Hello to all, some of you already know me and my work in journalism as a broadcast news reporter for more than 25 years, focusing on cops, courts and investigative stories. However, the last two and a half years with the Clear Creek Courant have been the most satisfying of my career.

I’m inviting all of you to subscribe to what will be a weekly email newsletter of the latest the Courant is covering.

The best part is: It’s free.

I’ve lived in Idaho Springs for more than 15 years, and I’m proud to be raising my 12-year-old son – Sawyer, a 100% native mountain kid – in the Clear Creek School District. What matters to you matters to me, and that’s why I focus my reporting solely on Clear Creek County, the multiple challenges we face and the amazing people who live here.

The Clear Creek Courant dates back to 1973 and the paper’s original wooden sign hangs with pride in my Miner Street home.

We are, admittedly, different than ‘the folks down the hill’ and the one common thread throughout my reporting for the Courant is we are a ‘community.” We come together when times and events are difficult and when we celebrate when there is good. We show grace and supply support to any neighbor in need.

This commitment of a weekly email newsletter is as new to me as it is to you, so I suggest we build it together. I commit to continuing to cover and hold accountable our public agencies: city, town, county, fire authority, school district, law enforcement and whoever else we pay to serve us.

I hope this weekly newsletter can reflect all of those qualities and trust on your support and involvement to make it a true reflection of Clear Creek County.

Beyond that, what do you want to learn about locally? What should we spotlight in our mountain communities? I want to hear from you, there are more than a century of stories in our historic county. My email is [email protected] and I look forward to hearing from you.

Conditioned Freedivers, on cue, silently slipped below the clear water surface of a 23-meter pool in Idaho Springs, swimming upwards of 200 meters underwater, with one breath, in a competition first to Colorado and the world.

The ‘Altitude Apnea Challenge’ held at the Clear Creek Metropolitan Recreation District pool in Idaho Springs Feb. 7th and 8th, challenged athletes from around the world to compete at the highest altitude ever, above 7,500 in-elevation, in a sanctioned event by the sport’s regulatory agency the International Association for the Development of Apnea (AIDA). 

The dry, bare ground and balmy temperatures have many Clear Creek locals asking the same question:

Where is the snow?

Mid-February temperatures reached the 50-degree mark and the few dustings of snow melted and evaporated just as quickly as they fell.

Forecasters from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in Boulder have been tracking the dry conditions in the front range and Clear Creek County from the Weather Service offices in Boulder and confirm it's an unusual and dry pattern for mountain communities.

“Looking at where you’re interested, Clear Creek County looks pretty bleak out there when you’re looking at the mountains and there’s not a lot of snow,” Dave Barjenbruch with the National Weather Service said.

The reason for the extreme dry weather, Barjenbruch said, is partly due to fluctuations in oceanic temperatures around the globe that create storm systems for some areas of the U.S. and dry/warm conditions for other parts of the country.

“The ocean temperatures and the way they vary across the globe can change our weather patterns,” Barjenbruch said. “For example, if you’re in the Midwest or northeastern U.S., you’re wondering, ‘holy cow, is this winter ever going to stop?”

It’s a totally different story in our mountains.

To find a weather pattern for the Front Range that’s even similar to what the area is experiencing now, you have to go back decades in meteorological history, according to NOAA. 

“We’re at essentially historic lows. There was only one year, 1981, that had a worse snowpack than we do now,” Barjenbruch said.

Has the lack of snow this winter affected high school ski teams? The answer might surprise you.

Thursday 2/19/2026 7:00 a.m.

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