Good morning, Stoke Crew. Fall is something special. Two weeks of pure magic and then it's gone. The colors are already fading in some spots, which means there's only one thing left to look forward to. Our favorite color: white...

Todays report is a good one! :)

Stay STOKED - Tyler

 
 
 

In today's report

 
  • ❄️ Who opens first on I-70?
  • 🎿 Unlimited A-Basin on Ikon Base
  • ☀️ 85% of Aspen's snow stash survived
  • 🌲 Pitkin votes to run the Bells
  • 📉 Vail sold 12% fewer passes

Skiing

 

🏔️ Countdown to first chair

 
 

❄️ The snow guns are loaded along I-70. Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, and Loveland have no set opening day this year. Each one spins the second the weather cooperates, so a run of cold nights picks the first chair of the 2026-27 season.

 

The beta on what "cold" means here. Snowmaking kicks in somewhere around 26 to 28 degrees, but not on a regular thermometer. Crews go by wet bulb, which bakes humidity into the reading. Cold, dry nights are ideal!

 
  • Keystone is the defending champ. It opened October 25 last season, making it the first in North America. It wants a repeat. Its base sits almost 1,500 feet below its two rivals. A 2019 upgrade closes that gap with guns that read the weather and fire themselves up.
  • A-Basin grew its gun fleet by four this year and has every fan gun out and ready. "We have not quite seen snowmaking temperatures yet, but we are getting closer," COO Al Henceroth wrote in a September 26 post.
  • Loveland tends to circle October 1 for its first snowmaking. It's been blowing snow for 60 years, longer than almost anyone in Colorado.
  • The wild card is Wolf Creek, which opens on natural snow and ranks among Colorado's snowiest resorts. About two feet fell right before its October 22 opener in 2024, and it beat the whole state.
 

Why It Matters: On the Front Range, October skiing is basically a birthright. Colorado hasn't gone a fall without it since 1992. Keeping that streak alive after last winter matters for more than bragging rights. It's the first paying day of the season, and it's the day every local's winter officially starts!

 
 
 

🎿 Ikon base pass just got a lot better for Colorado. Alterra rolled out its list of what's new for 2026-27 on September 24, and the Front Range headline is access. The cheaper Base Pass now comes with unlimited Arapahoe Basin plus five Snowmass days. Current prices hold through October 8.

 
  • Aspen Mountain's lift map changed. Bell Mountain's summit will be one fast chair ride from Gondola Plaza this winter, thanks to a new quad called Nell Bell. It takes over for both the Little Nell and Bell Mountain lifts.
  • Snowmass's Ullrhof comes back this winter, and it cost $42 million to redo. It now holds 600-plus people, over twice what it used to. It's also the resort's first mountain restaurant that runs purely on electricity.
  • Utah is busy too. Deer Valley hits a record 4,500 acres once Hail Peak Express opens another 200, with seven more runs and a 32nd chairlift. Over in Idaho, Sun Valley debuts two new chairs, Christmas and Lookout Express.
  • Three Midwest hills are new to Ikon, plus SilverStar in B.C. and three resorts in Asia. Five bonus mountains got added too, including Wyoming's Snowy Range and Idaho's Tamarack.
 

Why It Matters: If you're a Front Range skier stuck between passes, this one's hard to ignore. Unlimited A-Basin on the cheaper Ikon tier means the East Wall, the Beavers, and those long spring days on the Beach are all covered. And Keystone's Epic crowd is right down the road watching.

 
 
 

🚠 Loveland is swapping out Lift 2. The mid-1980s Yan triple gives way to the Forest Meadow Lift, a high-speed quad going in summer 2027. It'll be only the second fast chair on the hill. The goal is to clear the logjam where Lift 2 unloads now, so the new chair drops riders in Forest Meadow, with access to Ptarmigan and Lifts 4, 6, and 9.

 

Its line runs through the Cat's Nix double-black glades. Last winter's poor snow year helped delay the project, and Loveland also paused an approved 500-spot parking expansion at Loveland Valley.

 
 
 

☀️ Aspen's summer snow stash survived. Aspen Snowmass hoped to save about 80% of the snow it snow farmed at Buttermilk and Snowmass in April. It saved 85% by volume, according to drone measurements from August 31. It's the first time a Colorado resort has tried Snow Secure's Finnish-made covers.

 

Under the covers, the snow sat around 33.6 degrees while the tops cooked near 118. The plan is to use it for early-season terrain parks, so the jumps don't have to wait on cold nights.

Recreation

 

🔑 New keys at the Maroon Bells

 
 

🌲 The Maroon Bells are getting a new operator. Pitkin County will run the campgrounds, parking lots, and the rest of the scenic area once the 2027 season opens. The land stays federal. County commissioners signed off unanimously on September 23, and the feds get the final word after a 15-day comment period that opened the next day.

 

Some beta on this. Big federal land decisions normally get a formal environmental review, which can take months. The Forest Service wants to use a shortcut called a categorical exclusion instead. It's meant for actions that barely change the ground, and the agency says this qualifies.

 
  • The Forest Service loses $300,000-plus a year running the Bells. The last fee hike was in 1997. Under the county's plan, camping goes from $15 to $33 a night, and vehicle passes triple, to $30 a day or $75 for the season. The shuttle fare stays put for 2027.
  • Every dollar stays at the Bells. Fees go into a dedicated fund, and even the 18% cut owed to the Forest Service gets spent on repairs. About $5 million in deferred maintenance is waiting.
  • The county says the alternative was worse. If Pitkin had passed, the permit would have gone to a private company instead.
 

Why It Matters: Pitkin County stepping up is the best outcome on the table. It shouldn't have come to this, though. When a county has to cover for the Forest Service at the Maroon Bells, the problem isn't in Aspen, it's in Washington.

Business

 

❄️ Vail's rough-winter report card

 
 

📉 Vail's report card is out, and pass sales are down. Season pass revenue for 2026-27 is down about 6% through September 18, and Vail sold roughly 12% fewer passes than it had at the same point last year.

 

Here's why those two numbers don't match. Most of the drop is in limited-day passes bought by out-of-town skiers. Unlimited passes held up better, and pricing helped, so dollars fell slower than the pass count.

 
  • Vail blames last winter, and it has a case. Skier visits across the company fell 13.4% for the year. CEO Rob Katz called it "the most difficult weather environment we have ever experienced." Full-year profit came in at $147.5 million, down from $280 million.
  • Summer was in the red again. Vail lost $190.2 million from May through July, up from $182.4 million a year earlier, and it still beat analysts' estimates.
  • Colorado and Utah locals picked up the pace a bit after the spring deadline. Vail thinks a lot of the missing out-of-towners are waiting, not gone, and hopes to win them back with lift tickets or late pass sales.
  • The forecast for fiscal 2027 assumes a normal winter. Vail sees profit landing between $158 million and $233 million.
 

Why It Matters: Honestly, a lot of skiers skipping the pass this year makes sense. After a winter like the last one, prepaying for days you might not get feels like a bad bet. The fix isn't a marketing campaign. It's a good early season, and nobody in Broomfield controls that.

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Tyler
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