The epic day passes are always the best deal for someone not looking for a full season pass. They've made me avoid any ikon properties for years due to the massive savings

true... couldn't take the newbs with me last time.

The oyster bar we ate at was great. Had never had BC small oysters... way better than the stuff we get here from the gulf and east coast.

I can tell you why the price is different….

And for VR pre purchased day passes are always cheaper than buddy passes or SWAF. Pre season day passes are 50% off which is the same discount given to employees. So you're buying at the employee rate. Buddy passes operate off the specific ski day and provide anywhere from a 20-40% discount depending on the day and the mountain.

Fly to Utah and drive like 30 mins to a resort of your choice….i like Alta bc its more old school but its an easy trip

Or, if you like telluride you have good taste, go check out my buddy's place!!!!
https://www.bellacoolaheliskiing.com/

Giving Heli skiing recommendations is strictly prohibited.

JustPanda said:

---

Giving Heli skiing recommendations is strictly prohibited.

---

Such a drama queen.

Such an *******

They recently bought a yacht so the girls can go hit the yacht and guys go ski

My kinda ski trip

QB1 said:

---

They recently bought a yacht so the girls can go hit the yacht and guys go ski

---

I can't find the charter anymore but I read an article in SKI or Skiing years ago about a group that bought a Coast Guard cutter, converted it to a luxury yacht with all the toys and then used it for helisking in Alaska.

JustPanda said:

---

Telluride and Aspen are the two most expensive ski towns in Colorado. Durango has Purgatory.

---

Onthesnow actually shows weekday vail at $225 and telluride at $165….prices are out of control

We just booked a trip to Winter Park. $90/day on their flex tickets. That's pretty good.

If i had a new skier (and old skiers out of practice), I would do Breck or Winter Park. They are pretty accessible from Denver and offer the most variety for the buck. Both are decent ski towns as well.

Just my thoughts.

I have skied most of the places in Colorado that people are talking about in this thread. Personally, I would pick Breck. They have all the different terrain types to fit any ski level. If there are lines at the bottom on busy weeks, they still move pretty fast and give you a few minutes to relax your quads. You can stay at a ski in/ski out and have lunch in your condo, or stay near town and walk to everything. If you've never been skiing and think of how a "ski town" might look like, Breck fits the bill. Great dining options all over the town. Went this past March and I chose to let my kids ski full days. I would sleep in a little with my wife, we would then head into town around 11:00 and walk around a little and then eat lunch. After lunch, I would walk to the slopes and ski the rest of the afternoon. It was great. Even got a few double blacks in on my past ski-prime bod. You can even hop a shuttle over to Vail (massive mountain), Keystone, or Copper for a day. Enjoy making memories!

How is a Breck during the week on a normal February week?
Skiing Sunday ->thursdayin mid Feb (week before Pres day)

JustPanda said:

---

What about something like Mt Hood or Targee?

---

There isn't 'ish to do ON Hood beyond skiing. Timberline is nice in that the lifts start at the lodge ($$$...$) and you ski down, so you get an instant view, but it's not a large hill. Meadows is much larger, and you can stay in Hood River, but it's still not a destination relative to other places in the US/CA.

Truckee/Tahoe/Reno or SLC would be my go-to for a fam vacation, for beginners. It's accessible hills with lots of other things if someone wants to bail out of skiing. I'd also go Bend, but I'm a mega-Bend homer. Redmond has flights from TX. It's 25 min. from Bend to Bachelor. Bach is massive (right behind Vail in acreage), has tons of Green/Blues, the Sisters fill your view (it's only matched by Crystal's view of Rainier for me). Bach is further east than Hood/Baker, etc., so the snow trends towards continental vs maritime. Bend itself has tons of stuff, tons of breweries, snowshoe to waterfalls, chill at hot springs - just endless winterplay in a pretty dope city. You can have cheap hotels, or boutique, or schwank, or "Adventure" motels like Lodge .

I doubt it, but does Austin have a flight into YLW? We make the drive to Whistler once a year, but Revy is where it's absolutely at for value.

If pricing matters for the OP, here's a breakdown of the 5 night, 4 day skiing trip I just booked first week of March to Winter Park.

Non-stop Round trip flight to Denver from Love Field - $232 (14k points - I booked with points). Early Saturday flight - early Thursday AM flight

Suburban Rental - $800 (includes full tank of gas and child seat) - big cars suck for rental prices due to demand and could easily do shuttles to the town but we prefer to have a car because of the kiddo.

3 bed, 3.5 bath townhouse with all the amenities (hot tub on deck, heated garage, grill, arcade game, etc.) - $2100 for 5 nights

2 days of full ski lessons - $274x2 (~$550)
Child season lift ticket - $30 (she's 4)

4 days of adult lift tickets - $396

Condo came with free rentals for her. I have my own gear.

Splitting 3 ways with others on the trip comes to around $2,000 for my kid and I for 4 days of skiing. Not bad.

ChoppinDs40 said:

---

We just booked a trip to Winter Park. $90/day on their flex tickets. That's pretty good.

---

Yeah that's great, best Colorado deal was Purg pre pandemic. If you bought in the fall for spring skiing it was half off - we skied a ton for $49 lift tickets - sadly now they give you like a $20credit - gone are the half off days

Breckenridge or another Summit County mountain!

Holy Christ that makes me happy to live here.

Breck is always crowded. Once the season starts, I'm gonna do a daily Breck lift line wait time snapshot to dispel the "they don't have lines at Breck" myth. They consistently have the LONGEST lift lines in Colorado.

I think most Texans skiing up there get a very skewed view of how busy it can really be... especially on the weekends.

Most trips we do have us leaving on a Saturday and skiing Sunday then all weekdays after which is usually great.

Saturday in Jan/Feb/early March are unreal now with the population growth of Denver. I feel like lift traffic has doubled in the last 5 years.

I've skiied Breck in the last few years. Saturday was fkin awful. Peak 7 was a 30+ minute wait for a 5 minute run.

It's only doable if you get over to 6 (bowl) or ski 10, both of which are not for beginners. 10 is only blacks.

I've been to Breck at Christmas, post-Christmas, January, and Spring Break. There have only been a couple of times when I thought the wait time was too long (bottom on Peak 9 mid-day). The mountain is so big and the lifts are so fast that even if there is a line, it moves pretty quickly and it gives you a time to relax for a few minutes before getting back on a run. The roads will get crowded at the end of the day, but within an hour the traffic is basically gone. As a Texan, unless you ski regularly during the season, there is no way to get your quads/legs truly ready for skiing multiple days. This past spring, even my teenager and young twenty boys who are good athletes in great shape were really sore after the first two days on the slopes. For me, a five minute lift line to let my legs recover for a few minutes is great. Otherwise, if I ride straight to the lift with no break, and then head down a mogul run or ski pretty quickly down the mountain, my legs are really burning towards the bottom of the hill. Again, there are many great mountains/towns in Colorado. I give a big thumbs up for Breck.

Agilaw said:

---

I've been to Breck at Christmas, post-Christmas, January, and Spring Break. There have only been a couple of times when I thought the wait time was too long (bottom on Peak 9 mid-day). The mountain is so big and the lifts are so fast that even if there is a line, it moves pretty quickly and it gives you a time to relax for a few minutes before getting back on a run. The roads will get crowded at the end of the day, but within an hour the traffic is basically gone. As a Texan, unless you ski regularly during the season, there is no way to get your quads/legs truly ready for skiing multiple days. This past spring, even my teenager and young twenty boys who are good athletes in great shape were really sore after the first two days on the slopes. For me, a five minute lift line to let my legs recover for a few minutes is great. Otherwise, if I ride straight to the lift with no break, and then head down a mogul run or ski pretty quickly down the mountain, my legs are really burning towards the bottom of the hill. Again, there are many great mountains/towns in Colorado. I give a big thumbs up for Breck.

---

Thanks for the feedback. I don't think I've skied Breck since I was in HS in the late 90s. I'd have to go back and check. Maybe a random day or two when I was in college. We skied WP and Copper more when I was in college and my 20s and I haven't skied Colorado at all in over a decade.

But this is a guys trip that I didn't have to plan and I got to just buy a plane ticket and show up. Hopefully with it not being a holiday week it won't be too bad. Most of us are flying in on Sunday morning and not planning on skiing until Monday. Regardless, should be a good weekend.

Now if I can just solve SB….

We got our January Steamboat SW flights for $210 a pop...Epic Pass. Done. I highly recommend Steamboat; you won't see the weekend Denver travelers up there like WP and Breck.

Hopefully you mean Ikon. You won't get much use out of an Epic at Steamy.

ChoppinDs40 said:

---

I think most Texans skiing up there get a very skewed view of how busy it can really be... especially on the weekends.

Most trips we do have us leaving on a Saturday and skiing Sunday then all weekdays after which is usually great.

Saturday in Jan/Feb/early March are unreal now with the population growth of Denver. I feel like lift traffic has doubled in the last 5 years.

I've skiied Breck in the last few years. Saturday was fkin awful. Peak 7 was a 30+ minute wait for a 5 minute run.

It's only doable if you get over to 6 (bowl) or ski 10, both of which are not for beginners. 10 is only blacks.

---

I almost met my maker on 10 a few years back with that damn ice that forms in the afternoons in the shade.

Im teaching Mountain Top Yoga at Breck this winter. Should be COLD

Ya that's what I mean. 3 day pass. Works well for us.

I ski Breck a bunch, like 10-15 days a year, mostly weekends.

The base of Peak 8 and Peak 9 have long lines.

The rest of the mountain doesn't. We usually ski peak 6 and 7 and never wait more than a couple minutes. My son and I have it pretty well dialed in. We park at the gondola, take the first stop instead of the base area, which serves peak 7. We then ski all over 6 and 7 all day until we head in.

Vail lines are much worse.

Beaver Creek is my very favorite because I have never waited more than a minute or two EVER.

So, how do I get ahold of you? Looking at scheduling a trip in February…

Durango or Telluride? Thought for a second I was on the Automotive forum.