“Weather conditions remained extremely unfavorable in the third quarter,” chief executive Rob Katz is quoted as saying in the report, “adding to what had already been one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S., driving continued pressure on visitation and revenue in the quarter, particularly at our destination resorts in the Rockies.”

Vail Resorts owns 37 North American ski areas, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge and Crested Butte in Colorado. Last week, Colorado Ski Country USA announced that the projected statewide decline in skier days for the 2025-26 season is 24%.

Vail Resorts also reported a 10% decrease in pass product sales for the 2026-27 season.

“While any decline in pass sales is disappointing, it is not surprising given the severity of this past season’s conditions, and we are encouraged that third-party data indicates our spring pass results are meaningfully outperforming others in the industry during this period,” Katz said. “We believe the challenging conditions have delayed purchase decisions, creating the opportunity for improved pass performance in the fall selling season and/or ultimately through lift ticket purchases during next season.

“Historical U.S. ski market data indicates that visitation typically fully recovers following a season with poor conditions if the subsequent season has normal conditions,” he added, “and we believe we are well positioned to capture that visitation with the pass and lift ticket product and marketing strategies we have developed.”

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 ski-in/ski-out project is the largest real estate development project in Summit County in recent history and the newest addition to .

The over 320,000-square-foot mixed-use development will include 107 guest rooms and spread across two towers, with homes ranging from one to four bedrooms.

Amenities will feature a private club, spa, meeting and event space, 25,000 square feet of retail, ski school and three restaurants.

“Colorado is our home, and we had a special opportunity to create a legacy project and give back to our community,” said Ryan Geller, Partner with Kindred Development Team.

The resort will debut several food and beverage concepts in stages. Kindred Spirits, the lobby bar and lounge, opened May 7, and Lula’s Restaurant will debut May 15. Two independently owned and operated venues, The Goodz Tavern, an alpine tavern, and Kinji Sushi, will open Memorial Day weekend.

The property will also feature an extensive art collection of more than 200 pieces by Mountain West artists, including 70 original and site-specific pieces. Installations include floor-to-ceiling murals and hand-carved Aspen furnishings placed throughout the resort.

“Keystone Resort is a mountain that immerses visitors in every season, from skiing and snow tubing in winter to the festivals, biking, and golf in summer. With Kindred, we’ve finally built a luxury home base to match,” said Dan Dohner, general manager of Kindred Resort.

Plans for the have been around for decades. The resort was to open in 2025, however, Geller said it����ap not uncommon for a project of this scope and size to take extra time.

“Kindred was designed and built as a multi-stage project,” he said.

“We’re in the final stages of construction and approvals for the second phase, Kindred’s East Tower.”

The is a partnership between Colorado-based developers and hospitality leaders, as well as Interland, a global firm with a portfolio that includes Fox Park in Denver. The team has developed more than $4 billion in mixed-use, hospitality and residential projects across Aspen, Vail, Summit County, Mexico and beyond.

RockResorts, a wholly owned subsidiary of Vail Resorts, provides accommodations in Park City, Utah; Vail; Beaver Creek; Breckenridge; and now Keystone.

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in John Litterer v. Vail Summit Resorts Inc. on April 16 at a high school in Holyoke. The case could further test the limits of the liability waivers ski resorts require customers to sign when buying passes. It comes two years after the state’s highest court ruled in another case, Miller v. Crested Butte, that the blanket waivers do not protect resorts in all cases when a customer is injured.

Litterer sued Vail Summit Resorts Inc., a subsidiary of Vail Resorts, which owns the Epic Pass, six ski resorts in Colorado and dozens across the U.S. and the world. He claims he was hit by an employee driving a snowmobile around a “blind corner” at Breckenridge in 2020.

Complicating the case is that Litterer twice clicked through online waivers agreeing he would not sue Vail Resorts: first, when he purchased the Epic Pass for the 2020-21 season, the year he was injured; then, when he purchased an Epic Pass for the 2022-23 season after he had recovered enough to snowboard and while his litigation was still ongoing.

The Supreme Court agreed to hear Litterer’s case after the Summit County District Court and Colorado Court of Appeals had both dismissed it, determining that Litterer gave up his claims to sue when he signed the liability waiver during his second pass purchase.

Read the full story from our partner at .

Skier visits at the company’s 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%.

But in the company’s Rocky Mountain region, skier visits declined 25%.

Based in Broomfield, Vail Resorts owns 37 resorts and regional ski areas across North America, including Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Crested Butte in Colorado. Also included in the company’s Rocky Mountain region is Park City Mountain Resort in Utah.

Colorado’s other ski resorts are privately held, so they don’t disclose information about their financial performance. Vail Resorts is publicly held, so the information is available through company reports to its investors.

“The winter of 2025/2026 has been one of the most challenging winters in history across the western U.S., with record low snowfall and historically warm temperatures negatively impacting visitation and spending throughout the season,” chief executive Rob Katz is quoted as saying in the report. “March conditions saw a continuation of low snowfall and warmer temperatures well outside of historical norms, leading to weaker late-season visitation and earlier than planned closures for many resorts across the western U.S.”

Numerous Colorado resorts closed before their projected closing dates. Vail Mountain closed on April 8, 11 days early, and Beaver Creek closed two weeks early on March 29. Breckenridge, which was scheduled to close in May, shut down on April 19.

After Loveland closes on Sunday, only two Colorado ski areas will remain open, Copper Mountain and Arapahoe Basin. They both plan to close on May 3.

Colorado Ski Country USA will release skier visit totals for the season in June. That number was 13.8 million in 2024-25, the state’s third-highest total.

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. .

Resort officials announced the change Friday and said Vail will close for the season on Wednesday, more than a week ahead of the scheduled April 19 closure.

Despite a fresh foot of snow from a Thursday night storm, Vail officials said warm temperatures and spring conditions caused them to call the season.

“We’re incredibly grateful to our teams across the mountain who made the most of every opportunity and kept things going through a challenging winter, especially these past few weeks,” the resort said in a post on .

Vail will join the ranks of 17 ski areas that already closed or are set to close this weekend after scraping through a season marked by Colorado’s worst snowpack since statewide recordkeeping began in 1941.

Climate scientists expect Colorado’s ski season will be several weeks shorter in the coming decades, with climate change causing snow quality to worsen and precipitation to fall more often as rain rather than snow.

Vail’s Epic Pass and Alterra’s Ikon Pass dominate the American ski market. The complaint alleges they steer skiers and riders into expensive season-pass “bundles” by setting daily lift tickets at exorbitant levels. The case was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Denver on behalf of four individuals, three of them Colorado residents, seeking damages for them and others affected by Epic and Ikon pricing across the U.S.

“For years, skiers have been told that soaring lift ticket prices, reduced choice, and overcrowding are simply the new reality,” attorney Greg Asciolla of the DiCello Levitt law firm, which filed the suit, said in a statement. “Our complaint alleges that these outcomes are not the result of healthy competition, but of exclusionary conduct by two companies that dominate access to the most desirable destinations.”

Broomfield-based Vail Resorts and Denver-based Alterra both called the suit “without merit.”

“We launched the Epic Pass in 2008 to make skiing and riding more accessible, reducing the price of a season pass by 60%,” the Vail Resorts statement said. “We’re proud that 18 years later, it����ap still one of the best values in the industry, especially following our further 20% price reduction in 2021. As we acquired smaller resorts over the years, we also launched new, lower-priced pass products, such as the Epic Day Pass Local and Limited, for guests who only want to ski close to home.”

Alterra’s statement the company would defend itself “vigorously.”

“The Ikon Pass provides the best value to access more than 70 premier mountain destinations around the world, and each of our North American resorts sells its own suite of lift ticket access products at various price points designed to meet the needs of our guests,” Alterra’s statement said. “It is disappointing that we are forced to defend this baseless claim and divert any attention away from operating our business and delivering incredible experiences.”

The suit alleges the companies deliberately raised ticket-window prices over the years to exorbitant levels in an effort to push consumers into buying their season passes at earlybird prices in the spring for the subsequent season. Vail Resorts chief executive Rob Katz has made statements this year suggesting the company is rethinking its lift ticket pricing. Katz returned to the company a year ago, having previously served as CEO from 2006 to 2021.

“We will always give the best value to our pass holders who commit ahead of the season,” the Vail Resorts statement said, “but that said, we have also been intentional to price our lift tickets, sold in season, on a resort-by-resort basis, including numerous new discount opportunities this past season.”

The lawsuit says Epic and Ikon pass prices have rapidly risen at a pace well beyond the inflation rate. Although the Ikon Pass is consistently priced higher than the equivalent Epic Pass, the complaint says Ikon accounts for 54.8% of the mega pass market vs. 38.7% for Epic. The earlybird price for the Epic Pass rose from $793 in 2021-22 to $1,089 for 2026-27, according to the complaint, while the Ikon Pass increased from $999 to $1,399 over that period.

“Yet the sale of the Epic Pass and Ikon Pass have become the primary source of lift revenues and resort visitation for Vail Resorts and Alterra over the years,” according to the complaint. “For example, for Fiscal Year 2025, Vail Resorts’ various Epic Passes provided 65% of lift revenue and 75% of lift visitations. As a result, Vail Resorts and Alterra make every effort to drive more and more people to purchase their respective Mega Passes. But in order to do so, they each have resorted to an anticompetitive scheme that, as alleged herein, violates the antitrust laws.”

It’s particularly noticeable at Vail Mountain, Colorado’s largest ski area, where only 42% of its 277 trails are still open. China Bowl and Blue Sky Basin are closed, as are Sun Up Bowl, Sun Down Bowl and Tea Cup Bowl. The trail status page on Vail’s website displays a large exclamation mark in a triangle warning of “variable conditions” and “unmarked obstacles.”

Conditions there are rapidly deteriorating, according to Buzz Schleper, who moved to Vail in 1972 and has operated Buzz’s Boards ski and snowboard shop in Vail Village for more than four decades.

“What I’m seeing, by the day, once you get a brown spot on the ground, it just spreads like crazy,” said Schleper, who is predicting Vail will be forced to close the bottom of the mountain soon, restricting skiing to the upper mountain and downloading guests from mid-mountain by gondola. “I think they’ll be downloading within a week,” he said.

The resort, however, has stuck to its official closing of Sunday, April 19, according to officials there.

Like most of Colorado’s resorts, temperatures in Vail are expected to reach into the 50s the next three days, followed by high temperatures in the 40s into next week. The current base depth of 40 inches is 36% of normal.

“They’re not changing their tune,” Schleper said. “They’re insisting they can stay open.”

Schleper and Vail native Tom Boyd both say these are the worst ski conditions they’ve seen for March, but Boyd takes a more sanguine view of the situation.

“Every time I get ready to go skiing, I wonder how it����ap going to be, and every time I’m pleasantly surprised,” said Boyd, a former ski journalist who is an Eagle County commissioner. “Is it what I would expect when I look at the calendar? No. But if I pretend it’s April, it’s great. I was skiing in a Hawaiian shirt the other day, and having a great time.”

Boyd, whose father worked as a ski patroller at Aspen and Vail, has skied Vail Resorts’ mountains and elsewhere the past two weeks. “I’ve been really impressed by the work that����ap being done at all of our Colorado ski resorts,” he said. “Everyone is working really hard to make sure that if you’re up there, you can still have a great experience.”

If Vail stays open until April 19 as planned, though, Schleper predicts it will be deserted.

“I think after Easter weekend (April 5), there’s going to be nobody in Vail,” Schleper said. “Nobody is going to come up here and ski after Easter when the temperatures are in the 80s down in Denver, and people are thinking golf and tennis and bike riding. Vail is going to be a ghost town the two weeks after Easter. To me, it makes no sense to stay open.

“It����ap a losing proposition for me,” he added, referring to his ski and snowboard business. “I will still pay my staff to the end, but there won’t be any people.”

Ski Cooper, Powderhorn, Buttermilk and Sunlight have closed. Monarch and Purgatory will close on Sunday.

Officials at Winter Park insist it will remain open on both sides of the resort (Winter Park and Mary Jane) at least through April 12. Steamboat also plans to close on April 12. Copper Mountain is still scheduled to close April 26.

“Copper’s north-facing slope aspect and high elevation help us to maintain our snow surface,” said spokeswoman Olivia Butrymovich. “We’re optimistic we’ll be able to finish out the season strong.”

Arapahoe Basin is consistently the last Colorado ski area to close, usually in June, but that may not be the case this year.

“Snow is low and temps are high, but we never throw in the towel here at The Basin,” said spokeswoman Shayna Silverman.

Loveland usually closes in May, but that sounds like a stretch this year. “As we move deeper into spring, a number of factors will guide whether we operate through the planned May closing date,” said spokeswoman Loryn Roberson. “We will continue to monitor conditions and provide updates if our original target is not achievable.”

Aspen Snowmass is holding to its scheduled closing dates: Buttermilk on April 5, Snowmass and Aspen Highlands on April 12, Aspen Mountain on April 19.

Officials at Vail Resorts also say they intend to close on previously scheduled dates: Keystone and Crested Butte on April 5, Beaver Creek on April 12 and Vail on April 19. As usual, they don’t set a date for Breckenridge, saying it will stay open as long conditions permit.

When , the unrestricted Ikon Pass will be priced at $1,349, an increase of $20 over last year’s early-bird price. , is priced at $1,089.

The Ikon Base pass will be priced at $924, a $15 increase over last year’s spring pricing. The comparable Epic Local Pass is on sale for $809. The Ikon Base pass and Epic Local pass both come with restrictions.

Vail also announced 20% discounts on both Epic passes for skiers and riders in their 20s.

Epic Passes for 2026-27 go on sale, luring Gen Z with big discounts

Alterra is introducing a new product called the "Squad Pack" for ages 23-28. That product allows five people to lock in Ikon Base passes at $750 each, as long as one person purchases all five passes. By comparison, the Epic Local pass for twenty-somethings, with the new 20% discount, is selling for $649.

Ikon also announced expanded access at two Colorado resorts. Arapahoe Basin will offer unlimited access next season for Ikon Base pass-holders. Those who purchase those passes early will be entitled to unlimited access this season, beginning April 6.

Also new, Snowmass will offer five-day access to Ikon Base pass-holders next season with select blackout dates. The Ikon Base pass does not offer access to Snowmass sister resorts, Aspen Mountain, Aspen Highlands or Buttermilk.