The season teased us with snow in dribs and drabs–a few inches here, another few there, the occasional “big dump” of maybe a foot followed by two weeks of nothing. Snowmaking crews valiantly made snow whenever the conditions allowed and opened what terrain they could (and a lot they shouldn’t) and people grimly took to the slopes following the adage that bad skiing is better than no skiing. Now it’s the waning days of March. Resorts are closing a month early and people have pretty much given up for the season. Am I done? Unless we get a surprise April blizzard, I have to assume this is the end.

Corona in mid-January should look like this… …not this!

Is bad skiing better than no skiing? Definitely. I managed a respectable 15 days on the slopes this season, which is about average. Even leaving aside the traditional October and November outings which you expect to be type II fun, only maybe half of those days could be categorized as “decent”, but nearly all were at least worth the drive.

ABasin in December She’s a full-sized human. Also very cold. Fashion crimes were committed. This is the temporary uphill route because there wasn’t enough snow on the regular route. Hiking to some sweet Parsen powder with The Andy Lovely uphill at Copper. The Continental Divide in March. Who’s snowplowing down the bunny slope now?

Despite the snow, I don’t regret the season. While the terrain choices were often limited and the possibility of ski damage was very real (as Joe discovered the expensive way), good times were had. Here are some highlights:

• Exploring hard terrain in Spaulding and Copper Bowls with Joe. Prime conditions in The Taco and discovering the great Spaulding Glades.
• Solo Sunday morning at Eldora after an 18 inch dump pushing myself a little too hard in the West Ridge glades.
• Shirtsleeve weather over Spring Break with the whole family at Copper and Loveland
• Finding a surprisingly good hike-to powder stash at Winter Park with Joe and Andy.
• Carrying our skis down the Continental Divide to huge fields of spring snow with Joe.
• Vibing to a great guitar player on the deck at 12,000′ while enjoying lunch.
• A surprisingly nostalgic couple of runs with Jeremy at Copper.
• Skinning up through the peaceful woods of Copper’s West Village while Joe was demoing skis.

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A decade of family skiing If you can’t have good snow, at least have a good time.

This year marks our eleventh season of skiing as a family! We started our journey with four-day-seasons on the bunny slopes of Keystone in 2015-16 and 2016-17 when the kids were between three and eight. It got the kids skiing (off the leash, even!) and gave all of us a bit more confidence. And while the kids were warming up in the lodge, the parents took turns out doing their own thing (in my case, usually in the trees with Jeremy).

From the 2017-18 season onward, we graduated from four days/year at Keystone to dozen-day Ikon Pass seasons, logging many days at Eldora, Winter Park, and Copper as well as a few days here and there at Steamboat, ABasin, and even more exotic places. Everyone progressed; the girls are both moderate black skiers now, Joe has progressed to very agressive can-and-does-ski-anything, and even I am capable of skiing nearly anything, even though I may choose not to.

Even the trip to the ski shop was a Big Deal. Non-skiing adventure on the Outpost Gondola Captain Power Wedge skis Jack Kendrick at WP. One adult skiing with three kids… actually it was great! Ski date with this cutie (about to ski her first black run). Skiing with this guy has only become more fun! Scouting mission into deepest Eagle Wind (with views of the Cirque) Here comes the Cirque Sled.

One of the joys of the last decade has been skiing not just with my family but with other friends. Multiple spring breaks were spent in big multi-family houses and changing ski partners each day. We would even coordinate day trips to one place or another and fill multiple chairs with friends. However, time has gone on and as kids get busier and their relationship with skiing changes we’ve done this less and less. Indeed this season, I only skied (briefly even) with two friends: Andy for a couple laps in Winter Park and Jeremy for a few gleeful runs at Copper. Joe and I still got out for a couple of hard days together (which is a joy), but the girls only got half a dozen days skiing, at most. Largely I was skiing on my own all season and this is a trend which has been building for a while now.

Where to from here?

It’s once again time to buy a pass for next season. Joe is headed off to college and probably won’t have much time to ski with his old man. Ellie is not nearly as interested in skiing as her brother. Amy still loves it, but isn’t going to be doing the hard skiing I find most motivating… Even if we get great snow next season, I’m not sure how inspired I am to spend nearly $1k each to ski, plus the cost of lodging for extended trips and all the other costs associated with the sport. Maybe it’s time for a break.

Returning to Loveland after 12 years absence was fantastic. Perhaps we get a couple of Loveland 4-packs and I mix backcountry with occasional Loveland days. Perhaps this is the season to try one of the independent passes that gives you a couple days each at the lesser-known areas we’ve been meaning to check out.

Perhaps 2026-27 will be my much-anticipated Season of Backcountry. Without a pass, I’d be much more inspired to hit Brainard, Berthoud, East Portal, and a bunch of other stashes I’m not going to reveal here; that’s closer to the unsullied mountain time I crave than resort skiing even at its best. You have to work ten times harder per bit of skiing, but so be it.

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Here are the season statistics for those who care about such things (mostly me).

Date     Location                      Runs     Vertical
10/29/25 ABasin #1: white ribbon      18 runs, 13596'
11/30/25 Eldora #1: better late        7 runs, 6967'
12/27/25 Copper #1: better than not   12 runs, 17324'
12/28/25 Copper #2: cold and dumpy    10 runs, 16317'
12/29/25 ABasin #2: spacin basin      12 runs, 10416'
1/11/26  Eldora #2: icy traffic jam    7 runs,  7480'
1/25/26  Eldora #3: restoring faith   10 runs, 11300'
2/1/26   Winter Park: Good/Bad/Ugly   13 runs, 13660' (inc. 2 hikes)
2/16/26  Eldora #4: spring skinning    5 runs,  6437' (inc. 1 skin)
2/22/26  Copper #3: Taco Sundae       15 runs, 15325'
2/28/26  Copper #4: skin in the game   6 runs,  5248' (inc. 1 skin)
3/8/26   Eldora #5: Daylight SaltoTime 8 runs,  9726'
3/19/26  ABasin #3: ice and slush     14 runs, 15171'
3/20/26  Copper #5: Crimes of Fashion 13 runs, 13093'
3/21/26  Loveland!                    14 runs, 11146'
Days: 15
Resorts: 5
Total vertical: 173kft
Lift-served laps: 160
Leg-served laps: 4
Number of friends and family members skied with: 5

Here are links to the other ski retrospectives for posterity: 2015-16, 2017-18, 2018-19, 2019-20, 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23, 2023-24, 2024-25.