TCR | April 08, 2026 — One Week Left

Published April 08, 2026

April 08, 2026

The Forecast

Seven Days to Closing

Seven days. That's what's left at most major resorts before the lifts stop spinning and the costumes come out for closing day. The snow data across North America reads like a eulogy — base depths cratering, no new snow in the forecast, temps pushing above freezing everywhere that matters. But here's the thing: this is the week you remember. The sunburned goggle tan. The 11 a.m. corn run that peels off the surface like butter. The parking lot beers that start at noon because nobody's pretending anymore. Natural Selection just dropped its Alaska lineup for 2026, spring deals are keeping lifts turning for the diehards, and somewhere in Switzerland a mountain is literally cracking apart. It's April. Everything is ending and everything is perfect.

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Fresh Tracks

◆ Teton Gravity Research

Natural Selection Returns to Alaska With Its Best 2026 Field Yet

The YETI Natural Selection Ski event heads back to the Alaska Range with a roster of the world's best freeride and freestyle skiers. One day, one venue, zero half-measures — the way big-mountain competition should work.

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◆ Powder Magazine

What 15 Skis in 5 Days Actually Teaches You

POWDER's test crew camped out at Grand Targhee and put next season's gear through the wringer. The full reviews drop this fall, but the takeaways on where ski design is headed right now are worth the read.

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◆ Powder Magazine

Mammoth Gay Ski Week Is Exactly What the Sport Needs

Elevation's Après at 10K at Mammoth is part party, part proof that skiing's culture is wider and louder than anyone's narrow version of it. Bare chests, drag queens, jock straps — and a lot of really good turns.

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◆ Teton Gravity Research

Alyeska's $5 Student Tickets Are the Best Deal in Skiing

Show your report card, get a lift ticket for the price of a coffee. Alyeska extended its Honor Roll program through April 26 — every Sunday, $5 gets students on the hill. Alaska doing Alaska things.

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The Edit

Matchstick Productions and Xander Guldman stacking clips in a dream zone outside Terrace, BC with Northern Escape Heli Skiing. It's a short but potent reminder that while most of us are watching base depths evaporate, the heli ops in northern BC are still accessing the kind of terrain that makes you reconsider every life decision that led you to a desk. The zone is unreal — steep, open, and filmed with the kind of eye MSP has been honing for decades.

Watch →

@Matchstick Productions · @Xander Guldman · @Northern Escape Heli Skiing

Off-Piste

🏔️ A growing crack on a Swiss mountainside — now 2.5 to 3 feet wide and expanding — is raising serious red flags for the populated valley below. Geologists are monitoring what could become a major landslide event. The Alps giveth and the Alps taketh. Unofficial Networks

🎿 Vail Mountain has a new COO. Shaydar Edelmann steps in with 25 years of resort operations experience, replacing Beth Howard after her 41-year career. Whether this means anything for lift lines and parking remains to be seen. SnowBrains

🏊 Olympic slalom champion Petra Vlhová — gold medalist at Beijing 2022 and back on snow at Milano Cortina 2026 after her ACL/MCL rehab — has picked up freediving in Poland's deepest pool as her offseason cross-training. Low-impact, high-commitment — sounds about right for someone who just rebuilt her knee. Unofficial Networks

🌐 Outdoor Afro launched a new app focused on building Black community in the outdoors. While most outdoor apps obsess over maps and stats, this one is about finding people to go outside with — a different and arguably more important kind of wayfinding. Field Mag

Dropping

Alpenglow Ski Chair Co. — Custom Chairlift Furniture
A Montana metalworker is building ski lift-inspired chairs entirely by hand — not salvaged resort hardware, but ground-up custom pieces that look like they belong on a loading platform and in your living room simultaneously. Each one is handmade and unique. If you've ever sat on a chairlift and thought "I'd put this in my yard," this is the legal, structurally sound way to do it.

Shop →

Conditions Check

Pacific Northwest closed

Baker and Crystal are done — 11cm over the past week wasn't enough to hold base — temps hovering 27–40°F with no new snow in the forecast. →

Rockies thin

Utah saw 26cm over 7 days and Colorado got 10cm, but base depths are negligible at the sensor stations — temps pushing 35–50°F in the Wasatch and 27–47°F along the Divide with nothing incoming. →

Northern Rockies / Interior BC thin

Jackson and Big Sky sitting on barely 1cm of base with 15cm over the past week but 50 km/h winds and temps up to 42°F chewing through what's left; Revelstoke at 2cm base with nothing in the pipe. →

Northeast thin

Jay Peak and Killington picked up 5cm over 7 days with cold temps (7–29°F) helping preserve what's on the ground — limited terrain still possible at the holdout mountains, so check resort pages before writing off your season. →

Europe thin

The Alps are running on fumes — 1–2cm base across Chamonix, Verbier, and St. Anton with temps in the mid-30s to upper 40s°F and no snow in the forecast; Scandinavia saw 9cm over 7 days but base is near zero with 52 km/h winds battering Riksgränsen. →

Japan closed

Zero base across both Hokkaido and Honshu with temps hitting 41–58°F — the Land of the Rising Sun has moved on to cherry blossoms. →

Seven days until the ropes go up for the last time. Ski like you mean it.

The Conditions Report

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