TCR | April 28, 2026 — 60% of America Is Dry and 15 Resorts Don't Care

April 28, 2026

The Forecast

60% of America Is Dry and 15 Resorts Don't Care

Tuesday morning and the drought monitor just dropped a number that should make every mountain town sit up straight: over 60% of the contiguous United States is currently dry, and the snowpack deficits from a lackluster Western winter are about to become everyone's summer problem. But here's the thing about this sport — it doesn't quit when the math gets ugly. Fifteen resorts across the country are still running lifts right now, from Mammoth's seemingly immortal operations to A-Basin catching 3 inches in the last 24 hours at elevation. Colorado picked up 13 centimeters in the last week. Utah got 23. Scandinavia dropped 30 centimeters in seven days under the midnight sun and has more coming. Killington's Superstar is doing what Superstar does — grinding moguls into May with religious conviction. And in Åre, Sweden, Jesper Tjäder is building another physics-defying rail course for Unrailistic's third edition this week. The season is smaller, yes. But the people still in it are the people who were always going to be in it.

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Fresh Tracks

◆ Powder Magazine

Over 60% of the US Is in Drought — And Mountain Towns Are in the Crosshairs

The dismal Western winter just got its postmortem. Powder breaks down what the National Weather Service's drought numbers mean for water supply, wildfire risk, and the communities that depend on snowpack to survive summer.

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◆ STEEP Magazine

Kimbo Sessions: The Invite-Only Event That's Actually Pushing Freeskiing Forward

Forget the competition circuit — the long-running Kimbo Sessions has quietly become the proving ground for freeskiing's most creative progression. New footage from the 2024 edition still doesn't feel dated, which tells you everything about the level.

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★ TGR

Maggie Voisin Threading a Tight Line Like She's Reading Sheet Music

Voisin picking her way through technical terrain from the heli before opening up into a powder panel is the kind of clip that looks easy until you remember everything that had to go right. From TGR's Pressure Drop.

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★ Matchstick Productions

Tanner Hall, 2004 — When the Boss Was 20 and Untouchable

MSP's yearbook throwback to Tanner Hall in 2004 is a 30-second reminder of why an entire generation of skiers grew their hair out and started hitting cliffs. The Ski Boss era, distilled.

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The Edit

The Freeride World Tour went back to Alaska in 2026 for the first time since 2017, and the official film — The Final Frontier — is the full document. Alaska terrain is its own category: the scale swallows everything, the consequences are absolute, and watching the world's best freeride competitors navigate it is a completely different proposition than watching them in the Alps. This is big-mountain competition skiing at its most exposed, produced by the FWT crew with the aerial and ground footage to match the stakes.

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@FIS Freeride World Tour by Peak Performance

Off-Piste

🔹 The Snow League's public earnings disclosure is a first for the sport. TGR has the full breakdown of how the league is making athlete compensation transparent in a culture that's historically kept those numbers locked in a drawer. Whether this changes how athletes negotiate or just makes dinner conversation more interesting, it's a shift. Read more →

🔹 Unrailistic 3 drops into Åre this week. Jesper Tjäder's Red Bull event returns April 30–May 1 with another course designed to break the brains of traditional slopestyle judges. If you know, you know — and if you don't, you will by Thursday. Read more →

🔹 Nakiska, Alberta, is going year-round starting in 2027. Lift-served mountain biking, hiking, and a mountain coaster are coming to the Kananaskis ski area. Another Canadian resort betting on summer revenue to offset increasingly unpredictable winters. Read more →

🔹 The East Coast season is narrowing but not done. SnowBrains has the rundown of which Eastern resorts are still open after last weekend's closings. Killington and a handful of holdouts are still making turns. Read more →

Dropping

K2 Mindbender 101 (26/27) — K2 reimagined the entire Mindbender collection and the 101 is the one that's generating the most questions: how different is it really from the new 96? Blister has early impressions and the answer is more nuanced than the spec sheets suggest. If you're shopping freeride-leaning all-mountain skis for next season, this is where the conversation starts.

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Conditions Check

Pacific Northwest closed

Zero snow depth, zero new snow, and nothing in the forecast — the PNW season is done. →

Rockies mixed

Colorado caught 7cm in the last 24 hours and 13cm in the week with temps in the low 20s°F; Utah picked up 23cm in 7 days with 3cm more expected — A-Basin and Snowbird are still making it work on thin but refreshed coverage. →

Northern Rockies / Interior BC thin

Jackson got 24cm in the past week but base is nearly gone at 1cm, with temps at 20–32°F and nothing in the three-day forecast — limited terrain only for the committed. →

Northeast spring

No new snow and temps running 35–55°F, but Killington's Superstar is open and will ski into May, and select holdouts are still offering corn laps on manmade base. →

Europe spring

Switzerland caught 4cm in the last 24 hours and Scandinavia dropped 30cm in the past week with 4cm more expected at temps of -8 to -4°C — glacier operations and Nordic touring are the move. →

Japan closed

Zero snow depth in Hokkaido, minimal coverage and 6–16°C in Honshu — the Japanese season is wrapped. →

The drought map says 60%. The resort map says 15. Bet on the 15.

The Conditions Report

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