This winter season, snowfall has come very late. Usually there is heavy snow by the end of October, but this year there wasn’t snow in Manitou Springs until late November. The snowboarders and skiers particularly have been affected by this. Not many ski resorts are currently open and the ones that are, are making their own snow through December.
Jack Franklund (12) is an avid skier, and this year he’s been out several times and is worried that there won’t be a great season. “It kind of makes me nervous about buying passes for the upcoming years if they’re even going to be worth spending because they’re getting more and more expensive. Like this year it was four or $500 right when they came out,” Franklund said.
Franklund doesn’t want to have to be worried about not having a good skiing season. “It’s terrible just looking at, like last season’s snow compared to now. It’s just underwhelming and kind of scary because it feels like every week that we think we’re gonna get good snow, and we’re actually starting to pick up next week, it’s warm again,” Franklund said. “This previous week was about a total of like 20 inches of snow, and then this week, we’re back in 40 degree weather, 50 degree weather, so it’s all gone and we’re pushing into December.”
Franklund has been skiing quite a lot this season, and he hasn’t liked the experience very much, because there are limited resorts to go to. “We’re still waiting for not even a third of the mountain to be open. So it’s disappointing, underwhelming. It’s upsetting, just because of how much money you spend to go and for passes and all that to just be left with a third of the mountain open,” Franklund said.
Franklund has also noticed a change in his usual life around this time because of the late snow. “Usually we’re planning trips right now, cabin trips, weekend stays, several day trips, and it’s hard to schedule those and follow through with them when going up isn’t worth spending the money on cabin gas money just all all the things that you usually do at this time are just not available,” Franklund said.
Lawrence Housley who is a teacher at Manitou Springs High School is a skier and a snowboarder. He skis and snowboards a lot, but he sees some positives in the late snow. “I haven’t gone out to ski or snowboard once this season ; but honestly, the warm weather has allowed me to rock climb outside more,” Housley said, “so in some sense, it works well for me.”
Housley along with many other people have noticed the impacts of the late snow and it brings concerns to future winter seasons. “Every year has been warmer and drier,” Housley said. “I mean, we do have snowier years for sure, but the erratic weather behavior is concerning, for sure.”
Housley has been skiing and snowboarding for a long time. He hopes to have snow later in the season, so he can have a good backcountry skiing and snowboarding season. “I’m mainly a back country skier in snowboarders, so I really wouldn’t be going out much at this point. We usually wait until later in the winter, when the snow’s deeper and or safer. So I’d say no, but I guess I do know people that do get out around this time, and it’s definitely impacted people I know,” Housley said.
Ryder Otterstetter (11) is a snowboarder at MSHS, and he hasn’t been able to go snowboarding very much this season. “It does worry me a little that we will get less snow in the future, but at the same time, I still believe in the snow,” Otterstetter said. “I’m excited for a powder day that’s gonna be fun. Just bomb down hills.”
Otterstetter is hopeful for a snowy season later in the year. “It makes me mad, but it brings me hope that there will be a lot more snow later in the year,” he said.
Housley is also hopeful, because he doesn’t usually go early in the year. “I usually don’t do much skiing, snowboarding until closer to the spring, and I imagine by then, hopefully we will have snow in the mountains,” Housley said, “So we’ll see.”
Due to record breaking heat waves that had an increase of 20-30°F in the late skiing and snowboarding season starting in March, several resorts have closed. Eight skiing resorts have closed just in the month of March due to little to low snowpack, abnormally high temperatures, and poor winter weather conditions.
There are still several ski resorts that are still open, but most of them are under 30% open and have barely any snow. Even the large resorts like Crested Butte, Copper Mountain, Telluride, and Aspen, are having difficulties with staying open. The only thing that is keeping them open is the artificial snow. Due to the unexpected heatwaves, the 2026 skiing and snowboarding season is coming to an end, with a late start, and now an early finish.
Updated April 7.
