I loved Taos growing up because they didn't allow snowboarders. All jokes aside, I don't mind snowboarders that don't suck. There just seems to be a higher proportion of novice snowboarders with zero situational awareness or basic consideration for others around them. One reason I enjoyed skiing in Germany last year was there were comparatively few beginners compared to the US.

Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

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Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

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Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

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the initial argument against breck was a misguided generalization. It is insignificant to the topic of discussion.

Probably beaver creek since its usually the least crowded on weekends when i can go.

Brecks cool not on weekends when it is just too damn busy.

Really enjoy keystone/winter park.

Skiing is fun, but not so fun to wait in longer than 10 minute lift lines.

Another vote for Telluride. But never been skied Utah.

The Lost said:

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Probably beaver creek since its usually the least crowded on weekends when i can go.

Brecks cool not on weekends when it is just too damn busy.

Really enjoy keystone/winter park.

Skiing is fun, but not so fun to wait in longer than 10 minute lift lines.

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Get skins and go to the back country and you don't have to wait in lines...

Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

---

Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

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the initial argument against breck was a misguided generalization. It is insignificant to the topic of discussion.

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Now, now, it's always going to feel really cold when you ski like this.

I see none of you are skilled or tough enough to truly appreciate the wilds of New England...

h1ag said:

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I see none of you are skilled or tough enough to truly appreciate the wilds of New England...

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If you can ski on pure ice, you can ski on anything.

h1ag said:

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I see none of you are skilled or tough enough to truly appreciate the wilds of New England...

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A former Co worker of mine grew up in a family where her dad owned a ski hill and a drive in theater up there.

She's now recently retired and lives full time in Steamboat

Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

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Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

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the initial argument against breck was a misguided generalization. It is insignificant to the topic of discussion.

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Another poster said that Breck is higher and colder than Taos. You said he was wrong.

Breckenridge is higher and during ski season is between 10-20 degrees colder on average than Taos. It's ok to be wrong on the internet.

GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

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Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

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the initial argument against breck was a misguided generalization. It is insignificant to the topic of discussion.

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Another poster said that Breck is higher and colder than Taos. You said he was wrong.

Breckenridge is higher and during ski season is between 10-20 degrees colder on average than Taos. It's ok to be wrong on the internet.

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you can have the last word of the worthless discussion. I don't care.

It'll be ok

Elevation smack talk

Another vote for Wolf Creek. Grew up skiing Vail, Copper and Sunlight so it's been a while (25+ years) for me to compare at some of those BUT we like the prices at Wolf Creek and for the kids we have had a good experience with the ski school there the past 3 years.

Skied Deer Valley last year at a company meeting for the first time and wasn't overly impressed. I do recall having to pole way more to lifts than I did at WC and I recall at the other areas. Someone else mentioned this in their post as well.

Checking out the Boulder area in March this year.

h1ag said:

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I see none of you are skilled or tough enough to truly appreciate the wilds of New England...

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I boarded Killington Vermont a few years ago just to change things up a bit and do an east coast trip. Actually had a wicked windy cold front one day. Worst conditions I've braved in a while, but it's not like I'm a local and can pick and choose the best days. Did the Boston tours for a couple days on the way back. Not a bad trip overall.

Your close but Utah has much better less crowded resorts with better snow. You need to look at big and little cotton canyons, plus Snowbasin
Snowbird
Alta
Brighton
Solitude

That can be more or less common, depending on the mountain you go to. Also, conditions vary wildly depending on where the snow/rain line has been for the past few storms, typically immediately south of killington.

I've gotten to the point I prefer NH to VT. Mostly because of the crowds of damned New Yorkers in Vt. That's something pretty much everyone in New England can get behind hating. Fortunately they typically stay on the same 2-4 mountains.

I prefer Crested Butte if you're headed to Colorado. It's not the biggest resort but its one of the farthest resorts from Denver so you don't typically have the "day skiers" from there as it's too far of a drive. The only real negative with it is that if you stay on the mountain the nightlife is pretty much non-existent. You have to head into town for that. It's only about a 10-15 minute drive so it's doable but somewhat annoying.

Beaver Creek and Vail.

Ran into (not literally) Princess Diana. She came into a clothes store at the Crossroads while we were there. She was much prettier in person than any picture I have seen.

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She was much prettier in person than any picture I have seen.

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I can vouch for that, STUNNING! I saw her at the health club (Cascade Club) I as working at that winter 1995?

GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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GAC06 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Ragoo said:

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SoupNazi2001 said:

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Breck's 10K base elevation is too high to be the best. Also colder and windy compared to other resorts. Harder to sleep well there and constantly have to chug water to not get headaches.

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coldest I've ever skied was Taos actually. Breck isn't too cold.

---

Sure anywhere can have a cold front blow through and be super cold. Breck is one of the highest base elevations in the U. S. and is colder than Taos.

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you are wrong, as usual

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Taos is 15 degrees right now. Breckenridge is 7 degrees.

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both are in the top 10 US ski elevation. Just a few hundred feet difference. I e skied Taos -10 and howling wind. I've never skied breck in those conditions. They are very different mountains.

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Neat. Breckenridge is colder. You were wrong.

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the initial argument against breck was a misguided generalization. It is insignificant to the topic of discussion.

---

Another poster said that Breck is higher and colder than Taos. You said he was wrong.

Breckenridge is higher and during ski season is between 10-20 degrees colder on average than Taos. It's ok to be wrong on the internet.

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Not to beat a dead horse.. but average can be deceiving in CO.

Say breck is avg. high of 25 in winter, and some other place has average high of 30. This other place could be really consistent, and be 30 high every day, yet breck will have several days in the 40s even 50s, but they also have days at 0 or below, throwing that average down. I'd rather be in a place like this, then a place that is 30 everyday for winter.

What I'm saying is, CO has warm day often all throughout winter. It was 50 degrees+ every single day last week in Denver, when the 'average' high is 42 or whatever. So while you could very well end up at Breck and it be cold as hell, you could also end up there and be nice as hell..

I'm not saying Taos isn't like that, because I don't know the weather variance there.

Case in point, it's 50 in breck this sunday. It's only 40 in Taos.

Looking at 8 day forecast, breck is warmer every day as compared to Taos.

Averaging 10-15 degrees colder is a significant difference. Obviously individual experiences will vary.

The other factor with temperatures at elevation is if it's sunny or not. I live in the mountains at 7000'.

If it's sunny and upper 30's it can feel really warm. Warm enough to wear to short sleeves and no jacket warm. Yesterday was a good example of the opposite though. It was same temp but cloudy and felt freezing all day. This effect will be amplified the higher you get.

I'm not arguing either way about the Breck / Taos fight just adding that there is a lot more to if somewhere in the mountains feels cold or not than temp.

As a Colorado resident I can 100% say that higher elevation does not necessarily make it colder. Cold air sinks so often it is much colder at lower elevations. The other day on our way to Breckenridge it was -20 in Hartsel at around 8000 feet and +20 at Breck. The coldest cities in winter in Colorado are Alamosa, Westcliffe, and Gunnison. None are high elevation and they are cold as hell all winter.

My favorite resort in Colorado and also in the US is Beaver Creek. It is just so nice and the runs are so good. Every lift is very high speed, you never wait in lines, the food is great, literally everything about that place is well done. Crested Butte would be second for the exact opposite reasons. It is dated, slow lifts, hard as hell terrain, poor skier management... but it has downtown CB, which makes up for the rest.

The Tahoe resorts have choppy mountains and slushy or icy snow. I like Kirkwood though. Heavenly sucks, Squaw is always closed for winds

Mammoth is too crowded.

Utah is nice but I have just never clicked there. Cottonwood Valley is so much better than Park City and Deer Valey though.

Vail is a great mountain ruined by too many people.

Copper is fine, nothing special, nothing bad

Breck is too crowded.

Keystone reminds me of Hot Tub Time Machine where nothing has been updated in 30 years.

I love Crested Butte but I go there in the summer.

Telluride is too far from anything

Steamboat is awfully good.

Winter park is too crowded.

Fairview said:

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The other factor with temperatures at elevation is if it's sunny or not. I live in the mountains at 7000'.

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CO has 2000 hours of sunshine. Definitely a huge factor. A still 35 degree day with sun is an entirely different ballgame then 35 degrees with cloud cover and wind. I snow shovel my driveway in a tshirt often in the winter because Denver generally has sun after a storm passes through. My driveway faces east, so by 10 am, it's usually pretty nice, even at high 30s or 40s temp.

Humidity is also in play here, I assume Taos is more humid than breck. A dry 35 is a lot warmer than a wet one.

All arguments for the viewpoint that average temps can be quite deceiving.

The other thing deceiving about avg temps is that if it warms up and snow melts or it rains and then refreezes, the whole mountain will be icy. We call it Cascade concrete up in the PNW. Places that stay perpetually below freezing keep much higher quality snow year-round.

PanzerAggie06 said:

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I prefer Crested Butte if you're headed to Colorado. It's not the biggest resort but its one of the farthest resorts from Denver so you don't typically have the "day skiers" from there as it's too far of a drive. The only real negative with it is that if you stay on the mountain the nightlife is pretty much non-existent. You have to head into town for that. It's only about a 10-15 minute drive so it's doable but somewhat annoying.

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No reason at all to drive into town. The free shuttle runs back and forth from the resort area and will drop you off right in town where you can walk to anything.

Wish I was on a plane to any of them right now. Just got back from Copper Mountain. It doesn't suck balls. its actually a pretty good value compared to surrounding areas.

Headed for Telluride in early March for first time.

My favorite? Mt Waterman, CA for sentimental reasons. Anybody know it?

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Keystone reminds me of Hot Tub Time Machine where nothing has been updated in 30 years.

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Yay. That's where we are going in March. Friend of my wife said it's good for kids to learn.

Unfortunately keystone is one of the worst resorts for newbies. There are two learning centers, which is fine. Once they are on day 2-3 though, there is really only one green run and it is 3.7 miles long and lots of catwalk

Breck is a much better place to learn. They have "the flats" where a whole area of green runs is served by a high speed 6 chair. Beaver creek is also a good beginner mountain

We rented a house at Vail so that had something to do with it but 6 of us had a really great time there. I loved the mountain and trails.
I haven't been to a bunch of places but it is at the top of my list.
Followed by WP
Then Keystone. Loved night skiing at Keystone. That was a really cool experience.
No more ski trips for us though. Torn ACL at WP in 2006 stopped those.

To me any any snow I can drive to for a day trip is good enough. When I lived in Albuquerque it was Santa Fe and occasionally Wolf Creek and Angel Fire. When I lived in Portland it was Mt Hood Meadows and occasionally Mt Bachelor. When I lived in China it was Happy Snow World (rinky-dink hill in town w/ snow machines and 3 trails). Now I live in AZ and it's Flagstaff. I just like being able to head out in the morning, play on the mountain all day, and be back home in the evening. No worries about hotels, rentals, etc.