Breck and the rest are limping through April.
On Friday, April 10, Breckenridge Ski Resort closed the high alpine for the season. It might look like there is enough snow on Imperial Bowl and Peak 6, the resort conceded, but the problem is getting back down. The mid-mountain runs are fading fast, and snowcats have run out of snow to farm. There’s only a 20-inch base out there.
For now, Breck is committed to one more weekend at least. Copper and Loveland close in two weeks on April 26. Nowhere in Summit is deeper than 27 inches at the base.
By comparison Jackson Hole, with 347 inches this season, closed for the season yesterday on 40 inches at mid-mountain and 74 inches at the top.
At least Mother Nature this month hasn’t been as brutally weird. In 13 days, Summit has been cooler on average and much cooler on the high end than last month. The Krystalized weather station has not cracked 60 degrees Fahrenheit one time this April. In March we hit 60 degrees or higher 11 times, most of it in the final two weeks.
It’s no surprise that I-70 ski traffic has dried up with our snowpack.
Traffic this weekend, April 10-12, was unseasonably slow for a second consecutive week with 97,854 vehicles in three days. Volume at the Eisenhower-Johnson tunnel was down just slightly from the previous weekend (less than 1%), but down considerably from the same time last year (nearly 13%).
Weekly I-70 traffic counts presented by Dillon Ridge Liquors.