Spring Dispatch: 039
spring skiing is a ~~mindset~~
Things have been a little quiet over here which, if I’m honest, is at least partially mourning. This winter has been… bleak. The kind of season that never quite got its footing, no matter how many times we refreshed the forecast hoping for a different answer.
But this is a happy letter!! There’s still snow (a teensy bit). And there are still days (however numbered) left to squeeze something out of this season. So today, we’re shifting gears: how to make the absolute most of the time we have left, whether that’s a long weekend, a last-minute trip, or just a few final laps before it all melts.
Chairlift Chatter
A federal antitrust class action lawsuit filed this week accuses Vail Resorts and Alterra Mountain Company of operating an illegal duopoly, alleging the ski giants deliberately inflated single-day lift ticket prices to push skiers toward purchasing their Epic and Ikon season passes. The suit seeks both financial damages and a court order to restore fair competition, arguing that nearly all major destination ski resorts are now owned by or tied to one of the two companies, leaving consumers with little meaningful choice. Veryyy interested to see how this plays out.
Resorts are closing… in March. More on this below but in the past few days Taos, Aspen’s Buttermilk, Telluride, and many others have announced closing dates in the next week or two. Many others have announced significant terrain closures. Le sigh.
Slightly obsessed with the Stratton Mountain pond skim being sponsored by Grillo’s Pickles. This weekend! Free pickles!
Auberge Resorts announced their new Steamboat project – a property called The Stockman that’s set to debut in 2030. Renderings look beautiful, obviously.
Tomorrowland Winter is currently happening in the French Alps and it looks sick.
Spring skiing is a ~mindset~
This winter has been cooked. Historically bad. The kind of season where you check the snow report, close the app, reopen it two minutes later like it might’ve refreshed into a miracle. Sadly it never did.
BUT trips are booked. Flights are nonrefundable. And for a lot of us, mentally clocking out of ski season in March feels like giving up halfway through a good book. So you go anyway. But here’s the reframe: spring skiing was never about the skiing alone. It’s about being in the mountains without the pressure to optimize every second around conditions. The urgency is gone. The rules loosen. And suddenly, the trip opens up in a way peak winter never allows!
Also, it’s the only time all season you can skip a run, take off your boots, and not feel like you’re committing a financial crime against your lift ticket/season pass. So if you’re going, go all in on the actual experience.
Ski early. Quit early. Feel great about both!!!
Spring snow runs on a schedule. It softens, it shines, it gives you a brief, glorious window and then it’s done. Get out there early, take your laps, and call it by late morning. This isn’t laziness, it’s expertise. There’s nothing noble about surviving mashed potato snow for three extra hours (your ACLs will also thank you).
Set up an all-time tailgate situation.
Bring the pop-up grill and a good speaker. Set up lawn chairs. Take on the role as Chief Vibes Officer of the parking lot. Bonus points for creativity.
Reallyyy lean into the long lunch.
Not a sad, rushed base lodge situation. A real lunch. Sun on your face, helmet off, maybe something you ~wouldn’t normally order~. Stay a while.
Succumb to an overpriced on-mountain experience.
This may be popping into the on-mountain Veuve Cliquot yurt for a $42 glass of champagne. This may be going to the ‘nicer’ sit-down restaurant for lunch that you’d usually never consider. Tis the season!
Go for a walk (or hike!) that isn’t to a lift.
Trails start to open, paths reappear, and suddenly you can experience the mountains without a pass scan. It’s quieter, a little muddy, occasionally spectacular. A different version of the same place.
Do the things you’ve been ignoring all season.
The cute coffee shop. The gallery. The store you always say you’ll pop into “next time.” The olive oil shop that every mountain town seems to have (side note: I did confirm it is a nationwide chain which removed some of the whimsy for me!).
Hot springs, sometimes.
Typically a very interesting cast of characters frequents these spots but usually never not worth it.
Try a different gear entirely.
Rent a bike and find the paved path that goes through town! Most mountain towns will rent bikes/e-bikes this time of year for a bargain.
Stay out later than you planned.
Après stretches. The sun hangs on. People linger. Spring has a way of turning “one drink” into a full afternoon into accidentally making friends with the table next to you. Let it!
Spring skiing is about adjusting the expectations, keeping the standards high for everything else, and simply enjoying the fact that (at the very least) you have a fab change of scenery!
Deer Valley doubled! An update from the front lines!
As most of you know by now, Deer Valley Resort pulled off one of the most ambitious expansions in modern US skiing this season – nearly doubling its terrain. As in, they literally added an entire new mountain. Which is kind of insane when you think about it – this isn't a few new runs and a press release, this is Deer Valley saying "what if we just... had twice the mountain." It worked!
Longtime readers know this is, unapologetically, a Deer Valley fan account. It’s where I grew up skiing. My mom was a mountain host. It’s still the gold standard for on-mountain experience in the US (the grooming, the service, the food – all absurdly good). And, in a full-circle moment, it’s where I’m getting married this fall. So I went in with expectations!
I spent a week skiing DV this month, and the strangest part was that I felt like a beginner again. Not in ability, but in orientation. I got lost constantly. Took wrong turns. Ended up on lifts I didn’t recognize, staring out at terrain that didn’t exist (to me) a season ago. It was disorienting in the best way!
There’s something rare about knowing a mountain so intimately – every cat track, every sneaky powder stash, every bailout route – and then suddenly having that map erased. The expansion doesn’t just add acreage; it resets your relationship to the place. You stop skiing on autopilot. You explore again! That’s the magic!
The new terrain (and lifts) open up entire zones that feel less trafficked, more expansive, and honestly a bit more Western in scale – longer runs, wider spacing, fewer chokepoints. It stretches the mountain out in a way that makes even busy days feel calmer. It’s not perfect yet. There are moments where the seams show like a cat track that feels like a connector more than a destination and unexpected lift locations that you zoom past. But you can feel the mountain still settling into itself.
What impressed me most is that they didn’t lose the thing that makes Deer Valley, Deer Valley. The expansion could’ve diluted the experience. Instead, it extends it. The attention to detail is still there. The pacing still feels intentional. You’re still, somehow, being taken care of, even while you’re a little bit lost.
Much more detail in my interview with the team earlier this season here:
A quick note on cadence: as always, Slopeside slows as the season winds down – and this year, that shift may come a bit sooner than usual. But we’ll be back before you know it, just in time for summer!
If you enjoy this letter, please share with friends! Feel free to respond here with ski-related intel, new products you’re loving, or just to say hi. Thanks for reading 💌