Colorado

[thebigo]

I am trying to plan a trip to utah the week before christmas. I know this isnt ideal but we are going to lose two free round trips on southwest if we dont use them. Also Ive got extra vacation to burn before the end of the year.

The original plan was three days at alta, one day at the bird and a final day either in bcc or at snowbasin.

But...there are three of us going and we only have two tickets. The final airfare to denver is working out to be signifigantly cheaper than salt lake. Almost half the price if you fly at the right time.

Question: I have never skiied in Colorado, what do people recommend. Also have a free rental car (it pays to travel for business) so getting around wont be a problem, but i want to do it on the cheap. Plan for utah was to stay in the extended stay america in sandy and then drive into the canyon every day.

Is something similar possible in Colorado?
Where do people suggest hitting on a trip to CO?

All three of us are expert eastern skiiers, not into terrain parks, just steep fresh. If youve skiied alta our favorite places are greely bowl, the ball room, devils castle etc

Apres ski is not important. If we cant get a cheap room with a kitchenette I'll bring the hiking stove and cook noodles at night.

 

[RISkier]

Speaking as one who's not been there (yet) you might want to take a look at places in Dillon or Silverthorne in Summit County. Relatively close to Copper, Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, and Breck. Doubt you can find anything as inexpensive as the Exteneded Stays in the SLC area.

 

[Geoff]

In my experience, you won't find the best prices or most reliable snow on I-70. I've never found bargain prices in Dillon even pre-Christmas or in the dead part of January. The skiing is very good if they have cover that early but you'll be sharing it with far more people than you're used to in Utah. It can get quite crowded on weekends since everybody and his brother in metro-Denver has a cheap season pass and day trips. You also run into a ton of Powder Nazis blowing off work on midweek powder days. I'll ski the front range on a midweek day trip when I'm in Denver on a business trip but I'll never again plan a weekend there.

If you don't mind driving a bit, Wolf Creek is the only place in Colorado that has the kind of big snow microclimate you'd find in Little Cottonwood Canyon that is reliable pre-Christmas. The problem is that it's a smallish ski area spread over a long ridge line on the continental divide. Limited vertical drop. The plus side is that it's really more like skiing lift-serviced backcountry. There is no lodging at the mountain and you sleep 20 minutes down the hill in Pagosa Springs. At that time of year, you're likely to find fairly inexpensive lodging.

If it were me, I'd stick with Utah. It's a much safer bet pre-Xmas and your lodging and lift ticket are going to be substantially cheaper.

 

[ChileMass]

In my experience, you won't find the best prices or most reliable snow on I-70. I've never found bargain prices in Dillon even pre-Christmas or in the dead part of January. The skiing is very good if they have cover that early but you'll be sharing it with far more people than you're used to in Utah. It can get quite crowded on weekends since everybody and his brother in metro-Denver has a cheap season pass and day trips. You also run into a ton of Powder Nazis blowing off work on midweek powder days. I'll ski the front range on a midweek day trip when I'm in Denver on a business trip but I'll never again plan a weekend there.

If you don't mind driving a bit, Wolf Creek is the only place in Colorado that has the kind of big snow microclimate you'd find in Little Cottonwood Canyon that is reliable pre-Christmas. The problem is that it's a smallish ski area spread over a long ridge line on the continental divide. Limited vertical drop. The plus side is that it's really more like skiing lift-serviced backcountry. There is no lodging at the mountain and you sleep 20 minutes down the hill in Pagosa Springs. At that time of year, you're likely to find fairly inexpensive lodging.

If it were me, I'd stick with Utah. It's a much safer bet pre-Xmas and your lodging and lift ticket are going to be substantially cheaper.

In general Geoff is right - pre-Xmas in many years it can be dry in CO and the snow pack really doesn't get deep-deep-deep until Feb or March. But - last year in Summit County they had record snowfall in Dec and it's just like back here - you never really know what to expect. The snow could be great. I've been in Summit County many times when the snow wasn't that deep and it was still better than anything back east.

And, if you like Alta, you'll love A-Basin.......

 

[wintersyndrome]

Speaking as one who's not been there (yet) you might want to take a look at places in Dillon or Silverthorne in Summit County. Relatively close to Copper, Arapahoe Basin, Keystone, and Breck. Doubt you can find anything as inexpensive as the Exteneded Stays in the SLC area.

Theres a hotel (Holiday Inn Express) or someting of that nature right off the exit in Frisco (Breckenridge Exit off of I-70) This will leave right in the middle of all those mentioned above with quick access to the highway, theres also plenty of places to eat in Dillon, Frisco and Silverthorne (try the Dam Brewery in Dillon, or Pug Ryan's Steakhouse. 1848 in Silverthorne)
The best part is One pass and you can ride Vail, BC, Breck, Keystone and A-basin (all owned by vail resorts)...Copper is plenty good in its own right (Owned by Intrawest), and right off the I-70, try the upper mountain bowls or the rendezvous area at copper, the outback at Keystone, the bowl under chair 6 at Breck, east wall at A-bain and of course go to Vail and loose yourself in Blue Sky Basin, we found this stash (see pictures) View attachment 250

View attachment 251

on skiers right beneath Pete's Chair in BSB. It's off piste, you have to go through a warning gate. I may have already said too much and have people in CO really mad at me now so go, wnjoy...ws

 

[SKIQUATTRO]

FLY into SLC, you are in Park City in 30 min, you have access to Deer Valley, PC, the Canyons all right there, Alta isnt too far of a drive....PC has great restaurants....isnt Skiing and Cheap and oxymoron???

 

[loafer89]

My son and I have a vacation booked to Keystone in mid February. Keystone is not a mountain that I would recommend to an expert skier, although North Peak and The Outback do have alot of challenging fall line skiing and they have cat serviced bowl skiing.

Once in Summit County you do have a choice of A-Basin, Loveland , Keystone, Copper, Breckenridge, Vail and Beaver Creek with a hour drive of one another.

I have skied all of the major resorts in Colorado except for Telluride and Crested Butte and like Summit County the best. Another benefit to Summit County is extensive snowmaking at most of the resorts, so snow is virually guaranteed.

I have skied in Summit County as early as Thanksgiving on manmade at Keystone, but I agree that the best time would be at least from Christmas on.

 

[castlerock]

Ski Economy Quotient

Pre-Christmas, LCC and BCC are by far the best options. The Park City side is lame in general (relative to LCC and BCC) and early season it's significantly lower elevation and lesser snowfall, make it marginal at best, but then you probably already know that.

I am a huge Snowbird fan, but one destination that might have snowpack and cheap air fare could be Whistler. But then again you might kill a couple of days in travel, and your ski economy quotient (Vertical*snowquality)/(vacationday*cost) would suffer.

One of the reasons that Snowbird is my favorite destination is it tends to maximize this quotient. The tram, 500+ inches of snow, 30 miles from SLC, and the availability of non-resort (cheap) lodging. The travel time comes in huge with vacation day in the denominator....

 

[pepperdawg]

If There is no lodging at the mountain and you sleep 20 minutes down the hill in Pagosa Springs. At that time of year, you're likely to find fairly inexpensive lodging.

.

Wolf Creek rockes - even early season...is a bit of a hike though from Denver.

San Juans are some o fthe most Beautiful Mtns I've seen...

Pagosa Springs Stinks...literally....but you get used to it Lots o lower end type motels/lodges can be had on the cheap....

 

[thebigo]

Thanks for the advice everybody. When I actually calculated the overall cost you cant beat the extended stay in sandy $60 per day with a kitchenette and $52/day at alta. Well get food at the Albertsons and eat in the room.

We only have to buy one plane ticket so the whole trip will be well under $2000. Not bad for three people skiing a week in utah. Especially when you consider the original plan was to drop $600 to stay slopeside at kmart.

We'll do one day at snowbird, the rest at alta. Might try snowbasin for a day if i convince the rest of the group.

 

[Geoff]

Theres a hotel (Holiday Inn Express) or someting of that nature right off the exit in Frisco (Breckenridge Exit off of I-70)

Yeah, but it's still going to be $100/night + tax for a very basic hotel room. In Sandy at the Extended StayAmerica, it's more like $60/night and you get a kitchenette. An Alta day ticket or Snowbird non-tram ticket is far cheaper than anything in the front range even if you buy it in the supermarket. If your only reason to go to Colorado is to save on one airline ticket on an ultra-low budget trip, the economics don't work. Besides, it's high risk to plan to ski the front range pre-Christmas.

 

[loafer89]

Besides, it's high risk to plan to ski the front range pre-Christmas.

I'ts a high risk to ski anywhere before Christmas, what makes Utah safer than Colorado?

Actually from what I have read from NOAA forecast discussions, the southern resorts such as Mammoth, Taos, Telluride, Purgatory and Wolf Creek may do very well with the predicted El Nino season than the rest of the rockies.

 

[castlerock]

I'ts a high risk to ski anywhere before Christmas, what makes Utah safer than Colorado?

I'll take Cottonwood canyon's average snowfall -20% , over the front range's average snowfall -20%.

I've gone to Snowbird/Alta roughly 10 times, the first weekend of December. (annual tecnical conference business trip). There have been times when it has been a bit bony below 9K, but there has always been good snow from 10K up.

By the way Smith's Grocery stores sell Snowbird tickets at a discount. The tram price was typically around the cost of a Chairs ticket bought at the hill

 

[ChileMass]

......Might try snowbasin for a day if i convince the rest of the group.

SnowBasin rules. It's a bit of a drive from Sandy - probably an hour and a half if there's traffic - but it's sooooo worth the effort. There's something for everyone - groomers, bowls, and the Olympic downhills, which are a kick to ski. The lift system is amazing, and the new lodges are gorgeous. Great place.

 

[loafer89]

I have never had a bad snow experience in Summit County and the one and only time that I did ski in Utah, the conditions where much worse than in Colorado with very boney snowcover at Snowbird and Alta. The ironic part of the trip was a tremendous amount of snow at Brighton, easily 3-4', while Snowbird got a few inches.

After this years trip to Summit County, I would like to visit the San Juans in the near future and ski Telluride, Crested Butte and Purgatory as I have never been to Southern Colorado.

I have only been to the Aspen area twice, and while I did not care for Aspen I loved Aspen Highlands and I want to revisit that mountain with my son, they have lots of extreme skiing.

I looked into quite a few states and ski resort destinations before I decided to ski at Keystone.
Taos looks like a nice mountain, but it is difficult and expensive to get to. I also looked into a trip to Big Sky which was mucho $$$$$$$, so I decided to go back to a place that I know very well as I learned how to ski at Keystone and they are family friendly.

 

[tirolerpeter]

West Trip?

SnowBasin rules. It's a bit of a drive from Sandy - probably an hour and a half if there's traffic - but it's sooooo worth the effort. There's something for everyone - groomers, bowls, and the Olympic downhills, which are a kick to ski. The lift system is amazing, and the new lodges are gorgeous. Great place.

I love UT skiing, and I especially love Snowbasin. BUT, because of its lower base and top elevation, you might not find the conditions you are looking for before Christmas. I actually looked at property in Mountain Green (a small community just off the I-84 exit that takes you to "Trappers Loop Road," the road up to Snowbasin) so that I could make it my "home" hill, but decided that we would locate down around Sandy for access to BCC and LCC where early and late season conditions are definitely superior. If you do go, just be sure to check conditions before you make the drive. If conditions are good, you will love it. We skied untracked powder in Strawberry Bowl two days after a 12" dump during a mid-week trip last January. Go to the top of the Strawberry Gondola, skate over to the left (especially if you are looking for a groomed blue trail) and feast your eyes on an incredible view of the entire Great Salt Lake. BTW, Park City too has a fairly low base. You can often find rain around Park City and the base area there that is actually dumping snow over in BCC and LCC.