looking for a place to ski that is reasonably priced and good for families. not looking for crazy nightlife this trip, but rather a place to get some good slope time. i've heard a lot and read several threads on here about wolf creek. seems like a great place for what we are looking for. only question is how in the hell to get there if you're flying in. looks like a shuttle from a "nearby" airport runs about $120/person each way, and if we're going to be tacking on another $250 per person...well it kind of defeats the purpose. thoughts? suggestions?

I wouldn't take a family to wolf creek... They don't cater well to a beginner level skier, and there are hassles if you're dragging along a couple kids. A couple of examples -- some resorts will run lifts servicing green level runs slower than normal, since beginners will be on the lift -- not so at Wolf Creek. Additionally, if they get a big dump of snow (and Wolf Creek is famous for that), the groomers will be slow to clean up the easy slopes.

You can fly into Albuquerque (closest major airport), Denver, Colorado Springs, or Durango. It's 3 1/2 hrs to Pagosa Springs from Albuquerque, where you'll be staying. From there it's about a 25 min drive up the pass to get to Wolf Creek. There is no lodging at the ski area, though there is cafeteria style food at the base.

On the plus side, Wolf Creek is a blast and isn't your typical "mega-resort" style. The people are friendly, there are rarely lines, and the snow is the best in Colorado. It's also my favorite place to ski.

if your whole familly isn't pretty good, don't go to wolf creek, it's probably my favorite place to ski, but not very beginner friendly.

Wolf creek is a "no-fly" resort in my book b/c Albuquerque is the closest airport. I figure if I have to drive 2+ hours after flying, I wasted my money on the flight.

Durango/Purgatory is very family friendly as the mountain is beginner to intermediate with a scattering of black trails. You can fly into Durango or do the Albuquerque and rent-a-car. The town isn't big on single night life, and caters more to the sleepy town feel.

As far as ski schools go, Taos is far and away the best. The mountain is very challenging, so the ski school has to be good in order to get newbies up to speed quickly for their enjoyment and safety on the slopes...but no snow boarders are allowed there.

My personal favorite place to ski is Vail. They have so much terrain anybody will find something to ski. Denver is the closest airport, and you'll have to shuttle up from there.

"Me fail english, that's unpossible!"
-Ralph Wiggam

Monarch in CO

Our family had a great time at Breckinridge. fwiw.

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Durango/Purgatory is very family friendly as the mountain is beginner to intermediate with a scattering of black trails. You can fly into Durango or do the Albuquerque and rent-a-car. The town isn't big on single night life, and caters more to the sleepy town feel.

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I second this recommendation. SW has very cheap seasonal flights. We drove from Dallas Spring Break and took kids ages 5 & 8 but will definitely take advantage of SW next year as we plan to return. Our kids had a blast and the Durango Doubletree served as a very nice base camp. I particularly enjoyed the selection of restaurants as opposed to having to cook/eat on a mountain.

Forgot to mention that there are tons of places to stay in Durango/Purg.

You can stay in town and drive up the mountain everyday, which wasn't my thing...or you can rent a condo in one of the numerous condo resorts between town and the mountain.

We usually stayed mid-mountain and cooked for ourselves most nights.

I grew up skiing Purg and have nearly 20 years of skiing it, so I know the mountain very well.

If you choose to go there, feel free to PM me for more info.

"Me fail english, that's unpossible!"
-Ralph Wiggam



[This message has been edited by Canon's Dad (edited 6/17/2007 9:32p).]

MW03..

If the family can ski already...wolk creek is pretty darn good value, in my oppinion. And it gets snow early and often..so if you book early in December, you won't be skiing on fake snow and gravel.

I spent a week there a couple years back, and really liked it. We stayed in Pagosa Springs at some cabins, and pagosa is a nice, relatively quiet small town that still has some pretty good restaurants and such. I think if your kids are reasonably athletic or are fast learners or have skied before, you should be just fine. There is a very long green that snakes down the mountain that they do classes on.

There are more kid friendly places, but wolf creek is allright over all.

My family enjoys Angel Fire, NM. It's a good place for noobs - we dropped our kids off at the half-day ski school in the morning and picked them up at lunch. They also had a night tubing run which the kids really liked.

Wold Creek is awesome. Unfortunatley we didn't find the ungroomed mountain "Alberta" I believe until the last day of our trip.

i second the breckinridge. it has some fairly difficult slopes too, esp if you want to walk up to one of the bowls.

good ski school, if you want it.
and plenty of greens and blues.

multiple meeting areas at the bases. i say bases, because the slopes span three ridges.

the good think (i think) about that area is that your lift ticket is good at copper park, keystone, and vail. (unless this has changed in the last 2 years).

so if you want something different, its like a 30 min drive away to another slope.

keystone is nice, but the trails favor the more experienced. and they have night skiing.


just a thought, you will have a great vacation regardless of where you go. its family man.

Crested Butte gets my vote.

You can fly into Gunnison and then stay in either Mt. Crested Butte or Crested Butte just south of the slopes.

A quick shuttle runs virtually all the time up to the slopes. There are sledding options, etc in Crested Butte for the days or afternoons when the kids don't want to hit the mountain.

Park City, Deer Valley and The Canyons. 35 minutes from Salt Lake International and awesome snow.

wolf creek is good but in the middle of no where, you might think about Angle Fire, Red River and Taos, all very close and you won't get bored with the same ole hill also in the same area is a place call Sipapu, very family based, small yet has some good advaced slopes and is cheap, they even have places to say onsite and with lift ticket it is free to stay, at least in the past, I live in NM now so I don't keep up with the lodging part of skiing much!

The best place for families and to get away from the ski crowd is Ski Cooper. It is in Leadville, CO I believe. Just google it. Make sure not to mistake it with Copper Mountain.

My family went during spring break and stayed in Breckenridge then make the 45 minute drive to go skiing at Ski Cooper. It was worth it. You would not have known it was the high ski season. No lift lines, no waits for food, good snow. My girlfriend was learning and I was scared she would be overrun by everyone else skiing. Not the case, the runs (especially on the back side) were empty.

The resort is not very big, so dont go there expecting a ton of runs. If your goal is family and getting away, this is where you want to go.

Just to note, I went to wolf creek growing up so I have a comparison. Cooper is definately more family friendly.

http://www.skicooper.com/

[This message has been edited by jetescamilla (edited 6/18/2007 5:23p).]

Been to Ski Cooper 3 years in a row. The town of Leadville is amazing (in a family friendly way). The mountain itself is good. The skiing entertained my dad and I (quite experienced), and my mom and brother(novice) for an entire week. Overall great place. Here are the two downfalls:
1. Weather/Temp - it is worse than if you were lower elevations. (Leadville itself is above 10,000 feet).
2. The ski area is not too large, on the overall scheme of things.
Leadville/Cooper is great, but I would recommend Telluride. It really has everything that the you would find at Breckenridge or Copper Mountain, but less crowds.
But, I don't know anything about air travel, we always drive.

We made our first trip to Telluride last year and will definately be going back. It is a pretty even mix of green, blue, and black runs and they are broken up so that all of the blacks are on one side, the blues in the middle and the greens on the other side. You can go all the way to the top and come down like 4.5 miles on a green all the way or go the other direction about 4 miles of blue / black all the way. We stayed in mountain village which is in the middle of the slopes; we skied to the door of our hotel where they took our skis and when you leave you just put your skis back on and ski off the opposite direction down to the lifts. It can be a little pricey if you eat out a lot but it is hard not to since there are more awesome restaurants and brew pubs than I have ever seen anywhere else. Did I mention that I will definately be going back?

[This message has been edited by HUEY04 (edited 6/18/2007 6:49p).]

Try Northstar resort in Tahoe .... beautiful area .... great for families and I've never had crowd problems there.

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keystone is nice, but the trails favor the more experienced. and they have night skiing

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WRONG!

Keystone is cleary the easiest mountain of the "Vail 5" in Summit County.

Breck is a more difficult mountain as is A-Basin since its above the tree line. Vail is HUGE, so you'll find a little for everybody.

"Me fail english, that's unpossible!"
-Ralph Wiggam