Ask anyone in Colorado and they’ll tell you that this ski/snowboard season was a doozy. Low snowfall, warm weather, and general poor conditions made for a short, lackluster winter, forcing many resorts to close up their season early. I’m generally not too swayed by poor conditions (skiing is skiing), but the lack of open, quality terrain left me reconsidering heading into the mountains pretty much every week. Based on recent numbers from Colorado Ski Country USA, it seems I was definitely not alone.
According to Steamboat Pilot & Today, the 2025/2026 Colorado ski season saw the least amount of recreators on the slopes since the 1991/1992 season. Across the state’s ~28 ski resorts, an estimated 10.5 million skiers and snowboarders hit the slopes. That’s 3.3 million skier visits less than the 2024/2025 season.
According to preliminary data published by the National Ski Areas Association, skier visits across the country were down by about 9 million people this winter. The Rocky Mountain West represented two thirds of the country’s decline in skier visits, with roughly 52.6 million skiers and snowboarders hitting the 300+ ski areas across the United States. Colorado represented 20% of the nationwide skier visitations despite the sharp decrease.
Meanwhile on the East Coast, Vermont saw it’s largest number of skier visits since the 2014/2015 ski season, with more than 4.35 million skiers and snowboarders visiting the state’s many ski areas. If you’ve payed attention this winter that won’t be all that surprising to learn, as many Vermont ski areas saw some serious snow and quality conditions throughout the winter.
It seems pretty evident that the decrease in visitors was caused by the poor conditions. We don’t need a super deep investigation into the ski season to figure that one out. It will certainly be interesting to see if this past year’s winter conditions lead to hesitations in booking ski trips or purchasing season passes ahead of time as uncertainty over the 2026/2027 season lingers.
