Yes, absolutely trying to stay in epic. Sunk cost plus buddy passes for wife.

I read as pass agnostic and skill agnostic. Minimal commute/lift for best ski in/out experience in a 3 day weekend.

Ahh, Epic. I stand by Reno > Northstar. Easy drive. Great village. Great runs for all levels. Guarantee IAH fights.

Ahhh I almost forgot! Telluride! You get 7 days free for each full Epic Pass (kids passes included). Fly into Montrose. San Juan's are amazing and it's empty compared to the 70 corridor and Park City/Canyons.

You can stay in Telly or Sawpit, Ridgway, or Norwood.

If not Telluride, I second Heavenly, Kirkwood, Northstar.

ChipFTAC01 said:

---

Yeah Whistler is effectively a days travel both ways. Would consider beaver creek if flights into eagle weren't so damn expensive.

---

The wife and I are doing a weekend get-a-way to Beaver and flying into Denver. Little 2 hour scenic drive on I-70.

Park City is only a 30-40 minute drive from the airport. That's an easy one too.

The only issue w flying into Denver for BC and Vail is the potential to not get there if 70 closes. That's a hella mellow harsher. That's why EGE has such a premium during ski season. If VP or Ike are closed you can still get to the hill from EGE but not DIA.

Love me some BC though.

When will you be there??

So true. Sometimes it's even a tomorrow.

Let me think about this one: how many days will she be skiing at a Vail Resort property this season? There's likely a better/cheaper option than buddy passes. Day passes if they are still on sale are going to be cheaper than buddy passes.

If you're skiing Vail or BC the buddy passes will be $143-179 a day. The day passes are currently $110 a day. That's better than the buddy passes or ski w a friend at any point in the season. It's 65% off which is the same price that employees purchase passes for friends and family. If you ski the front range, the buddy passes will be less (I think like $120 a day) but the day passes is only like $89. That's still more than day passes until Oct 9.

Rule of thumb for the 70 corridor is buy day passes if they're skiing 1-3 times at Vail or BC, buy a Local Pass if it's 4 to 10 days and you don't mind the blackout days, and buy a full pass if you're skiing more than 8 days and care about the blackout.

Buddy passes are best when you have people visit or friends come up from the FR. If you KNOW they are going to ski at least 1 day, buy the 2 day day pass for $30 more than a 1 day day pass.


Also, if you had an Epic Pass last season and DONT have one this season and DONT buy day passes, you will get 50% off this year lift tickets at the window which is far less than BP or SWAF. Don't forgot to tell them you had one and have a profile. That's nice for people that had a pass but aren't sure if they will be going enough this season to warrant buying a pass or miss out on the preseason day pass sale. Another nice option available is you can also put your purchase of passes purchased at the window this season against your next year pass. So, if you had a pass last year, you get the pass at 50% and those funds can go towards a pass for the next season. If you didn't have a pass last year you can still apply those funds to next years pass. Effectively getting you next years pass for free depending on the number of passes you purchase at PSS office this season even after getting a 50% discount on walk up window. They 100% will not tell you that but if you ask they will oblige.

Day passes purchased during the preseason sale don't apply to the next years pass but anything purchased in season (BP, SWAF, 50% discount from prior season pass, and full priced passes purchased at window) all count. We've had several friends come and visit and pay for the next season pass using this method. Why not? If you're going to spend the money, you might as well get as big of a discount on next years pass as possible. You can pay for an epic local after ~2 full days at full price or 3 days of buddy passes or 5 days of 50% off prior season rides.

Next years pass also gets you free gondola access for the 2024 summer. So if you're going to come up and visit during the summer, you can basically pay off that expense by skiing the previous winter/spring season. It's a hella hack for people that catch the ski bug after their first couple of days and want to come back the next season without paying an arm and leg.

Bayou City said:

---

The only issue w flying into Denver for BC and Vail is the potential to not get there if 70 closes. That's a hella mellow harsher. That's why EGE has such a premium during ski season. If VP or Ike are closed you can still get to the hill from EGE but not DIA.

Love me some BC though.

When will you be there??

---

Yes, I-70 can and will shut down but so will the airport. As you know it's just a fact of life if you want to travel to a ski resort. We actually drove home on I-70 when most of the interstate was frozen last spring break. Basically did 10 mph on the frozen tracks and 35 where they cleared it. Fun times!

The wife and I will be there Feb 3-6 so not exactly a weekend get-a-way but the third is MLK so we'll count it. Whole family will be back March 16-21 for spring break.

3-6 is usually the best snow! We always said the last 10 days of January and first 10 of Feb are the best. Enjoy. Super jealous.

It's also historically cheaper to buy the full epic pass and get the 7 days at telluride for free than to buy the telluride day or full pass if you're skiing between 5-7 days there. IIRC, the day passes is ~$209 and the season pass is several thousands. So even if you only ski Telluride you're getting days 5-7 for free compared to their pass and products sale offerings and still have the ability to hit the other 70+ in vails portfolio.

Telluride is relatively easy to get to via MTJ...but I'm happy for people to keep thinking otherwise.

Yesterday said:

---

Bayou City said:

---

The only issue w flying into Denver for BC and Vail is the potential to not get there if 70 closes. That's a hella mellow harsher. That's why EGE has such a premium during ski season. If VP or Ike are closed you can still get to the hill from EGE but not DIA.

Love me some BC though.

When will you be there??

---

Yes, I-70 can and will shut down but so will the airport. As you know it's just a fact of life if you want to travel to a ski resort. We actually drove home on I-70 when most of the interstate was frozen last spring break. Basically did 10 mph on the frozen tracks and 35 where they cleared it. Fun times!

The wife and I will be there Feb 3-6 so not exactly a weekend get-a-way but the third is MLK so we'll count it. Whole family will be back March 16-21 for spring break.

---

That's not true for SLC or RNO. DIA and I70 are a unique type of hell.

RangerRick9211 said:

---

Yesterday said:

---

Bayou City said:

---

The only issue w flying into Denver for BC and Vail is the potential to not get there if 70 closes. That's a hella mellow harsher. That's why EGE has such a premium during ski season. If VP or Ike are closed you can still get to the hill from EGE but not DIA.

Love me some BC though.

When will you be there??

---

Yes, I-70 can and will shut down but so will the airport. As you know it's just a fact of life if you want to travel to a ski resort. We actually drove home on I-70 when most of the interstate was frozen last spring break. Basically did 10 mph on the frozen tracks and 35 where they cleared it. Fun times!

The wife and I will be there Feb 3-6 so not exactly a weekend get-a-way but the third is MLK so we'll count it. Whole family will be back March 16-21 for spring break.

---

That's not true for SLC or RNO. DIA and I70 are a unique type of hell.

---

What's not true?

Those airports don't close very often. The commutes from SLC to Alta, Deer, Bird, etc is easy.

80 from Reno to Northstar or Palisades is nearly always under an hour.

Airport, highway closures and multi-hour commutes are not a fact of skiing life (unless you fly into DIA and ski 70).

It doesn't have to be like this.

There's not a major hill in the US that I haven't had weather impact getting there or back at least once. Yes some are worse: Big CC, Little CC, I-70, but I've had 84, 131/40, 35/Bennett Pass, 145/62, 248/224, I-84, 135/12 etc etc etc. all bite me in the ass at some point.

If it's in the mountains, it can close. I had a trip to Baker where Baker Hwy was closed for multiple days. We didn't even almost get there. That's #MountainLife

If you want a fun one for closures, Ski Hill Rd up to Targhee or 22 between Victor and Jackson are far far far worse than I-70. I'd trade a 70 jam any day over one on 22. We used to joke that if an inch of snow closes Vail Pass, the forecast for an inch of snow closes 22.

Beaver Creek and stay at bachelors gulch. She'll never want to ski or stay anywhere else again

And just realized she's running the Houston marathon MLK weekend.

E King Trill said:

---

Anybody know a good bootfitter in Denver?

---

Perhaps late to the party here but I had a great experience at boot mechanics in golden.

Jock 07 said:

---

E King Trill said:

---

Anybody know a good bootfitter in Denver?

---

Perhaps late to the party here but I had a great experience at boot mechanics in golden.

---

Excellent - I have an appointment there in November

The Avon shop is a little better IMO but that's the best on the front range by far.

Flying into HDN 1/20 for 5 days. Will have 2/3 kids in ski school. Hubs and I will board with our oldest for 2 days - about all my body can handle plus this trip is immediately following the Hou Half Marathon!

Husband needs a new board- rides a 20+ year old Burton right now and thinking about gifting him one for Christmas.

I'd just buy a used demo board or look on mountain town Facebook market places. Snowboarding Technology for the most part has basically stopped evolving and hasnt evolved much over the last 5-10 years. Some of the best gear and most sought after boards and bindings are actually the older customs (Burton, etc) along w old School bindings like the unin Danny cass. Companies don't put much R&D into boards anymore unfortunately. Snowboard sales peaked in 2008-2009 and if you exclude split boards as a snowboard, the riders on hill peaked in 2010. Split Boarding is responsible for the spike in snowboarding popularity in 2023.

If you do decide to get him a New Board I'd go GNU or Burton Custom or lib tech. The Lib Tech T Rice or golden Orka are SICK.

If you want to do something that's a real kick, go Ski Biking. Itll change your whole outlook on life.

Thanks for the feedback; his current is. Burton Custom. He's not too picky since we only get out 1x a year, hence why he's never replaced the ole thing.

If he's on an old Burton custom It's probably one of two styles: tradicional camber or reverse camber. Now they have a rocker camber rocker and directional rocker profile. It's not super easy to find reverse camber boards now a days. You can tell the type of Board by putting it flat on the ground. If there's a space between the ground and the Board under the bindings it's tradicional camber. If it's flat against the floor it's a reverse camber. If he's on a reverse camber id suggest trying to stay on a low camber to almost flat RCR profile. It's easy to death Escorpin / tomahawk when you go short on the toe side transfer when you move from reserve camber to camber base. If he hasn't riden a camber base, he will probably love the extra bunce under foot. It makes the hill much more playful and smooth.

Burton Family Tree Hero Camber is another SICK one. Probs a little nice for a 1x a year boarder but it's one that you can do every thing and assuming you take care of it will last a decade plus.

Bayou City said:

---

If he's on an old Burton custom It's probably one of two styles: tradicional camber or reverse camber. Now they have a rocker camber rocker and directional rocker profile. It's not super easy to find reverse camber boards now a days. You can tell the type of Board by putting it flat on the ground. If there's a space between the ground and the Board under the bindings it's tradicional camber. If it's flat against the floor it's a reverse camber. If he's on a reverse camber id suggest trying to stay on a low camber to almost flat RCR profile. It's easy to death Escorpin / tomahawk when you go short on the toe side transfer when you move from reserve camber to camber base. If he hasn't riden a camber base, he will probably love the extra bunce under foot. It makes the hill much more playful and smooth.

Burton Family Tree Hero Camber is another SICK one. Probs a little nice for a 1x a year boarder but it's one that you can do every thing and assuming you take care of it will last a decade plus.

---

I like the spanglish thrown in now.

Going for the Custom

Need some help on where to go this year. We go to Durango most years, but this year we are skiing first week of January and I'm worried about not having enough snow. My wife hates skiing anything beyond the easiest greens and my kids are still learning, so they love Purgatory because it has a ton of greens and some really long ones that are not just up and down quickly all day. I like it because it is usually not as crowded as the northern Colorado resorts.

What are some other resorts with a similar vibe? Location could be anywhere. We fly from Houston so don't need to worry about driving distance.

Staying on the mountain, ski in/ski out?

We typically do not stay on the mountain. We usually take a day or two and go do other non-ski things.

beerag04 said:

---

Need some help on where to go this year. We go to Durango most years, but this year we are skiing first week of January and I'm worried about not having enough snow. My wife hates skiing anything beyond the easiest greens and my kids are still learning, so they love Purgatory because it has a ton of greens and some really long ones that are not just up and down quickly all day. I like it because it is usually not as crowded as the northern Colorado resorts.

What are some other resorts with a similar vibe? Location could be anywhere. We fly from Houston so don't need to worry about driving distance.

---

Park city has some good greens and it an easy drive from SLC airport. Just don't stay on the Canyon side as that is mostly blues/blacks.

Beaver Creek in Avon also has a ton of greens. They have an entire bowl called McCoy park that is nothing but green. My kids love it because it has areas where you can ski in/out of trees, a few small jumps etc. Some really long greens as well that my wife also enjoys although the more she ski's the more she wants to get on blues.

Yeah Beaver Creek is great for beginner/intermediate skiing. One of my favoeite places to ski before I tried Telluride.