Here's a cold dose of reality: This year's ski season in the American West has been pretty bleak.

Many of the reliable powder stashes of Utah, Colorado and California have struggled with record-low snowfalls, and the limited amount of terrain resorts have managed to keep open is covered in lackluster artificial snow. Vail Resorts, for instance, reported last month that early-season visits were down 20%, no thanks to the depressing conditions out West.

That has thrown the 2026 ski season into disarray and imperiled a stretch of time where deals get discussed on chairlifts and Zooms get scheduled around après-tinis, a ritual as sacred to the tech land calendar as ringing in the New Year in St. Bart's and summering in Jackson Hole, Wyo.