Good morning, Stoke Crew. The sun's clocking out at 4:45pm like it's got somewhere better to be, but winter still hasn't fully committed. Classic. While we wait for the season to get its act together, here's your Tuesday Stoke!
In today's report
- Mikaela Shiffrin dominates at home
- Where have the wolves been?
- Colorado billionaire rancher faces up to $65K in daily fines
- Denver finally gets snow!
Events
🎿 Colorado World Cup Results
In front of a sold-out crowd of 11,000 fans at Copper Mountain, Mikaela Shiffrin put on a clinic to claim her 104th World Cup victory by 1.57 seconds and remain perfect in slalom this Olympic season! The Vail native, racing just 30 minutes from her hometown of Edwards, posted the fastest times in both runs and this marks her 3rd consecutive win. The home crowd energy was electric, with Shiffrin telling fans afterward that their cheering literally carried her down the hill and the louder they got, the harder she pushed.
Germany's Lena Duerr claimed second place after moving up from ninth following the opening run, while teenage Albanian star Lara Colturi secured third despite an early mistake in her second run, marking her third consecutive podium finish to start the season.
Why It Matters: These wins show Shiffrin is in peak racing form heading into the Olympic season. After last year's Killington crash left her with a puncture wound that sidelined her for two months, she's back skiing with confidence and looking dialed for a shot at slalom gold in Milan Cortina where the 2026 Winter Olympics are hosted.
- World Cup slalom skiing is a race where athletes ski down a steep course filled with tightly spaced gates they must zig-zag around as fast as possible. Each skier takes two runs on slightly different courses, their times are added together, and the fastest total time wins. Because the gates are close together, slalom is all about super quick turns, fast reflexes, and precise technique. Only the top 30 from the first run get to take a second run, and the second run starts in reverse order (30th goes first), which creates excitement as the leaders race last.
Environment
🐺 💰Wolves & Billionaires & Weather
Colorado's reintroduced gray wolves are roaming closer to the Front Range than ever before, with the latest tracking data showing at least one collared wolf exploring watersheds in Boulder, Jefferson, Adams and Broomfield counties between late October and late November. The monthly Colorado Parks and Wildlife map, which tracks 20 GPS-collared wolves, revealed the animals retreated from southwestern counties near the Utah and New Mexico borders, while maintaining heavy activity across central and northern mountain areas like Pitkin, Eagle, Summit, Grand, Jackson and Routt counties.
A Texas billionaire could be hit with fines up to $65,544 per day after Colorado regulators determined his controversial 8-foot fence around Cielo Vista Ranch in the San Luis Valley violated state water quality laws. William Harrison, heir to a Texas oil fortune who bought the 88,000-acre ranch (which includes Culebra Peak, the only privately owned fourteener in the United States) in 2017 for $105 million, started building the perimeter fence in 2020 without obtaining required permits for water quality impacts.
The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment issued a cease-and-desist order on November 12 after inspectors found no erosion or runoff control at 12 locations during visits in June and October 2024, along with improperly managed construction waste and failed erosion control technologies. The violations created increased potential for sediment and polluted stormwater containing heavy metals to discharge into the watershed that serves as the lifeblood for San Luis Valley residents.
Why It Matters: This enforcement action delivers a major win for the San Luis Valley community that's been fighting this fence since 2020, particularly after residents explained how erosion could wash heavy metals and sediment into their water supply. The controversy centers on land tracing back to the 1844 Sangre de Cristo Land Grant, which guarantees descendants of original Hispanic settlers access to the mountain for grazing livestock and gathering firewood. So when Harrison builds a 20-mile, 8-foot fence (even with 9 gates requiring keys and coordination with ranch managers), he's making it much harder for these families to exercise rights they've held for 180 years.
Denver's epic snow drought is officially over! After 224 days without measurable snowfall, the city finally recorded 0.2 inches Friday night at Denver International Airport, marking the second-latest first snow on record and ending the fourth-longest snowless stretch in Denver history. The last time Denver saw measurable snow was April 19, creating a gap that fell just eight days short of the all-time record 232-day streak set in both 1887 and 2021. The timing makes November 29 the second-latest first snowfall date ever recorded for Denver, trailing only December 10, 2021.
This historically late start to winter highlights the warm, dry pattern that's hammered Colorado all fall, leaving the state's snowpack at dangerously low levels heading into ski season. The South Platte basin sits at just 25% of normal while southwestern Colorado languishes in the teens, with patches of Pitkin and Eagle counties slipping into extreme drought. Ski resorts have been relying heavily on snowmaking to stay open through the slow start.
- The good news is that weather patterns appear to be shifting with more storms lined up as December begins, and meteorologists point out that Colorado has recovered from similar late starts before (2016 was in the teens and 20% of normal in fall but finished at or above normal by late spring 2017).
What else is going on
- Epic Pass liability case could reshape ski resort waivers. The Colorado Supreme Court will hear arguments on whether a snowboarder who collided with a resort snowmobile at Breckenridge can sue despite signing Epic Pass waivers, potentially redefining liability protections across the ski industry.
- TGR athletes Kirsty Muir and Troy Podmilsak win Big Air World Cup in Secret Garden, China. Both skiers secured their first-ever World Cup victories in the season opener, with Podmilsak landing a massive triple cork 2160 and Muir dominating with a near-flawless double cork 1440.
- Aspen initially approves new Nell Bell lift to replace aging chairlifts. The high-speed detachable quad would replace the Little Nell and Bell Mountain lifts, increasing capacity to 1,800 people per hour and cutting ride times in half with construction potentially starting in summer 2026.
- Aspen's sustainability campaign sees strong second year with over 1,500 residents educated. The Commit to Tomorrow campaign, launched in partnership with Aspen One and the Aspen Center for Environmental Studies, has installed 37 signs throughout town highlighting the city's environmental progress and goals.
📚 Trailhead Trivia
Can you name this mammal found in Colorado's high country?
⚡️ Share The Stoke
This newsletter is for mountain lovers, first chair advocates, and the ones who live for type 2 fun. Basically, the type of people whose "five-year plan" is just a list of peaks and routes!
If you know someone like that, forward this email or send them to thestokereport.com. Thanks for spreading the stoke — it seriously means a lot!
Answer!
It's an ermine! Also called stoats or short-tailed weasels (Mustela erminea), they are fascinating little predators found throughout Colorado's mountainous regions.
See you soon,
Tyler
Creator — The Stoke Report
