 Poster: A snowHead
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We did a highly successfull 2-week Road Trip in Colorado in February, 2017 - mostly in resorts near I-70 Interstate. Our experiences:
Most years, as this year, snow conditions are reliably very good. Enough of it, frequent downfalls, good grooming, and to a variable degree “champagne powder” in steep bowls.
The skiing:
Starting from Norway, we covered the following areas in 7 skiing days staying in 3 different small Colorado towns: (from Carbondale) Aspen, Snowmass, AspenHighlands/Buttermilk (shared in 1 day), 1 day off for car sightseeing, (Avon) Beaver Creek, Vail, (Frisco) Breckenridge and Copper Mountain. Our legs were way too tired by then, but from Frisco we could easily (30 min drive or less) have covered more areas as Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Loveland and some distance away Steamboat or Winter Park. Another time.
We found most places to be relatively modest in size compared to the mega-resorts of the Alps, the largest felt like Vail and Snowmass with a near-alps size and experience. Most places were easily covered in one day. A curious feeling of having larger parts of every area among trees (like Ski Welt) even at altitudes exceeding 3400m. Nice enough outlooks but not “alpine” spectactular, the most scenic being (in my view) Aspen and the Maroon Bells (4400m peaks), A high proportion of skiing area bowls is normally double-diamond blacks (or even EXtreme blacks) i.e. little/no grooming and sometimes no lifts either (a snowcat, or a brisk walk at altitude). The most extreme were Aspen Highlands (lots of hike-to bowl areas) and Vail (2 of 3 areas are non-groomed lift served blacks single/double /EX diamonds, and avalanche controlled but hence also sometimes closed) but really most areas have that. They also have plenty blues or single-blacks suitable for strong intermediates, but be prepared for steep skiing as an integral part of a normal skiday to explore the areas. Perhaps with champagne powder, but perhaps worn moguls.
Buttermilk is very soft outside the terrain park, but 10 min away with frequent shuttle is demanding Aspen Highlands with lots of blacks. Either area is quite limited in extent, you end up doing laps if you do not spend time walking to EX terrain. Copper had it own snowcat served Tucker mountain from the back bowl, plenty of bowl skiing. Breck has a lift up to 3915m that was not open on our visit. The highest lift operating was in Snowmass at 3813m (a seriously slow button lift). BeaverCreek can boast good blacks as the WorldCup Downhill course (Birds of Prey) and also lots of offpiste but also awkward link to Arrowhead area with easy pistes if you can stand the poling traverse. Vail has the biggest amount of skiing but can be severely limited in high winds or snow. Make a mental note to try to avoid Presidents Day weekend which fill all slopes, around Feb 20 each year.
How to get there: Lufthansa was our choice, roughly €450 round trip per person for Oslo-Frankfurt-Denver and return Las Vegas-via Houston(!)-Frankfurt-Oslo. All in all, efficient and adequately cheap. From Denver to Vegas we used Spirit lowcost airline, interesting - $40 for a ticket but $70 for two pieces of luggage (and no free carry-on). Worked well otherwise, but could have done this better.
We had our doubts as to whether the Trump situation on immigration control would hamper us, but everything went smooth. We had fixed our 14-dollar ESTA.gov visa waiver documents online some weeks before, in Denver the immigration control and (mostly automatic) passport check was very swift – a matter of minutes. Much better than NY. Denver is a large city, nearly 3 million – all rental cars are accessed via a 10 min shuttle bus. Hertz supplied us a prebooked SUV, a Nissan Rogue 4WD for $48/day free mileage (and gas is 1/3 of Europe prices) when ordered via our car organization, NAF (like Adac) who also made the necessary International Drivers Licence - do not forget that. 4WD never proved necessary, but in a snowstorm that could be handy, we thought. Denver is “the mile high city” at 1610m, the lowest place you will stay on the trip – the 4-lane road via I70 west soon reaches the Eisenhower tunnel at 3300m and continue as 4-lane all the way to Aspen.
After the first night in Denver to acclimatize, we headed west 4-5 hrs to Aspen (well, Carbondale 30 minutes before Aspen) and as the days progressed we worked our way back to Denver. We stopped by in Silverthorne (Bluevalley ski) to rent skis for $16/day/person – great. No, we did not visit the numerous Outlets in Silverthorne. One benefit with staying in Carbondale 4 days is that it is at only 1800m, reducing altitude sickness possibilities. The other places were higher, Avon (for Vail/Beaver) at 2400m and ending in Frisco at 2760 for all “Summit County” resorts as Breckenridge (situated at 2925m, beware - might not sleeep well here) and Copper. Between Copper and Vail/Beaver there is only a 20-min drive on clear roads, but is via the Vail pass at 3250m which can be a problem in bad weather.
Booking.com provided motels, typically ranging from 125 to 212$ /night (double room with exactly the same breakfast, American way…) along I70. All were fine for our use. Days Inn in Carbondale was a nice motel ideally located as such, easy to reach, walking distance to some diners and a short car ride to main street eateries. Very friendly helpful staff. Carbondale has a nice pizzeria (White House) and Mexican restaurants and is a positive, typical US small town to visit .
We commuted from Days Inn in Carbondale 30 min to free parking lots at either Snowmass (at Hwy82 intercept, or another one some km closer to Snowmass – then shuttlebus) or Buttermilk (with free troublefree shuttlebuses everywhere – we used this). You may pay $15-25 to park closer, still free if 4 or more sharing car. A nice ride, Starbucks and large sporting store in Basalt half way adding to the joy.
From Comfort Inn Avon we chose car to Vail (15 min, $25 Parking) and free ski bus 10 m from the hotel to Beaver Creek - avoiding the gondola connection from downtown Avon, the ski bus taking us right into the best slopes. Avon itself is best forgotten, except for a nice BBQ restaurant we found it rather dull even though the hotel was the most expensive on the trip. Some of the bars showed more evidence of the legalization of Cannabis in Colorado than most towns.
From Ramada Frisco the car was the obvious choice to Breckenridge ($5 P by the gondola!) and Copper (free Alpine parking lot, shuttle). Breckenridge was a very nice town worth a visit, wild west legacy. Frisco as well, and lots of restaurants and evening possibilities – but our hotel had car distance to Main Street. We found a nice Himalayan restaurant there.
The most expensive experience in the US compared to Europe is is the abnormal price of the lift tickets. In Vail, turning up at the window asking for a day ticket is $179 ! That would be 3 times the ticket price in Austria or thereabouts. Aspen 145, Breck 161. There is alas no “Colorado ski pass” either (as the Salzburger card in Austria), but some resorts cooperate. Having said that, we ended up in using much less. You will need to investigate discount possibilities 1-2 weeks at least before you go and plan which days (and how many) you spend where as pre-purchase is much cheaper generally. Plan ahead !
For Aspen/Snowmass, there is not much (10$/day) discount for preordering so we planned to improvise and buy a 3 or 4 day card in the window. Luckily, our hotel sold day tickets for $100 when purchased as a package with the room, a great bargain. And when we were tired after 3 consecutive ski days we simply did not buy the 4th day but took a car trip instead. Good for us.
Vail/Beaver Creek has the “Epic” card which is valid also in Breckenridge and Keystone. A “3 out of 5 days” card is $426 when purchased between 7 and 14 days in advance (and then picked up at the window), still expensive but much cheaper than simply going to the window ($507). There is also an Epic season card covering to some extent other resorts in the US, Whistler and Europe to some extent at about $840 but with all sorts of limitations, and it must be purchased pre/early season. Tiresome politics.
Copper has a nice prepurchase option on your smartphone, order by 23:55 the night before and save $52 on the day ticket. Most ski rentals will also offer discount tickets to local resorts. Some smaller resorts as Loveland have much cheaper day tickets than the major resorts. Btw, we also talked about the fact that nowhere did we see real modern chair lifts with weather bubble and heated seats, it seems this development is slower here than across the Atlantic? But perhaps the weather is better generally reducing the need - we had some windy days and missed them.
Side trips: On such a long trip we needed some diversion to rest the legs in the form of road trips. One trip was going from Frisco to Copper, Hwy 91 south to Freemont Pass at 3450m. On to nice Leadville historic town, a short detour into the wilderness towards Independence pass which is closed in winter, and via Arkansas river and “collegiate peaks” byway to Pueblo before heading back to Denver. The other trip was even more scenic, from Carbondale driving hw133 part of the “West Elk Loop” (use your guide book). McClure pass, Paonia (quirky) to Delta. Here we listened to the staff at the coffee bar and headed for Grand Junction and the “Colorado National Monument”, well worth a 2-3 hr visit – a kind of small Grand Canyon. Red cliffs, spectacular views., and a Dinosaur hill by the exit. A short ride back to Glendale to complete the loop. The last non-ski trip was going by plane to Las Vegas on the way home, where we stayed two days at Caesars Palace and lost some money on the roulette. On another planet than skiing Colorado.
Luckily, the use of our iPhones was as smooth roaming the US as home with no need for action. Coverage not ideal in the darkest valleys perhaps but ok in the towns and ski areas. Really needed for information searching as road conditions, access/parking info, navigation (“Here” offline app), restaurants and lift pass deals.
Have a nice snowy trip if you can stand the lift pass prices !
Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 1-03-17 14:14; edited 6 times in total
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Pics?
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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@Geh, great report, thanks
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Good read. The biggest lesson North America could learn from Europe is to make pass prices transparent. Last trip was a combination of Liftopia, 7-11 coupons, 2 for one coupons and shady deals for staff tickets. It's another layer of faff and still not cheap.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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@Geh, good info, thanks. If I can make it come off, I'm going to try a US trip next February with the family. Out of the places you visited where would you say is the best for lift served off piste that is within bounds and not too extreme?
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Thanks@Geh, great info for our planning for next year. Much obliged.
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To anyone considering a similar trip the Epic local season pass BOUGHT EARLY [ Say October ] is a good deal.
10 days at Beaver or Vail and unlimited days at Breck, Keystone and A Basin. There are some blackout days for Vail and Beaver.
It cost me $650
A walk up day ticket at Vail is $189 so ski 4 days there and you are free rolling
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Themasterpiece Vail has good lift served off-piste in the back bowls that is not too extreme. Snowmass also has good off-piste, and they do a good job or rotating the trails they groom. Less crowded at Snowmass than Vail.
Aspen Highlands has some very steep terrain, and Highlands Bowl has some seriously steep 40-45 degree pitches that you have to work for. It's not a big mountain, but it skis big, if you get my meaning.
The hike up Highlands Bowl
If you know in advance that you are going to come to CO to ski, then getting the Epic Pass is the best way to save money, if skiing the I-70 ski resorts. There's also the Mountain Collective Pass for Aspen/Snowmass and Telluride.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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Sorry, was locked out for 24h. Too many words ?....  Maybe, but also my mail address was obsolete. Maybe now...
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I dug my way out of the crevasse and hopefully this will work now. Anyways, agree - Vail is the obvious choice for lift based offpiste, given that you get less wind than we did when the back bowl closed after 2 hours and the third one never opened - but looks nice. But you can hardly go wrong, either a snowcat (as Copper) or lift will serve you most major resorts. Note that in the Highlands, there is a snowcat, but that obviously stops below the nice pic above and you still need a manual effort to plod to the golden stuff.
I did write this also as a "guide" for those who are like me, "should we - next year"--? Yes, you should. But make some plans and be prepared for the costs. Weather was "intermediate" for us, some sunny days and some windy, snowing is basically fine except that it has the tendency to close top lifts; just happy now we did not experience Jackson Hole that closed for 5 days with power outtage in the recent storm. The lady next to us on the plane did. Lots of candlelight dinners, then.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Great report @Geh - yep lift prices are the biggest shock re: USA but I always think the overall skiing and experience are worth it. Have done your style trip a few times in a few States and have always loved it. Deffo go for the Epic season pass if u can manage it. Also if doing a day trip u can book some resorts day tickets online the night before. I remember doing this at Copper Mountain before and saving $25 against the "on the day" price. Skiing Europe this season - pretty lucky we decided we weren't going to Jackson Hole again til next year given the Teton Village power probs. But they have got the snow.........
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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@Geh, good reading and useful info. I am uk based and have skied many times in Colorado and would disagree that you can cover each resort in a day so just wanted to put some balance on your comments that might make people think they are all small resorts. I have spent several weeks skiing each of snowmass and beaver creek as well as other places and not been bored of theresort. All in all Colorado skiing is a great experience.
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@Geh, good reading and useful info. I am uk based and have skied many times in Colorado and would disagree that you can cover each resort in a day so just wanted to put some balance on your comments that might make people think they are all small resorts. I agree they are not the mega resorts like 3 valleys but.... I have spent several weeks skiing each of snowmass, steamboat and beaver creek as well as other places and not been bored of theresort. All in all Colorado skiing is a great experience.
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You know it makes sense.
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@Geh, good reading and useful info. I am uk based and have skied many times in Colorado and would disagree that you can cover each resort in a day so just wanted to put some balance on your comments that might make people think they are all small resorts. I agree they are not the mega resorts like 3 valleys but.... I have spent several weeks skiing each of snowmass, steamboat and beaver creek as well as other places and not been bored of theresort. All in all Colorado skiing is a great experience.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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What an excellent report @Geh. We are thinking of a big trip for our 10th wedding annniversary in 2 years and this has inspired me to get researching - your trip sounds superb, thanks for reporting in such detail. (I'm still rather reeling at the lift pass prices though!)
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Poster: A snowHead
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| Loganberry wrote: |
| What an excellent report @Geh. We are thinking of a big trip for our 10th wedding annniversary in 2 years and this has inspired me to get researching - your trip sounds superb, thanks for reporting in such detail. (I'm still rather reeling at the lift pass prices though!) |
Unfortunately one of the downsides to skiing in the USA. I'm always blown away by how inexpensive the lift pass prices are in Europe, with one or two exceptions. The ski resorts in America seem to be more and more of the corporate mentality. Especially with Vail Resorts, which just keeps buying up more and more ski resorts. Honestly needs to be some kind of anti-competition enforcement from keeping these corporations from buying up all the ski areas. Won't be long before VR starts to push those season pass prices up and up.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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@mogulmonkey, I agree that you do not experience every aspect in a day. All visited areas are large enough to spend more days of course, but my comment was more in the direction "we covered about all major lifts and lift based summits in one day" in all except vail and snowmass. Can't do that in espace killy. Colorado skiing is absolutely very nice and distinctively different from the alps, but generally smaller 
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Good report. Highlands has the highest proportion of steep inbounds skiing I've ever found at a resort - you could lap Deep Temerity all day. There are some parking tricks in Vail, BC and Breck.
Pretty much need an epic pass or a Mtn Collective to get value from name US resorts.
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FAQ
