For the first time in nine years, the Peak 10 Classic is not happening this July 4. Why is that? Take a glance up at Fourth of July Bowl in Breckenridge, Colorado, and see how the bowl has dwindled to a few snow patches.
Launched as a fundraiser for a local injured in a bike accident in 2018, the Peak 10 Classic is based around a long-standing July 4 tradition: hiking and skiing a high-elevation snowfield in Breckenridge.
Located at an elevation of 13,600 feet near the summit of Peak 10 above Breckenridge Ski Resort, Fourth of July Bowl is so-named because it typically sticks around for Independence Day festivities, through July and, following snowy winters, well into August. Starting in the 1970s, die-hard skiers would drive as far as they could to the top of the resort on July 4 before hiking to the top of the bowl and skiing down, donning zany outfits, red, white and blue, or sometimes, nothing but bare flesh above their boots. Building jumps, blasting tunes and barbecuing has always been part of the scene.
Peak 10 Classic Debut
Experiencing his first Fourth of July Bowl trek around 2008, former Breckenridge local Josh Barilar created a grassroots fundraising event in 2018. Barilar was the recipient of his own wave of community outreach in 2016 following a backcountry ski accident. He was skiing in a couloir on nearby Quandary Peak in late June, when he was injured in a wet slide avalanche and saved by a Search and Rescue team.
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“I was fortunate enough to be supported by the community and recover,” Barilar says. “Since our mountain communities are underserved, I wanted to raise money for a cause after my incident. With Fourth of July Bowl, people were going up there anyway. The ski culture has always been around, but there was never a component around raising money. The crowd that shows up is aligned with the goal that there’s something behind why we’re doing it.”
Thus, Barilar and a group of locals launched the first Peak 10 Classic in 2018, raising more than $1,000 for Cody Landers, a fellow local with big medical bills following a bike accident. The Classic has continued as a fundraiser every year since. Free to the public, participants make donations that are directed every year to locals in need or local nonprofit organizations. Local breweries Broken Compass, Breckenridge Brewery, Angry James and Syndicate collaborate on a special Peak 10 Classic brew, the proceeds for which also go toward local nonprofits via the Peak 10 Classic Foundation, now a certified 501(c)(3).
Fourth of July Bowl Fading this Summer
However, after the least snowy winter on record in the Colorado Rockies this past season (2025-26), the Fourth of July Bowl is fading and Peak 10 Classic organizers made the call to cancel the 2026 event.
“It’s a huge bummer the event is not happening,” says Zach Ryan, who has helped organize the Classic since its inception. “It’s out of everyone’s control. Everyone knew what the snowpack was like this winter. The Classic couldn’t happen without the community. Our biggest supporter is the Friends of Dillon Ranger District. The organizing crew is a group of local skiers who don’t know much about organizing events. The Ranger District put their neck out to support us during the permitting process.”
Following the 2022 Classic, when about 500 skiers and riders showed up and hundreds of cars parked on the fragile tundra at the base of Peak 10, the U.S. Forest Service stepped in. In 2023, participants were allowed to drive to the top of Peak 9 at Breck Resort, where they parked and began the 2-mile trek up nearly 2,000 vertical feet to the top of the bowl. With still a dangerous tally of cars parked on and around the service roads at the resort, for the last two years, the Peak Classic 10 has worked with the U.S. Forest Service to permit the event, using shuttles to get skiers and riders to and from the top of Peak 9 for the hike to the bowl.
“In 2024-25, the whole community event organizing crew had to go through the Forest Service. It was absolutely necessary,” Ryan says. “There are some jaded locals that are upset the Peak 10 Classic grew the way it did. ‘They’re like, it sucks we have to take this shuttle and we can’t drive.’ As someone who participates in organizing, we’ve been making this event more accessible and are just trying to grow the vibes. We’ve raised over $35,000 over the years for nonprofits around the High Country. It’s something we’re really proud of. The Forest Service has been a great partner. They’ve given us a lot of leeway. We’ve been able to push that permit out a bit. This year we had to give the Forest Service a clear decision by May 1. Given the low snowpack, we decided the bowl wasn’t going to be in a good spot to ski on the fourth.”
Preparation for July Skiing
Typically, Peak 10 Classic organizers spend hours shoveling the road and preparing the snowfield. They cut a snake with the help of Landers, who now operates his own bike park building company, The Jump Doctors and has, as Barilar says, gone “full-circle” from Peak Classic beneficiary to event contributor.
Doubtless, there will still be die-hards hiking to ski Fourth of July Bowl this July 4. However, they might not be too happy with the conditions they discover.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be worth it on the fourth,” says Breck local Justin Park, who has skied Fourth of July Bowl for years and has helped shovel snow for the Peak 10 Classic. “What they do now, they cut a snake in, build jumps and stuff. The sun cupping makes it unfun to ski.”
Park last skied the bowl on May 2, when he said conditions were stellar. Biking near the base of the bowl in late June, though, he talked to a couple skiers who told a different story.
“The reports were not good,” he says. “My buddy went up two days ago and said, ‘that’s all I needed.’ His report was, ‘don’t go.’”
High Hopes for 2027
Like every skier and rider in Colorado and across the American West, Peak 10 Classic organizers are hoping for a monster winter for 2026-27. This would lead to a July 4 experience that mirrors years like 2019, when there was so much snow that organizers couldn’t clear the road by July 4 and event had to be pushed to August.
In the meantime, Peak 10 Classic supporters can still contribute to the cause by drinking Peak 10 Classic beers at Broken Compass Brewery in Breckenridge, which is still scheduled for a July 4 party, as well as Breckenridge Brewery, Angry James and Syndicate. There’s also limited Peak 10 Classic merchandise available, the proceeds from which go to the foundation.
In view of the evolution and development of an organized Fourth of July Bowl event on July 4, Peak 10 Classic founders say that the scene remains the same. After all, there is only a special few (or a few hundred) willing to hike for hours at high elevation for a handful of turns in the middle of summer.
“The vibe has never really changed at all,” Barilar says. “It’s such an effort to get there, anyone who is up there would agree there was no vibe change at all since the permit, just more people. There’s also more energy, so if anything, it’s a better vibe. It’s not for everybody. Some people try to hike; they realize anything above 10,000 feet is a lot harder. Because of that simple vetting factor, it’s never really going to change.”
