Skiing costs double unless you plan ahead

Good morning, Colorado.

I kept forgetting we’re halfway through October while I was sweating through my T-shirt on a 14-mile hike to an alpine lake in the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness last weekend. I was even tempted to dip my toes in the pristine icy waters glistening under the sun — until I looked up and saw the dusting of snow on the peaks above.

Winter is on its way, even if it doesn’t feel like it, and as Jason Blevins writes today, now is the best time to buy a season pass if you’re looking to hit the slopes this year (without spending a fortune). We’ve got that story and more in this morning’s newsletter.

Let’s get reading.

Olivia Prentzel

Reporter

THE NEWS

OUTDOORS

The best time to pay for Colorado skiing is before the lifts start spinning

If you buy a lift ticket the day you want to go skiing, expect to pay well over $300 at many major resorts this coming season. But skiers who choose to buy season passes now, before the season starts, can find prices below what they were 30 years ago. Not sure which pass to choose? Jason Blevins breaks down the best deals.

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BUSINESS

Subsidiary of Colorado-based Ball Corp. settles race-based hiring discrimination suit in Georgia

Ball Container, a subsidiary of the Westminster federal contractor known for making aluminum beverage containers, just settled a case that involved 192 Black applicants for a technician job. The U.S. Department of Labor found that Ball Container wasn’t in compliance with federal regulations and had “statistically significant differences in the hiring rates of Black applications for production technician positions” compared to white applicants in 2020 and 2021. Tamara Chuang has more.

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ENERGY

Xcel energy efficiency rebate program resumes after PUC OKs transfer of money from 2025 budget

Xcel’s energy efficiency rebate program is back up and running after state regulators told the company it was OK to transfer $34 million from next year’s budget to fill in the gap, after Xcel overspent its 2024 budget. The shutdown didn’t sit well for contractors and vendors, some of whom were waiting for more than $120,000 in rebates, Mark Jaffe writes.

READ MORE

Section by Olivia Prentzel | Reporter

THE COLORADO REPORT

• Southwest Colorado mental health clinics hit by ransomware attack. Hackers have reportedly told Axis Health Systems to fork over $1.5 million to keep patients’ data private, but so far the operator of 13 mental health and addiction treatment facilities is not saying anything.
  — The Denver Post ????
• Rival injury law firms squabble over $600K fee from Speer hit-and-run. When an attorney working for the Wilhite Law Firm left to join Ramos Law after a hit-and-run judgment was paid, the client — and the $600,000 fee — moved with her.
  — BusinessDen ????
• “They lived and loved in bliss in a yellow house in the mountains.” Glen Hileman wrote the book “A Yellow House in the Mountains” about his parents, Lyle and Marylin Hileman, the only two casualties of the East Troublesome fire.
  — Sky-Hi News
• “These are the only two Denver closures next month,” Walgreens says. As part of a planned closure of nearly a quarter of its stores, Walgreens is closing two west Denver locations and asking customers to pick up meds in Lakewood.
  — Denverite

???? = source has article meter or paywall

Section by Eric Lubbers | CTO & Newsletter Wrangler

SunLit

REVIEW

In “Homestead,” a plot of frontier land meets a hasty courtship

Author Melinda Moustakis’ debut novel “Homestead,” a finalist for the Colorado Book Awards, calls on her Alaskan roots and family history to create a stunning portrait of the everyday challenges of building a life and a relationship from a tract of government-issued land on the frontier.

READ AN EXCERPT

• Interview with the author. Moustakis’ first book, the short story collection “Bear Down, Bear North: Alaska Stories” told tales of three generations of this same homesteading family. For her first novel, she decided to zero in on one of those generations and tell their origin story. 
• ????Listen to the Daily Sun-Up podcast with Melinda Moustakis. 

Section by Kevin Simpson | Writer

That’s all for today. Thanks for reading, and we hope to catch you here tomorrow.

— Olivia & the whole staff of The Sun

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