needed for several years, and I am glad to be able to start this conversation in the legislature,” said Rep. Brianna Titone, D-Jefferson County, a co-sponsor of the bill, alongside Rep. Elizabeth Velasco, D-Glenwood Springs.

Had passed, Colorado would have become the first U.S. state to broadly authorize a vacancy tax.

The bill would have allowed local governments lacking home-rule status to charge an excise tax on vacant homes with voter approval. Communities could define what they considered vacant, the amount of taxes to be charged, and how the revenues generated could be spent on housing.

Home-rule municipalities have the power to implement an excise tax on vacant homes; none have done so. One intent of the bill was to create a more level playing field, allowing counties, which are almost all statutory, to more easily cooperate with towns and cities in addressing housing shortfalls.

In an effort to blunt Front Range opposition, the bill was amended set a vacancy rate threshold of 25% or higher, which is way above the home vacancy rates seen in the state’s most populated counties.

“In some areas of the state, 40% of habitable homes sit vacant — not under construction, not for rent, but unused — contributing to an acute housing shortage for workers and families, even as hundreds of homes remain empty,” Titone said during the hearing on Monday.

Hinsdale, San Juan, Summit, Mineral, Pitkin, Grand, Routt, Jackson and Eagle counties have some of the highest vacancy rates in the state including second homes, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

While counties, school districts and special districts can collect property taxes on homes, empty or not, municipalities tend to lose more than they gain when full-time occupants are missing. That’s because towns and cities rely heavily on sales tax revenues, which absentee owners don’t generate as permanent residents do. Nor do empty homes generate lodging or short-term rental taxes.

Those missing revenue streams can create a financial strain, local government leaders argue. Compounding matters, many mountain communities are limited in terms of the land they can develop. When the limited lots are tied up hosting homes that sit empty, workers don’t have the homes they need and are forced into long commutes. That makes it harder for those communities and local businesses to provide the services needed to support a tourism-based economy.

“Housing that’s affordable to service workers, teachers, nurses and public safety workers is one of the most pressing challenges facing Colorado communities, and this bill provides municipalities and counties with an important tool to address it. Colorado mountain resort communities are facing a workforce housing crisis that is threatening their economic viability,” Elizabeth Haskell, a legislative and policy advocate for the Colorado Municipal League, testified at the hearing.

The CML teamed with the Colorado Association of Ski Towns and elected officials in several mountain resort towns to testify in support of the bill. Supporters from the Front Range, including Jefferson and Clear Creek counties, as well as southeastern Colorado, also weighed in.

The argument originating from places like La Junta isn’t about converting vacation homes, but rather incentivizing investors and heirs to release empty homes that they are sitting on and not rehabilitating. Given that builders won’t touch those areas, even restoring a dozen or two old homes can go a long way in boosting the housing stock.

Testifying on the other side were Realtors, the Colorado Association of Homebuilders, the Colorado Apartment Association, the Colorado Competitive Council, as well as owners of second homes and those concerned more broadly about the erosion of private property rights.

“You can’t make housing more affordable by making it more expensive,” said Tyrone Adams, CEO of the Colorado Association of Realtors. “This bill invites arbitrary and inconsistent application across the state.”

Homes can end up vacant for a host of reasons, Adams said. Owners may be called away to a military deployment, take a job in another city, or find themselves in an extended care facility. Older mountain residents may not be able to live at altitude any longer, but they may want to retain a property for their family.

In a weaker economy, finding tenants might take longer, rehab efforts might be harder to finance, and builders might find themselves with excess inventories that require time to clear out. A natural disaster, such as a wildfire, could result in lengthy repairs and periods of vacancy.

While the Vancouver tax did reduce the vacancy rate, it failed to improve overall housing affordability, said Parker White, executive director of the Colorado Competitive Council. The only reliable way to improve affordability is to create conditions where builders can generate more supply, he said. That comes through reducing regulations, lowering fees and speeding up approval times.

That surge approach has worked for apartments in metro Denver, where rents have fallen to early 2022 levels, and where older market-rate units now can compete with income-restricted housing units built using tax credits.

“In short, this is more of a funding mechanism than it is a housing affordability piece of legislation,” White argued.

Some of those testifying noted that voters in mountain communities have rejected changes needed to boost workforce housing, essentially rejecting the tools they had at hand and then asking for a new one.

For example, Steamboat Springs voters, despite having one of the highest housing cost burdens in the state, rejected a 9% tax on short-term rentals and a 0.2% city sales tax to fund affordable housing development. In March 2024, voters, in a special election, rejected the annexation of the 420-acre Brown Ranch property, which would have allowed the Yampa Valley Housing Authority to construct 2,264 housing units.

The Town of Vail blocked Vail Resorts’ efforts to build 60 to 70 units of workforce housing, arguing it would harm the habitat of a herd of Bighorn Sheep in the area. Officials argued that the project could be built elsewhere and then tried to condemn the land so they could acquire it, triggering a lawsuit.

This is in a town where the and the average home price is $1.7 million, according to Zillow.

Others argued that second homeowners often make significant contributions to local communities via philanthropy, even if they don’t buy as many tchotchkes and hoodies from the Main Street tourism shops. And they heavily support local schools that their children will never attend. And there is the convertibility problem.

High-end vacation homes don’t switch easily to workforce housing, especially in expensive places like Aspen and Vail. Nor do low-end vacation homes, like summer cabins in the Foothills. And not all vacation homeowners are wealthy. Many have scraped by for years to establish a family refuge. Some retirees living on a fixed income testified that any new taxes would push them over the edge.

In the end, arguments from opponents were enough to sway three Front Range Democrats on the Colorado House Finance Committee — representatives Sean Camacho of Denver, Bob Marshall of Highlands Ranch, and Rebekah Stewart of Lakewood — to join Republicans to indefinitely postpone the measure by a 7-4 vote on Monday evening.

Titone, who is in her last term, argues a vacancy tax deserves continued consideration even if the first attempt stalled. Vancouver lowered its vacancy rate by 1.5 percentage points, and its “Empty Homes Tax” generated $194.3 million in revenues to support affordable housing, according to a 2024 study from the C.D. Howe Institute.

The record is more mixed in California. A San Francisco Superior Court judge ruled in 2024 that the tax was unconstitutional because it violated property-rights protections and penalized owners for not renting their units. But a legal challenge in Oakland, where the tax focused more on vacant land and buildings rather than rental units, went in the city’s favor.

In Denver, where empty apartments are more of an issue than empty homes, housing advocates are trying to coalesce support for a vacant rental tax, which could be implemented independently of state authorization, given Denver’s home-rule status.

“I hope that what we have learned, and will continue to learn from other places where this is being adopted, the legislature can find a framework that everyone can agree with to help the small businesses and workers in our resort towns,” Titone said.

, the first bill introduced in that chamber this year, cleared a final vote 35-24 on Friday. Most Democrats supported it, against total Republican — and some Democratic — opposition.

The bill now heads to the Senate, where a similar version of the proposal bled out in the 2025 session’s final days.

The bill would allow school districts, institutions of higher education, housing authorities and transit agencies to build housing on their own property by right. It would also allow other nonprofits to partner with a peer organization that has a “demonstrated history of providing affordable housing” to do so on the nonprofit’s land.

Dubbed the HOME Act — short for Housing Opportunities Made Easier — the bill, if passed, would take effect Dec. 31, 2027.

HB-1001 “is about streamlining the process and making sure that overly strict zoning laws do not prevent nonprofits who have a history of providing affordability housing — schools, organizations like RTD — from building housing if they want to, if they have a good plan,” Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat, told fellow lawmakers last week. He’s sponsoring the bill with Rep. Andy Boesenecker, of Fort Collins.

The proposal is both a continuation and a remix. It builds upon three years of land-use reforms backed by most Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Jared Polis. They have viewed measures easing the development of housing — achieved by leapfrogging local zoning rules and planning boards — as a primary solution to Colorado’s housing supply challenges.

Supporters of the approach have argued that local intransigence has slowed and blocked housing development across a state starved for more units of all types. They’ve pointed to reform- and development-stopping votes in places like Steamboat Springs, Littleton and Fort Collins.

This year, Democrats are also bringing established in many jurisdictions for single-family homes.

The HOME Act resurrects the bill that died last year. That version had focused more on allowing religious organizations to build housing on their land.

Like last year, Republicans and local government groups — chief among them the Colorado Municipal League — oppose the bill, arguing that it would violate locals’ ability to dictate rules for their own communities. In the bill’s committee vote last week, Rep. Max Brooks invoked the fundamental issue at the heart of that opposition: local control.

“I’m really not entirely sure that we’re talking about the same thing here, are we?” the Castle Rock Republican asked. “To where the public truly has an opportunity to come out and sit down, through those traditional processes, and voice the concern of what’s happening in their own neighborhood?

Mabrey replied that there was a “philosophical disagreement about this piece.”

“Across the country, people showing up at public comment to complain about housing being built in their backyard is part of the problem,” he said. “We are trying to streamline this process and make it easier to build housing.”

After crossing over to the Senate, the bill needs another committee vote before it can reach the floor.

Median sales prices, including both condos and single-family homes, were essentially flat last year at $550,000 for the full year, up $50 from the 2024 median sales price, according to a . The number of properties sold rose 1.8%, reaching 86,346, another modest move.

And after a couple of years of rapid increases, the inventory of homes available for sale settled down. As the year ended, there were 21,689 listings on the market, down 2.4% from the 22,217 available at the end of 2024. The market had three months of inventory available in December, close to the 3.1 months of inventory a year earlier.

Sellers did become more active last year, listing 128,130 homes and condos, an 8% increase from 2024. And the market tested their patience, with a listing taking 63 days on average to find a buyer compared to 55 days in 2024.

“2025 felt like a reset year for housing across Colorado,” Jared Reimer, a spokesman for the association and a Fort Collins-area Realtor, said in comments accompanying the report. “There were no dramatic advances or retreats, just a market that stayed resilient and balanced despite ongoing economic uncertainty.”

El Paso County was the state’s most active county for single-family home sales, accounting for about one in seven sales statewide. The median price of a home sold was $490,000, up $50 from the median sales price in 2024. The number of sales rose 2.7%, while the inventory of listings on the market in December was up 9% to 2,471.

Single-family home prices fell 0.7% in Denver County for the full year, moving from a median of $700,000 in 2024 to $695,000 in 2025. Total sales were down 1% to 5,663, and Jefferson, Douglas, Arapahoe and Adams counties all had slightly more detached home sales than Denver.

Denver did stand out for a nearly 23% drop in its inventory of homes for sale, which was nearly 10-fold larger than the 2.4% decrease statewide. Denver remained the leader in condo and townhome sales, even with a 14% drop to 2,926 closings.

Movement within the state’s otherwise chill housing market was concentrated in two areas — the northwestern corner of the state and some of the southeastern and south-central counties.

Routt County, home to Steamboat Springs, had one of the biggest price gains in the state — a 17.2% rise for single-family homes to $1.57 million. That was offset by a 2.4% drop in condo prices. Rio Blanco County, a much more affordable option, had a 15% gain in its median sales price to $311,000. Prices in Moffatt County also rose by 9.4% to $327,000.

Routt County looked like it was headed for a negative year at the end of September, with sold listings off 15% and the inventory up by nearly half, noted Marci Valicenti, a Steamboat Springs-area Realtor, in comments accompanying the report.

And then the momentum shifted.

“Buyer activity that typically peaks during summer instead materialized in the fall, leading to steady month-over-month improvement. By year’s end, single-family sales finished 2.5% higher than 2024, marking a notable turnaround. Of the 161 total transactions, 112 closed in the second half of the year,” she said.

Crowley County, east of Pueblo County, matched Routt County’s 17.2% increase in median sales prices. It just happened to be at one-tenth the price level — $153,500.  Further east near the Kansas border, Prowers County, home to Lamar, had a 10.9% increase in median sales prices to $214,000 and a 7.2% pop in sales. And to the north, Kiowa County saw a 73% jump in its median sales price to $147,000, the caveat being that the increase was based on seven sales.

Huerfano County did well with a 14.9% increase to $338,900 in its median sales price last year, and Conejos County, south of Alamosa on the New Mexico border, did even better with a 23.1% price gain to $240,000.

But the region also had pockets of weakness, such as Costilla County, with a 17.7% decline in median home sold prices, and Bent County, where prices dropped 20%.

Shifts in the mix of what sells in a given period can translate into big price changes in less-populated counties.

That was the case in San Miguel County, home to Telluride, which had the biggest price drop of any area last year — 68.7% for single-family and 12.6% for condos. There were 56 properties sold in both years, but far fewer ultra-luxury homes hit the market last year compared to 2024, resulting in a wild swing. And homes there spent 212 days before finding a buyer.

Telluride aside, the single-family market outperformed the condo/townhome market in a significant way last year across Colorado. Condo sales fell 6.4% last year, while the median price declined 3.1% to $410,000. The active inventory was down 3.1% to 5,749 units, and as the year concluded, the market was sitting on a four-month supply of condo/townhome listings, according to CAR.

Attached properties took 70 days to find a buyer, compared to 59 days in 2024 and 61 days for single-family homes.

Eagle County, home to Vail and Edwards, experienced one of the toughest condo markets after Telluride, with a 10.5% decline in median prices across the year and a 32.6% decline year-over-year in December. Sales were down 6.6% last year, while the inventory of condos was up 13.3%.

“A major factor influencing condo and townhome activity was the sellout of two large condo/townhome developments that had significantly boosted performance in 2024 and were fully absorbed early in 2025. Additionally, the closing of a substantial number of pending transactions in December may provide some early lift to 2026 activity,” said Vail-area Realtor Mike Budd, in the report.

Grand County was also on the weaker side, with a 6.6% drop in its median condo sales price and a 7.7% decline in sold listings.

“In Winter Park, the median listing price finished near $849,000, down 8.5% year over year, with days on market rising to about 104. Resort properties showed less upward pressure than earlier in the decade, though late 2025 saw renewed buyer activity and cash buyers accounting for roughly 25% of transactions,” said Monica Graves, a Realtor active in Grand County who provided comments for the CAR report.

For comparison, median condo prices fell 2.7% in Pitkin County, less than might be expected given a nearly one-third drop in sales. Routt County saw a 2.4% drop in median prices, accompanied by a 76.6% surge in condo inventory, which could spell weakness this year. In Summit County, condo prices were down 0.8%, while sales were up 3% and the inventory was down 6%.

Metro Denver’s condo market also weakened, with median sales prices down 3.7% to $395,000 and sales off by 8% compared to 2024. Listings spent an average of 59 days before finding a buyer last year, compared to 45 days in 2024.

Broomfield County was the weakest metro area condo market with a 10% decline in median sales prices and 17% decline in sales last year. Boulder County, by contrast, bucked the trend, with a 2.2% increase in median condo prices and a 1.4% increase in sales.

The usual suspects, ski resort areas, dominated the list of the most expensive housing markets in Colorado last year. Pitkin County, home to Aspen and Snowmass, had a median single-family home sales price of $8.4 million last year, up 13.3% from 2024, no small achievement given some of the blockbuster sales seen that year.

Summit County had a median sales price of $1.9 million for a single-family home, surpassing Eagle County at $1.82 million and Routt County at $1.57 million. But when it comes to condos, Eagle County still leads with a median sales price of $1.18 million compared to $837,500 in Routt County and $789,500 in Summit County.

Gunnison County, home to Crested Butte, beat out San Miguel County in December with a median single-family sales price of $1.1 million compared to $1.05 million. But for the year, San Miguel still had a higher median price.

Ouray County was putting on the ritz in December, with the median sales price of single-family homes reaching $1.02 million, making it the most expensive housing market without a downhill ski resort. For the year, the median sales price was $854,500, just ahead of La Plata County, home to Durango, at $837,450 and Boulder County at $835,000.

At the other extreme were Bent County, with 34 home sales at a median price of $123,500; Baca County, with 23 home sales at a median price of $115,500, and Cheyenne County with eight sales at a median price of $144,250.

Aspen Snowmass Ski School draws skiers to its intermediate and advanced lessons who want to refine their skills, regain confidence after a break, or explore new terrain.

“Even the best, including our pros, take lessons because they recognize the benefits of attending a single-day lesson or clinic,” said Aspen Snowmass Ski School operations director Andy Docken. “We can also help skiers or snowboarders refine skills rather than just teaching fundamentals. So even strong skiers or riders can benefit from lessons to polish their technique and push their limits.”

In addition to burnishing your skills, working with a ski pro also gives you insider knowledge about the resort, Docken added. “Everything from where to ski, the best dining spots, and how to make the most of the rest of your trip.”

On the other side of Glenwood Canyon, Vail Resorts is using its My Epic app to launch new technology to improve lessons at Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek Resort, Keystone Resort, and Breckenridge Ski Resort.

The app will let parents and students check in for lessons, receive real-time updates and photos, track progress, and celebrate milestones and skills with digital badges.

Here’s a roundup of other ski school information from around the state.

Aspen Snowmass

Aspen offers ski and snowboard lessons and clinics for all ages and skill levels, including group, private, and specialty camps, across its four mountains (Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands, Buttermilk, and Snowmass). Lessons run throughout the ski season, and reservations are strongly encouraged, especially during peak times.

Costs vary depending on the length and size of a lesson. The resort offers discounts when lessons are booked at least seven days in advance.

For intermediate and advanced lessons, participants should be comfortable linking turns on blue terrain. Ski pros can tailor lessons to take you into moguls, powder, groomers, and more, depending on your goals.

Aspen also offers customizable half-day and full-day individual and small-group lessons, capped at five participants.

For more information, visit .

Beaver Creek Resort

Beaver Creek Resort offers upscale amenities combined with challenging terrain, making it an ideal destination for advanced ski instruction. The steep slopes and technical tree runs on Grouse Mountain, along with mogul fields and off-piste powder stashes, create an environment where expert skiers can comfortably hone their skills in a high-performance setting.

For more information, visit .

Breckenridge Ski Resort

Set against the stunning backdrop of five peaks, Breckenridge’s Ski & Ride School offers a diverse range of features, including rock drops, couloirs, and expansive bowl skiing. This program combines freestyle coaching with high-alpine training, making it ideal for adventurous learners. The resort’s ski pros are dedicated to helping you elevate your skills and build your confidence.

For more information, visit

Crested Butte

Crested Butte Mountain Resort, known as the birthplace of extreme in-bounds skiing and riding, features terrain that challenges even the most experienced athletes.

While mastering all the lines within the Extreme Limits at Crested Butte typically takes years of skiing or riding experience, advanced and expert lessons offered through the Ski and Ride School provide a more focused learning path with lessons designed for experienced skiers and riders who are ready to hone their ski and ride techniques in extreme terrain.

For more information, visit

Keystone Resort

At Keystone Resort, you can learn on terrain that provides 360-degree views and some of the best panoramas in Summit County.

Keystone offers advanced skiing and snowboarding lessons for experienced skiers and snowboarders who want to refine their skills and conquer more challenging terrain across three peaks and five bowls. The resort’s world-class instructors tailor lessons to enhance your technique for navigating challenging slopes, help you build your confidence on challenging terrain, and guide you through the fundamentals of tree skiing, mogul skiing, and more.

Skiers and riders can enhance their skills, starting in the mellow, high-alpine powder fields of Bergman Bowl and progressing to the steep trees and rock drops of The Outback.

For more information, visit

Steamboat

Steamboat offers private lessons and guided experiences for intermediate to advanced skiers. Skiiers can also get coaching from Olympian Deb Armstrong during the three-day SkiStrong camp.

For more information, visit

Vail Mountain

Vail Mountain boasts over 5,300 acres of skiable terrain, featuring The Legendary Back Bowls and Blue Sky Basin. This expansive landscape offers advanced skiers and riders a variety of experiences, including steep chutes, wide-open powder fields, tree runs, and challenging moguls. These diverse features create an ideal environment for personalized instruction by highly qualified instructors, including members and alumni of the PSIA/AASI National Team.

For more information, visit

REI

The sporting goods giant offers winter snowsports classes, including snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, downhill skiing, and avalanche awareness.

For more information, visit and search for classes in your area.

Colorado Mountain Club

The Colorado Mountain Club offers a variety of classes, including: avalanche education, backcountry skiing, nordic skiing, resort skiing, ski mountaineering, and snowshoeing.

For more information, visit and search under activities or courses.

Sara B. Hansen is a Denver-based freelance writer.

When Izzy Johnston was 12, the up-and-coming swimmer came to her father, former Steamboat Springs High School star and Arizona State center Tyson Johnston, to let him know she was swapping the pool for the hard court.

“She was like, ‘I don’t want to disappoint you, Dad, but I don’t want to swim anymore,'” Tyson Johnston recalled. “I was like, ‘That’s fine with me. You know the rule in our house is you can do whatever you want. You can play an instrument, you can dance. You’ve just got to do something. So what is it you want to do?’

“So she goes, ‘I want to play basketball.’ At that point, on the outside, I was keeping it cool, like, ‘Ok, yeah, whatever you want to do is great.’ And then I went around the corner and did (metaphorical) back flips because I was so excited.”

That decision was the launching pad for Izzy’s promising hooping career that led her to sign to play at Colorado School of Mines, and has seen her emerge as a pillar on Arapahoe’s undefeated, this season.

While Izzy has other basketball influences outside her home — notably longtime Arapahoe boss Jerry Knafelc, renowned local trainer Jody Hollins and her Hardwood Elite coach Derek Griffin — the on-court relationship with her dad has blossomed over the past couple of years and was a key factor in her ability to play at the next level.

The father-daughter duo can often be found grinding at the Littleton Family YMCA, where, in the offseason, they lift weights and do conditioning three days a week in the early-morning hours before school. After school, Izzy and Tyson return to the Y to work on skills training.

Even in-season, the duo gets work in at least once a week, usually on Sundays. The dedication to craft is not surprising in an athletic family where Izzy’s mom, Abby Johnston, played soccer at Arizona State. Plus, her aunt (and Abby’s sister) Lindsay Bonner was an All-American soccer player at Nebraska, Lindsay’s husband, Sherdrick Bonner, was a longtime quarterback in the Arena Football League, and their son (and Izzy’s cousin), Mason Bonner, is a Mullen football star signed to Michigan.

“At first, I thought getting up at 5:30 a.m. to work out with my dad throughout the week sounded like a little much, but when we started going my sophomore year, it just became a routine,” Izzy said. “Around that time is when I really started to believe I could play in college.

“During those workouts, there have been times where we’ve gotten upset with each other. It’s different hearing (criticisms) from a coach and hearing it from a parent, and my dad will definitely get on me. But even when that happens, we’d work out really hard and then go to take a water break and just look at each other and laugh, knowing that it’s all for the love of the sport.”

The 7-foot Tyson, who held the with 409 for 18 years before the mark was broken by Overland’s De’Ron Davis, is a different mold of player than his daughter.

But working with her tree of a dad has enabled the 5-foot-11 shooting guard, who is averaging 11.3 points for a balanced Warriors team this season, to be one of the state’s best finishers around the rim.

“She’s capable of driving the lane, banging bodies and finishing really tough looks,” Jerry Knafelc said. “She’s probably had more of those opportunities than anybody (on our team or that we’ve played against). And that’s a toughness thing, because not everybody wants to go deal with that contact in the paint to score.”

Johnston is one of three captains for Arapahoe, along with two fellow seniors, guard Ava Budler and forward Alexa LeDuff. Other key contributors for the Warriors include junior point guard Jaya White, who leads the team with 11.7 points, and sophomore guard Maria Trueman.

Knafelc has helmed the program for 16 years and is in his 39th year coaching at the school overall. The retired teacher’s Warriors have been to three Final Fours, and have their eyes on another appearance at the Denver Coliseum this season in search of the program’s elusive first state championship.

“We definitely are going for that state title, because I think it’s definitely within our reach,” Izzy said. “I remember going to the Coliseum when our team made it to the Final Four my freshman year, and I was a JV swing player watching. There’s nothing that matches the energy of playing there, so that’s the big goal in everyone’s mind.”

Class 6A appears to be a wide-open race this season.

While Arapahoe (10-0, and the Warriors won their bracket at the Nike Tournament of Champions in Phoenix in December) has emerged as an early contender, a handful of other teams also can make a run at the crown. No. 2 Broomfield has also yet to lose, No. 3 Cherokee Trail has been knocking on the door of a title appearance for several years, and No. 4 Northfield has the talent to continue its ascension as a rising Denver Public Schools power.

Plus, Columbine, Pine Creek and Denver East have all looked strong early. Bluebloods Valor Christian and Highlands Ranch can’t be counted out. Legend still looks dangerous after its state runner-up finish last season. And Riverdale Ridge, which features the state’s top player in Texas commit Brihanna Crittendon, is also capable of making a deep playoff run.

But Izzy Johnston is plotting a way for her Warriors to rise above all those squads. Johnston, a dedicated student who is ranked seventh in her class at Arapahoe with a 4.23 GPA and plans on studying quantitative biosciences and engineering at Mines, sees the Warriors’ depth as their X-factor going into Centennial League play and beyond.

“I think what separates us from all these other teams is that we have such a deep bench,” Johnston said. “Every girl on the varsity roster is able to contribute in a meaningful way, whether it’s offensively or defensively, and that’s going to set us apart come playoff time.”

Snow is forecast to start as early as 11 a.m. Thursday, hitting several of Colorado’s ski resorts before the storm winds down Friday evening, .

As of Monday morning, ski resorts that had at least a chance of snow on Thursday included Breckenridge, Vail, Aspen Snowmass, Steamboat, Telluride, Keystone, Crested Butte and Winter Park.

The amount of snow expected to fall across Colorado’s mountains remained up in the air at that time. The typically extend three days out.

Temperatures in Denver dipped down to 13 degrees Sunday night, but temperatures will start to climb back above seasonal averages starting Monday afternoon, .

The city’s daily temperature high will peak near 44 degrees on Monday, hit 51 degrees on Tuesday and hang out around 60 degrees from Wednesday through Saturday, forecasters said. The “normal” high for this time of year is 44 degrees, .

Denver and the Eastern Plains are both expected to remain dry through the weekend. It’s unknown when snow will next arrive in the metro area.

This is a developing story and may be updated.

Steamboat Springs resident Randy Salky has constructed a menorah out of skis and, most recently, snowboards.

His mother was an oil painter, and Salky did his fair share of doodling growing up. But the Steamboat attorney didn’t find his voice through sculptures until a fateful trip to the Milner Mall, a recycling facility about 17 miles west of the mountain town.

To Salky, other people’s discarded items were a treasure trove. His inspiration came from seeing “all these discarded pieces of property or furniture or different things and kind of thinking of, ‘What can I create with this? What can I make out of this?'” he said.

He first crafted a sign out of a discarded surfboard and other various knick-knacks. Salky also created a tipi made of skis — a “skipi,” as he said — and a structure made of discarded box fans.

Eventually, he constructed a menorah with skis wrapped in lights. His then-rabbi then asked him to create a menorah for the community. That creation wasn’t made of skis but instead was made of plexiglass candles with lights inside. That menorah is outside of the synagogue every Hanukkah with the same base, plus fence posts that are painted blue and wrapped in lights. This year, the eight-day holiday begins at sundown on Sunday, Dec. 14.

Born from that experience was Salky’s snowboard menorah called “Eight Nights of Shred.”

Salky sourced the base of the snowboard menorah from an old trailer someone was planning to get rid of. On top were the “candles” — snowboard decks.

“Four snowboard decks (are) mounted on an internal wooden frame, and they’re all mounted on the flatbed trailer,” Salky explained. “They’re also on kind of a lazy susan, so each candle spins or can be spun.”

There’s metal tubing encircled by the decks to protect the wiring for the LED flame light. The outside of each deck has pulsating LED lights.

The menorahs have been a hit with communities throughout that part of northern Colorado. They even landed Salky an interview on NPR last December. Salky enjoys the public’s love for his works.

“It was nice to see at the base of the ski mountain, the individuals just reacting to it and seeing it, and kids going up and spinning snowboard decks around in a circle,” Salky reminisced. “It was nice to have the public appreciate it and also be able to interact with it.”

Salky’s melding of the Jewish faith and visual art was inspired by Israeli artist Yaacov Agam.

Agam is known for colorful, surreal and modernist works, some of which embrace movement. A posted by the Park West Gallery in the Detroit, Mich., area noted that Agam “creates non-representational artwork in order to align and adhere to the tenets of the ‘Kabbalah,’ the ancient Hebrew study of mysticism.”

“I used his type of art as inspiration for one menorah that����ap painted on the front (with) very vibrant colors, and it����ap kind of in an Agam style,” Salky said. “Agam also created a lot of pieces that could be interacted with and manipulated, or turned. So, I used that again as an inspiration for the snowboard menorah so that the pieces could spin.”

Salky was born and raised in Memphis. He and his family fell in love with the Steamboat area after multiple visits in and out of ski season. In 2005, they moved to Steamboat, where Salky runs a law practice.

“I wouldn’t say it’s a detachment (from work), but a great distraction, and it’s a great way to kind of decompress and focus on something unrelated to practicing law,” Salky said of his art. “It’s a great outlet.”