Mid-May saw abnormally low snowpack in Colorado’s southern mountains, leaving the whitewater rafting industry to wonder about enough runoff to sustain iconic rivers through the summer.

“The heat is bringing a little extra snow down,” David Costlow, executive director of industry-stewarding Colorado River Outfitters Association, said this week. “We’d rather that stay put there right now.”

11 of Colorado's official symbols in nature: Our finest

Ideally, runoff is slower and more drawn out, providing enough snowmelt to swell waterways through June, July and August, the busy vacation months.

But approaching the end of this week — ahead of forecasted precipitation around the state — U.S. Department of Agriculture data showed Arkansas River Basin snowpack around 35% of the 30-year median. The high country was more parched farther south and southwest. In the basins encompassing the Rio Grande, Animas, San Miguel and San Juan rivers, data showed snowpack below 5% of the median.

“There’s snow up there,” Bill Dvorak said this week from his Chaffee County home, “but how long it’s gonna last? I sure hope it’ll get through June.”

New mountain bike venue in Colorado Springs set to take shape

Dvorak represents one outfitter setting up shop along the Arkansas River, considered the sport’s mecca in Colorado. He’s also one of the longest-going operators, with almost 40 years spent praying for snow and analyzing rivers. Recently, he said the Arkansas isn’t quite the soil-colored hue he’d expect.

“What that’s telling me is a lot of the runoff is not making it to the water. It’s getting soaked in the ground, because the ground has been so dry and needs the moisture,” he said.

Weeks of harsh wind “sure played hell with our water,” Dvorak added, explaining sublimation — snow turning to vapor rather than liquid in such blustery conditions.

“It’s like blowing $20 bills in the air as far as we’re concerned,” Costlow said.

Hanging Lake Trail to reopen this summer — earlier than some expected

At his base in Fort Collins, he’s recently observed the Cache la Poudre River “cranking,” much like other rivers in the state. The quicker runoff has meant quicker high flows.

“We do expect to have sufficient water for the majority of the summer,” said Alex Mickel, president and founder of Durango-based Mild to Wild Rafting, which runs the Animas and San Miguel rivers. “If the goal is high water thrills, (booking) sooner is better than later.”

The sooner the better possibly on Clear Creek as well, Costlow mentioned — like the Animas and San Miguel, another stretch depending entirely on runoff and rains. The Arkansas, meanwhile, has the benefit of an old agreement called the Voluntary Flow Management Program. Under the agreement, officials can release some reservoir storage to maintain rafting flows from July 1 to Aug. 15.

Just as there’s hope to tap that program this summer, there’s hope of a high-demand trend continuing.

While at the time of this writing Colorado River Outfitters Association had yet to publish its annual report on commercial user days, Costlow said the preliminary customer count for 2021 was about 615,000. That would be a record, according to the organization’s tallies going back 24 years, the highest since 575,555 in 2017.

As always, there’s hope for summer monsoons breaking this drought.

“Mid-June, mid-July, that could be a big help,” Mickel said. “But that’s not something we like to count on.”