Skiing and Snowboarding in the Colorado Rocky Mountains

Are you planning a skiing or snowboarding trip to the Rocky Mountains in Colorado? Do you want to explore as many world-class ski resorts as you can in a relatively close area? Then consider visiting Summit and Eagle Counties, which lie approx. 1-2 hours west of Denver.

These are the closest ski resorts to Denver (with the exception of Winter Park) and to give you an idea on just how central Frisco is, driving times to these amazing Colorado resorts are:

  • Arapahoe Basin (A-Basin) – 20 mins
  • Beaver Creek – 50 mins
  • Breckenridge – 15 mins
  • Copper Mountain – 15 mins
  • Keystone – 15 mins
  • Loveland – 20 mins
  • Ski Cooper – 45 min
  • Vail – 40 mins

That’s a serious amount of awesome resorts and all within 1 hour’s drive – try finding that anywhere else in the world!

LOOK TO STAY IN FRISCO IF YOU WANT TO BE CENTRAL TO PLENTY OF AWESOME COLORADO RESORTS
LOOK TO STAY IN FRISCO IF YOU WANT TO BE CENTRAL TO PLENTY OF AWESOME COLORADO RESORTS

Get The Epic Pass!

Which resorts will the Epic Pass cover around Frisco?

  • Beaver Creek
  • Breckenridge
  • Keystone
  • Vail
  • Park City, Utah (not in Colorado but well worth a visit if you’re planning a road trip like we did)

What Are The Colorado Resorts Like?

The advantage of spending an entire season living in a ski town is that you really get to explore what each mountain has to offer. Sharing our experience at each mountain should definitely help you get the most out of your visit to each Colorado resort. Whether you’re visiting for a while or even just a few days, we hope you find the following information helpful!

Arapahoe Basin

MONTEZUMA BOWL - IT'S STEEP!
MONTEZUMA BOWL – IT’S STEEP!

A-basin has one Express lift, with the rest non-express. There’s plenty of challenging terrain available, especially over to lookers right. You really need fresh snow to enjoy these areas but if there is new snow, it’s very steep and fun. Our favourite area at A-basin was the the back side (Montezuma Bowl) – with fresh snow it is very good, with good steeps and the terrain vast.

Beaver Creek

There’s a lot of terrain at Beaver Creek and traversing from the main village over to Arrowhead takes some planning.

Around 3:00pm every day, it’s Cookie Time! What’s that you ask? Well, in the main village they give away delicious freshly baked cookies. They are so tasty, especially after a hard day of riding.

GETTING READY FOR OUR MAMIE'S MOUNTAIN GRILL BBQ!
GETTING READY FOR OUR MAMIE’S MOUNTAIN GRILL BBQ!

Parking

Undercover parking is available at the village for $25 per day. It’s very convenient and close to the lifts. The majority of the time we utilised the free parking at the base and caught the free regular shuttle. As always, arrive early to avoid missing out on the parking.

Our best runs At Beaver Creek

Cinch Express. You’ll find fun and open runs on a non-powder day but generally, it’s not steep enough when there’s pow around.

Golden Eagle. This is very challenging, with its super steeps. It would be a blast on a pow day but just make sure you pick good conditions. We made the mistake of riding down when it was a little icy and it wasn’t much fun…

Larkspur. Fun, wide runs with plenty of terrain to play on.

Breckenridge

BRECKENRIDGE OFFERS SOME AMAZING VIEWS
BRECKENRIDGE OFFERS SOME AMAZING VIEWS

Parking

If you want to park right at the base of the chairs or gondola, it’s going to cost you. The best value paid parking is at the base of the gondola. It’ll cost $12 during peak times (weekends and holidays) or $5 Mon-Thurs. Arrive after 12:00pm on a non-pow day, and you’ll sneak in for free. You’re unlikely to get street parking and it only lasts for 3 hours. Other areas, e.g. at the base of Peak 9, are more expensive. Season parking passes are available.

There is free parking available and it’s a 10-min bus ride from the gondy. With just a little planning, park in the satellite lot, north of Breckenridge on Airport Rd and then catch the free Red Route Bus. If we were turning up early on a pow day, this was our preferred option.

Our Best runs At Breckenridge

Chair 6 (not to be confused with Peak 6!). Accessed via Peak 8. You need to get there early on a pow day as the slow twin lift quickly causes long lines to form.

JEN FINDING SOME FRESH LINES OFF 6 CHAIR
JEN FINDING SOME FRESH LINES OFF 6 CHAIR

Peak 6 – accessed via a high speed 6 seater lift, the Kensho Super Chair. Great terrain on-piste but a little hiking rewards the rider with some awesome bowls. Go lookers right to Beyond Bowl or left into Serenity Bowl. Make the short hike to the top of the ridge to maximise the ride down. You’ll also appreciate the awesome views, with the backside looking over to Copper Mountain. Oh, and Delirium and Euphoria (lookers left) are so much fun with lots of gullies and trees! And if you want to get from Peak 7 to Peak 6 and not go via Zendo Chair, try Wanderlust for a bit of a challenge. A fun way to get to Peak 6 but it just might take you a few goes to get it right – it certainly did with us! A bit of advice – just stay as high as possible.

THE SMALL HIKE UP FROM KENSHO SUPER CHAIR (PEAK 6)
THE SMALL HIKE UP FROM KENSHO SUPER CHAIR (PEAK 6)

Peak 10 – steep, fast and wide open. The Falcon Super Chair is often not crowded on a busy day.

Whale’s Tail – between Peak 8 and 7. Drop in from Imperial Super Chair. Wow, on a pow day this bowl is amazing as it’s so wide open with good steeps – just watch for the rocks!

Copper Mountain

Parking

Paid parking is available at a reasonable price (compared to Vail), starting from $10 per day in some locations. In 2015/16 Copper Mountain had an affiliation with Subaru, offering Subaru owners free parking. Limited spots were available, so you need to get in early to secure the free spots. For non-Subaru owners, free parking is available but you’ll need to take the free shuttle from the carpark to the village.

WE MADE USE OF THE FREE SUBARU PARKING AT COPPER MOUNTAIN!
WE MADE USE OF THE FREE SUBARU PARKING AT COPPER MOUNTAIN!

Keystone

WE MADE USE OF THE FREE SUBARU PARKING AT COPPER MOUNTAIN!
APRES ANYONE? THE AWESOME IRISH COFFEE AT INKSPOT

Parking

Free parking is available, within easy walking distance to the lifts. Just get there early, especially on pow days and weekends. You can pay for parking too if you like, from $5-15, but really with a little planning it’s not necessary. Park at the River Run Village (the main village, to access the gondola – best for powder days) or Mountain House (to access the Peru Express lift to get to A51).

Our best runs At Keystone

The Outback.

  • Drop Porcupine or Bighorn before it gets too tracked on pow days.
  • Access the North and South Bowls easily via a 10-25 min walk straight up from The Outback chair (up towards the peak of Wapiti). If you don’t fancy the hike, you can catch the cat for $10. Bring cash and wait your turn. We’ve spent many a day up there and still managed to get freshies at midday. Plenty of tree and gully runs. The bottom run out can get a little tiresome as it flattens off a fair bit towards the chair.
A SMALL HIKE FROM OUTBACK CHAIR WILL BE REWARDED WITH FRESH LINES
A SMALL HIKE FROM OUTBACK CHAIR WILL BE REWARDED WITH FRESH LINES

Frenchman and Irishman. Nice wide groomers on the front side and often on pow days will offer untracked runs for a couple of hours as everyone else heads Outback.

YEP, WE WISH! OUTBACK
YEP, WE WISH! OUTBACK

The Windows. We wanted to ride The Windows but never got the opportunity. Some of the locals we spoke to said it’s some great riding, but you need good coverage. We’re saving that for our return visit!

Loveland

AFTER LUNCH FRESHIES AT LOVELAND
AFTER LUNCH FRESHIES AT LOVELAND

One of the ultra-cool things about Loveland is they offer free cat skiing! Just make sure you get your cat skiing pass at the day lodge before you head up the mountain.

Ski Cooper

CHICAGO RIDGE CAT SKIING, ANYONE?
CHICAGO RIDGE CAT SKIING, ANYONE?

Vail

SUN UP BOWL LOOKING THE GOODS!
SUN UP BOWL LOOKING THE GOODS!

There is no denying that Vail is expensive, from daily lift tickets (if you don’t have the Epic Pass) to parking and accommodation. When we stayed in Vail in 2013, we rented a place in West Vail. It was cheaper than Vail Village or Lionshead but you are reliant on the bus service because realistically it’s too far to walk to the lifts in your snow gear. Beware of staying somewhere too close to the I-70 as it can get quite noisy.

Parking

Our best runs At Vail

Front-side (non-pow days) – Northwoods, Avanti, Born Free, Bwana. Long, wide, rolling and fast – very nice!

Back-side (pow days) – ah, everything! Well, our personal favourites are Blue Sky Basin (just take a packed lunch to get there – it’s the journey, not the destination. Actually, that’s not true but you’re going to enjoy the journey as much as being out there!). Earl’s Bowl. Forever off High Noon Express. But there’s so much more it’s really unfair to just limit it to a few. We need to go back…

BLUE SKY BASIN - LET THE FUN BEGIN!
BLUE SKY BASIN – LET THE FUN BEGIN!

Utah

IF YOU CAN MAKE IT OVER TO MOAB IT'S DEFINITELY WORTH A VISIT - STUNNING!
IF YOU CAN MAKE IT OVER TO MOAB IT’S DEFINITELY WORTH A VISIT – STUNNING!

With Park City and Canyons now joined by the Quicksilver Gondola, it has been quoted as America’s largest snow resort. And we can see why. Each snow resort is massive so trying to ride all the terrain at both resorts in a short period of time is pretty much impossible (we had 2 days there).  There’s easy, free parking available at both Park City and Canyons. Be sure to catch the cool stand-up Cabriolet Gondola from the carpark to Canyons Village. Or park at the Park City base area and walk to the main village. We ate in the Sundial Court (Canyons Village) which was pretty nice and reasonably priced.

Our best runs At Park City

At Canyons, we rode mainly Murdoch Peak, Super Condor Express and Condor Woods. Super fun, technical tree and gully runs.

JEN AND MARTY ENJOYING SOME FRESH POW AT CANYONS
JEN AND MARTY ENJOYING SOME FRESH POW AT CANYONS

Over at Park City, we had a lot of fun bombing the runs off Bonaza Express (lookers left). It was a non-pow day but the groomers were amazing – fast and smooth.

Neff Land – for a bit of laugh in the terrain park off Eaglet Chair.

FUN IN NEFF LAND!
FUN IN NEFF LAND!

We Love Colorado! 

There’s just so much to ride in Colorado. Even though we spent 5 months there we still didn’t get to ride at places like Aspen/Snowmass, Crested Butte, Steamboat, Telluride and Winter Park. I guess it just means another trip back!

Having a starting point when visiting a snow resort for the first time can really improve your overall experience. We hope that by sharing our knowledge of the places we rode will help if you’re planning a trip to Colorado.

If you’ve ridden in Colorado and would like to share some of your favourite places, please leave a comment below!

Mick 

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