Rocky Mountain ski resorts - including the popular celebrity haunts of Vail and Breckenridge - have seen visitor numbers plummet to their lowest levels in 40 years after the region suffered from record-low snowfall, a troubling sign in a rapidly warming world.
Visits to resorts across the Rockies fell by 24 percent in the 2025-2026 ski season, the biggest drop in four decades barring the pandemic in 2020, according to Robert Katz, CEO of Vail Resorts. His company operates dozens of popular mountain resorts, including six in the Rockies.