Days on the Slope - The Snowless Streak is FINALLY Over!
- Colton Barry
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Winter Park - January 24th, 2026
I just got back from a great day of skiing at Winter Park Ski Resort. Until last night, Colorado had been snow-free for the past 10+ days. Last night through today, we finally received much-needed snow across the state.
I decided to make the most of the fresh snowfall by waking up at 5:15 am and driving to Winter Park Ski Resort with a college buddy and his roommate. Winter Park's powder cam showed 5" of new snow from last night, and the forecast showed that it would be snowing all day, with up to 3 additional inches set to fall. Needless to say, we were excited and anxious to get to the mountain as quickly as possible.
Our plan was to arrive early at the Corona Lot on the Mary Jane side of the mountain and meet up with a few of our friends also making the drive from Denver. After hitting some traffic on I-70, we arrived at the parking lot later than expected, but still before the lifts started spinning.
Conditions Report
Mary Jane
After finding our friends and (correctly) anticipating a long lift line at Super-Guage, we took the Challenger Lift to start our day. As we went up the lift, we were elated to see a handful of people skiing down the Sleeper run under the lift, turning through powder with every turn. Our elation and anticipation increased as we saw lines in the trees off Sleeper without any tracks. So we hopped off Challenger and quickly sped to ski underneath the lift. It was fantastic! The new snow had softened the underlying ice on both groomers and moguls. I sped down the mountain with relatively little caution, darting through the trees and making powder-filled turns all the way down. It was hard not to shout with excitement.
Most of the day was similar to that first run. It was, to put it colloquially, "nuking" the entire day, and it resulted in consistently soft conditions. Although the conditions still reflect early-season skiing with lots of hidden rocks and obstacles underneath the new layer of snow, things on Mary Jane were better than I expected.
High Point of the Day: 15ft cliffs off of Outhouse
What surprised me most was a set of massive cliffs off of Outhouse that had enough snow on the landing for us to go off them. It was a bit nerve wracking, with fallen tree trunks on either side of our ideal landing spot, but a couple of us in our group safely and confidently made the 10-15ft drop off the cliffs (the others were able to ski around and avoid them). The rush that came with stomping the landing was definitely the highlight of my day.
Winter Park
In the middle of the day, our group decided to take a break from Mary Jane and take a few laps on the Winter Park side of the mountain. For those unfamiliar, Winter Park has two distinct "bases" that split the mountain into two. On the Mary Jane side, you have an abundance of expert-only terrain and endless mogul runs. On the Winter Park side, you have more intermediate terrain, terrain parks, ski race training - essentially everything else.
Although we took just a couple laps, I had a great time on the Winter Park side of the mountain. We took Cramner, a Winter Park staple, and found great side-hit jumps on the right side of the run. We also skied under the Prospector lift, finding soft moguls and a 360-able cat track (it was pretty fun doing that under the lift and getting hoots and hollars). Furthermore, the shorter runs allowed us to actively recover
Overall - Remain Cautious and Ski Carefully
Being very realistic and honest, conditions were still far from ideal, especially for midway through the season. There's still a ton of terrain that can't be opened beecause of low snow fall. Furthermore, a lot of what we skied today had an abundance of trees, hidden rocks, and obstacles. So, if you're going out make sure to be on alert for hidden objects, remain cautious, and ski carefully.
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