Before You Buy a Nordic Pass This Fall, Remember How Last Winter Went at Haymaker

"We're 100% dependent on Mother Nature," Birgitta Lindgren told the Steamboat Pilot & Today in January. Her family owns and operates both Haymaker Nordic Center and the Steamboat Ski Touring Center. She was describing a 2025–26 season she called "rough." For anyone who skis the South Valley, the quote also explains how to read this fall's season-pass choices.

The operator's season-pass page says prices change on a schedule: July 15, October 31, and after November 1. As of today, October 12, the October 31 change is less than three weeks away. Before you pick a pass, it helps to see how much skiing last winter actually allowed at the two Nordic centers closest to the South Valley, and how different that was from the one trail in town that runs on snowmaking.

Last winter at Haymaker and Catamount

Haymaker sits on the city's Haymaker Golf Course at 34855 US-40, just past the Colorado 131 intersection as you come into the Steamboat area. Catamount Nordic is a few miles south of town at Lake Catamount. There, Catamount Ranch & Club turns its private golf course into a public Nordic center each winter. Neither center has any snowmaking.

Here is the 2025–26 season, from local reporting and dated trail reports:

• January 11, 2026: Haymaker opens.
• January 23, 2026: Haymaker has 75% of its trails open, but for classic skiing only. Crews hadn't been able to get groomers out in those snow conditions. Lindgren said the center needed 12 to 18 inches of new snow before it could groom for skate skiing.
• March 2, 2026: Ski Haus's county conditions report lists Haymaker as "ungroomed, classic only, no dogs," and Catamount Nordic as closed.
• March 10, 2026: The Ski Haus report lists Haymaker, Catamount and the Ski Touring Center as closed.
• March 16, 2026: All three are still closed. Howelsen Hill reports that its last Rodeo Loop groom of the season was March 15.

That leaves fewer than nine weeks between Haymaker's opening day and the report listing it closed. Part of that time was ungroomed or classic-only. Haymaker's page on the operator's site still shows the closing message: "After a challenging winter, we've officially closed trails for the season."

Catamount's own sign-off from a better year gives a useful comparison. On March 23, 2025, the center posted on Nordic Pulse that it was closing day, that most trails had been groomed that morning, and that "there is no more public access to Catamount property until next season." The 2026 trail reports listed Catamount as closed by March 2, roughly three weeks earlier on the calendar.

Why Howelsen lasted longer

Howelsen Hill outlasted both South Valley centers for a mechanical reason. In January, Howelsen ski area and rodeo manager Brad Setter told the Steamboat Pilot & Today that crews were grooming every day in the rodeo grounds, where snowmaking is used. On the higher trails, crews had cut back because the snow was thinning and bald spots were showing.

The March reports follow the same pattern. On March 10, the Rodeo Loop had a fresh groom while every golf-course Nordic center in the area was closed. In a thin year, the trail with snowmaking stayed open about two weeks after the trails without it had closed.

Haymaker and Catamount are the closest groomed trails to home, and in a low-snow winter they are also the first to close. That matters most when you decide which locations to put on your pass.

What each pass covers

All of the passes below are sold through the Steamboat Ski Touring Center's website. Their coverage overlaps in ways that are easy to misread, and Haymaker is the location that moves in and out of the bundles. The prices shown are what the operator's trail tickets page lists as of October 2026. The page does not say which season they apply to, so confirm them before you buy.

Haymaker isn't on the Valley Pass. If you live near Lake Catamount and buy the Valley Pass, you can ski Catamount and Howelsen's Rodeo Loop, but not the trails off US-40. The Premier Valley Pass adds Haymaker, and the operator says it is valid for both cross-country skiing and snowshoeing.

The listed prices, measured against a short season

A daily trail ticket for one location is listed at $32 for adults, and $27 for children 12 and under and seniors over 65. It includes groomed trails and parking at that center. At those prices, the $295 Haymaker season pass costs about as much as nine adult day tickets, so it comes out ahead on the tenth visit. Last winter, Haymaker was open for fewer than nine weeks, and part of that stretch was classic-only.

The combined passes show the overlap costs. Buying Haymaker and Ski Touring Center season passes separately would cost $590 at the listed prices, compared with $490 for the combined pass. Moving from the Valley Pass to the Premier Valley Pass adds $271, a little less than the $295 Haymaker pass on its own. A skier near Catamount who also wants Haymaker pays less for that access through the Premier upgrade than by stacking a separate Haymaker pass on the Valley Pass.

Every season pass on the page is listed as nontransferable, and each one expires at the end of the season. In a short winter, an unused season pass doesn't carry over. If you'd rather not commit, the operator also sells a 10-day trail ticket, which it describes as transferable to family and friends.

Haymaker's terrain, hours and dog days

Haymaker opened in 2015 and is the operator's newest location. The operator describes it as a more relaxed place to ski with wide Yampa Valley views. A 2023 Steamboat Pilot & Today guide described its trails as flat and smooth, totaling about 10 kilometers, with views of Mount Werner to the northeast and the Flat Tops Wilderness Area to the southwest. The current page lists trail hours of 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily, with the season start marked "snow dependant."

Dogs are where Haymaker differs most from the other centers. Dog days are Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. The schedule can change, and dogs aren't allowed on event days. The rules also require:

1. A daily or season dog pass. The Haymaker Dog Season Pass is listed at $60.
2. A leash in the parking lot, around the building, and in the trail's "On Leash Zone." Off-leash dogs must stay under strict voice control in the zone marked "Leash not required."
3. A collar with identifying information, waste picked up and put in a trash can, and no dogs inside the Haymaker building.

Thin snow affects dog access too. In the March 2 report, Haymaker was open for classic skiing but listed "no dogs." In a lean winter, a dog season pass is limited by both the dog-day schedule and the snow.

What we know about Catamount

Catamount has less published information than Haymaker. Nordic Pulse lists seven named trails: Baldy Loop, Connector Loop, Dry Creek Loop, First Light, Grouse Creek, Heritage Loop and Pleasant Valley Loop. They range from 0.75 kilometers for First Light to 5.55 kilometers for the Connector Loop. The club's Lake Catamount Outfitter Center has a Nordic Center Attendant role that fits rental gear and helps members and guests with winter equipment. The most detailed public guide is a 2023 Steamboat Pilot & Today guide to Routt County's Nordic centers. It said Catamount served skiers of all levels, rented classic and skate gear on site, and usually ran about 10 degrees colder than town.

No 2026–27 opening date, day-ticket price or schedule for Catamount had been published as of mid-October. For South Valley skiers, Catamount's access currently comes through the Valley Pass and the Premier Valley Pass. As the 2025 closing note made clear, public access to the property ends when the Nordic season does.

If you're weighing a South Valley property partly for winter access to Haymaker, Catamount or the Lake Catamount area, Sarah Saunders can help you figure out which trailheads and seasonal routines go with which addresses, so the location fits how you plan to use it. Let's Connect.