I'm heading out to Colorado next week and will be skiing Vail, Beaver Creek, Copper, and A-basin. What's everyone's favorite runs at those resorts? Or if you just want to add your favorite run at any resort feel free!

Easy question. The one with deep untracked powder. I actually don't know the names of trails at many places. I just go where it looks interesting. At major western areas you just need to know the lifts and where to start heading for the lift so as not to have to climb or pole.

Blue Slip Bowl at Vail contains a great glads run that is groomed nightly. Yep, groomed glades. Vail bought a special smaller groomer to navigate through the woods for about 1000 vert. feet, about 200 yards wide. Lots of fun and always great conditions.
The Colonel

Leave it to you to find the groomed glades. Happy birthday!

Based on where you're headed (not necessarily that these are my all time favorites):

Vail -- spend some time in the back bowls

Beaver Creek - Birds of Prey (just to see what an actual DH course is like)

A Basin - East Wall

Have fun!

Second the back bowls at Vail.
At Copper - Stay on the Super Bee, Resolution and Alpine lifts - Found the back bowl and slopes serviced by these lifts more challenging.

Blue Sky Basin at vail is where to be but get there early as it closes early. Run favorites are Lover's Leap and Champagne Glade. Champagne gets bumped up quickly, but if there is new snow it is a perfect, seemingly never ending run.

For Copper agree with what is stated above. The mountain is laid out perfectly there as far as separating different ability level skiers. Seemingly each lift services only 1 difficulty level. If you are advanced skier, stay in the "advanced area" and you can't go wrong. Copper Rocks

The next one I take.

Beaver Creek is hugely under rated. Seen as a play ground for rich Euro's there is some really great skiing! The trails off Grouse Mtn are almost all black and empty. Rose bowl is nice as well.

BRECKENRIDGE INPUT -- So I'll be heading to Breck in a couple weeks with a 'mix' of skiers (level-wise, that is) and was looking at the trail map online. Can somebody tell me about the Imperial Express Superchair which goes to the highest summit and seems to serve only double-black terrain. Yet, in the Virtual Tour section of the website, they show a run (Imperial Bowl Ridge - which is not on the trail map) from the top of this lift which appears advanced-intermediate at best. Would hate to miss out on this but also don't want to risk taking intermediates to expert only terrain. Anyone been there who can give me some first hand knowledge? Thanks.

(Ski man -- hope you had an excellent trip. I've enjoyed many of your HV videos and have recognized several folks in them)

Well sooner or later they have to get off the ridge and ski something fairly steep.

Advanced intermediates will love the blue/blacks over on Peak 10. If they're just plain old intermediates then they'll have plenty to choose from. One nice thing about Breck (and pretty much all the places out west) it that most of the runs are fairly wide. Combine that with soft snow and it makes skiing a lot easier once you get used to it.

Of course the West hasn't had a super year you're going late in the season. I have no idea how Breck skis in the spring with a freeze/thaw cycle.

breck has these newfangled things called groomers that will help manage the snow conditions, and they are catching up in snowfall.

If you can ski good blues, then from the top of Imperial Express, going down the ridge line, is the four-o-clock extension which is a fast groomed run all the way past the peak 8 vista house and down to the parking lots. the peak 10 groomers are good but sort of bland. Just check out the whole mountain and find the less used runs away from the main main peak 8 and 9 lift runs.