BRECKENRIDGE, Colo. — The lack of snow in Colorado’s high country is not only slowing ski season and making resorts work harder to open terrain.
It’s on everyone’s mind in mountain towns as the New Year approaches.
“Everyone in town is talking about it, from workers to tourists alike,” said Kerry O’Connor with the Breckenridge Tourism Office. “Feel like I see everyone refreshing their phones, looking at the forecast, just looking for any ounce of snow that's coming.
“When you live in a mountain town, snow just sets the flow of the winter. And when it's missing, you can feel it.”
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Towns like Breckenridge are starting to feel it financially. O’Connor says bookings through the holiday season, including New Year’s Eve, are strong and similar to last winter, but that appears to be changing in the coming months.
“Looking into January and February, we're about 6% down for nights on the books,” she told Denver7. “So that tells us that people are cautious. They're waiting maybe a little bit longer to book their trips. They're waiting for the snow to come.”
That being said, O’Connor says it’s actually led some who would normally be skiing to spend more time in town.
“There are still people walking around Main Street, and you can feel that, and that energy is very fun, so that has kind of helped us stay positive, too,” she said. “Every single visit to one of our local shops matters and makes a difference. Every dollar counts.”
New shop sees opportunity
Ramblin Ma’am is a new shop in Breckenridge that opened this October.
Manager Tanner Vincent describes it as not only a boutique, but one that focuses on books and also holds community events. He says while the fall season was predictably slow, the shop has seen more guests than expected this winter, despite the unseasonable warmth and disappointing ski season.
“Even through these struggling times that the mountain is facing, the mountain town is still able to thrive,” Vincent said. “For some of us here on Main Street, [this is] a blessing in disguise that we do have the opportunity to interact with people that are going to be typically out on mountains, now just in our businesses, walking through.”
Vincent, who has lived in Summit County for nearly a decade, says while Front Range locals traffic is noticeably slower this year, many out-of-state visitors have stuck to their holiday travel plans and given the town’s businesses foot traffic and hope for the rest of the season.
“There's still so much strength in our community, whether it be all of the businesses that have been here forever, or businesses such as us that are just getting started,” Vincent said. “Breckenridge and Summit County in general, still has so much to offer outside of just the mountains, outside of just the slopes. The true beauty that you get here on a day-to-day basis is something that you're not able to see everywhere else in the world.”
That being said, more snow would make everything a bit easier and bring more people to town.
“We definitely are praying for that snow,” Vincent admitted.
This year is a far cry from the winter of 1898, when Breckenridge was buried under 20 feet of snow.
Ski resorts adjust
Breckenridge Resort is currently running its alpine roller coaster track, typically a popular summer activity, as the lack of snow persists.
Gold Runner Coaster from noon to 4 p.m. each day through Sunday. After that, the resort said it will “assess which days of the week it will be open.”
The coaster is near the base of Peak 8, and guests can purchase tickets at the Peak 8 ticket office.
Despite not much help from Mother Nature, nearby Keystone Resort is opening its third and final peak, The Outback, on Wednesday. The move will open nine runs and 240 acres, taking the resort total to 708 acres.
“Our teams have been working overnight, throughout the night,” said Sarah Mclear, the resort’s senior manager of communications. “We had that warm spell, and we were only able to make snow overnight, but then the last 48 hours or so, we were able to make snow all day as well. With these colder temps that we're seeing, anytime it's under 28 degrees wet bulb, we can crank those snow guns… This year, especially, it's been super important that our mountain ops team gets creative and uses all their resources to figure out how to best expand our footprint.”
