A few question for those who have made the trek to Colorado. Kind of focused on either Keystone or Breckenridge.

The only time I could go would be super peak season between xmas and new years. Would the lift lines be ridiculous or are the mountains so big does it spread everyone out? I'd hate to sit in a lift line all day (as would anyone), but I don't want to spend $2k doing it in CO.

Would you rec. staying on site or 15/20 minutes out? Are the towns in general fun to be in?

Has anyone done the tubing/snowmobiling/dog sledding there?

If you had to pick between the two - which one?

8/25/2010 8:56:33 PM

i did keystone in dec 2008 with a large group of friends. we went before xmas so i dont know specifically about going between xmas & new years. there are tons of runs open at all levels so i don't imagine it being that bad.

also i think you can buy a pass that lets you go to both mountains if you wanted to do that

we had 13 people so we rented a house nearby that had a free shuttle that took us 5min to the resort/lift area

also... if you know anyone living in colorado with a season pass, you might be able to buy a buddy pass through them for a deep discount. that can help with costs!

we ended up not going out much. we grocery shopped and guys/girls took turns cooking, we had a hot tub and were usually so tired from skiing that we played drinking games or watched movies instead of going out.

tubing looked like a blast but i never got around to it



the keystone view is incredible.. it looked fake even in person!

8/25/2010 9:10:00 PM

^ do you have any other pics

8/25/2010 10:27:02 PM

Spending $2k in CO? Where do you plan on staying, The Ritz? It doesn't cost that much unless you're staying for a week or so and really live it up. $1,000 - 1,500 including airfare should do it. I've skied at various places in Summit Co (where Breckenridge, Keystone, Copper, etc are all located) on two occasions but never around a major holiday. My initial thought would be that the mountains are big enough to support a lot of people and you wouldn't have to wait long in lines (if at all). The resorts might have fast passes that you can buy for an additional fee to bypass any lines.

I've skied at Breckenridge twice and absolutely love it. It's gorgeous and the town's great. But keep in mind that it has some of the highest chair lift accessible slopes in North America (Peak 8 is 12,998 ft tall). Extended amounts of time at high altitude can negatively affect people, though it's less likely to be an issue if you're in good physical shape.

I can't speak for Keystone as I've never been there. I've looked over their trail map and it looks better suited for beginner to intermediate skiing than other resorts. So depending on your skill level you may or may not want to go there. They also have night skiing (most CO resorts do not) but usually skiing from 9am till 4pm is good enough for me.

Both times I've skied out there I've stayed in a house with friends that is in a central location to most resorts (in the towns of Frisco, Dillon, etc). That way you can have your pick of all the area resorts. One big downside is the necessary expense of a rental vehicle. I'm not sure about public transportation.

view from Peak 8 at Breck:

8/25/2010 10:34:41 PM

Skip keystone. Choose between vail & breckenridge based on current conditions.

8/25/2010 11:08:15 PM

after going to both i'd vote breckenridge

8/25/2010 11:12:54 PM

go to Breck and/or Keystone if you have time, but your highest priority should be Vail.

8/25/2010 11:15:28 PM

If you're happy in the tough stuff, go A-basin. Far fewer people. Quite possibly cheaper on a day-to-day basis. Limited selection of easy and intermediate trails. Limited snowmaking capability.

You may be able to get multi-day, multi-resort passes. The entire valley (encompassing dillon and frisco and beyond) has free bus transportation for skiers. I am completely happy to spend several hundred dollars less and take a free bus to the slopes/restaurant/bar.

Have fun, I'm jealous!

8/25/2010 11:48:29 PM

I dunno, Lloyd. The french are assholes.

8/26/2010 12:00:27 AM

Both are awesome skiing. We did keystone last year, and chose it mostly due to affordable onsite lodging with close proxmity to daycare. This is probably not an issue for anyone else in this thread.


Breck is a lot bigger, but really you can't go wrong with either one, especially if you've never skied out in colorado.

Also, the time btw christmas and new years is not really peak season. It may be crowded because of the holiday, but it's definitely early in the season, and the base may not be very high.

8/26/2010 12:00:50 AM

We went to breck for a week earlier this year in february. I'll echo the sentiments that if you've never skied CO then either is going to be awesome, but breck is just simply bigger and more spread out. I'm a novice snowboarder and i definitely didn't get bored out there. We stayed nearly slopeside at the Der Steiermark lodge at the base of peak 9 and it was only a 20 yd. walk to the base of peak 9. Breckenridge brewpub was right up the road as well. It was decent....everything including airfare was around a grand. Staying outside the town would defeat the experience imo...

8/26/2010 12:38:09 AM

Lift lines out west are not what you would think of as lift lines. I've been to Winter Park Spring Break and just after New Years, don't think I ever waited longer than 5-10 minutes (and I usually didn't wait more than 5 chairs), and that was usually at the start of the day/lift up from the base. You may be able to find a 4 day pass, which they sell in grocery stores in Colorado and you can sometimes find in ski shops in the East or on ebay (saves some $$$).

8/26/2010 7:33:45 AM

Where did you guys stay when you were there? Any specific hotels or lodges you'd rec?

Do most places have kitchens/stoves, and hot tubs/pools, and any other amenities that would be wanted for a 5+ day stay?

8/27/2010 8:18:58 AM

Stay in Dillon or whatever the other little town is, and rent a car.

8/27/2010 8:20:42 AM

^^When I stayed in Dillon a local tipped me off to a good deal. I bought the coupon book sold at a local grocery chain (cost $10) that had a lot of lift ticket discounts inside. The only ones I needed to use was buy one get one free lift tickets at Copper Mountain (valid 7 days a week). The booklet had 4 of those.

And just like that the $80 lift ticket cost me $40 and me and my friends saved $120

8/27/2010 8:36:35 AM

if you can afford it, just go to beaver creek. >>>>>> breck/keystone although they're all good.

8/27/2010 10:32:15 AM

wow, ok, this thread is kinda funny.

i've lived in Denver now 3-1/2 years and this will be my 4th season, 3rd season on the Colorado Pass (Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone & A-basin)

Vail - 5,000+ acres
Keystone - 3,100 acres
Breck, 2,400 acres
Beaver Creek - 1800 acres
A-basin - 800 acres

BIIIG differences.

In terms of cost for place to stay - (high) BC -> Vail -> Breckenridge -> Keystone (low), A-basin doesn't have a village.

In terms of cost of lift ticket - all the same, A-basin is about $20 less per day, but no village and about 1/3 the terrain of other resorts.

I'd say Breckenridge is the most popular because it has the most reasonable places to stay and it's a pretty large resort with tons of stuff to do. Downtown is great at night.

Keystone is probably the best value. Great village, a LOT less crowded, and same size as Breck. ALL resorts have FREE parking except Vail.

Vail & Keystone being the largest - I can guarantee you will find lifts without lines or at minimum 2-3 minutes.

Breckenridge because it's so popular typically has lift lines of 15-45 minutes depending on the time of day and dates. Although one of my favorites if you have a ski in/out place because you can get in early and stay late to avoid lines.

Breckenridge & Keystone are your best bets for value. Vail & BC are epic if you want the best powder on earth.

My rankings:
1-2) BC / Vail
3-4) Breck / Keystone
5) A-basin

If you ski Beaver Creek, they have cocoa & corduroy everyday at 9am at the top of the first lift, along with free freshly baked chocolate chip cookies at the village at 3pm i think.

More info here, from last year:
http://www.thewolfweb.com/message_topic.aspx?topic=579900&page=11#13757404

[Edited on August 27, 2010 at 7:07 PM. Reason : .]

8/27/2010 7:04:55 PM

Beaver Creek also has $1 PBRs at the Dusty Boot apres ski

8/27/2010 9:20:32 PM

Don't forget Copper Mountain...

I'm no Denver local, but I've skied Breck, Copper, and Vail (as well as Park City, The Canyons, several trips to Whistler, and dozens of trips to Mt Baker and Stevens' Pass in WA). I think that Vail is probably my favorite place I've skied. Whistler might be close, but I think that Vail takes the prize. The back bowls alone make it worth going to if you're a halfway decent skier.

It's pretty much the same price for all the big-name places in that area (and pretty much EXACTLY the same price if you stay in Dillon instead of on the mountain). Unless you're hellbent on staying in one of the villages, get yourself a hotel room in Dillon, save some money, and go to more than one of the resorts, to boot.

...and trust me, you have got to go to Vail. I always had this idea that it was more of a place to be seen and say you went than it was a great place to ski, but I was WAY wrong.

8/27/2010 9:25:33 PM

^I concur

I've skiied in Washington and Vermont as well, I agree there's nothing like Vail....

Copper is good, better than A-basin, but not better than Vail/BC/Breck... in fact I prefered WP/MJ over Copper when I had the WP pass my first year out here. Although the US Ski team practices moguls on Copper... so... you know it's good.

I think acreage trumps a lot, just the shear size of Vail makes it great, you can pretty much get away from everyone, even on a busy day and get fresh tracks 3 days after a fresh snow... and like Duke said, there's nothing like the back bowls.

[Edited on August 27, 2010 at 9:39 PM. Reason : .]

8/27/2010 9:36:41 PM

But where did everyone stay?

If I'm going to be somewhere for 5 days, I'd probably move away from a standard looking hotel room. Would want a place with:

A kitchen/stove/fridge
Seperate bedroom/living room
Hot tub/fireplace somewhere
A decent sized room

I guess a typical small mountain lodge close, or short walk, to the skiing. Whatcha got?

8/27/2010 11:32:32 PM

http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/colorado/northwest

Seriously probably 90% of Colorado ski lodges are here, I've used them 2-3 times for weekend stays in the mountains.

I'd HIGHLY recommend Warrior's Mark for Breckenridge, walking distance to downtown (and on bus line) as well as really easy ski-in/out access
http://www.vrbo.com/vacation-rentals/usa/colorado/northwest/breckenridge/warriors-mark-area

[Edited on August 28, 2010 at 12:07 AM. Reason : .]

8/28/2010 12:05:05 AM

call a travel agent ITT

8/28/2010 4:10:16 AM

travel agents still exist?

vrbo is the way to go out there.

8/28/2010 10:45:01 AM

bump

12/22/2010 3:22:41 PM

looking at a last min trip to breck to ski dec 31-jan 2 fly in/out dec 30 & jan 3

right now its looking like $385 for lift tickets & ski rentals -- any tips on discounts out there?

sharing accommodations & rental car with another couple so costs are down there but airfare is looking a little high...

12/22/2010 3:45:47 PM

^^ I'm one currently and amazingly we do still exist

Sometimes travel agents can get you pretty good deals on ski packages. All depends on what the resorts are trying to do to fill their lodges at the time.

12/22/2010 3:47:19 PM

just trying to get a flight, lift ticket & ski rental

i found a cheaper price on the ski rental, $80 for the 3 days

i called my friend in denver about a buddy pass and she has to check for black out dates so thats potentially $50 a day

flights are terrible though. $450ish when normally they're under $150 round trip!

12/22/2010 4:05:30 PM

Really? I'm seeing in my system about $350 for flights. Which still sucks but that's the New Year season for you.

12/22/2010 4:13:41 PM

from iah or hou? hook a sister up!

12/22/2010 5:24:43 PM

just to let you know the CO mountains are getting slammmmmmed with snow, great time to go.

I'll probably be up at Keystone/Breck on Christmas Day. It'll be epic. No lines. No traffic.

12/22/2010 5:52:47 PM

^^ Oh hah no I was looking from RDU. Cheapest I'm seeing from Texas is $425. Wonder why it costs so much more than RDU.

12/23/2010 9:32:48 AM

sidebar - i would think that with the general economy as bad as it is, it wouldn't be abnormally crowded...

12/23/2010 10:55:00 AM

Quote :

"flights are terrible though. $450ish when normally they're under $150 round trip!"

well you are booking a week before your flight, AND it's New Years

12/23/2010 10:58:18 AM

It depends how well you ski. If you are an intermediate or beginner, then Keystone and Breckenridge are both nice and about the same. All of the runs on the main side of Keystone funnel down to about the same spot, so if you have a group it is easy to meet up and find each other. It can also make it dangerous, though (too much out of control traffic right at the end of the day; I've seen many injuries there.) Both are nice for families with small children and have good ski schools. Copper was my favorite place when I was a little kid.

Of the ones discussed here, A-basin (owned by Keystone and skied at by mostly locals for the reasons cited above) has some of the best hard runs that are likely to be open. Breckenridge has some fantastic difficult runs, but in my experience (many tries) they are often roped off closed. That being said, Breckenridge accounted for one of the best days of skiing out of hundreds in my life on the one day those runs were all open. Beaver Creek also has some nice, very wide, mogul runs called the "Birds of Prey." Mary Jane is my favorite place to ski in Colorado, but they have lots of traffic from locals and don't try nearly as hard to cater to tourists as Vail and some of the other places.

Vail is just too big and it's too pricey for what you get and I tend to feel like I spend a lot of time just skiing from lift to lift trying to "get somewhere on the map." The back bowls are nice if the snow is good. I went one time with a friend who works as a private guide there, and that was fun. It says something, though, that it was more fun with a "guide," so overall I'd pass on Vail. I'd give Vail the highest "snouterville" factor of all listed.

12/24/2010 4:44:56 PM

Also, on Southwest you can now book a flight to Denver for Spring Break for $230 RT.

12/24/2010 4:49:04 PM

FYI, if you buy a lift ticket at Breckenridge, you can ski Keystone at night for free with the same pass.

^spot on.

Mary Jane is my favorite mountain too, lots of bumps and probably the best tree runs aside from Vail.

"Birds of Prey" is a famous World Cup downhill run, great run, but a bit hard to navigate because it's the most popular run at BC. But if you go to BC, you get cocoa & corduroy at 9am at the top of the lift (small cups of hot cocoa w/ whipped cream, yum) and free hot baked cookies at 3pm at the village, IIRC.

Vail is epic. Just go to the back bowls or Big Sky and the powder is rediculous, wide open bowls, great tree runs, awesome powder, 30min. runs with little lines. If you stick to these areas, you don't have to trek across the mountain. And as for the cost, the lift ticket is the same price at Breckenridge as it is at Vail. You do however have to pay $20 to park or park for free on the street once the garages are full

[Edited on December 24, 2010 at 4:56 PM. Reason : .]

12/24/2010 4:52:49 PM