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.

With week-long vacations at schools around the country and Colorado’s snowpack nearing its peak, March is usually one of the busiest times of year for the state’s ski resorts. But this year, the state is headed into the busy season with a record-low snowpack and dozens of trails closed at its ski resorts.

Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek Resort, Breckenridge Ski Resort, Arapahoe Basin Ski Area and Winter Park Resort all had 25 or more trails listed as closed on their websites as of Friday. None of the major ski resorts in Colorado that are accessible on the Epic or Ikon passes have opened 100% of their terrain this season.

At Steamboat Resort, only 77% of the skiable terrain was open on Friday, according to the ski resorts website. Steamboat director of communications Maren Franciosi said that while the Mahogany Ridge and Pony Express lifts typically open around or just after the New Year, those lifts have yet to open this season.

Winter Park, meanwhile, had about 69% of its skiable terrain open on Friday, according to its website. The website showed 146 of 171 trails open, with mostly black diamond and double-black diamond trails closed.

Read the full story from our partner at .

My 8-year-old son was recently . As a competitive athlete, he was alone but very comfortable with the mountain and his skiing ability.

While the individual who hit him fled the scene, he was aided by a kind woman who helped him secure medical attention. My son suffered a concussion, facial lacerations requiring stitches, and lost an adult tooth that will require years of dental work. Despite news coverage seen by millions of people across the country, no one has come forward as a witness or perpetrator.

I understand the fear of becoming involved in contentious situations, particularly in a country where many people seem unpredictable, but I wonder where our collective empathy and humanity have gone. Have we reached a point, as a community, where we are no longer willing to stand up for those who need us? If so, how can we expect anyone else to help us when we are in need?

I urge everyone to consider how they might do better to serve their friends, neighbors, and community. If this were your son, nephew, friend, or neighbor, what would you want for them? Surely, you would want more.

Saddened, yet hopeful, mother,

Ann Lotin, Denver

Company right to defend safeguards in its AI

Re: “AI company sues, seeking to undo its ‘supply chain risk’ designation,” March 10 news story

Along with most people, I have many concerns about the ways AI will be used to help and to hurt us.

Anthropic lost out on a $200 million Pentagon contract because its CEO refused Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s demands to remove the Anthropic chatbot Claude’s internal safeguards against spying on Americans and against launching weapons without human oversight. Shouldn’t we all want these safeguards in place?

By designating Anthropic a “supply chain risk” (generally used for firms linked to terrorists and foreign adversaries), the president ordered all government departments to cut ties with Anthropic, seeming to want to destroy the company. It was heartening to see that the conflict has boosted Anthropic’s reputation among some for its moral stance.

Carol Kalmes, Wheat Ridge

Documentary will remind you to ‘engage in our democracy’

In celebration of 250 years since the birth of our nation, I would like to encourage you to watch Ken Burns’ documentary, “The American Revolution.” In it, you’ll find much known and unknown history leading up to our break from the English monarchy.

My hope is that you’ll learn or be reminded of the events and reasons leading up to the end of authoritarian rule. Understanding the sacrifices made in life and property in order to create our unique government will remind you how fortunate we are. Natives, immigrants, and people freed from slavery forged this country out of ideals women and men had only previously dreamt of. Every other country in the world at that time was under authoritarian rule.

The major difference between our government and authoritarian rule is that we must each be civically engaged to make it function. It doesn’t work when individuals make decisions based on social media feeds, armchair pundit shows or prejudices.

Celebrate our 250th anniversary by reading history books, watching historical documentaries, becoming more civically engaged, and appreciating the precious gifts of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. I know I’m not the only person frustrated with the current state of politics where so often lies, greed, and power rule.

It is our responsibility to actively participate in our government. As it says in the documentary referenced above, if we don’t engage in our democracy, we may as well live in a dictatorship.

Michele Howard, Silt

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Launched in 2007 as North America’s first urban winter terrain park, with snowmaking equipment provided by city-owned Winter Park Resort, Ruby Hill usually opens in early to mid-January and remains open until mid- to late March. This year, though, it opened on Feb. 1 and closed on March 1.

“It is shorter than we have been open historically,” said Stephanie Figueroa, spokeswoman for Denver Parks and Recreation. “Obviously, it was because of weather. This year was a unique year, it’s been a very warm winter. We had to wait until there was enough cold for us to open, then the same on the back end — it’s been way too warm. All the ice is melting and turning into slush, so we had to close it.”

A chute where the ski patrol has installed a rope, anchored to a rock, to assist skiers in down-climbing through a steep, narrow notch just to reach the top of the run.

A series of chutes marked with an entry gate sign that warns, in all caps, of potentially fatal repercussions.

All of that and more. Here’s a look at five of Colorado’s scariest, most challenging ski slopes. Take a deep breath and tighten your boot buckles. Let’s drop in.

Highland Bowl, Aspen Highlands

Officials at Aspen Snowmass would prefer not to have this steep, spectacular bowl portrayed as “scary.” OK, but Aspen native Mike Marolt, who has climbed and skied remote peaks all over the world — including 26,000-foot (8,000-meter) peaks in the Himalayas — sure makes it sound like it is. When the snow in Highland Bowl is smooth and firm, he says, falling is to be avoided at all costs because you could slide 2,000 feet.

“When you go through periods when you don’t get a lot of snow, just the (effect) of people skiing it buffs it into this chalky, hard (surface),” Marolt said. “I think it����ap the best ski conditions anywhere on the planet. It����ap steep, it����ap as smooth as glass, and it����ap firm. That����ap great, but it����ap a double-edged sword. Because if you fall, it����ap virtually impossible to stop.

“You can survive a 2,000-foot slide like that,” he added, “but if you hook a boot or hook a ski and you start tumbling, it gets very ugly. It����ap so smooth and so steep, you’re going to be going 50 mph by the time you get to the bottom.”

The top of the bowl is at 12,392 feet. The steepest pitches range from 38 to 48 degrees. It is a hike-to, in-bounds area of Aspen Highlands and is controlled for avalanche mitigation by the ski patrol.

Getting there requires a trek from the top of the Loge Peak lift (11,675 feet) and takes most folks around 45 minutes. Aspen Snowmass has a lengthy summary of what .

Highland Bowl’s allure is especially strong on powder days because of the way it collects and funnels snow.

“It blows in, and you get knee-deep, even waist-deep powder,” Marolt said. “It’s incredible skiing.”

We’ll give the last word to Hannah Dixon, Aspen’s director of communications, since she was uncomfortable with us calling Highland Bowl scary.

“But,” she said, “if we’re talking ‘tough’ in terms of the sense of accomplishment that comes from skiing it, Highland Bowl is top of the list.”

Seniors, Palmyra Peak, Telluride

There’s another in-bounds hike-to area in Colorado that tops Highland Bowl in more ways than one, including fear factor: Palmyra Peak at Telluride.

“I’ve skied Highland Bowl quite a bit, and this is a different animal for sure,” said Brett Schreckengost, a filmmaker and photographer who has lived in Telluride for more than 30 years. “Highland Bowl is pretty high, but it����ap a big bowl. There are rock outcroppings on Palmyra Peak that are in your way on the way down. It isn’t a bowl, it����ap a big mountain (with) couloirs reminiscent of a European ski line, which is very different from a bowl.”

The hike to Palmyra Peak is also longer and more exposed than the one at Highlands.

“It����ap an hour to an hour-and-a-half hike to a 13,319-foot peak with a very small summit,” Schreckengost said. “It����ap not an easy hike for the faint of heart. It����ap exposed in places, and it����ap hard.”

There are multiple lines on Palmyra. Most agree that the one known as Seniors is the toughest, a direct shot from the summit through rock bands.

“It’s steep for sure,” Schreckengost said. “In certain conditions, if you fall at the top, you’re not going to stop until you get to the bottom — and probably contact a lot of rocks on the way down. The whole enchilada, start to finish, qualifies as extreme as you can get.

“On a powder day,” he added, “if it����ap got a bunch of snow on it, it can be not quite as extreme as it is when it����ap boilerplate. I’ve skied it in both. When it����ap in boilerplate conditions, it����ap scary. If you fall, you are going to be going all the way down.”

Second Notch, Arapahoe Basin’s East Wall

You don’t have to travel to the Western Slope to find extreme ski runs. In fact, you can find them at two of the areas closest to Denver.

For expert skiers, Arapahoe Basin’s East Wall is an irresistible swath of terrain riven by steep chutes and couloirs, all of it requiring hiking to access. It’s so steep it rarely has enough snow to open before February, and has yet to open this year.

There is a series of four chutes at the southern end of the East Wall that are accessed by an uphill hike of 15-20 minutes from the North Pole Gate, which is near the top of the Lenawee Express lift. Among them is Second Notch, which is so steep and narrow at the entry point that the ski patrol has placed a rope anchored to a rock to help skiers down-climb five to 10 feet to the point where it widens enough to become skiable.

Ski patrol supervisor Lizzy Schofield says Second Notch is the steepest and narrowest of the chutes.

“The entrance is definitely intimidating for people who aren’t familiar with that kind of exposure,” Schofield said. “We put that rope in a few years ago to make it a little bit easier for folks so they have something to hold onto. It����ap a little down-climb and then a steep couloir all the way down. It����ap certainly the chute that����ap most intimidating when you’re standing at the top of it.”

Further north on the East Wall is another series of steeps that is reached by traversing from the East Wall Gate, which is below the North Pole Gate. Those runs require steep climbs to ski.

“We do offer some of the most challenging and unique in-bounds terrain in the state,” said A-Basin spokeswoman Shayna Silverman. “We’re really proud of that. The East Wall is one of the most iconic pieces of terrain in the industry, and it����ap kind of the crown jewel of the Basin.”

Better Not, Mary Jane

Better not? Better think twice, at least, before you take your chances on the most notorious of Mary Jane’s — a part of Winter Park — intense Chutes.

“It����ap very narrow, walled by trees on both sides,” said ski patrol supervisor Riley McDonough. “Once you’re in, you can’t get out. You’re locked in. There’s no escaping when you get in there. You have to be very technically skilled to navigate that run and the Chutes in general. It����ap high skill level, high consequences.”

You can’t say you weren’t warned. An ominous sign at the entrance gate says, “Falling is not an option and may result in death,” citing dangers that include rocks, trees, sheer cliffs and avalanche debris.

“We want to give people the proper warning that you’re entering extreme terrain — enter at your own risk,” McDonough said.

Better Not is extreme terrain for ski patrol rescuers to operate, too.

“It takes highly trained and highly skilled rescue maneuvers, which would be a top-end (rope) belay,” said McDonough, a longtime Winter Park patroller whose father served as a patroller before him. “It also takes specialty gear. We have a special toboggan that has a four-point harness built into it.”

Highlife, Crested Butte

Rambo, a double-black-diamond run on Crested Butte’s North Face, gets a lot of attention because it is reputed to be the steepest lift-served tree-cut run in the U.S. And it is nasty, with a consistent pitch of more than 50 degrees.

But, Crested Butte insiders insist, it’s not the toughest run at CB. No, that would be Highlife.

“Definitely not,” said Dylan Wood, an expert skier who is the mountain sports coordinator at Western Colorado University in nearby Gunnison. “I would say it is Highlife in Spellbound Bowl. You have to hike to it. It����ap this big wall of snow and cliffs and trees that is more than 45 degrees, the entire top section of it. Some of it exceeds 60 degrees in pitch.

“It����ap this really intricate, interesting maze of cliffs and pillows and mandatory chutes and airs. Every time I go in there, it feels like I’m challenging myself in new and different ways, he added.”

Like other extreme runs on this list, skiers had better be sure they are up to the challenge before they try it. There’s no way to bail out into more manageable terrain.

“You have to be really precise and confident, making very calculated jump turns, where I can reach out with my uphill hand and touch the snow where I was just standing on my last turn,” Wood said. “It����ap just so steep and so technical and so demanding. That����ap easily the hardest run at Crested Butte.”

Registration open. Warm weather is bad for skiing but potentially good for the barely clothed runners of Cupid’s Undie Run. The annual event, which invites participants to don their best underwear outdoors, doesn’t arrive until Feb. 28, but you can (and should, given its popularity) sign up now for “the nation’s largest pantless party,” as organizers wrote.

The event raises awareness of neurofibromatosis, a genetic disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerves throughout the body and fundraises for NF research through the Children’s Tumor Foundation, they added. The run “kicks off with drinking and dancing, then we jog it out with a mile(ish) run and end it all with an epic dance party!” The 21-and-up run starts at Stoney’s Bar and Grill, 1111 Lincoln St. in Denver. Registration is $45 per person. Visit for more. — John Wenzel

Wells Fargo Ski Cup

Thursday-Feb. 20. The 50th annual Wells Fargo Ski Cup at Winter Park Resort, which benefits the National Sports Center for the Disabled, is set for Thursday, Feb. 19, through Sunday, Feb. 21. And this year’s edition includes a very special event.

On Thursday morning, the World Disabled Invitational will feature athletes from around the world competing just days before they depart for the Winter Paralympics, following the conclusion of the Winter Olympics in Italy. Friday’s events include a corporate challenge with skiers and snowboarders on corporate teams racing alongside athletes from the NSCD competition center. There are also parties and youth events.

The Wells Fargo Ski Cup raises nearly $600,000 annually for the NSCD. Donate and get more details at . Admission to events is free at the base of the mountain, no lift ticket required. Visit for more.  — John Meyer

‘Shiki Dreams’ to close

Through Feb. 14. Valentine’s Day is your final chance to check out “Shiki Dreams,” the immersive, art-driven installation from Denver company Prismajic. The exhibit, first launched in 2019, is being pushed out of its current lease at the Lakewood shopping center Colorado Mills, which makes the Feb. 14 closing your last chance to wander through its lofty, surreal environments, or hang out at the Night Owls bar.

This weekend features the culinary send-off Love, Course by Course, a Valentine’s dinner by chef Tiffany Winters. That night, the space is also hosting the latest Poetry Brothel, starting at 8 p.m. 14500 E. Colfax Ave. in Lakewood. Tickets are $15-$23 via . — John Wenzel

Meshell Ndegeocello

Friday. Storied singer-songwriter and poet Meshell Ndegeocello will visit University of Denver’s Newman Center on Friday, Feb. 13, as part of its Black History Month Series. The Grammy-winning artist’s visit revolves around a musical “living tribute” to writer James Baldwin amid her latest project, “No More Water.” Ndegeocello’s genre-roaming mastery serves her well as she revisits his work through nimble, soulful new compositions.

The show starts at 7:30 p.m. on Feb. 13 at 2344 E. Iliff Ave. in Denver. Tickets are $30-$84 via . — John Wenzel

For the siblings headed to the in freestyle skiing, that even included skiing off the roof.

and would use a snowblower to create jumps and high starting points for their runs, generating speed for flips, spins and to slide recycled rails that littered the backyard of their childhood home. And when the snow got high enough, they’d start their runs on the shed, then progress to the two-story roof.

“The neighbors would look out the window and be like, ‘Oh my God, the kids are skiing off the roof again!'” the siblings’ mom, Stephanie Irving, recalled with a laugh. “The neighbors were super cool about it, but the kids knew that their dad would not be so happy when he got home and found out they were up there again.”

That pursuit of amplitude was the origin of a journey that’s seen the brother-sister duo emerge from a diehard skiing family as two of the best halfpipe skiers in the world.

360-degree spin changes everything

While Stephanie was an Alpine skier at the University of Washington and then coached the sport at the high school level, her husband, Brendan Irving, has worked for decades on the ski patrol at , where he is currently the unit’s director.

The siblings, who are three years apart — Birk is now 26, Svea 23 — have been on skis from about the time they could walk. Their parents tried to steer them toward racing, and Svea was briefly a mogul skier before she got into halfpipe.

But Birk set the early tone for the siblings to pursue freestyle skiing. At 5, he would ski around the mountain with his dad, who brought him to Winter Park’s racing course and encouraged the kindergartner to give it a try.

Birk declined, instead asking to go to the terrain park.

“I was like, ‘No, that’s not a good idea,'” Brendan Irving said. “‘Very, very dangerous.’ Being a ski patroller when the terrain parks were first coming out, I saw so many injuries and definitely did not want my kids involved in that. So I was doing my best to steer them into recreational skiing, or if anything else, racing, but they had their own plans in mind. And that started with Birk.”

That same year, Brendan bought Birk new racing skis. Upon inspection one evening, the father discovered scratches all over the bottom of the pair. Without Brendan knowing, Birk had skied over to the terrain park to do some jumps and grind some rails. The dad again cautioned the son, who, like sons tend to do, paid no mind to his old man’s advice.

Birk again went to the terrain park, tried to do a 360-degree spin, and ended up falling and tweaking his knee. One of Brendan’s fellow patrollers picked him up and brought him to the ski patrol hut.

“At that point it was like, ‘Alright, you just need to settle down and take it easy here — you’re 5,'” Brendan said.

Birk ended up being fine, but his dad had seen enough.

Brendan took Birk’s skis and put them in the ski patrol storage, so that Birk couldn’t ski unless Brendan knew he was coming up on the mountain and exactly where he would be going. Only Brendan overlooked one important detail back at the house, which is located right at the base of the ski area.

Birk found his spare set of Telemark skis, built a jump in the backyard and again attempted a 360 — this time, with success. Birk never looked back from there, and it wasn’t long before Svea abandoned the moguls to join her brother in the halfpipe.

“Svea initially didn’t seem to be driven by the terrain parks, but then as Birk became more and more involved and we started traveling to competitions, she would end up having to sit on the side of the trail and watch her brother,” Brendan said. “She just got a little fed up and was like, ‘Well, I could do all this, too.’ So she jumped right into it.”

All skiing, all the time

Birk landed his first sponsor at 7 and Svea at 13, helping their parents afford the sport. They both made the U.S. Ski development team at 15. As they became well-known around Winter Park as they ascended in their careers, they soaked in a year-round skiing lifestyle.

They would build jumps outside of the ski patrol hut to pass the time while their father worked. They skied every holiday together. They took annual trips to Mount Hood in Oregon, skiing there into late summer until the snow finally ran thin. And the family constantly trekked together through Berthoud Pass, spending days backcountry skiing away from the resort crowds.

“I have such fond memories of us spending so many of my dad’s days off or my mom’s days off, or weekends off, building jumps in the backcountry, learning tricks and just falling in love with nature and the sport outside of competition,” Svea Irving said. “… Those times were so important to our development as young athletes and realizing that the results (in halfpipe) are never the most important thing when you get on skis.”

Birk called that ski-centric upbringing “an unfair advantage” that the siblings capitalized on, morphing all the fun times on the mountain as kids into professional success as young adults.

Now in his second Winter Olympics after placing fifth at the 2022 Beijing Games, Birk’s international breakthrough came at 16 at the Youth Olympic Winter Games in Norway in 2016, when he claimed gold while He didn’t warm up before his run, then gutted it out to win.

“Beforehand, the doctor said, ‘Well, you earned a spot here, but how much pain are you willing to tolerate from 1 to 10?'” Stephanie recalled. ‘Birk said, ’10.’ We knew his future was in the sport at that point, and that he was in the right profession.”

Medals, and Svea’s breakout

From there, Birk’s arrow has continually gone up. In addition to his appearance in Beijing, he has two X Games medals (silver and bronze), a bronze from the world championships, and he won the FIS Halfpipe Ski World Cup Crystal Globe in 2022-23.

Svea has also experienced success on the sport’s biggest stages. She took bronze at the X Games in 2023 and has made the podium in three World Cup competitions, most recently in January in Calgary. That performance clinched her Olympic bid after she had the fourth and final spot on the U.S. team heading into Beijing, only to be passed over in a discretionary pick by U.S. Ski and Snowboarding.

Just missing Beijing lit a fire under Svea, who “vowed to not be one spot out again.”

“That experience put in perspective to me how real this really could be, because (at 19) I don’t think I was taking it as seriously as I could have,” Svea said. “And also, that Olympic year was my first season coming back from knee surgery (for a torn ACL/MCL).

“I’ve been a lot more focused on this journey and really made sure that I’m doing everything that I can to stay healthy and set myself up as best as possible for this Olympic year. I’ve been really focusing on training harder and committing a lot more time to the sport than I did previously.”

The result of an enhanced dedication in the weight room has been a recent breakout, as underscored by her podium finishes. No longer is she “Birk’s little sister,” as the siblings’ longtime coach Jeremie Livingston explained. Svea has emerged as a star in her own right.

“She was always promising and looking good, but sometimes in this sport, it can take a little longer to get places, especially for the females and with their amplitude and grabs,” Livingston said. “The last two years, it took off for her. Everything started clicking — amplitude, grabs and spins, new tricks. She put it all together.”

While Svea has emerged in professional halfpipe, she’s also found a calling outside of it as well. Svea and Birk are the grandchildren of author of “The World According to Garp” and “The Cider House Rules”, the latter of which won him an Oscar for best adapted screenplay. Svea has her creative own creative gene via filmmaking, and she starred in a 2024 short skiing movie called that explores her connection to nature.

“The movie was kind of a way for me to step away from the competition and show a different side of me and why I really love skiing, which is being outside in nature,” Svea said. “It tells that story of the stillness of nature and how skiing is rooted in that.”

‘It’s for Winter Park’

Now superstars in Winter Park, Birk and Svea have the potential to medal in Livigno, Italy.

“Anytime they’re at Winter Park Resort, it’s known, and the vibes are up and people want to watch them ski,” explains Devin Kearns, who oversees the resort’s terrain park.

The qualifiers for both men and women and the finals are Feb. 20 for the men and Feb. 21 for the women. Stephanie and Brendan, who had to watch Birk compete in Beijing from a party held at a Winter Park bowling alley because spectators were not allowed due to COVID-19, will be in attendance.

Birk said the siblings, who will train in Switzerland together for a couple of weeks ahead of qualifiers, are intent on not worrying about factors beyond their control.

“I just would like to land a run that I’m proud of, and I want to see the same for Svea,” Birk said. “It’s not so much about a placement for me. I want to compete with myself and hopefully do the best that I’ve ever done, and the result will be the result.”

On Friday, when the siblings and close friends walk together in the opening ceremonies, it will be a full-circle moment from all the times the duo skied together off their roof in Winter Park.

“It’s going to be super surreal for both of us,” Svea said, “and an incredibly special experience because not a lot of people get to say that they went to the Olympics with a family member.

“We also see (competing in the Winter Olympics) as an opportunity for us give back to our community and our parents and show that all this hard work, everything our parents sacrificed for us to get here, has paid off. This is not just for us. It’s for Winter Park. I want the town to celebrate our moment together. Because I think that’s what the Olympics is all about as well.”

Saturday. Winter Park Resort’s sassy side, the Mary Jane base area, is marking its 50th anniversary this season with a celebration on Saturday, Jan. 10. It includes a kickoff party with celebratory first laps, a ski-down parade and a birthday toast with cake at The Jane’s base area. Festivities in town will include fireworks and a free concert by Big Gigantic, an EDM duo from Boulder.

The concert takes place at the outdoor Rendezvous Event Center, 78821 US Highway 40, in Winter Park. Visit for resort lift tickets and more information. — John Meyer

Josiah Hesse’s “On Fire”

Tuesday. Denver journalist and author Josiah Hesse, who’s written about topics ranging from cannabis in exercise to conservative politics, has a new book called “On Fire for God” that traces his personal history with evangelical Christianity while growing up in Mason City, Iowa. “One part ‘Educated,’ one part rebuttal to ‘Hillbilly Elegy,’ ‘On Fire for God’ explores the ways evangelical Christianity has preyed upon its followers while galvanizing them into the political force known today as the Christian right,” according to a statement.

Hesse will celebrate the incendiary tome’s Denver release with an all-ages event at the Tattered Cover Colfax from 6 to 8 p.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 13, at 2526 E. Colfax Ave. in Denver. A $7.25 ticket is required and includes a signed hardcover copy of the book, or a $5 Tattered Cover gift certificate (in addition to event admission). Visit for tickets or for more details. — John Wenzel

A legend in the making

Friday-Saturday. Texas native Charley Crockett is a modern-day troubadour cut from the same cloth as Outlaw Country greats but also the poignant folk-rock of Bob Dylan and the raw Americana of Lucinda Williams. The tireless touring artist and songwriter finds his true calling on stage, typically performing more than 20 songs from his dozen-plus albums over the past decade, including “One Trick Pony” and “Alamosa.”

Crockett will headline RiNo’s Mission Ballroom on Friday, Jan. 9, and Saturday, Jan. 10. Tickets for the 16-and-up shows at 4242 Wynkoop St. in Denver are $78.84-$182.07 via . — John Wenzel

International Sportsmen’s Expo

Through Sunday. The massive International Sportsmen’s Expo returns to the Colorado Convention Center this weekend for all things hunting, fishing and traversing the land. New this year for the trade show: pontoon boats and an expanded RV section, along with the usual seminars and workshops features, a kid-friendly catch-and-release trout pond, live birds from the Raptor Education Foundation, and Stay the Trail’s RC off-road test track.

Tickets are $18 for ages 16 and up. Active military with ID and those 15 and under can get in for free. Noon-7 p.m. Friday; 10 a.m.-7 p.m. Saturday; and 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Sunday. The event takes place at 700 14th St. in downtown Denver. Visit for tickets and more information. — John Wenzel

Although the slopes of Mary Jane have yet to open for the season because of poor snow conditions throughout Colorado, the resort announced over the weekend that opening day will be Friday; an anniversary celebration is planned for Saturday, with a skier parade, birthday toast with cake, live music, photo booths, fireworks and anniversary swag.

And even after 50 years, Karol Ann Groswold, the daughter of former Winter Park chief executive Jerry Groswold, said the mountain still attracts serious skiers who like to work for their turns.

“I think the Mary Jane spirit is still alive,” she said. “It truly is a cult. People go to the Jane because they want some really good terrain, some steep and deep. There’s just a sense of appreciation and passion for the true art of skiing — hard-core, true passion for skiing.”

Mary Jane’s roots go back a lot further than five decades, though. In fact, they predate Winter Park itself — owned and operated as one of Denver’s mountain parks — which opened in 1940.

In 1933, a small group of skiers calling itself the Colorado Arlberg Club cleared the first trail on the mountain where the modern Mary Jane complex would open more than 40 years later. The Mary Jane Trail was about 1.5 miles long, with 1,500 feet of vertical drop. Since there were no lifts and no roads, members hiked up and skied down. Two runs in a day was the goal.

“Young blades, young bucks, devil-may-care,” recalled the late Dr. Karl Arndt, one of the club’s original nine members, in a 1989 interview in the Rocky Mountain News. “We skied and drank Casper Moon, which was a bootleg liquor from Casper, Wyoming. It must have been good, because it cost a dollar and a half a gallon. We had great fun.”

Arndt said he always seemed to be injured from “jammed-up knees,” but he wouldn’t be deterred. “I would take some codeine or a slug of whiskey and ride down in misery.”

Hardy souls were skiing nearby Berthoud Pass in those days, too. A rope tow was installed there in 1937. The Arlberg Club folks disapproved. “We weren’t impressed by rope tows coming into vogue,” said Arndt, the lone survivor of the original nine club members when he died in 2006 at 97. “We were kind of stuffy about it at first. We thought the younger people were being pampered. It wasn’t true mountaineering. We worked hard for our fun.”

Winter Park opened on Jan. 28, 1940. With a rope tow.

Mary Jane’s namesake was a well-known madam of the 1880s during the area’s mining days who came to own the Mary Jane Placer. It was located where the Mary Jane base is now.

The 1976 Mary Jane expansion, which increased Winter Park’s skiable terrain by 80%, was overseen by Jerry Groswold, son of Thor Groswold, a Norwegian immigrant who founded Denver’s Groswold Ski Company in 1932. Jerry Groswold was Winter Park’s chairman from 1969 until 1975, when he became its president and chief executive.

The Mary Jane expansion was “his baby,” as daughter Karol puts it.

“It was a huge undertaking,” Karol said. “I remember very vividly when he took over. He was just living, breathing the entire thing. I’ve never seen a man work so hard and be so passionate about it.”

He was a larger-than-life figure, a legend in Colorado skiing, the man in charge at Winter Park for 22 years. Karol has fond memories from when she was a little girl, skiing the Mary Jane trail with her dad, well before it became part of Winter Park.

“It felt really steep,” she said. “There was always powder — glorious, fabulous powder. A snowcat would come and pick us up.”

She was 16 when the Mary Jane expansion debuted on Jan. 10, 1976, giving the resort a steep side in contrast to the tamer slopes of the Winter Park side. When Groswold took over in 1975 and moved up to Winter Park, Karol continued to live in Cherry Hills with her mother until she finished high school.

“I remember driving up with my friends, and they were all guys,” said Karol. “I never skied with girls because they didn’t do the bumps. We would just go up there and tear it up non-stop. It was such a magical time. People skied, they loved the sport, new technology was coming along — it was so exciting.”

There were 182 passengers packed into more than a dozen 10-passenger gondola cars, dangling from the mile-long haul rope extending from the base to the top of the mountain at Sunspot. Sami O’Neill, who was one month into her new role as a supervisor after serving for years as a Winter Park patroller, was struck by how calm her colleagues appeared that day as they swung into action.

“It was like, we do this all the time, we’re comfortable with this gear. We weren’t expecting the gondola to break, but it happened, and we’re ready for it,” O’Neill said. “The guests — people on their Christmas break from all over the country — they’re like, ‘We have to just trust you guys to know how to use this (gear) and safely lower us down?’ We’re like, ‘Yes, we’ve got you, we know how to do this.’”

Related: Despite chairlift rescues, major mechanical malfunctions are rare in Colorado

They were well-prepared because patrollers at every Colorado ski resort practice lift evacuations annually, something mandated by the Colorado Passenger Tramway Safety Board, a state agency responsible for licensing, regulating and inspecting gondolas, chairlifts and surface lifts.

At Winter Park, training took place on a mild November morning recently, where the team practiced procedures in advance of the 2025-26 ski season, something The Denver Post was allowed to observe.

Patrollers laden with heavy gear climbed lift tower ladders, always clipped into safety lines that would protect them from falling if they lost their footing. At the top of the lift tower, they attached a device called a cable glider to the haul rope. Hanging from the haul rope, the glider allowed the patrollers to slide down the rope to gondola cars, controlling their descent with a brake mechanism on the glider.

Standing on the roof of the gondola car, patrollers use massive wrenches to unlock and open the gondola doors before rappelling into the car. Part of the mission is calming and reassuring frightened passengers when they get there.

“We’re dealing with our own fear of heights a little bit and going through all the steps in your head like, ‘I can do this,’ also having to keep the guests calm as well,” O’Neill said. “That’s a big part of it — us staying calm for everyone else’s sake.”

When the ski patrol radio alerted patrollers to December’s gondola emergency, Trapper McManigle was deployed at the top of Parsenn Bowl far to the south of the gondola.

“I called our dispatch, ‘Hey, I’m hearing these calls, is this real?’” recalled McManigle, the patroller in charge of this month’s evacuation drill. “They’re like, ‘Oh, yes, you need to get here now.’ I rush as fast as I could, ski down to the (patrol) hut, got geared up, got myself a ground-crew person, and we came to this building (the upper gondola terminal) as fast as possible.”

McManigle, who is in his sixth season on the Winter Park patrol, evacuated four gondola cars that day.

“I got really lucky in that all my guests were extremely calm,” said McManigle, who grew up in Highlands Ranch. “We practice our speech that we give to people. ‘Hello, my name is Trapper with the Winter Park ski patrol, I’m here to rescue you.’ When people hear that, they’re just ecstatic. We really preach confidence. If we’re confident, they’re going to have confidence in us.”

To evacuate occupants from the gondola cars, patrollers set up rope belays to lower them to the ground. The procedures for evacuating chairlifts are similar, although the device the patroller rides while sliding down the haul rope is different.

One of the gondola cars McManigle evacuated during the December incident included a family with a baby.

“That was a fun twist,” he said. “We have baby harnesses. I got the baby attached into his harness, then got him and his dad belayed down at the same time so the baby and the dad were both comfortable on their way down. The look in the baby’s eyes when he was being lowered, it was amazing — just wide eyes, astonished, looking up at me like, ‘What?!?!’”

The evacuation last December took nearly six hours to complete, wrapping up as night fell on the mountain, but the patrollers had a hard time gearing down.

“That adrenaline didn’t wear off,” McManigle said. “I didn’t fall asleep until like 2:30 in the morning. I was up, just so jazzed. You know when you feel just electric? That����ap what you feel like afterwards. But when you’re in the moment, you feel so calm. All I was thinking about was, ‘What����ap my next step?’

“It wasn’t until afterwards that it hits you like a flood,” he added. “Then you’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve been working on adrenaline for the last six hours.’ Luckily I had the day off the next day. I probably didn’t get up until 1 o’clock in the afternoon. All I did was eat and drink water and watch TV.”

Sky Foulkes, Winter Park’s president and chief operating officer, observed the patrol training exercise this month. It took him back to memories of that long day last December.

“You just watched them do what they do and they were so well-trained,” Foulkes said. “They did a phenomenal job. Immense pride, just very impressed with how calm they were. It sent a calm to everybody else.”

The Winter Park gondola incident became a major news event, but patrollers spend a lot of time reassuring frightened skiers and snowboarders after mishaps on the slopes, so they’re used to comforting others.

“You always have to stay in the mindset of, ‘This is this person’s first time experiencing this,’” O’Neill said. “You’ve got to be patient, like, ‘We’ve got you, trust us,’ walking through every step so it����ap comforting to them.”

O’Neill grew up in Denver, attending George Washington High School and Colorado State. After graduating from CSU, she told her parents she wanted to spend a winter working as a Winter Park lift operator.

“They were like, ‘OK, but then you’re going to get a job, right?’” O’Neill said. “Networking through lift operators, I found my way onto patrol. My first year on patrol, I actually didn’t know how to ski, so I drove the snowmobiles. That was like my foot in the door — learned how to ski that year.”

Her parents soon came to support what has become for her a career.

“My dad was a firefighter and EMT, so he gets this side of things,” O’Neill said. “He was like, ‘That����ap cool.’”

According to the , no injuries were reported as a result of the Winter Park gondola evacuation. Representatives of Leitner-Poma, which manufactured the gondola, rushed to the scene from the company’s Grand Junction factory with a replacement part that day, supervising its installation. In less than 48 hours, the gondola was repaired and back in service.

“It was actually running in about 21 hours,” Foulkes said, “but we couldn’t open it to the public until we put it through its paces and got approval from the tram board.”

The tramway board investigation found no fault with Winter Park’s maintenance of the gondola. “Upon reviewing the on-site maintenance records,” the report states, “it appears that Winter Park conducted all inspections required by the maintenance manual for Tower 1, and no anomalies were noted.”

As a result of the incident, though, the tramway board ordered all ski areas that had lifts with parts like the one that failed at Winter Park to inspect them. They included two lifts at Arapahoe Basin, a lift at Copper Mountain, a lift at Keystone, a chairlift at Winter Park and a sightseeing lift in Glenwood Springs. Since then, lifts with that part have been retrofitted with stiffener beams to prevent a recurrence, as ordered by the tramway board.

Meanwhile, ski patrols at every ski area in Colorado conduct evacuation drills annually, on all types of lifts, to remain in compliance with the tramway board.

“If you ask pretty much anyone at Winter Park ski patrol their favorite part of the job, 99% are going to say the camaraderie and the people you work with,” O’Neill said. “It����ap camaraderie and the niche skill set you have on this job. You go from injuries to this (evacuation training) to avalanche mitigation — a really wide array of things. And, you do it for and with each other.”