Hola DC Skiers,

I'm going to be in Winter Park Thursday 1/29 - Monday 2/1.  I will be with a large group of friends and we are staying at the Zephyr lodge (which is at the base of zephyr lift).  I know nothing about Winter Park.  i tend to trust the judgement of most of the people here.  Does anyone have any suggestions for runs I should make sure to hit up?

99% of my skiing is done on groomers.  I am not a fan of hiking.  I will ski in trees, but only if they are spread out and not on really steep terrain (i'm hoping there is something at Mary Jane that meets that requirement).  Basically I am lame compared to most of you.

And if anyone has any suggestions for food in the area I am all ears.

 Thanks in advance.  You all rock.

AG - I spent a week there last year.  If you like groomers than the MaryJane side of the mountain probably won't be your favorite.  There are a couple of nice long groomers but mostly relatively steep bump runs. On the Winter Park side the Zephyr lift serves a handful of fairly steep groomers and several ungroomed trails that are all nice.  Off the backside skiers left at the top there is an area of low intermediate runs that are all groomed and same to skiers right.  I will look at a trail map at home and give you more specifics if you are interested.

AG, below are my memories from a visit about ten years ago with my kids, low intermediates at the time; WP trail map: http://www.winterparkresort.com/media/trail-map.aspx  

Initially we hit the gentle runs around the Olympia Express chair. There were some ideal cruising trails here like March Hare, but skier traffic was a just a bit heavy. We soon migrated to nearby Vasquez Ridge where there were less people, great blue runs, and a warm Colorado sun. We met big Dan from Denver here at the rest stop at the base of the Pioneer Express quad. Dan skis Winter Park a lot. He said it’s like this often on Vasquez Ridge and for these reasons it’s his favorite section of the mountain. I might have to agree, and I particularly enjoyed a wide, tilted ballroom of a run in this area called Sundance.

We finally saw our first true lift line of the week at around 11 a.m. as we boarded the High Lonesome Express quad chair to head for the backside of the Mary Jane section of the mountain. For the record we never waited more than about one minute in a lift line at Winter Park on December 26. Skiing near the Sunnyside chair, we enjoyed the pretty Edelweiss run and the relatively benign Wildwood Glades. By then it was after noon and time to begin our planned return to the front face of Winter Park via Corona Way and The Corridor. Upon completion of this 30-minute tour/trek, we rode up the Zephyr Express for a late lunch break at Winter Park’s beautiful mountaintop Sunspot restaurant.

Ironically we arrived at Sunspot just as the sun departed and a snow squall set in. For the next 45 minutes, we dined in the comfort of our elegant lunch spot at 10,700’ while three inches of new powder fell on the upper slopes of the ski area. When the snow stopped, we finished our lunch and tried some new loose pow for dessert. But dense clouds remained and after awhile, we headed for better visibility on the lower front of the mountain in the vicinity of Snoasis (another major on-mountain restaurant). This area included mostly green terrain and is the location of Winter Park’s large and renowned learning slopes.

Around 3 p.m. I suggested that we head back to higher ground and make Hughes Run our finale. The necessary return drive over cloud-shrouded Berthoud pass was weighing in the back of my mind. Hughes is one of Winter Park’s classic runs and descends about 1,700’ of vertical in about 1.25 miles. We had seen some incredibly skilled disabled skiers training here earlier in the day. Paraplegics, amputees, sight impaired, mentally challenged, you name it; they were still out there by the dozens, skiing, riding and racing their buns off.

Hughes has an unusual marking as a blue trail with a black diamond inside the blue square. It’s also a busy place cutting down the heart of the front of the mountain to the main base. Despite the squall, by this time of day a lot of the best powder was scraped off. In the East there’d be nothing blue about it, except maybe an intermediate’s hurt feelings at being coerced to give it a try. It was a challenge for my kids, but all the way down my rallying cry was “if the special skiers can do it, you guys can too.” Not sure if I’ll get away with that next time, but on this day it seemed to work and when we made it to the bottom we knew we’d completed a week of big time Colorado skiing.

Thanks for the reports/ recomendations everyone.  I look forward to exploring the mountain.  I will try to get some pics and make a trip report when I return.