2007 AZ "West" trip

[salida]

Utah and CO are both terrific. Flying to Denver from NYC or Boston is only 3.5 hours, SLC is 4.5. In my experience, you can usually find deals on Denver flights, fewer to SLC. Flying to Jackson is much more expensive and requires a hop from Denver, SLC or Chicago. Never been to the Sierras so can't comment. Skied in CO about 8 times and UT twice.

I would think air fare is about the same... Jet blue out of Boston is roughly 200 to Denver if you take the red eye... It's not that bad I've done it a few times (plus you get blue potato chips). Salt Lake is not as expensive as you think if you fly Southwest out of Manchester or Providence. Roughly the same as the red eye to Denver on Jet Blue. Just my experience.

For fun and sun, it's tough to beat Summit County CO in March. Using Breckenridge as base camp is a great central location with lots and lots and lots of fun places to stay, eat, drink, etc, and the lifts for Breck come right up from downtown. Keystone, Copper, A-Basin and Loveland are all within 15 minutes (Vail is an hour away). There are lots of hotels to choose from in Breck with lots of diffrent types of accommodations depending on your budget. Altitude can be an issue in Summit County - 8000-9000' base elevations require some getting used to. March is the big-snow month in CO, too.

The city of SLC and Sandy are the cheaper alternatives in UT, with excellent access to Little Cottonwood Canyon (Snowbird, Alta). Park City is MUCH more expensive but lots of fun if your budget allows. Park City/North of SLC gives much better access to Brighton, Solitude, SnowBasin, the Canyons, Park City, etc., but even if you are in SLC, it's still only 40 minutes to Park City. Getting a beer/drink in public is no problem in any resort areas of UT.

Being a Colorado native I hate to say this, but SLC is far more consistent in snow pack, and argueable offers better terrain than Summit County... SLC is probably a better bet for a gathering like this. That is unless anyone is interested in going to BC.

 

[ALLSKIING]

Thanks for the imput salida. Looks like you could show us around..Why don't you join us.

 

[ALLSKIING]

A few pics to show what you could miss...

 

[loafer89]

A group trip sounds like fun, I would go anywhere that I can fly from the Bradley/Springfield airport which is close to where we will be living. I would be flying with Southwest, so anywhere they go, I would go.

Honestly I am not a big fan of Utah, and would like to take a trip to Lake Tahoe, or Summit County, but I am flexible either way.

 

[ALLSKIING]

A group trip sounds like fun, I would go anywhere that I can fly from the Bradley/Springfield airport which is close to where we will be living. I would be flying with Southwest, so anywhere they go, I would go.

Honestly I am not a big fan of Utah, and would like to take a trip to Lake Tahoe, or Summit County, but I am flexible either way.

That would be great if you joined us. Why don't you like Utah? I have never been but I want as many opinions as possible.

 

[loafer89]

I only skied Utah once in January 1987, so it has been a little while since I was there. I remember from my brothers experience that getting anything with alcohol was a pain.

We skied Snowbird, Alta and Brighton (waist deep powder). I just like the feel of the mountains in Colorado batter, but I am not adverse to visiting Utah again.

I am planning to visit Mammoth Mountain in June, my wife does not know about it yet, but since we will be in Las Vegas from May 31st to June 8th, a quick trip to Mammoth seems in order. Southwest has cheap flights to Reno and it is only a 165 mile drive to Mammoth.

I wanted to go to A-Basin, but they are closing on June 4th and I have to work at a trade show until June 6th. So a 1 to 1 1/2 day visit to Mammoth looks possible.

 

[loafer89]

I decided that I will drive the 300 miles from Las Vegas to Mammoth, so it looks like my son and I will be skiing there on June 5-6th. They currently have an 18' base:-o

 

[NHpowderhound]

I would be into a west trip. IMO SLC would be a prime choice. Nothing against Colorado but like Saldia said, more consistent conditions can be found in the Wasatch. Not to mention most mountains in Colorado have a summit elevation near 13,000 feet which will make some people uke:!
((*
*))NHPH

 

[loafer89]

I would be into a west trip. IMO SLC would be a prime choice. Nothing against Colorado but like Saldia said, more consistent conditions can be found in the Wasatch. Not to mention most mountains in Colorado have a summit elevation near 13,000 feet which will make some people uke:!
((*
*))NHPH

I just booked our room at the Mammoth Mountain Inn and I am curious as to how my son will handle the 11,053' summit of the mountain. I never had altitude sickness, but I sure felt how thin the air was at the summit of Arapahoe Basin at 12,450' I did some hiking up from there to the East Wall and my world felt like it was

 

[highpeaksdrifter]

Pardon my ignorance, but isn't it real tough to get a beer in Utah? Not that that's something we should base the entire trip on but we DO want BobR to come.

I think it depends where in Utah you are. When I stayed in Park City the bars where open until 2:00am. We had plenty of beer.

I assume with a trip like this people would be flying in to SLC from several different starting points. Most resorts are about an easy 1/2 hour drive, so getting to the condos would be easy. If people got in late and needed to be picked up it wouldn't be a great effort to get back to the airport to do so.

 

[salida]

A few pics to show what you could miss...

Chris Figenshau is the man, one of my favorite ski photographers!

 

[roark]

I'm definately interested. My preference would be Utah, butI'm game for most anywhere. Price would probably make the decision for the most part.

 

[thaller1]

A group trip sounds like fun, I would go anywhere that I can fly from the Bradley/Springfield airport which is close to where we will be living. I would be flying with Southwest, so anywhere they go, I would go.

Honestly I am not a big fan of Utah, and would like to take a trip to Lake Tahoe, or Summit County, but I am flexible either way.

I'm curious what about Utah you are not fond of? I spent a couple of weeks there in February and had the time of my life..I can't wait to go back!

 

[thaller1]

Pardon my ignorance, but isn't it real tough to get a beer in Utah? Not that that's something we should base the entire trip on but we DO want BobR to come.

Actually, beer is the ONLY recreational beverage that is easy to get..it has a low alcohol content..about 2-3%, but it's pretty tasty...I will recommend the Poligymy Porter...Bet you can't have just one!

 

[thaller1]

Here are some pics from my trip to Utah ... ahhhhhhhhhhh Utah.

For a mini vid check out http://media.putfile.com/Utah-Mini-Vid

 

[andyzee]

Actually, beer is the ONLY recreational beverage that is easy to get..it has a low alcohol content..about 2-3%, but it's pretty tasty...I will recommend the Poligymy Porter...Bet you can't have just one!

Poligymy Porter was good, I also enjoyed the Dead Horse Ale. Got that at Snowbird lodge where you can take it outside. It was fun saying "I'll have 3 Dead Horses, outside"

 

[salida]

Poligymy Porter was good, I also enjoyed the Dead Horse Ale. Got that at Snowbird lodge where you can take it outside. It was fun saying "I'll have 3 Dead Horses, outside"

My name is porter....

 

[Terry]

Listening to thaller1 and whaller1 talk about their trip to Utah made me very interested in trying to plan a trip west. A group trip could be very interesting and fun!

 

[andyzee]

Listening to thaller1 and whaller1 talk about their trip to Utah made me very interested in trying to plan a trip west. A group trip could be very interesting and fun!

That's for sure, what isn't fun is organizing it.

 

[ALLSKIING]

Looks like Utah wins out...Cool the destination is set. As for how many days I think 5 would be great. 2 days to travel and 3 to ski. Does this work for people? With a trip like this one will have to dip into the Vacation days..I don't see less then 5 day worth a trip out west. Thoughts?