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// DISPATCHES FROM THE FIELD
Colorado Just Lost 3.4 Million Ski Visits
The official postmortem is here: Colorado ski areas fell 24% in 2025-26, the steepest visitation collapse in decades. This is what a bad snow year looks like after the receipts come in.
Canada Just Stole June Skiing Back
Banff Sunshine is reopening June 20-July 5 after a ridiculous snow year. Mammoth gets the last U.S. lap, but Alberta gets the weirdest encore.
Week Ahead: June Skiing Is a Border Crossing Now
Mammoth gets one more week, Timberline settles into summer mode, Beartooth pauses for lift work, and New Zealand is about to take the baton.
SnowRadar Is Going South for Winter
North America is done. New Zealand, Australia, Chile, and Argentina are about to make weather nerds useful again.
The Ski Season Is Over. The Bulldozers Are Winning.
Palisades Tahoe just pushed its village plan into implementation. Nevada's Ruby Mountains are fighting over a private ski area. Construction season is not a side story anymore.
The Ski Season Isn't Over. It Just Moved to Beartooth.
Memorial Day is closing day for most of the remaining holdouts. But Beartooth Basin opens today, Timberline keeps spinning, and Mammoth is trying to stretch one weird winter into June.
Loon Mountain's Pulse Gondola Is the Small Lift With the Biggest Question
The proposed RiverWalk-to-South Peak gondola would be New England's first pulse gondola. It also shows where ski-resort investment is heading: smaller, more local, and more tied to real estate than pure uphill capacity.
Aspen Just Spent $80 Million Because Winter Is Getting Shorter
Two new lifts, a gutted restaurant, and aggressive snowmaking upgrades -- all in one summer. Inside Aspen Snowmass's biggest single-year investment and why climate change is driving the urgency.
Park City Mountain's Lift Upgrades Have Been Stuck in Court for Four Years. The Olympics Are Eight Years Away.
Vail Resorts wants to turn Silverlode into an 8-pack and replace the aging Eagle lift with a 6-pack. Residents want answers about traffic. A judge sided with the residents. Now Round 2 is underway -- and the clock is ticking toward 2034.
Winter Park's $2 Billion Gamble: A Town Gondola, a Mountain Overhaul, and the End of Gemini Express
Colorado's most ambitious resort masterplan wants to double a town, expand 344 acres of terrain, and connect everything with a two-mile gondola. Construction could start this summer.
Sugar Bowl Is Tearing Out Its Gondola. You Can Buy the Old One for $10,000.
The West Coast's first gondola resort is spending $100 million to rebuild itself -- starting with the 1982 cabins that carried a generation of Tahoe skiers.
Deer Valley Just Doubled. Here's What 10 New Lifts and $5 Billion Actually Look Like.
The largest ski resort expansion in North America is already open -- and they're not even close to done.
11 Resorts Are Still Open. By Monday, There Might Be 7.
A-Basin's farewell weekend, Snowbird's last laps, and a Pennsylvania resort that just broke every record in the book. Here's who's still skiing -- and who's about to stop.
900 Ski Industry Pros Walked Into Whistler. Here's What They Talked About.
Mountain Travel Symposium 2026 brought the global ski industry together at exactly the moment it needed to be in the same room. A recap from Whistler.
52.6 Million Visits and a Whole Lot of Regret: The 2025-26 Season by the Numbers
The NSAA just confirmed what we all felt in our bones: this was a historically bad winter for Western skiing. Here's the full autopsy -- with data.
Colorado Is About to Get Its Biggest Storm of the Year. Every Resort Is Closed.
The cruelest irony of the worst ski season in 50 years: 1-2 feet of snow is falling across the Rockies this week, and there's almost nowhere to ski it.
A Fifth Ski Pass Just Entered the Ring. Here's Why It Might Actually Work.
Snow Partners is launching Snow Pass -- a cooperative, sub-$400 multi-mountain product that gives resorts 80% of revenue and zero exclusivity clauses. In a market dominated by Epic, Ikon, Indy, and Mountain Collective, it's either brilliant or insane.
2,000 Ski Instructors Are Suing Vail Resorts. 23,000 More Could Join Them.
The class-action lawsuit alleges Vail didn't pay instructors for putting on gear, traveling between locations, or attending mandatory training. The company says it did nothing wrong. A California court already disagreed once.
New Hampshire Just Told Vail Resorts: You Can't Charge Sales Tax Here
The state's attorney general is investigating Vail's new 3.2% 'blended sales tax' on Epic Passes. In a state that famously has no sales tax. This should be fun.
Week Ahead: The Final Countdown
Yesterday killed half the remaining resorts. Colorado has exactly one week left. Mammoth's having its own private winter. And Vail's pass sales hangover has officially begun.
Vail Just Confirmed What Everyone Already Knew: This Was a Catastrophe
Skier visits down 14.9%. Rocky Mountain visitation cratered 25%. Pass sales for next year are already soft. And this weekend, half the remaining resorts close for good -- right as a spring storm rolls in.
Aspen Closed on Bare Grass. A Pennsylvania Resort Is Making Snow. This Season Broke Reality.
The NYT just wrote Colorado's ski obituary. Mammoth's getting buried. Camelback is 11 days past its longest season ever. And this week's storm might give the last holdouts one more powder day.
Week Ahead: The Last Lap
Saturday's mass closures chopped the list to 15. A zombie resort came back from the dead. Mammoth has another storm inbound. And a Super El Niño might save next season.
The Forest Service Just Told Ski Resorts They Don't Have to Be Ski Resorts Anymore
A quiet rule change dropped three weeks ago. After the worst season in 50 years, it might be the most important story in skiing.
Vail Closed a Swiss Resort on Easter. The Alps Are Not Amused.
1,200 signatures. Excellent snow. A furious community. And a 2027 World Championships on the horizon. Welcome to Vail Resorts' European chapter.
Week Ahead: The Last 23 Standing
Only 23 western resorts are still open. Utah gets a surprise April storm. A 'forgotten coup' explains how the ski monopoly happened. And 85% of ski workers are alarmed about climate change.
Vermont Has More Open Resorts Than Colorado. Nobody Saw That Coming.
Nine mountains still spinning in the Green Mountain State while the West shuts down. Plus: Vail angers Swiss locals, the antitrust lawsuit goes deeper, and where to ski this weekend.
Lindsey Vonn Wants Another Comeback. Yes, Really.
Two months after a crash that nearly cost her a leg, the 41-year-old is already talking about 'one more run.' Here's why nobody should be surprised.
Week Ahead: Vail Closes Wednesday. The Lights Are Going Out.
The biggest ski resort in Colorado is calling it quits 11 days early. Just 7 resorts remain statewide -- and the numbers are dropping fast everywhere.
Last Call: The Biggest Closing Weekend in Decades
Easter Sunday will kill more ski seasons simultaneously than any day in recent memory. Here's where to make your last turns -- and who's hanging on.
The Ski Pass Duopoly Is Getting Sued
A class-action antitrust lawsuit claims Vail and Alterra rigged the game. Here's what it means for your wallet.
The Season in Numbers: A Statistical Autopsy of 2025-26
Today is April 1 -- the single most important day in western snowpack measurement. This year, the numbers are a horror show. Here's every stat that matters from a season that fell apart.
Week Ahead: April's Last Gift -- A Storm Arrives Just in Time for the Funerals
Reuters is writing obituaries for the ski industry. Meanwhile, 6-9 inches are headed for the Rockies and PNW. Here's who can still use them.
The Season Ends, But Shiffrin Doesn't
Mikaela Shiffrin ties the all-time record with her 6th overall World Cup globe -- clinched in a giant slalom, the discipline that nearly ended her career. Meanwhile, the worst closure wave in Western ski history rolls on.
The Reckoning
A disastrous season, an antitrust lawsuit, and a CEO admitting the model is broken. The ski industry's worst winter just became an existential moment.
The Two-Speed Season: Baker Gets 2 Feet While Tahoe Loses 60% of Its Snowpack
The Pacific Northwest is having the time of its life. Everyone else is watching the season melt away. Here's why the weather pattern split the West in half.
Week Ahead: The Great Meltdown -- 50+ Resorts Closed Early and the Dominoes Keep Falling
The 2025-26 ski season is in full collapse across the West. Here's who's still standing, who gave up, and what comes next.
The Spring Skiing Survival Guide
Half the West is closing early. The other half is hanging on. Here's exactly where you can still ski -- and where you should be heading right now.
Pass Wars 2026-27: The Full Breakdown
Epic vs Ikon vs Mountain Collective vs Indy Pass. Every price, every perk, every angle -- and who should buy what.
The Season That Fell Apart
California is melting. Colorado bookings are cratering. Resorts are shutting down weeks early. And the CEO of Alterra just walked out the door. A postmortem on the worst Western ski season in decades.
Week Ahead: California Is Melting, Minnesota Is Buried, and the Season Is Splitting in Half
The worst March heatwave in California history is killing ski resorts while the Midwest digs out of a blizzard. Welcome to the weirdest week of 2026.
Friday the 13th: The Luckiest and Unluckiest Week in Skiing
Washington is drowning in snow. California's shutting down. The Paralympics are melting. And Ikon wants $1,399 for next year.
The Best Ski Pass for Every State (2025-26 Season)
Epic, Ikon, Indy, or something else entirely? We broke it down for all 37 states with ski resorts.
Week Ahead: The PNW Is About to Get Buried
Washington's biggest storm of the season, Telluride's courtroom drama, and Colorado's warm spell that won't quit
Pass Wars 2026: Skiing Has an Affordability Crisis
Vail just slashed prices for Gen Z. That tells you everything about where the industry is headed.
Pass Wars 2026: The Affordability Crisis
Vail just dropped a 20% Gen Z discount on Epic Pass. Here's what it means -- and what it doesn't.
March Madness: Where to Chase Spring Snow
Forget the bracket. Here's the only March competition that matters -- who's got the deepest base heading into spring.
Ikon Just Quietly Became Epic's Biggest Threat on Mobile
Alterra partnered with Slopes for real stat tracking, then hired a Marriott exec to run the whole thing. The pass war just moved to your phone.
Resorts Are Closing Early. Others Never Opened at All.
The 2025-26 snow drought is hitting small ski areas hardest -- and the forecast isn't helping
The Blizzard of 2026 Just Buried the Northeast. Yawgoo Valley Got Three Feet.
Winter Storm Hernando dumped 2-3 feet across the Northeast megalopolis. 37.9 inches at T.F. Green Airport. And Rhode Island's only ski area is having the time of its life.
9 Dead in Tahoe Backcountry Avalanche -- California's Deadliest on Record
Three guides and six clients killed near Castle Peak. The worst U.S. avalanche since 1981.
Week Ahead: Late Feb Storm Train
Wednesday's CO system has models fighting -- here's what we know
USA Wins Hockey Gold on the Anniversary of the Miracle on Ice. You Can't Script This.
Jack Hughes scores in OT to beat Canada 2-1 -- on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice.
Shiffrin's Redemption, Skimo's Arrival, and the Best Week of the Olympics
A slalom masterclass, a brand new sport, and one very torn ACL.
You Can Literally Bet on Snow Now
Prediction markets are eating everything. We brought them to skiing -- minus the losing money part.
Mid-Olympics Check-In: Alpine Skiing by the Numbers
Seven of ten alpine events are done. Here's the data dump.
Colorado's Biggest Storm of the Season Lands Tuesday
2+ feet on the peaks, avalanche danger at extreme levels, and finally some relief for a drought-stricken season.
Epic vs Ikon: Who's Winning the Snow War?
We pulled the live data for both mega-passes. Here's who's actually skiing on more snow right now.
Massive Storm Incoming: 3-5 Feet for the Sierra This Week
Winter Storm Warnings from Tahoe to Mammoth. Ridge gusts over 100 mph. This is the real deal.
The Olympics Are in Our Backyard: A SnowRadar Guide to Cortina d'Ampezzo
Cortina isn't just an Olympic venue. It's one of the best ski destinations in the world.
The 2025-26 Mid-Season Report Card: Who's Got Snow, Who's Praying for It
We pulled the numbers for every resort in our system. Here's what's going on.
Gondola One: Vail Dropped $20 Million on a Lift and It Was Actually Worth It
A deep dive into the numbers, engineering, and impact of Vail's flagship gondola.
Top 10 On-Mountain Dining Experiences
Because the best ski days include at least one meal that makes you forget you're at 10,000 feet.
Top 10 Chairlifts That Changed Skiing
Engineering firsts, capacity game-changers, and the lifts that rewired how we get uphill.
Top 10 Ski Resorts for Powder Chasers
Ranked by actual snowfall data. Because vibes don't measure in inches.
Top 10 Most Underrated Ski Resorts in North America
Skip the megaresorts. These places are better than their reputation and your lift line will prove it.
Top 10 Ski Resorts for Beginners (That Won't Bore Your Expert Friends)
Great learning terrain AND enough steep stuff to keep everyone happy. Yes, these places exist.
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