A couple of us are planning to go on a skiing trip in Colorado. Being from the east coast and used to the ski resorts around here, where would ya’ll say is the best place to get some great skiing/snowboarding in? None of us have been skiing out west so we’re looking for some opinions on the difference between the many resorts in the area (Aspen, Breckenridge, Telluride…)?
Thanks!
It all depends on what you are looking for. The best snow has been in the southwest (Telluride, Durango), but it is harder to get to. I think the best mountain is Vail, just because it is so big it has something for everyone. The Vail back bowls are incredible. On the other hand, Vail (and Beaver Creek and Aspen) tend to attract a resort crowd and their non-skiing stuff isn’t as much fun as some of the other places. Winter Park has more day skiers and the Mary Jane area is good for bump skiing, but I’m not sure the snow has been too good there. If I was picking one place, I would go to Telluride, but it’s just personal preference.
Jeff
Used to work at Keystone. Hard to beat Summit county. Keystone, Breckenridge, A-Basin, Copper, and Vail all short bus rides from each other. Summit Stage bus lines serve all of them.(and it’s free) A-basin, when the snow is plentiful, is hard core. Brek. is great for cuising, lots of long runs. Keystone has great bowls and tree skiing. Vail is beautiful and huge, great bowls, but hellish prices off mountain. If you make it to Keystone, hit the Goat apre’s ski. It’s a dive but more of a local hangout with good bar food and soup. Tons of lodging options around Summit County. You can pick up discount lift tix in Denver at most grocery stores.
I second Summit County. When I lived in CO I use to get the season pass that covered Breck, Keystone, A-Basin, and had 10 days at Vail. Would only hit Vail during the week were were lots of freshies…most of the time I was at Keystone though. Second favorite resort was Winter Park, very cool terrain and less peeps. If you stay in Dillian you have pretty good access to everything. It will be a little bit cheaper then staying right at the resort, and just a short shuttle ride to the lifts.
I second, third, and four the Goat!
-bcreager
I agree with Summitt…I just returned from Breckenridge and it was perfect. Had a bit of trouble with headaces from the altitude at night…
Another vote for Summit county. I also just got back from a week at Breckenridge. I hadn’t skied there before, but it was alot of fun. Keystone is probably the best. I heard rumors that much of A-basin still isn’t open because of so little snow.
Chris
Have you thought about Canadian options - the difference in the dollars is not as great as it used to be, but Canadian ski areas still offer outstanding value.
Whistler, on the West Coast is considered by many the best ski reasort in North America. The terrain options are outstanding. However, the weather is fickle( It was raining right to the top of the mountain this week!) and it’s perhapos the most expensive place to ski in Canada.
My favourite places to ski are in the BC interior. Silver Star Mountain is by far, my #1 place. for the simple reason that it has world class nordic skiing and downhill skiing. There are 100Km of trails and a huge range of downhill options with ski-in - ski-out accomodation. Park the car for a week and just ski all day. It’s not that expensive here either. We used to go for 5 - 6 days and nordic ski 30 - 40K in the morning and then downhill ski( on very tired legs - great strength workout) in the afternoon. They can a get a mammoth amount of snow there by mid winter. Last time I was there, Silver Star had a 3m(12 foot base)!!
Fleck
Are you flying into DIA? Are you renting a car or going to take a shuttle to your destination. If you are going to take a shuttle then Summit county is good choice because there is so much skiing and different options all available by bus.
I like Winter Park / Mary Jane because it is not so resort with much fewer hotels.
If you want the full resort experience then Breck or Vail are good choices with tons of places to hang out etc.
For the biggest snow, consider either the SW part of the state like Durango which just got 5 feet of snow in a week (or Telluride) but as already pointed out these places are tough to get to by car during the winter because passes close with big storms and it is 7 hours or so from DIA. Another great option may be Steamboat but again, about 5 hours from DIA and can be a tough drive.