Vail Mountain closes for 2025-26, a season some would rather forget
Despite low snowpack, however, there were some reasons for the company to celebrate
Chris Dillmann/Vail Daily
Vail Mountain put the 2025-26 season behind it on Wednesday, calling an end to the worst ski season on record in terms of snowpack.
In other ways, however, the season can be considered a success — Vail Resorts reported only modest declines in lift revenue despite the worst-case weather scenario, and the company also said it received high satisfaction scores in the surveys it conducted with guests.
Visitation was down 13% at Vail Resorts properties through Jan. 31, but total lift revenue was down only 2.9%, due to pre-sold 2025-26 passes reaching a total sales revenue that was 3% higher than last season’s pre-sold passes. Low snow years like this one show how the company’s shift toward pre-sold passes and away from walk-up window tickets demonstrates “the resilience of the business model,” Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz told investors on March 9.
Vail Mountain’s official U.S. Department of Agriculture Snow Telemetry (SNOTEL) snowpack measuring site goes back to the 1978-79 season, and prior to this season, the mountain’s lowest snowpack occurred during the 2011-12 season.
While the Vail Mountain SNOTEL site is located near Vail Mountain’s own snowstake measuring site, the SNOTEL technology is seen as more scientific than the snowstake measuring site, as the SNOTEL site uses automated sensors to calculate and record snow-water equivalent. Vail’s snowstake, for example, showed the 2011-12 season to have recorded 164 inches, and this season to have recorded a cumulative 168 inches as of Wednesday.
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But the SNOTEL site paints a better picture of how conditions felt on the ground, showing that this year, the site was completely melted out by March 31, when the earliest meltout prior to this season occurred on April 7, 2012. That year, Vail Mountain closed on April 15 with top-to-bottom skiing still available.
For guests accustomed to the typical Vail Closing Day, which did not occur on a Sunday this year for the first time in recent memory, the feeling on the mountain was much different. Guests were only allowed to congregate at the top of Chair 4 until 4 p.m. before the mountain blew the horns and ordered skiers and snowboarders to head down to MidVail.
From there, guests were required to download Gondola One to exit the resort, as no ski trails were available at the lower half of the mountain amid the low-snow conditions.
Vail locals Kim Dilling and Mark Concklin got together for a few final turns, meeting up with their friend Sharon Smith who skinned up Riva Ridge with her dog, Ginger Smith-Sands.
The group rode down together at the end of the day, dog included.
Smith said for the 9-year-old cockapoo has climbed several 14ers and often joins Smith for an early morning skin up the mountain, the hike itself was easy. It was the conditions that were a challenge.
“It was supposed to be a fun thing to do for the last day of the season,” she said. “But I had to carry my skis across mud.”
