Welcome home Mikaela Shiffrin. The Town of Vail threw you a party in the village Sunday — and you received a real-life goat from your brother Taylor too.

While on stage and as messages, congratulations and hugs from the likes of Jonny Moseley, Peyton Manning, and Patrick Dempsey poured in for Shiffrin, she was also welcomed by hundreds of people lining the walkways of Vail.

Shiffrin’s Eagle River Valley friend Chris Anthony also gave her kudos. He messaged the Denver Gazette his thoughts about Shiffrin’s homecoming celebration Monday.

“It was insane,” Anthony said of the celebration. “She was amazing and signed (what looked like) thousands of autographs for kids. It was nuts.”

Anthony, along with former US Ski Team member Brenda Buglione, took a moment out from the celebration to hug Shiffrin’s goat as well.

Temporary stars were placed on the sidewalk for the celebration, one for each of Mikaela’s World Cup wins, however, Anthony thinks the stars should be put in stone, and mentioned the idea to Vail City Council. 

Maybe a statue of Mikaela will be added in her hometown of Edwards, Colorado too?

SNOW REPORT:

Forecast:

Today through Friday, April 14, Colorado resorts and mountains look to be on spring break as the storminess dries up for roughly seven or eight days. Temperatures will bounce from the high 30s to low 50s (base areas) throughout the week. Yet another system is taking shape after April 14. 

The forecast model from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts shows a storm gracing the northern mountains and peaks on the divide with between 2-10 inches of snow by 7 p.m., Friday, however details will become clearer as the potential storm shapes up over the Easter weekend and early next week.

Recap:

April Fools’ Day Saturday was a surprise for skiers and riders with extra powder from Friday night’s storm. Waldo and a Treebeard camouflaged-yeti made an appearance on the slopes of Loveland.

Winter Park (16″) was the 2-day weekend winner in the state, but resorts in Summit and Clear Creek counties did well too. Loveland and Breckenridge (13″), Keystone and Copper (12″), and Arapahoe Basin (9″) were rewarded nicely, and up north in the Park Range Steamboat (13″) closed out the weekend with over a foot of snow too. Other northern and Front Range ski areas from Beaver Creek to Eldora received between 4-8 inches.

In the central mountains, Sunlight (15″), Crested Butte, Irwin and Monarch (11″), and Powderhorn (9″) received the most amount of snow, while the resorts in the Aspen area got between 4-7 inches respectively.

And the San Juan resorts pulled out nice numbers too. Wolf Creek (10″), Telluride (9″), and Silverton (8″) placed 1, 2, 3 down south — honorable mention for Purgatory (5″).

Wednesday morning’s forecast from the ECMWF were pretty in line with snow totals recorded around the state.

For Wednesday morning’s first chair, northern and Front Range mountain resorts saw good snow accumulation totals, with Winter Park (17″), Steamboat (10″), and Eldora (9″) leading the way. In western Colorado, Powderhorn (10″) and Snowmass (8″ 2-day total) offered up nice powder days, while in southern Colorado, Silverton (6″), Wolf Creek (5″), and Purgatory (3″) saw lesser amounts, but still fresh snow for mid-week riding.

Weekend recommendations:

Northern Mountains: Eldora, Winter Park, Breckenridge, Steamboat

Central Mountains: Powderhorn (closing weekend), Snowmass, Monarch

Southern Mountains: Purgatory, Wolf Creek (closing weekend)

SNOEWS: 

• Although ski and riding season is winding down, one new après hangout in the central mountains is ramping up. 

“The short of it is the hotel at the bottom of Crested Butte Ski Resort, Elevation Hotel, was run by an investment group out of Texas for about 10 years now, but they weren’t doing much with it,” Matchstick Productions co-founder Murray Wais said. “A different group came in and said they wanted to turn this hotel into something special so they took it over and wanted to turn it into an adventure hotel.”

The new group approached MSP, asking if they could create a space in the bar area.

MSP said yes, and now skiers, riders and visitors have — The Matchstick Lounge.

“It’s kind of a celebration of all things skiing and biking and hanging out, and is a cool space,” Wais said.

A pool table, TVs and ‘cool’ furniture grace the lounge Wais also said, creating a place to hang out and chill on the mountain.

The lounge has only been open since Friday, March 24, but… “Right now its open, yet I think the art is a little incomplete, we want to do a little more in there (the lounge), make it a little more ‘hard rockesque’, with artifacts of Matchstick’s history with little plaques describing it (the artifacts),” he said. 

• Do not forget, a few Colorado resorts are closing Sunday, however, several are still open. By April 17, more than 50% of Colorado’s resorts will be closed.

 Upcoming festivals: 

• Spring Splash + Bash at Winter Park (April 1-23)
• Beach N’ Egg Hunt at Arapahoe Basin (April 9)
• Easter Egg Hunt and Pond Skim at Powderhorn (April 9)
• Gunbarrel Challenge at Monarch (April 16)
• Springtastic Pond Skim at Keystone (April 15-16) 
• Sunsation at Copper Mountain (April 22-23)

SNOW LINKS:

RESORT REPORT:

Below are conditions for all Colorado resorts as of Wednesday afternoon.