No Snow for CO
Colorado has beautiful ski resorts, though this year has been a little bit too warm for the snow to bless the Rocky Mountains as it usually does. However, there is still skiing to be found this year around the state.
Vail Mountain Resort
It costs $160 for a day pass at Vail Mountain Resort, just a three hour drive from Fort Collins. Right now they are boasting an 18-inch base of manmade snow. They have eight of their 195 slopes open and four of their 31 chair lifts up and running. Unless you enjoy skiing on ice, save your money for a snowier day up in Vail. Last year in December they had a 50-inch base of snow.
Copper Mountain
Just two hours and a half hours away, Copper Mountain sits with a 20-inch deep base. A day pass at Copper Mountain is only $150. They have 19 of 142 runs open and eight of 23 lifts. Last year Copper had almost all of their lifts and runs open late January, so skiers can hope for the best, but it is not looking good for the tenth ranked ski resort in Colorado.
Eldora Mountain
Eldora Mountain is the closest ski resort to Fort Collins and only charges a teenager $100 for a day pass. Eldora has an 18-inch base and a mere 22 of their 69 trails are currently open.
Steamboat Springs
Steamboat Springs is a beautiful ski town with lots of culture, but as of now, their snow base is only 16-inches. Due to the lack of snow, they’ve only opened 24 of their 165 trails, meaning six of the 18 lifts are up and running. A day pass there costs anywhere from $120 to $140. Toward the holidays all ticket prices will go up.
Hopefully, the ski season improves with more snowfall in late December and early January or the ski resorts are going to have a lot of disappointed ski bums.
It sure is a shame we don’t know what’s causing the lack of snow, it’s not like ‘global warming’ is real or anything…
Max is a senior at Rocky Mountain who plays varsity soccer. He is going to be attending Metro State to play soccer next year. He also has a twin sister...
Andrew Mosebar • Feb 2, 2018 at 12:00 pm
Max, I completely agree with you. The ski season has not been good at all this year, if any thing it has been sleazy. The resilience that skiers have had to endure this year has been horrible. Hopefully sooner than later we get a bunch of snow and the aura of happy skiers returns.
Benjamin Thompson • Feb 2, 2018 at 11:58 am
I went up to Snowy Range recently and had a great experience. There was an aura of cheerfulness around all the employees which made getting on and off lifts pretty pleasant. In my opinion there was a lot of snow, even some of the slope signs were inscrutable because of snow coverage.