🥈 Silver Medals & Telluride Drama

Good morning, Stoke Crew. Hope you're all having a solid week out there. Let's not overthink it! Here's what's happening in the outdoor world :)

In today's report

• 🥈 Patrick Halgren won Paralympic silver in the super-G
• 🎿 The Ikon Pass just made A-Basin unlimited access
• ⚖️Telluride Ski Resort is suing
• 📊 The U.S. outdoor recreation economy hit $1.3 trillion
• 🐺 Wolverines & wolves

Today's Stoke Story

🎿 SvendIt": silver for his brother

🥈 Patrick Halgren was not among the medal favorites going into the men's standing super-G at the Milano Cortina Paralympics. He left with silver, his first Paralympic medal, finishing 0.98 seconds behind gold medalist Robin Cuche of Switzerland. France's Jules Segers took bronze.

• When the sun came out over the Tofane Alpine Skiing Centre on Monday, Halgren knew it was going to be a good race. For the past decade, every ray of sunshine on the mountains has been a sign that his late twin brother Sven was watching.
• Halgren's mantra, "SvendIt," is a tribute to his brother. "It's the mantra of send it," he explained. "It's to have courage, be self-aware in the face of adversity." He left SvendIt stickers all over Cortina throughout the Games.
• His parents Kathy and Peter were in the stands for only their third trip abroad ever. Halgren put it bluntly: "They went to Tijuana, Mexico for their honeymoon 50 years ago. They picked up their dead kid in New Zealand, and they've watched me win the Paralympics at the most beautiful ski valley in the world."
• The 33-year-old lost his left leg above the knee after a motorcycle crash in 2013 that put him in a coma for a month. His twin brother Sven encouraged him to try para skiing, then died in a motorcycle crash in New Zealand in 2016. Halgren trains at Winter Park Resort and the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs.

Why It Matters: Halgren lost his leg in a motorcycle crash that put him in a coma for a month. Three years later, he lost the twin brother who convinced him to try para skiing. He spent years putting chains on tires and living in a van named Vanessa, chasing snow 300 days a year. Now he's standing on the Paralympic podium with silver around his neck!! Chase your dreams people !!

MOUNTAIN BRIEFING

❄️ Ikon upgrades, Telluride Ski Resorts sues

🎿 The Ikon Pass just got a significant upgrade for Colorado skiers: the 2026-27 Ikon Base Pass now includes unlimited access to Arapahoe Basin, plus five days at Snowmass, and Ikon holders will no longer need reservations at Aspen Snowmass's four mountains. Passes go on sale March 12.

• Pricing: $1,349 for the full Ikon Pass, $924 for the Ikon Base, and $299 for the Session Pass. A new Squad Pack lets riders ages 23-28 get an Ikon Base for $750 when one person buys five passes at once ($199 savings).
• New risk-free refund option: 100% cash back if you haven't scanned by January 15, or 50% back with a single scan before that date.
• Renewal rewards include up to $300 in mountain credits, a $100 Backcountry.com credit, and other perks. Child passes start at $249 with up to $100 off per child when an adult pass is purchased.

Why It Matters: The A-Basin unlimited upgrade is the headline for Colorado. A-Basin has one of the longest seasons in the state (often open into June), and going unlimited on the Base Pass makes Ikon significantly more competitive with Epic in the I-70 corridor. Combined with dropping Aspen reservations, Alterra is directly responding to the flexibility that Epic Pass holders have long had.

I'd be curious to know how some of the old-time locals at A-Basin feel about this. One of our subscribers, Bart, lives in Keystone and rides A-Basin more than anyone I know… so what are your thoughts, Bart?

⚖️ Telluride Ski Resort is suing three current and former elected officials from Telluride and Mountain Village, alleging they conspired to pressure owner Chuck Horning into selling a majority stake and leveraged the 13-day ski patrol strike to do so. The lawsuit was filed February 24 in San Miguel County District Court.

• The suit names former Mountain Village mayor Martinique Prohaska (who was also a ski patroller), former Telluride council member Meehan Fee, and acting Mountain Village town manager Paul Wisor. It accuses them of using their positions to "harass and pressure" ownership while offering incentives worth "millions of dollars of economic value."
• The backstory: during the December 2025 ski patrol strike that shut down the resort for 13 days, Prohaska and Fee flew to California and presented Horning with a $127.5 million offer for a 51% stake from unnamed investors. The offer included provisions to "cause" the towns to take actions on water rates, housing, air service, and the strike itself, actions that typically require council approval.
• Prohaska resigned in mid-January. Fee resigned after investigations began. Wisor is on paid administrative leave after an accidentally recorded executive session revealed he had connected the two with prospective investors. Both towns have authorized independent investigations.
• The lawsuit alleges the officials violated municipal ethics codes and claims they "represented that they had the power to control a labor strike" to pressure ownership.

Why Its interesting The Telluride saga has gone from a ski patrol strike to mayoral resignations to a full-blown lawsuit in three months. At its core is a question about who controls independent ski areas in mountain towns: private owners, local government, or the community itself.

Business

🏦 $1.3 trillion, but Colorado's slowing

📊 The U.S. outdoor recreation economy reached $1.3 trillion in economic output in 2024 up from $1.2 trillion the year before and up 84% since 2012, according to new data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. The industry created 5.2 million jobs and accounted for 2.4% of GDP, making it larger than agriculture, mining, and utilities.

• Colorado's outdoor economy contributed nearly $18 billion and grew 3.6% in 2024, but that was below the national average of 4%. The state slipped from 12th to 32nd in growth rankings, though it remains 10th overall in total output and first in the nation in winter recreation ($1.6 billion).
• The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable noted the industry is facing headwinds from inflation, tight margins, supply chain friction, tariffs, and changing consumer behavior post-pandemic. "Americans continue to get outside in record numbers, yet purchasing has slowed," said president Jess Turner.
• Colorado's own Statewide Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plan (SCORP) shows $52.1 billion in outdoor recreation spending and 404,000 jobs using different (survey-based) methodology, versus the BEA's tax-receipt approach of $18 billion. Both tell the same story: outdoor recreation is massive, but growth is decelerating.
• Industry boosters are pushing implementation of the EXPLORE Act (signed by Biden in January 2025) and advocating for more investment in public lands and recreation infrastructure.

Why It Matters: The outdoor recreation industry loves to trumpet that trillion-dollar number, and it's earned it. But the growth story is shifting: Colorado went from outperforming the nation to falling behind in a single year. For a state whose identity is built around the outdoors, slipping from 12th to 32nd in growth is a signal. Factor in the worst snow year on record, declining ski visits, and rising costs. Unfortunately, things could be looking very different in a few years :/

Enviroment

⛰️ Wolverines, wolves, and snowpack

🐾 Colorado is preparing to bring wolverines back after a century-long absence. A 106-page restoration plan calls for releasing up to 45 wolverines over three or more winters across 18,600 square miles of high-alpine habitat, the largest unoccupied historic range in the Lower 48. Three release zones span from Rocky Mountain National Park to the San Juans.

🐺 California has distributed more than $3.5 million to ranchers as gray wolves continue expanding across the northern part of the state. Siskiyou County has received over $2 million. The Wolf-Livestock Compensation Program covers direct kills, "pay for presence," and deterrent tools, making it the most comprehensive in the nation.

🏔️ California's Sierra snowpack is running critically low with essentially no historical precedent for recovery this late in the season. Statewide: 66% of average. Northern Sierra: 46%. DWR's hydrology manager said no season in the past 25 years with snowpack this low has ever recovered by April 1.

What else is going on

• Seven-hour rescue at Red Rock Canyon after climber falls 40-50 feet. A climber on the Dream Safari route suffered severe head and back injuries when their gear unclipped mid-fall, extending what should have been a 12-15 foot fall into a life-threatening 40+ foot drop that destroyed their helmet but likely saved their life.
• TGR athlete Molly Armanino out for the season after breaking both her tibia and fibula in Austria. The freak accident happened when she caught a buried rock beneath the snow after landing a cliff drop, ending her competitive season after a standout 3rd place finish at the FWT World Championships in Andorra.
• Mammoth Mountain contests Cal/OSHA findings on ski patroller death. California regulators found the resort at fault and issued a $26,810 fine for safety violations after patroller Claire Murphy died in a February 2025 avalanche, citing failures to establish safe zones and provide adequate safeguards during mitigation work but Mammoth is appealing the determination.

📚 Trailhead Trivia

What percentage of California's water supply comes from Sierra snowmelt in a typical year?

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Around 30%