Fewer Skiers, Same Dangers: Colorado’s 2025–26 Ski Season in Review

Kelly Geraghty on June 9, 2026

Colorado’s 2025–26 ski season was defined by a paradox. The mountains were quieter than they had been in years. Parking lots filled later, lift lines shortened, and I-70 traffic eased. But the death toll held steady and the courtrooms grew louder. After last season’s record crowds and the landmark Colorado Supreme Court ruling on liability waivers, this winter delivered something different: a jury verdict that finally tested those new legal limits, a follow-up case pending before the state’s highest court, and the first federal antitrust action ever filed against the two companies that dominate American skiing.

Key Takeaways

  • At least 13 men died on Colorado slopes in 2025–26, spread across 11 ski areas. All were male, ranging in age from 25 to 74, and the deceased included 12 skiers and one snowboarder.
  • Deaths are the visible tip of a much larger injury picture. Industry data put the national injury rate at roughly 46.8 per 1,000 skier visits in 2022-23, meaning tens of thousands of injuries across Colorado in a typical season. Trauma-center data suggest the real number is higher than resorts publicly acknowledge.
  • Nine of those 13 deaths were trauma-related, all from collisions with trees or falls. None resulted from skier-on-skier collisions, raising hard questions about snowpack and surface conditions.
  • National skier visits fell roughly 14% to 52.6 million, the second-largest annual decline in industry history. Average national snowfall was the lowest in over a decade.
  • A Colorado jury awarded paralyzed skier Annie Miller $12.4 million in September 2025. The verdict was the first to actually pierce a resort liability waiver under the new precedent set by the Colorado Supreme Court.
  • Litterer v. Vail Summit Resorts is now pending before the Colorado Supreme Court, testing whether a waiver signed after an injury can extinguish an active lawsuit.
  • A federal antitrust class action was filed in Denver in March 2026 against Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company. It is the first such case ever brought against the two companies behind the Epic and Ikon passes.
  • The lap-bar debate remains unresolved. Donovan Romero’s death at Keystone in May 2025 sparked calls for a state law mandating restraint bar use, but no such legislation has passed.

A Quieter Mountain Isn’t a Safer One

After a record-breaking 2024–25 campaign, Colorado’s mountains went quiet this winter. National skier visits dropped to roughly 52.6 million, down from 61.6 million the prior year. That 14% decline ranked as the second-largest annual drop in industry history. Average national snowfall came in at about 112 inches, well below the 10-year average of 169 inches and the lowest figure in more than a decade.

Colorado was hit particularly hard. A slow start gave way to mid-winter rain at base areas and ended with record warmth in March that closed terrain early at several resorts. By the time the lifts stopped spinning, the Colorado Sun reported at least 13 deaths on the state’s slopes, a number similar to last season in raw terms. But context matters. With sharply lower visitation, the per-visit fatality rate didn’t fall the way crowds did. The mountain claimed roughly the same number of lives with significantly fewer people on it.

That is the question this season forces the industry to confront: when the snow is bad, is the skiing more dangerous?

The Snow Story: When Less Is More Dangerous

There is a counterintuitive answer emerging from this season’s data, and it deserves attention from anyone who straps into a chairlift in Colorado.

When natural snowfall is scarce, resorts lean heavily on artificial snowmaking. Machine-made snow is not the fluffy western powder Colorado is known for. Researchers and athletes have noted that it is significantly denser, icier, and harder than natural snow. Falls on hard-packed surfaces generate more violent impacts. Skiers reach higher speeds on groomed corduroy laid over a manufactured base. When something goes wrong on that kind of surface, it tends to go wrong harder.

The 2025–26 numbers fit the pattern. Of the 13 reported deaths in Colorado, nine were trauma-related: collisions with trees, or falls. None were skier-on-skier collisions, which historically had driven a meaningful share of the state’s fatality count. Several of the deaths occurred on intermediate, groomed terrain rather than out-of-bounds or extreme runs, a profile consistent with high-speed crashes on hard surfaces rather than reckless skiing in difficult terrain.

The implication is worth sitting with. In a year when the mountains were less crowded than they had been in nearly two decades, the trauma-related death toll did not meaningfully decline. Surface conditions, snowpack quality, and the speed of skiing on hard manufactured snow may matter more than visit totals. And as we’ll see below, fatalities are only the tip of the iceberg. The broader picture of ski-related injuries and accidents involves tens of thousands of cases a year that the industry has structurally avoided counting in public.

The Deaths: Who, Where, and What It Tells Us

The 13 reported deaths spanned 11 different Colorado ski areas. Every one of the deceased was male. Ages ranged from 25 to 74. Only Keystone recorded more than one fatality on its trails.

A few cases stand out for what they suggest about the season’s broader pattern. Troy Miller, a 65-year-old skier, died on Breckenridge’s hike-to Lake Chutes, extreme terrain that demands experience. But other deaths happened on far less aggressive runs. A skier at Beaver Creek died on an intermediate trail after suffering blunt-force head trauma despite wearing a helmet. Jack McGrath died on intermediate terrain at Steamboat. The geography of the season’s deaths is not concentrated in the steep, the technical, or the obviously dangerous. It is spread across blue runs and groomers, the kind of terrain most Colorado skiers spend most of their day on.

That distribution underscores how important head protection and surface conditions remain. A helmet is not a guarantee against blunt-force trauma. On hard, fast snow, a routine fall can translate into an injury that ends a season, or worse. When a resort fails to adequately manage hazards, maintain terrain, or warn guests about specific dangers, ski resort negligence becomes a live legal question regardless of how easy the run was supposed to be.

The Bigger Picture: What the Injury Numbers Actually Show

Fatalities are the easiest number to track because somebody publishes them. The far larger story, the one that affects tens of thousands of Colorado skiers and snowboarders every season, is non-fatal injuries. And here, the data picture is deliberately murky.

Start with what the industry itself reports. The National Ski Areas Association recorded roughly 46.8 injuries per 1,000 skier and snowboarder visits during the 2022-23 season. Applied to Colorado’s typical visitation, which has run between 12 and 14 million visits in recent seasons, that rate alone implies more than half a million injury incidents across the state in a normal year. Even in the lower-traffic 2025–26 season, the figure runs into the hundreds of thousands.

But those numbers significantly understate what actually arrives at hospitals. The Colorado Sun spent two years assembling trauma center and emergency department data from the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment and found a striking gap between what resorts publicly describe and what hospitals actually see. The reporting documented that at peak periods, up to 55 injured skiers and snowboarders arrive at Colorado emergency rooms each day. Across the 2018, 2019, and partial 2020 seasons, 4,151 skiers and snowboarders were transported from resorts to emergency rooms by ambulance or helicopter, about 10 patients every single day of the season. In a single season (2017-18), Colorado’s trauma centers admitted 1,426 skiers and snowboarders, more than a third of whom required immediate surgery.

The injuries themselves are not minor inconveniences. Knee injuries, particularly ACL tears, are the most common, accounting for a substantial share of all skiing injuries. Head injuries account for roughly 15 to 20 percent of cases. Spine, shoulder, and wrist injuries (wrist injuries especially among snowboarders) round out the picture. These are injuries that frequently require surgery, months of physical therapy, and in many cases produce permanent loss of function. They are also, as a category, badly underreported.

The structural problem is straightforward. Unlike virtually every other industry, ski resorts are not required to publicly disclose injury data. The information they do release tends to focus on “catastrophic” injuries narrowly defined, meaning major head, spinal, or paralysis cases, while the much larger universe of serious but non-catastrophic injuries goes unreported. Legislative efforts in Colorado to require detailed injury reporting from resorts have repeatedly stalled in the face of industry opposition.

That reporting gap matters in two practical ways. First, it makes it difficult for the public, and for regulators, to evaluate whether specific resorts are managing hazards effectively. Second, in individual cases, it complicates the work of holding resorts accountable when something goes wrong. Patterns that would be obvious in a transparent reporting environment have to be reconstructed from sheriff’s reports, ambulance records, and trauma center admissions one case at a time. For injured skiers who suspect a resort’s negligence contributed to their injury, that asymmetry of information is part of what makes early legal consultation important. The longer you wait, the colder the evidence gets.

The Legal Earthquake: Annie Miller and the End of Blanket Immunity

The most important legal story of the 2025–26 season actually concluded just before the lifts started spinning. On September 4, 2025, a Broomfield jury returned a verdict that the ski industry had been waiting on for years, and dreading.

In March 2022, 16-year-old Annie Miller, on a ski trip with her Oklahoma church youth group, fell roughly 30 feet from the Paradise Express lift at Crested Butte Mountain Resort when she could not get seated properly. The chair never stopped. She shattered her C-7 vertebra and was left paralyzed.

Vail Resorts, which owns Crested Butte, did what ski resorts in Colorado have done for decades: it argued that the liability waiver Miller’s father had signed on her behalf gave the resort blanket immunity from negligence claims. That defense had succeeded reliably for years. This time, it did not. In 2024, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that waivers do not protect resorts from negligence claims when the resort has violated state safety regulations. The case went to a jury.

After a two-week trial and a day of deliberation, the jury found that Crested Butte lift attendants had violated ANSI safety regulations governing chairlift operation, and that the violation amounted to negligence. The jury assigned 75% of the fault to Crested Butte and 25% to Miller, returning roughly $21.1 million in total damages. After fault apportionment and Colorado’s statutory cap on noneconomic damages, the final award stood at $12.4 million, as detailed in extensive coverage by the Colorado Sun.

The number matters less than what produced it. For decades, Colorado ski waivers were treated, in practice, as nearly impenetrable shields. Miller’s verdict is the first time a jury has looked at the now-narrowed waiver doctrine and actually delivered an eight-figure award against a major resort. The National Ski Areas Association responded by warning publicly about insurance availability and affordability for smaller, independent ski areas. Vail Resorts said it disagreed with the verdict and believed it was inconsistent with Colorado law.

For people considering a lift accident claim, the takeaway is concrete: a signed waiver is no longer a blank check. The combination of a statutory safety violation and resulting injury can now translate into a verdict that holds.

Waivers Under the Microscope Again: Litterer v. Vail

If Miller was the legal earthquake, Litterer v. Vail Summit Resorts is the aftershock, and it could either extend the new doctrine or cabin it.

On December 18, 2020, John Litterer, a Texas snowboarder, was riding at Breckenridge when he was struck by a Breckenridge employee driving a snowmobile uphill against skier traffic on an open run. He suffered serious injuries and sued Vail Resorts and the snowmobile driver, alleging negligence, reckless endangerment, and violation of the Colorado Snowmobile Safety Act.

The complication is what happened next. Two years after the accident, and after he had already filed his lawsuit, Litterer purchased a new Epic Pass for the 2022–23 season. To do so, he clicked through an online waiver agreeing to “release and give up any and all claims and rights that I may now have,” including “those resulting from anything that has happened up to now.” Vail Resorts argued that this second waiver retroactively extinguished his pending claims. The Summit County District Court and the Colorado Court of Appeals both agreed and dismissed his case.

The Colorado Supreme Court accepted the appeal, and on April 16, 2026, the court heard oral arguments in Holyoke, where it was holding a special session at a local high school. The case turns on a question with enormous practical consequences for every Colorado pass holder: can a click-through release purchased after an injury wipe out an active lawsuit?

Litterer’s attorneys argued that under the Miller framework, his claims for gross negligence and statutory violation of the Snowmobile Safety Act could never be waived, and that the second waiver’s broad release language was unenforceable. Vail Resorts’ counsel argued the waiver language was clear and applied by its plain terms. Press accounts of oral arguments suggest the justices were skeptical of Litterer’s bid to revive the case, with several focusing on the fact that he had signed the second waiver knowingly while litigation was pending. As the Denver Gazette reported, the court appeared inclined to accept Vail Resorts’ reading. The ruling has not yet issued.

Either way, the implications will be substantial. A ruling for Litterer would dramatically narrow what waivers can do, particularly for post-injury releases. A ruling for Vail would reaffirm that, even after Miller, click-through waivers retain real legal force in everyday transactions. For anyone navigating a snowmobile-related ski area incident or any injury where a waiver is in play, Litterer is the case to watch heading into the 2026–27 season.

The Lap Bar Problem: Still Waiting for a Law

One of the most preventable tragedies of the year came not on a slope, but on a chairlift. On May 5, 2025, Donovan Romero, a 32-year-old father of two, fell roughly 47 feet from Keystone’s Ruby Express lift and died of his injuries. The restraint bar on his chair was up at the time of the fall.

The bar question has been one of skiing’s longest-running unresolved debates. In the Northeast, where lift bars are required by state regulation in several states, roughly 80% of adult riders use the safety bar. In the Rocky Mountain region, the figure is closer to 36%. Colorado resorts encourage but do not mandate bar use, and no state law requires it.

Romero’s mother, Tonette Romero, has become a public advocate for changing that, calling for a Colorado state law mandating restraint bar use on chairlifts and pressing legislators to act. As of the end of the 2025–26 season, no such bill has passed.

The legal dimension is worth considering. If a resort knows that a guest’s bar is up and takes no action, given what the data say about fall risk, does that create exposure under the negligence framework articulated in Miller? The answer hasn’t been tested in court. But anyone injured in a lift-related accident where the bar was an issue should understand that the legal landscape around lift safety is now markedly different than it was three years ago. Miller turned ANSI safety violations into the foundation of a $12.4 million verdict. The same logic can extend to other operational failures on lifts.

The Megapass Reckoning: Antitrust Arrives on the Mountain

The 2025–26 season also produced something the ski industry has never seen before. On March 23, 2026, a federal class-action lawsuit was filed in U.S. District Court in Denver against Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company, alleging the two companies’ Epic and Ikon megapass strategies constitute an anticompetitive scheme in violation of federal antitrust law.

The 74-page complaint, brought by four named skiers seeking class-action status on behalf of all American skiers and snowboarders, makes a direct argument. Vail Resorts and Alterra have, the suit contends, deliberately inflated single-day lift ticket prices to levels designed to “coerce” customers into purchasing season passes that then look like good value by comparison. Day tickets at Vail ski area climbed from $219 in 2019 to $356 this season; at Alterra’s Steamboat, single-day prices went from $159 to $339 over the same span. Epic Pass prices rose roughly 37% in six seasons to $1,089; Ikon Pass prices rose roughly 40% to $1,399.

The suit further argues that virtually every marquee destination ski resort in North America is now owned by, or contractually tied to, Vail or Alterra, leaving consumers with few alternatives and pressuring independent resorts to either join one of the two megapass ecosystems or risk being shut out of skier demand entirely.

This is the first antitrust action of its kind against the two dominant operators. Vail Resorts has stated publicly that it believes the claims are without merit. Alterra has declined to comment on the active litigation. The case is in its earliest stages.

But the filing matters even if it ultimately fails. It signals a shift in how regulators, plaintiffs’ attorneys, and the public are thinking about the structure of American skiing. Personal injury cases test whether a specific resort acted negligently in a specific moment. This case tests something larger: whether the industry’s market structure itself has produced a degraded product, fewer choices, and inflated prices. It is a different kind of legal exposure than the cases we track at skilaw.com, but it is part of the same broader story of an industry facing real legal pressure on multiple fronts at once.

What It All Means and What Comes Next

The 2025–26 season’s headline finding is uncomfortable but clear: fewer skiers did not produce a meaningfully safer mountain. Trauma deaths held steady on intermediate terrain, suggesting hard manufactured snow and high skiing speeds are doing damage that crowd-management strategies alone cannot fix. At the same time, the legal protections resorts have relied on for decades are not what they were. The Miller verdict gave the new waiver doctrine real teeth. The Litterer case will decide how far that doctrine extends. And for the first time, an antitrust suit is forcing the industry to defend its core business model in federal court.

Three things to watch heading into 2026–27:

  • The Litterer ruling. The Colorado Supreme Court’s decision, likely later this year, will set a major precedent on whether post-injury waivers can extinguish active claims.
  • The lap-bar legislation. Whether Colorado follows the Northeast in mandating restraint bar use will turn on whether the legislature takes up the issue. The advocacy coming out of the Romero case is sustained and well-organized.
  • The snowpack. If poor snow years are becoming the new normal, and a growing body of climate research suggests they are, the industry may face a structural safety problem it cannot waiver away. The longer the trauma-on-hard-snow pattern persists, the more pressure builds for operational changes that personal injury cases, like the ones our practice handles every day, often catalyze.

$1.3 Million Settlement for Snowboard Collision at Steamboat

Kelly Geraghty on April 9, 2026

On March 1, 2024, our client, Y.Y., was seriously injured in a snowboarder/snowboarder collision at Steamboat Ski Resort in Steamboat Springs, Colorado.

Y.Y. was riding on the Tomahawk Face trail when the defendant approached from uphill. As the defendant attempted to pass from above, he lost control and collided into Y.Y. at a high rate of speed. Under Colorado law, uphill riders have the primary duty to avoid those below.

As a result of the crash, our client suffered serious injuries, including a left orbital floor fracture that had to be surgically repaired and a nondisplaced fracture of her left tibia.

Partner Russell Hatten represented Y.Y. in this matter and successfully secured a $1,300,000 settlement on her behalf.

$1,025,000 Settlement for High-Speed Ski Collision at Sun Valley

Kelly Geraghty on March 24, 2026

On January 1, 2024, our client, J.U., was seriously injured in a skier-on-skier collision at Sun Valley Resort in Blaine County, Idaho.

Both J.U. and the defendant were skiing on Upper College, a green circle (beginner) run clearly designated as a slow skiing area on the Bald Mountain trail map. J.U. was skiing downhill, in control of his speed and direction, and was plainly visible to uphill skiers.

The defendant, skiing from uphill, approached at a high rate of speed and overtook J.U. from behind. With no obstructions to visibility, the defendant collided directly into J.U., violating basic skier responsibility rules that require uphill skiers to avoid those below them.

As a result of the collision, J.U. suffered severe injuries to both his left knee and right shoulder. His knee was badly fractured near the joint, with the bone broken into multiple pieces and displaced, along with a torn cartilage. His right shoulder also sustained a fracture and multiple torn tendons, including damage to the rotator cuff and biceps tendon.

In this case, Partner Jim Chalat represented J.U. in this matter and successfully secured a $1,025,000 settlement on his behalf.

$225,000 Settlement for Ski Collision at Powderhorn

Kelly Geraghty on March 24, 2026

On March 13, 2024, our client, G.S., was seriously injured in a ski accident at Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Colorado after being struck by another skier.

G.S. was skiing downhill in control of her speed and direction and was clearly visible to uphill skiers. Under Colorado ski law, downhill skiers have the right of way. The defendant, skiing from uphill, violated this rule by launching off a jump from the wooded edge of the run and entering the trail airborne. He collided directly into the back of G.S., causing significant injuries.

As a result of this skier-on-skier collision, G.S. suffered a torn ACL that required surgical repair. She also experienced ongoing damages, including physical impairment, disability, and disfigurement.

Our attorneys at SkiLaw focus specifically on ski and snowboard accident cases, and we have handled more skier collision cases than any other law firm in the United States. In this case, Partner Evan Banker and Associate Attorney Hunter Hatten successfully secured a $225,000 settlement on behalf of our client.

Colorado Ski Season 2025–26 So Far: Low Snow, Safety Concerns, And Notable Events

Kelly Geraghty on February 5, 2026

Snowpack And Weather Reality

Colorado’s 2025–26 season has been marked by a slower start and persistent concern about snowpack. In late January, statewide snowpack was reported around 58% of the median in coverage that referenced the NRCS Colorado snowpack map and basin summaries, alongside National Weather Service commentary.

Seasonal outlooks have also reflected uncertainty, with the NOAA Climate Prediction Center long-range outlooks showing parts of Colorado in “equal chances” categories for temperature or precipitation, while other areas can be favored for warmer or drier conditions depending on the period.

Low snow does not always mean “no skiing,” but it does change what the season feels like. Thin cover tends to show up as narrower groomed corridors, more closed terrain, and a higher likelihood of exposed hazards after wind events, warm spells, or high-traffic days.

Operational And Community Impacts

Resort Openings, Terrain, And Snowmaking

Colorado resorts still opened, but conditions have influenced how much terrain could be offered and how quickly mountains could expand operations. Some reporting noted that early season snowfall across parts of the West was running well below typical values, which has a downstream effect on how soon expert terrain and off-piste areas become reliably skiable.

On the operations side, lower natural snowfall generally increases reliance on snowmaking. Snowmaking can help build a base on key runs and connect major pods, but it cannot replace natural coverage everywhere, especially on steep or complex terrain and in areas without snowmaking infrastructure. A helpful explanation of how snowmaking capacity varies across resorts and what that means for opening patterns is included in this CBS Colorado explainer on snowpack and resort operations.

Resorts also publish daily operating statuses that reflect these realities, including lift and trail counts, terrain expansion notes, and weather holds. When summarizing how open a mountain is, it helps to cross-check official resort reports with third-party aggregators that compile trail and lift counts, such as the Colorado snow reports on OnTheSnow.

Economic And Community Effects

Low snow can ripple beyond the slopes. Colorado’s winter economy relies on visitation, lodging, restaurants, retail, transportation, and seasonal employment. When snowfall is delayed or inconsistent, booking patterns can shift, and mountain communities can see uneven demand.

There has also been discussion tying low snowpack to broader concerns about drought and wildfire risk later in the year, since a large portion of Colorado’s water supply is stored as mountain snowpack. A season update that summarizes those concerns and outdoor-industry impacts is covered in this Colorado Politics report on low snowpack and statewide implications.

Safety Concerns And Injury Risk Factors

Hazards Of Thin Coverage And Variable Conditions

Low snow conditions can increase injury risk in a few predictable ways, even for competent skiers and riders.

First, thin cover increases the probability of contacting hard objects. Rocks, stumps, and shallowly buried features can catch edges or cause sudden stops. That risk can persist well past opening weeks if storms are spaced out, wind scours exposed faces, or warm periods consolidate the base.

Second, surface conditions can vary more abruptly. A run can shift from soft groomer to scraped hardpack in short stretches, especially during dry spells or after heavy traffic. That variability can contribute to falls and collisions, particularly when people ski faster than conditions allow.

Third, limited open terrain can create congestion. When only a subset of runs are open, skier density increases on those corridors, and the mix of ability levels becomes more concentrated. That elevates the likelihood of close calls and collisions.

If you want a broader overview of how ski and snowboard crashes happen, what factors often matter most, and what steps people commonly take after an incident, start here: ski accident information.

Lift Line Congestion And Lift-Related Risk

When terrain is limited, it is common to see longer lift lines and more frequent choke points at loading areas, merge zones, and narrow cat tracks. While most lift rides are uneventful, busy days can increase the chance of misloads, falls at the unload ramp, and collisions in high-traffic zones near the terminals.

For an overview of lift incident types and what to do if something goes wrong, see: lift accident guidance.

Avalanche Conditions And Backcountry Context

It is important to separate resort skiing from backcountry travel. In-bounds terrain is managed by professional ski patrol teams with mitigation work, closures, and controlled access. Backcountry travel is different, and risk depends on current conditions, terrain selection, and decision-making.

Early season and low snowpack patterns can produce complex avalanche problems. A thin base can create persistent weak layers, and new snow on top of old hard surfaces can bond poorly, especially with wind loading. A clear example of early season avalanche concern was discussed in a Denver7 report referencing CAIC on the first skier-triggered avalanche of the season, highlighting how early setups can still produce human-triggered slides.

For daily danger ratings, advisories, incident reports, and education resources in Colorado, use the CAIC forecast and reports.

Notable Events So Far

December: Lift-Related News And Evacuation Procedures

Lift incidents draw attention because they are highly visible and disruptive, even when they do not result in injuries. During the season, there has been local reporting on lift malfunctions that required evacuation procedures at Colorado resorts. One example reported in late December 2025 involved guests being evacuated after a malfunction, reinforcing the importance of following patrol and operations staff directions in real time, as described in this KKCO report on a lift malfunction and evacuation.

January: Low Snowpack Persistence And Late-Month Shifts

By late January, multiple Colorado outlets were describing persistent low snowpack and its visible effects on terrain, crowding, and surface conditions. The Colorado Politics season update referenced statewide snowpack levels and summarized how conditions were influencing both skier experience and broader water concerns.

Late-month storms can help, but they can also increase avalanche danger quickly if wind loading and rapid accumulation occur on top of weaker layers. During these periods, it is normal for backcountry messaging to shift rapidly as new snow arrives and conditions change. Checking the CAIC forecast before backcountry travel remains one of the simplest and most effective safety steps.

What This Means For You

  1. Expect Thin Cover In More Places Than Usual
    Even when groomers look solid, off-trail areas and margins can hold rocks and shallow hazards. Ski within visibility and slow down in unfamiliar zones.
  2. Adjust Speed For Surface Variability
    Hardpack and scraped areas can appear suddenly, especially later in the day. Keep turns controlled and give others space.
  3. Treat Crowding Like A Safety Issue
    When terrain is limited, collision risk rises. Choose lower-traffic runs when possible and be extra cautious near merge zones and lift terminals.
  4. Backcountry Requires Current Avalanche Decision-Making
    If you leave the resort boundary, check the current CAIC avalanche forecast, carry appropriate rescue gear, and travel with partners who know how to use it.
  5. Know When Resort Conditions Cross The Line
    If you are injured and it appears another skier acted recklessly, or a hazard was not reasonably marked or managed, it can help to understand how responsibility and safety expectations are evaluated. A starting point for that topic is ski resort negligence.

Final Thoughts

If you or a family member was hurt skiing or snowboarding in Colorado this season, the most important first step is getting safe and documenting what happened. When you are ready, you can learn more about common accident scenarios and next steps on our ski accidents page, review lift-related incidents on lift accidents, and explore how resort conditions can factor into an injury on ski resort negligence.

Colorado Ski Season 2024–25: A Deep Dive into Safety, Legal Battles & Mountaintop Trends

Kelly Geraghty on July 21, 2025

Colorado’s 2024–25 ski season was defined by record crowds, sobering accidents, high‑stakes litigation, and mounting public scrutiny of the state’s mountain operators. As resorts and roadways struggled under the pressure of ever‑increasing skier volume, safety advocates and lawyers questioned whether the industry is keeping pace.

Key Takeaways

  • Fatalities while skiing and boarding dipped slightly to 13, but Colorado’s death rate remains nearly double the national average.
  • Slope-related injuries remain underreported, though trauma centers saw high volumes of serious cases.
  • Ski traffic hit record highs, with 13.8 million visits and severe I-70 congestion on peak days.
  • Epic and Ikon passes continue to shape crowd patterns, with Epic resorts facing more backlash.
  • The Colorado Supreme Court ruling weakened blanket waivers, increasing resort liability exposure.
  • Lift safety failures, like the Zendo chair incident, are now central to ongoing litigation.
  • Guest frustration is rising, prompting public apologies, new reservation systems, and possible legislative action around lap-bar use.
  • Climate variability and crowd control clashed, as resorts struggled to balance access and terrain safety.

A Snapshot of Safety on the Slopes

Lives Lost, But Slightly Fewer Than Last Year

At least 13 fatalities—8 skiers and 5 snowboarders, aged 20 to 76—occurred at Colorado ski areas during the 2024–25 season. Most incidents happened on groomed intermediate terrain during high-speed crashes or collisions. Additionally, two individuals suffered fatal heart attacks, and another suffocated after tumbling into deep snow.

While tragic, this death toll was an improvement on the 15 deaths recorded in the 2023–24 season, and well below the 22 fatalities in 2011–12, Colorado’s deadliest season on record. However, the state’s rate—about 1 death per million skier visits—remains nearly double the national average of roughly 0.58 per million.

Hidden Harm: Non-Fatal Injuries

Resort operators typically do not publish detailed injury statistics. Still, trauma centers across Summit, Eagle, and Pitkin counties treated hundreds—likely thousands—of accident victims, including broken bones, ACL tears, and concussions. Notably, Summit County saw at least three snowboarders die days after crash-related injuries—a stark reminder that not all ski injuries turn fatal immediately.

A Mountain of Skier Visits—and Gridlock

Waiting in Lines—and Cars

The 2024–25 season drew about 13.8 million skier visits—tied for Colorado’s third-busiest season ever. On the national stage, U.S. resorts recorded 61.5 million visits, the second-highest total in American history. It’s official: the post‑COVID “bump” in skiing has become the new normal.

Colorado’s scenic mountain highways couldn’t keep up. During the Christmas holiday and President’s Day weekend, parking lots filled by 9 AM, and I‑70 traffic snarled for miles. CDOT tracked over 6,000 vehicles per hour through the Eisenhower Tunnel, prompting tunnel metering and multi-hour delays.

Epic vs. Ikon: The Pass That Keeps on Giving—and Crowding

The explosion of multi-mountain season passes—notably the Epic and Ikon programs—now accounts for nearly half of ski visits nationwide. Vail Resorts estimates 75% of its skier days stem from pre-purchased passes. With five Epic-affiliated Colorado mountains drawing roughly 40–45% of statewide visits, it’s clear the pass system is reshaping resort traffic.

Ikon resorts like Winter Park and Steamboat also drew massive attendance, but innovative capacity limits at A-Basin (combined with overnight parking reservations) offered an intriguing counterbalance.

Measures to Mitigate Congestion

Resorts and agencies tried numerous strategies:

  • Snowstang buses and the Winter Park Express train offered alternatives to car commutes.
  • Snow traction laws were enforced more strictly, reducing highway incidents.
  • Paid parking tiers at key resorts incentivized carpooling and early arrival.
  • A-Basin’s successful parking reservation system effectively curbed highway spillover.

These fixes partially reduced congestion but fell short on peak holiday demands, prompting questions about long-term capacity management.

The Legal Powder Keg: Liability on the Rise

A Landmark Legal Ruling

May 2024 marked a turning point: the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that standard resort waivers cannot shield operators from all negligence claims, especially when they breach specific safety statutes like the Ski Safety Act or Tramway Safety Act. This decision allowed an incapacitated girl’s lawsuit—originally dismissed due to a waiver—to continue, setting a precedent that resorts must be more accountable for their operational negligence.

Lift Safety Under Scrutiny

Just months later, a wrongful death suit was filed against Vail Resorts after John Perucco allegedly fell 25 feet from Breckenridge’s Zendo chairlift due to icy seating. The suit claims resort staff failed to:

  1. Clear snow and ice from the chair,
  2. Lower the safety bar,
  3. Notify the proper authorities within two hours.

This case may press the Supreme Court’s waiver ruling into real-world impact as it moves toward trial.

Broader Legal Themes

Other pressure points included:

  • Avalanche‑related liability: In California, legal action was taken against Heavenly for allowing access in hazardous conditions, highlighting ski patrol’s role in guest safety.
  • The Park City ski patrol strike, outside Colorado, underscored how labor disputes can seriously disrupt operations and expose liability vulnerabilities.
  • A DOJ antitrust review of Alterra’s Arapahoe Basin acquisition ended without penalties, yet it flagged growing regulatory concern over market concentration.
  • Class actions involving passholder refunds and environmental threats to resort expansions continued to expand the legal spotlight on industry practices.

Public Sentiment & Public Relations Hazards

Overcrowding Provokes Backlash

Locals and long-time skiers grew vocal about their frustration. Former Congressman Mary Bono complained that “Epic Pass…oh my God, those crowds. Epic lines,” citing safety concerns as slopes filled well past comfort levels. Similarly, posts featuring towering lift lines at Vail Chair 5, and clogged ski highway scenes circulated widely, driving national media attention.

Epic vs. Ikon in the Court of Public Opinion

Epic resorts frequently bore the brunt of criticism for overcrowding and staffing challenges. In contrast, Ikon-aligned resorts, with access caps and reservation policies (e.g., A-Basin, Steamboat), attracted less ire and, at times, praise.

Industry Apologies and Initiatives

Vail Resorts’ COO, Beth Howard, issued public apologies after chaotic early-season lines, promising improvements in lift flow and guest experience. A-Basin’s leadership, meanwhile, doubled down on messaging that limited access was the only way to preserve “The Legend’s soul”.

Safety Bar Debate Sparked by Tragedy

The December 2024 death of Donovan Romero at Keystone, after riding with the lap safety bar up, has spurred legislative interest in making bar usage mandatory. Currently, Colorado leaves lap-bar usage voluntary despite some claims and advocacy for a national move to “buckle up” on lifts.

Climate, Snow, Risk, and Pressure

The unpredictable snow cycle of 2024/25 put resorts between a rock and a hard place: open terrain early to alleviate crowd pressure and risk exposing hazards, or delay opening and risk concentrating guests. Although no serious incidents occurred, some guests questioned whether crowd-control trumped caution—a debate continuing into the offseason.

What Colorado Can Learn—and What Lies Ahead

Safety remains a shared responsibility: Fatalities dipped slightly, but severe injuries continue to occur. With limited data, resorts rely heavily on internal policies and capacity rules, yet high‑risk incidents still happen.

Legal accountability is increasing: The Supreme Court’s waiver ruling and the Breckenridge lawsuit emphasize that negligence—especially in regulatory breaches—will face greater scrutiny. Resorts are likely reevaluating waivers and revising operational protocols.

Crowding is a persistent challenge: Snow lovers flocked to Colorado like never before, but car queues on I‑70 and lift bottlenecks eroded goodwill. The epic/Ikon paradigm has created both accessibility and friction, and local pressure to balance growth with experience.

Public pressure is prompting change: Visibly frustrated skiers, bold media coverage, and guest-driven movements (like the lap-bar campaign) are pushing resorts to act. How far they go in addressing concerns may define guest loyalty and legal exposure in the coming years.

Striking the right balance: Colorado’s mountains remain a cherished playground. The 2024–25 season showed the potential and the pressure that come with growth. For the industry to thrive, it must reconcile popular demand with robust safety, legal resilience, and guest satisfaction. Those who get it right may help define what the next era of skiing looks like.

Final Takeaway

The 2024–25 Colorado ski season was remarkable, flourishing in popularity, but also revealing cracks in infrastructure, safety, and legal armor. As we head toward 2025–26, keep an eye on capacity controls, lap-bar regulation, and operator liability. The mountain demands responsibility, and those who manage it best will lead the terrain.

$6.1 Million for Fireman After Plunge Over Open Edge of Ski Run

Kelly Geraghty on August 7, 2024

Client suffered disabling brain damage in a skiing accident on a ski trail maintained at a ski area near Harrisonburg, Virginia by Massanutten Ski Resort.

His brain injuries were totally disabling, requiring full time institutionalization. He suffers permanent and profound physical, mental and psychological deficits. He is confined to a wheelchair and suffers uncontrollable bouts of frustration and anger. His intellectual capacity is severely limited. He communicates with simple notes, and he can manage no more than a game of BINGO.

Massanutten Mountain forms a ridge east of the Shenandoah Mountains. Massanutten Ski Resort has a peak elevation of about 2900 ft. above sea level. It has 11 slopes, 8 lighted, a quad chairlift, and over 1,110 feet of vertical drop. Slopes are typically open from mid-December until mid-March, with 100% snow-making capacity. Its longest two runs are both man-made, the 3,400-foot Diamond Jim and the 4,100-foot ParaDice. Using the cut-and-fill construction method, both of these were completed by Massanutten in late 1991. Client’s accident occurred on Diamond Jim, just two days after it had opened to the public.

In a motion for judgment alleging negligence on the part of Massanutten, Client’s wife sought recovery of damages for his injuries. A jury returned a verdict in the Client’s favor in the amount of $6,170,563.00. The jury found no contributory negligence and no assumption of risk. Upon the motion of Massanutten, the trial court set the verdict aside and entered judgment in favor of Massanutten.

The trial judge determined that there was insufficient evidence to support the verdict, giving credence to defendant’s contention that the result was merely a “sympathy verdict.” We filed a petition for writ of certiorari to the Supreme Court of Virginia. The writ was granted. The Supreme Court reversed the judgment and reinstated the verdict.

Past results are no guarantee of future results.

$8.3 Million Verdict for Minor Suffering Traumatic Brain Injury

Kelly Geraghty on August 7, 2024

A 17 year-old skier was night skiing down Eagle’s Swoop, an open intermediate slope at Wintergreen ski resort in Nelson County, Virginia. On the night of the accident, a snow groomer emerged from the tree line on skier’s left of Eagle’s Swoop, pivoted uphill, and then began driving about 300′ straight uphill close to the tree line and against the direction of skier traffic, while the ski run was open to the skiing public. Client came over the crest of the pitch, up which the snow groomer was ascending. She avoided the escorting snowmobile, lost control, fell and slid at high speed about 90 feet into the blade of the groomer. She sustained a comminuted fracture to her left humerus, a fracture of her left elbow and a non-displaced pelvic fracture. She also sustained a severe right frontal skull fracture. She went into respiratory arrest at the scene and was resuscitated by the patroller who had been riding the snowmobile. She was evacuated by helicopter to the trauma center. Her orthopedic injuries healed, but her skull fracture resulted in a permanent brain injury with extensive loss of function.

Plaintiff contended that the policy of bringing the groomer out into the slope, through a break in the tree line, pivoting uphill, and then driving the groomer uphill against skier traffic was unreasonably dangerous. Moreover, there was a blind area where the groomer was moving: from uphill, as she descended, a skier’s visibility of the run on which the groomer was moving was either obscured or partially obscured. The ski area operator specifically approved the policy of moving groomers on open slopes with an escorting snow mobile but prohibiting actual grooming on open ski slopes. The case was tried in Circuit Court for the County of Albemarle, Virginia.

The jury awarded $8.3 million. The Supreme Court of Virginia dismissed the Defendant’s Petition of Appeal on July 7, 2005. Jim Chalat co-counseled the case with Bryan Slaughter of Michie Hamlett Lowry Rasmussen & Tweel, of Charlottesville, Virginia.

Ski Collision at Snowbird Results in $1.5 Million Settlement

Kelly Geraghty on August 7, 2024

Johnny Kotun, age 28, was an expert recreational skier. On March 25, 2007 at 4:00 PM, Kotun was traversing along a lower cat walk across the “Wilbere cutoff” and was headed toward one of the lower parking lots at Snowbird Ski Resort. Defendant, a 16-year-old off-duty junior ski instructor, was descending the cutoff, directly under the Wilbere chair lift. Defendant took a jump off of a transition, and performed a 360. He landed, carved two wide arc turns and collided at high speed into Kotun. Kotun was seen and heard waving his arms and shouting at defendant to avoid him in the moments before the collision. At impact, Kotun was ejected from his skis and thrown into a nearby tree. Defendant also went airborne into the tree. About 25′ from the point of impact was a large, orange SLOW banner. The testimony from witnesses (including chairlift passengers who reported to the scene) and the defendant formed a basis for our expert to establish a minimum speed at point of impact > 42 mph.

Defendant sustained a non-displaced pelvic fracture, a concussion (no helmet) and bruising to his kidneys and spleen. He recovered without any impairment.

Kotun sustained mandibular and maxillary fractures. Although he was wearing a helmet, Kotun also sustained an intra cerebral and frontal lobe hemorrhage, and a severe shear injury.

He recovered from the facial fractures but is now hemi-plegic on his left side, and has significant cognitive and speech impairments. His ability to live independently and earn an independent living has been lost.

The parties settled for the policy limits of $1.5 Million. A significant portion of the settlement payment was structured. The case was filed in Salt Lake County District Court and local counsel on the case were Craig Adamson and Craig Hoggan of Dart Adamson and Donovan of Salt Lake City, Utah.

$795,000 Settlement In Breckenridge Ski Collision Case

Kelly Geraghty on August 7, 2024

Our client was hit from behind near the base of Breckenridge in a slow zone by a teenage skier. The teen’s skis went between our client’s skis, and the teen then snowplowed and fell forward onto our client, tearing both of our client’s ACLs. Partner Evan Banker secured a $795,000 settlement on her behalf.