Just got back from Breck and steamboat, only ended up skiing 2 of 4 planned days.

Temps were warm, well above freezing during daytime.

Breck conditions: stated ~60% open, imperial closed, tbar open with 1 or 2 runs that were skiable. Pretty much all expert terrain was unskiable. I'd guess only about half of the listed open runs are actually skiable without massive core strike risk. Large areas of the open runs had exposed rock dirt and treefall. No lift lines, but severe traffic bottleneck on lower runs. Open runs were groomed, anything in the shade iced quickly, but softened up in the afternoon. I had prepaid so I was committed. If you can cancel and not take a complete bath on the cost, do it.

Steamboat, similar situation, although their snowpack was a bit better and I'd say they probably had 40-50% of their mountain actually skiable.

MouthBQ98 said:

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https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLKsR3nYJJiPLO-OMXRC4eCwCyyILeh1tR&si=pUqwmByA0pWopjfi

This SRG Skiing guy does overviews of a lot of skis areas on YouTube. If you've never been somewhere before, they're worth a look as you can pick up some good info on areas you might want to ski or avoid, how to get around lines or where to park, get food, etc. He has his own opinions of course but the overviews have a lot of useful information in my view.

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Thanks for this. Going to Breck for the first time next week and that provided a good overview of the different peaks and runs.

Woof

So basically Independence, Freedom, Colorado, Peak 8 chairs skiiable? I know the Peak 6 bowls are a no go, but did you get into the glade/side country terrain there if you take a left off Kensho? Curious if that's skiiable at all, always some fun little blue runs over there

BPCAg05 said:

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Headed to Winter Park next week with the family (2/12-2/17). Any update on their amount of snow? Also we've never been there and my daughters (11 & 8) have never been skiing before so any tips, recommendations, etc? We do have the kids signed up for 2 days of ski school.

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I'm your resident Texan winter park expert.

I check their cams and call the base weekly

All greens and blues open. They've been getting some small amounts but the warm temps are melting off.

Ski school is good. Only the bowl, eagle wind, and bumps/blacks are closed.
Where are y'all staying?

Get dinner rezzys at Deno's, Idlewild distillery and the pizza at hernandos is really good.

The Safeway in Fraser does grocery pickup - we always set that up for the night we get in and are good to go.

Have a car?

We're headed up end of February.

tmaggie50 said:

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Trying to decide between Wolf Creek and purgatory. Driving up from Houston over spring break. Have a 7, 5 and 4 month old kid. Grandma will be staying with the baby while we ski. Ski school is insanely more expensive at Purgstory than Wolf Creek. My wife is not a great skier.

My considerations for Purgatory are:

Further drive, but more of a mountain base that would give kids a more entertaining base and perhaps grandma can spend the day at the base of the mountain instead of at home alone.

More quality mountain runs for the adult skiers with some being more advanced skiers. Enough variety that there will be plenty of easy blues for the lower level skiers.

I'll do one ski school day and teach the kids myself on the other days.

Wolf creek is closer, much less expensive, but possibly a more boring mountain for people used to skiing big resorts with large mountains and base entertainment.

Kids can do ski school every day or half days since it is so cheap.

Never been to wolf creek so makes me nervous committing.


Any thoughts are appreciated.

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Just got back from Wolf Creek a couple of days ago.

Overall, it wasn't a bad mountain. Skied mainly blues and I would say that the majority of the trails are blue and black; though, from what I saw on the trail map they do seem to have a pretty nice beginner's area for the kids.

Overall, even though it was a smaller mountain, I think it offers something for everyone on the trail.

It is a pretty plain resort - one small-ish rental shop, one small cafeteria, one food truck at the Alberta lift, and one small sandwich/pizza place at the top of Raven lift. Because there is no place to stay at the base, you're probably looking at staying in Pagosa Springs, like we did and it's about a 25-30 minute drive to and from the mountain for us in blue sky weather with the temperatures above freezing and no ice on the roads.

Edit: Comparing Wolf Creek and Purgatory, they are the same size if you look at skiable acres. Both are at about 1600 acres.

Thanks for the recommendations. We're staying in a condo in the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. We decided to just take a private shuttle to/from the airport so we won't have a car. For the grocery delivery, will they deliver alcohol as well? Not sure what the Colorado laws are on that. If so I'll have to Uber to a store I guess.

I skied both WC and Purg earlier this year. Have been to both several times, and each has good variety of terrain for their size.

Purg has more developed and groomed runs.

WC is usually has more snow and a lot more glade and tree skiing options, and extreme terrain when it does have a lot of snow.

Both have good beginner areas and green pods that learners can practice on.

Kids ski free at Purg, which is nice. Purg also has some phenomenal lift ticket deals if you buy early including resort credit. It also has a more developed base area with a full resort, several food options, and a few shops and such.

Wolf creek is a bit more basic but it does have a bar and grill and lodge at the base and a couple of snack shops up on the top. The continental espresso bar at the top of the treasure lift is a nice hangout for a break.

It is pretty easy to get to and from Purg in all weather, as the highway is straight up the valley from Durango with no hard turns or climbs and lower altitude.

Wolf creek is not a bad drive from Pagosa Springs or Sourhfork but in a good snowfall, getting to the top of the pass can be challenging. I had to put on tire chains last year or I would not have made it there, but it caught 18" that day. They ran plows but it's a curvy road and I'd recommend an AWD/4x4 and 3peak or better rated tires on your vehicle just in case a good snow comes through.

I've actually skied both on the same trip my last 2 times up there.

Skied WC Dec of '21. Skied Dec 22-24. Got 14 inches of snow overnight before Christmas Eve and 9 inches through the day of Christmas Eve. 20 mile drive from SF to WC and my Honda Pilot with AWD handled it great both ways. Had chains but never had to unreal them out. Plows did a great job. Big fan of SF. Shorter drive from DFW and low key community. We had a great time there!

ChoppinDs40 said:

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BPCAg05 said:

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Headed to Winter Park next week with the family (2/12-2/17). Any update on their amount of snow? Also we've never been there and my daughters (11 & 8) have never been skiing before so any tips, recommendations, etc? We do have the kids signed up for 2 days of ski school.

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I'm your resident Texan winter park expert.

I check their cams and call the base weekly

All greens and blues open. They've been getting some small amounts but the warm temps are melting off.

Ski school is good. Only the bowl, eagle wind, and bumps/blacks are closed.
Where are y'all staying?

Get dinner rezzys at Deno's, Idlewild distillery and the pizza at hernandos is really good.

The Safeway in Fraser does grocery pickup - we always set that up for the night we get in and are good to go.

Have a car?

We're headed up end of February.

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Been to WP the past 6 years and are headed back there for spring break in March (if the snow cooperates). All the above are good suggestions. Here's a few more.....

- Randi's. Get a table in the bar area next to the fire pit. Everything is good, but I typically go for their chicken pot pie, sheppard's pie, and bangers and mash. All are spot on after a cold day on the mountain.

- Fontenot's Seafood & Grill has a great menu too.

- Smokehouse BBQ. A couple years that we've gone, we called in orders for several pounds of meat and made bbq sandwiches at the house for dinner with a few sides that we cooked up.

If you have a spare day off the mountain, there are lots of activities to do. We've done snowmobiling, ice fishing, dog sledding, and tubing at Colorado Adventure Park in Fraser. They have a massive hill with carpet lift to take you to the top. Also a fire pit that you can chill at and cook s'mores.

As far as groceries go, we make a quick stop in Idaho Springs for that on the way into WP. Idaho Springs is about the halfway point between Denver and WP. If you are going to WP at a busy time of year, we've run into issues a couple times with shortages at the Safeway in Fraser (milk, eggs, biscuits, bread, etc.). Idaho Springs is a really cool, old mining town with lots of shops, restaurants, and breweries. We always stop there because our flight typically lands around 10am and we have time before we can check into our rental at 4pm. Not to mention we are hungry by the time we get to Idaho Springs around noon. The Buffalo Restaurant is good (it's tied to Westbound and Down Brewery) and the green chili at Clear Creek Cidery & Eatery is off the chart.

I'm heading to Park City tomorrow also, and though I'm staying on the PCMR side near the base I was considering making a ride over to Canyons for a day at some point during the week. I pretty much stick to blue groomers, but will venture into some mellow moguls also. Were the blues on Canyons off of Tombstone, Peak 5, and Daybreak in decent condition? Last time I ventured over there was early season a couple years back and with a similar base depth they were open but had a lot of areas with low cover and put some dings in my bases.

BPCAg05 said:

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Thanks for the recommendations. We're staying in a condo in the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. We decided to just take a private shuttle to/from the airport so we won't have a car. For the grocery delivery, will they deliver alcohol as well? Not sure what the Colorado laws are on that. If so I'll have to Uber to a store I guess.

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Not sure on alcohol delivery. That being said, you'll want to go offsite, I think, from the base. It's definitely not an all encompassing village of sprawling shops and restaurants like Vail or BC.

Good thing is the town's bus system is the best I've seen in a ski town. For the longest, there was little to no lodging at the base and it was all in town.

Hop on the bus and there's a grocery store in WP proper and liquor stores if you can't get it delivered. That's also where these restaurants mentioned above are.

Get "The Lift" app and it tracks all the routes and buses, real time. Just about every single route drops all up and down 50 (main drag) in town, on both sides. You'll have an option probably every 5-10 mins to get to town.

I'm not sure when the "night" service begins but they have routes running almost all night (and up to Fraser).

Try a dinner up on the Gondola. I've never done it because we always stay at an AirBNB or something in town vs. at the base.

Appreciate the additional info. We are planning one dinner going up the gondola to that restaurant and I'm still looking into other meals. With the kids being young and probably exhausted from skiing I'm trying to figure out if there are any good restaurants in the village so we can catch an early dinner without having to take a bus/uber.

BPCAg05 said:

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Appreciate the additional info. We are planning one dinner going up the gondola to that restaurant and I'm still looking into other meals. With the kids being young and probably exhausted from skiing I'm trying to figure out if there are any good restaurants in the village so we can catch an early dinner without having to take a bus/uber.

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There's 2or3 in the village.

We usually just pick up pizza from Hernandos since that place is always packed.

Kensho left was ok until treeline, then got really thin, especially in the rolling hill sections near the bottom/traverse. No way in hell was I running through trees with exposed roots and fall. Some of it was probably skiable with some diligent scouting and luck, but I didn't risk it. They got about 2" of powder while I was there, which honestly only made it more hazardous. Because it just barely covered up the dangerous stuff making it invisible.

HUEY04 said:

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I'm heading to Park City tomorrow also, and though I'm staying on the PCMR side near the base I was considering making a ride over to Canyons for a day at some point during the week. I pretty much stick to blue groomers, but will venture into some mellow moguls also. Were the blues on Canyons off of Tombstone, Peak 5, and Daybreak in decent condition? Last time I ventured over there was early season a couple years back and with a similar base depth they were open but had a lot of areas with low cover and put some dings in my bases.

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Oh ya, those runs through the Colony neighborhood with the 10-30mm houses were great. We did 3 days skiing/snowboarding and did Canyons, PCMR, back to Canyons for last day. Some workers told us about the tombstone & peak 5 area and once we found it, that was prob one of our favorite parts of the mountain. There was hardly anyone on it. Wish we would've known about it day 1 but that place it so big it's hard to explore it all. The buses that go back and forth between PCMR & Canyons are super convenient.

Yep that's what I was afraid of. Those little rolling glades at the bottom are a blast but wouldn't chance it with thin cover

I love packing for a ski trip.

I made a questionable decision and wound up with a bunch of bindings coming in next week if anyone is looking for some.

2023 Look Pivot 14 115mm
2025 Tyrolia Attack 14 95mm
2023 Look NX 11
Armada N Strive 12 100mm
Marker Griffin 13 ID 100mm
2025 Marker Griffin 13 ID 100mm
2023 Look Pivot 14 115mm
Head Attack 2 13 110mm
Marker Griffin 13
Head Free Flex 11 85mm

I love that area to get away from crowds, good to hear that it was in good condition

Skied keystone today. Stayed on the front side with my oldest son while mg twin 4 year olds had their first day on the mountain with lessons. Wasn't terrible but icy in a few spots but loosened up quite a bit in the afternoon. Was hot as hell today, think it hit the 50s. Lookin forward to those storms rolling in over the next couple weeks.

How much you looking for on the pivots? Colors?

If anyone is in the market to unload some 120-130 cm kids skis in the next few weeks, I'm in the market.

Charismatic Megafauna said:

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How much you looking for on the pivots? Colors?

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I think there may only be one pair of those, I'll have to see what ends up getting delivered. My order paperwork showed 2 listed but I think one was a duplicate.

They should be Icon Black, will have to make sure everything is in good shape when they come in. Probably looking for somewhere around $300 as long as there's no damage.

I'll post pictures and prices once i get them.