Sunlight Mountain Resort via Facebook.
Audio By Carbonatix
For the last five years, hundreds of women have gathered at Boot Tan Fest to ski and snowboard together in a celebration of womanhood — culminating in the famous naked lap, during which the ladies strip nude before shredding the mountain. But this year, things will look very different.
The sixth annual ski festival will not include skiing. That’s because Sunlight Mountain Resort in Glenwood Springs, which hosts the event, closed early for the season on March 22, following a record-breaking warm winter. ‘
As advertised, the festival from April 10 to 12 was supposed to provide attendees with exclusive lift access on April 11 and 24-hour uphill access all weekend, allowing attendees to ski and snowboard at any hour for three days straight.
“This has never been about skiing. This is a festival rooted in community,” said Jenny Verrochi, founder of Boot Tan Fest, in a video on March 19. Verrochi highlighted the event’s non-skiing offerings, including a fashion show, musical performances, a sauna, a cold plunge and a yoga class.
But some women feel left out in the cold after spending over $200 per ticket for a ski festival with no skiing. Despite the major change of plans, organizers are not offering any refunds, transfers or deferrals.
“I would not have purchased a ticket if I had known there would be no skiing,” says one would-be attendee who bought a ticket more than five months ago. She asked to remain anonymous, but her purchase was confirmed by Westword. “The event was marketed as the ‘largest women’s ski and snowboard festival,’ and skiing/lift access was a central part of the experience being sold. With that now removed, the event being delivered is materially different from what was advertised.”
Verrochi defends the decision, noting that organizers offered refunds through March 1 — weeks before they knew there wouldn’t be any skiing at the festival, but months into the 2025-26 ski season, when it was clear that snow conditions were poor statewide.
“Because Boot Tan Fest is independently produced by a very small team and the event budget is committed months in advance for infrastructure, artists, staffing and operations, we are not offering refunds or partial refunds,” Verrochi says. “This is consistent with standard festival policies across the industry and is outlined in our ticket terms. …The costs of producing the event are fixed and committed well in advance, and the festival will still deliver a full weekend of programming and experiences for attendees.”
Around 740 tickets have been sold for the festival so far, according to Verrochi.
The Boot Tan Fest website currently sells tickets for $275. It continues to advertise the inclusion of “lift access,” “24-hour uphill access” and “the iconic party lap” as of March 24, six days after Sunlight Mountain’s early closure was announced and two days after the lifts shut down for the season.
“We still encourage attendees to bring skis or snowboards if they have them accessible, there may be small pockets of snow that could allow for some boot packing, but at this time there is very little snow on the resort overall, which is unfortunately outside of our control,” Verrochi says. “Boot Tan Fest originally started as a backcountry-style festival where there were no lifts involved at all. The spirit of the event has always been about community and celebrating women in the mountains, with or without resort infrastructure.”
Sunlight Mountain Resort’s early closure came at the end of the hottest winter in recorded state history, resulting in one of Colorado’s worst snowpacks on record.
Keeping the mountain running for as long as it did was “more than a challenge,” said Jason Parker, Sunlight’s director of mountain operations, in a video announcing the closure. More than three weeks ahead of the festival, the mountain snow already appears sparse and slushy in the March 18 video, with patches of grass and dirt visible to the side of the ski lift and at the bottom of the hill. Temperatures in Glenwood Springs have since consistently reached over 70 degrees, presumably causing even more snow to melt.
Other resorts have also already closed for the season, such as Ski Cooper in Leadville, Howelsen Hill in Steamboat Springs and Powderhorn Mountain Resort in Mesa. Some didn’t open at all, including Cranor Ski Area in Gunnison, Lee’s Ski Hill in Ouray and Ski Hesperus in Hesperus.
“I understand and empathize with how difficult this snow year has been for Colorado’s mountain communities,” says the upset ticket holder. “This is obviously not an ideal situation for anyone involved. However, from a consumer perspective, this situation feels concerning.
“I think many attendees would have made different purchasing decisions had this possibility been more clearly accounted for.”
