arik
Member
Dates Skied: 4/4/09 - 4/11/09
Resorts: Winter Park, A-Basin, Loveland
Conditions: Everything ranging from powder, packed powder, groomed, hardpack, ice, etc
Trip Report:
First few days I was at Winter Park, interesting resort. Main WP part is super wide open groomed easy blues and greens, Mary Jane is steeper and only 2 groomed runs, otherwise steep bump runs which were super nice in the afternoons when the bumps softened up. A third part of the resort Parsenn Bowl and Vazquez Cirque is much higher, mostly above treeline, open bowl skiing (my favorite part). The Cirque is quite a hike but really worth it in my opinion, beautiful. The new Intrawest Village has opened but unfortunately much of the space is unleased so it's a bit depressing. I had dinner in one restraunt in the village, Lime Cantina, because they were having a special, 2$ tacos and $4 margaritas. Dinner for under $10 is great, but the staff seemed so tired, bartender was filling in as host, waitresses were busing tables and doing dishes, it kinda was a downer. I stayed in the Vintage resort hotel which is connected to the Village by a cabriolet lift (like at Mountain Creek). The Vintage was really comfortable and a great (no drive to ski) place to stay (for under $60/night).
I only skied A-basin one day, snow was bad that day due to thaw-freeze. Would have liked to ski there more. Montezuma bowl was fun to explore, but the steep bump runs under the Palli chair were my favorite part. The place actually has a lot of nice groomed runs as well. Best part of the day was eating lunch at the new mid mountain lodge, I had a great Cuban sandwich, really good food, view of big mountains, and good prices. I was surprised how close A-basin is to Keystone/Dillon/Silverthorne, sort of a nice option for a group of varied abilities, stay near Keystone and ski a day or two at A-basin. A-basin is a really nice place and I would love to go back. The Dillon/Silverthorne area is impressive, there's basically 7 great ski resorts (a-basin, keystone, breck-everyone there was sayign how much they hate it, copper, vail, beaver creek, loveland) within 40 minutes, an outlet mall, a lake, tons of condos. It looks like ski suburbia, skiburbia?
Last 2 days I skied at Loveland. It snowed maybe 2-3 inches the night before the first day. The place has a big ridge (basically the ridge over I70 that led to building the Eisenhower tunnel) that curves around to make a U shaped ski resort, with several chairs to access different parts of the ridge, one chair goes to the top of the ridge. Nice thing about it is you can find different snow conditions based on sun and wind exposure. Bad thing is it takes a while to get from one side to the other and you really have to know which trail to take or you get stuck riding a lift up again. Best powder run was "Jelly Roll" but my favorite part of the resort was the bumps under chair one in the afternoon (I didn't know I like bumps so much, maybe it's just spring in colorado). Lodge/restraunt was incredibly crowded, could hardly find a seat on a weekday even though mountain did not feel crowded, no lift lines, etc. Food prices were good. Note that discounted loveland tickets are sold in several nearby locations and listed on the Loveland website. I bought my lift tickets at Mountain Buzz Cafe in Georgetown which was a cool place for coffee, food. Georgetown is a cool town, nice bars and restraunts and a fun vibe, I stays in the super 8 and I didn't like it, too close to the freeway. Cool bar here was the Red Ram and restraunt favorite was "Euro Grill"
I know people want pics, I don't have a camera, sorry.
Resorts: Winter Park, A-Basin, Loveland
Conditions: Everything ranging from powder, packed powder, groomed, hardpack, ice, etc
Trip Report:
First few days I was at Winter Park, interesting resort. Main WP part is super wide open groomed easy blues and greens, Mary Jane is steeper and only 2 groomed runs, otherwise steep bump runs which were super nice in the afternoons when the bumps softened up. A third part of the resort Parsenn Bowl and Vazquez Cirque is much higher, mostly above treeline, open bowl skiing (my favorite part). The Cirque is quite a hike but really worth it in my opinion, beautiful. The new Intrawest Village has opened but unfortunately much of the space is unleased so it's a bit depressing. I had dinner in one restraunt in the village, Lime Cantina, because they were having a special, 2$ tacos and $4 margaritas. Dinner for under $10 is great, but the staff seemed so tired, bartender was filling in as host, waitresses were busing tables and doing dishes, it kinda was a downer. I stayed in the Vintage resort hotel which is connected to the Village by a cabriolet lift (like at Mountain Creek). The Vintage was really comfortable and a great (no drive to ski) place to stay (for under $60/night).
I only skied A-basin one day, snow was bad that day due to thaw-freeze. Would have liked to ski there more. Montezuma bowl was fun to explore, but the steep bump runs under the Palli chair were my favorite part. The place actually has a lot of nice groomed runs as well. Best part of the day was eating lunch at the new mid mountain lodge, I had a great Cuban sandwich, really good food, view of big mountains, and good prices. I was surprised how close A-basin is to Keystone/Dillon/Silverthorne, sort of a nice option for a group of varied abilities, stay near Keystone and ski a day or two at A-basin. A-basin is a really nice place and I would love to go back. The Dillon/Silverthorne area is impressive, there's basically 7 great ski resorts (a-basin, keystone, breck-everyone there was sayign how much they hate it, copper, vail, beaver creek, loveland) within 40 minutes, an outlet mall, a lake, tons of condos. It looks like ski suburbia, skiburbia?
Last 2 days I skied at Loveland. It snowed maybe 2-3 inches the night before the first day. The place has a big ridge (basically the ridge over I70 that led to building the Eisenhower tunnel) that curves around to make a U shaped ski resort, with several chairs to access different parts of the ridge, one chair goes to the top of the ridge. Nice thing about it is you can find different snow conditions based on sun and wind exposure. Bad thing is it takes a while to get from one side to the other and you really have to know which trail to take or you get stuck riding a lift up again. Best powder run was "Jelly Roll" but my favorite part of the resort was the bumps under chair one in the afternoon (I didn't know I like bumps so much, maybe it's just spring in colorado). Lodge/restraunt was incredibly crowded, could hardly find a seat on a weekday even though mountain did not feel crowded, no lift lines, etc. Food prices were good. Note that discounted loveland tickets are sold in several nearby locations and listed on the Loveland website. I bought my lift tickets at Mountain Buzz Cafe in Georgetown which was a cool place for coffee, food. Georgetown is a cool town, nice bars and restraunts and a fun vibe, I stays in the super 8 and I didn't like it, too close to the freeway. Cool bar here was the Red Ram and restraunt favorite was "Euro Grill"
I know people want pics, I don't have a camera, sorry.
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