1) look at cost of flying into dia vs slc
2) based on that pricing decide between breckenridge/arapaho basin area or park city area
either of those is going to have affordable options for lodging/lift and plenty of terrain for learning to ride.
Pretty much this. If you're flying, it's going to be the easiest and cheapest to fly into these two (SLC and Denver) and then you're just ~1 hour to the resorts.
The nice part about going to either of these areas is that you have several resorts within minutes of each other. In the Breck area you have Breckenridge, A-Basin, Copper, Keystone, Vail, Beaver Creek, plus a bunch more. All those are within 45 minutes of each other, and if you buy a multi day pass at the Vail Resorts, it's good at any of them (Breck, Keystone, Vail, BC) so you can switch it up if you want to.
As a beginner, I would stay away from Vail as it's a bit more challenging and quite frankly a bit hard to navigate for a newbie to riding out West. Might be worth it by the end of a 5 day trip though. Breck will give you plenty of terrain that's novice friendly, but still fun to ride. The good part about the Summit County area is that there are plenty of lodging options that will run the gamut from Ritz-Carlton, to Super 8 and everything in between. If you have a decent group going, you can get some good deals on houses and condos which makes things really cheap.
If you can get over the ick factor, probably. Although you can pick up servicable gear for cheap, if you don't mind getting off-brand stuff. It won't be the best gear, but it will get the job done so long as conditions aren't crazy.
You should also look in to RNO and crossing over to South Lake. Tons of places to stay, tons of places to eat, Casinos right there, Heavenly gondola right there (once you are there = no more car). RNO is about 1 hour to South Lake.
I don't think you can go wrong with any of the choices already mentioned. It really will boil down to travel costs. _________________
if you aren't going until next year, there will be tons of opportunities to pick up cheap gear between now and then. hell, right now dogfunk is practically giving stuff away to clear inventory room: dogfunk thanksgiving sale
1) go to your local shops and try on pants and jackets to see what fits and what styles you might like. pay attention to brand and size, especially if you are a borderline size and may wear a different size from one brand to another.
2) sign up on the following websites for their emails and score killer deals, especially after the season.
Well the west coast has been a bust this year, but I got some awesome pow days in at beaver creek and breck. Just got back from Park City mountain resort and snowbird, the conditions weren't the best but 10x better than my local resort of Kirkwood so I had a fun time bombing down some steep grooms.
FINALLY some powder in the forecast this weekend, if anybody is down to ride Tahoe I have the next 3 weeks off of work and going to be at kirkwood, heavenly and sugarbowl mainly, perfect timing.
Posted: Jan 27, 2014 5:08 pm Post subject: Re: West Coast ski resort tour
jt09 wrote:
just booked a trip in late jan. couldn't beat nonstop round trip airfare from austin at $168 and a free place to stay.
head out weds afternoon and ride thurs and fri, then head to red rocks for ghostland observatory. hope to keep my head together enough so i'm not to hungover to ride on saturday.
oh yeah, on top of cheap airfare and free place to stay, i've got 1 free day lift ticket and 50% off the other days.
terrible snow year so far. Texas has gotten more snow than we have in the mountains the past two weeks! _________________ Don't do anything rash.....and don't do anything to get a rash...
Jensen, if I wasn't already going out of town this weekend I would be up there Monday or Tuesday.
Just put new shoes on the rig and I need to mount up the spikes spiders, but I will get up there in the next few weeks. I need to get at least a few turns in, and the boy needs to have his first ski school experience.
jt09, I was jealous when I saw those pics on FB and you are not making it any better. _________________
jt09, I'm so jealous. I was getting those powder alert texts each morning and just shooting myself in the foot for not taking my vacation a week earlier.
Snow levels are about to mess Tahoe up this weekend, oh well, I'll still be happy for all the rain that's about to flow into our reservoirs
Jensen, places like Wood and the upper part of Squaw are going to get dumped on though. Wet, heavy, Sierra long lasting cement. Not great for the pow but it'll make nice ribbons of the corduroy on the groomers. _________________
Jensen, places like Wood and the upper part of Squaw are going to get dumped on though. Wet, heavy, Sierra long lasting cement. Not great for the pow but it'll make nice ribbons of the corduroy on the groomers.
I wish I could break away from work next week to head up to Tahoe for a few days. Looking at the forecast up there it looks like they could end up with some new snow by Tuesday. No way I'd venture far from the groomers, but a few mid-week days on the hill to pay off my pass would feel amazing at this point. _________________ www.TheLiquidPlayground.com
Integrity Wakeskates
chavez, Yeah I'm hoping that Kwood hangs in the snow line, it could get ridiculously deep by tuesday, hopefully 4-5 feet deep.
I had a surprisingly incredible powder day at Kirkwood today. fresh tracks all day. with only a 3 lifts running. Tomorrow should be even better with more lifts opening.
Joined: 20 Jun 2006 Posts: 3630 City: Kansas City, MO
Posted: Feb 07, 2014 8:56 am Post subject:
jt09, the lift line looks crazy. Hopefully you skied mostly the top half of Vail? I never ski to the bottom until the end of the day when the lifts close. Lines are always nuts down there-especially on weekend days.
That's an awesome amount of snow to get while you're there, though!!!! _________________
Wakebrad wrote:
I honestly think it has to do with internet penetration...
pet575, that was the lift line from like 8:30-9:30 (lifts open at 8:30). in all honesty, we almost didn't go because we were seeing that mob on good morning vail. we got to the lionshead gondola around 10:15 and it took maybe 20 min to get on the 1st time, but every time after that it was no problem at all. we stayed on the lower part of the mountain, to the west side of that lionshead gondola most all of the day and had a blast. still tons of powder and places to jump a little bit at the top, but the bottom third was all groomed and fast. pretty much perfect!
After skiing kirkwood on Tuesday I'm planning on driving overnight to mount hood to ride there or bachelor for a couple days. Then heading up to baker to ride in the big snow they are suppose to get next weekend. Anyone going to be riding? Looks like an awesome week for snow accumulations all around
Perfect timing. I'll be at Crystal Mountain (WA) on Thursday, Mount Baker Sunday. _________________ "I'm scared if I stop drinking all at once, the cumulative hangover will literally kill me."
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