Day One Wed
We arrived in Denver and shuttled over to the canopy lot to pick up our rental car. We used that new start up called Silver Car because they had a one day free coupon and we got an Audi A4 for less than an SUV for 4 days. Arrived in Keystone Ranch area to the Meadow House. We had 19 people in our group. The 4 night stay cost each of us 260 total.
Check out this place - Meadow House Tons of space, 5 minutes from Keystone Resort.
Day Two Thu
Vail was the resort of choice. It took about 50 minutes to get there. For those that know, the place is huge and expensive. We parked in the village garage and chunked down $25 for the day to park and walked over to pick up our lifties. We prepaid online and got tix for 150 each. A few in our group paid $175 at the gate. WOW. We skied most of the groomer blues scattered about the massive mountain. We plunked down 25 a person for a burger, fries and drink. The weather was "our worst" day with clouds, some sun and a little snow. High topped out 40. They really focus on slow and safe skiing. Something snowshoe needs to do a better job of policing. Awesome day, long runs and tons of fun. On a scale of 1 - 10 I'd give a 9.
Vail pics
Day Three - Friday - Keystone
Keystone was wonderful. It snowed about 3 - 4 inches on Thu night, We skied all groomers they had to offer us. Bluebird day with reasonable crowds. We spent a lot of time skiing off the Summit Express lift doing top to bottom runs. One run I recall was a blue called Sante Fe. It was not marked groomed and people were avoiding it. It was a hidden stash of groomers paradise with a liight fluff of pow on it. We did multiple top to bottom runs of 2200 vertical there. Rating 11 on a scale of 1 - 10. I went over 30K vertical for my first time ever. My best ever ski day.
Keystone Pics.
Day 4 Sat Copper Mtn
I knew it was going to be tough topping Friday at Keystone. We had another bluebird day with highs near 40. Copper was budget friendly. Vail at 150, Kestone at 135 and Copper had a deal with Shell gas. Buy 10 gallons of gas and get a buy one get one free ticket. 144 / 2 = 72 each for a lift ticket and free parking. We headed over to the Timberline Express lift and cruised that area for the first hour. Crowds got heavy around 10 so we wandered over to the Super Bee lift and did a few runs there. We ate early at 11 and the crowds sort of dispersed around noon. After lunch we skied the American Eage lift area then decided to go back to the Timberline area. By 3 PM we were worn out and called it a day. Rating 9 / 10 and only because Keystone was the bomb.
A few Copper Pics
In closing, for my skill level all three were fantastic. Vail is massive and quite pricey, Keystone was just a blast and Copper was a ton of fun and easy on the wallet.
This is my 3rd time out west and by and far the best trip of the 3. I will return to this area again some day.
Nice, bring some snow back with ya. Did you ski Riva Ridge at Vail? One of my favorite long cruisers with some steep sections. Looking forward to the video.
Dude has the ballsy onsey with the tiny rental skis, so good, I'm in awe. Nice pics and vert, but I would have a heart attack at those ticket prices. I had no idea keystone was over a benjamin. Go again soon and rock the back sides.
Most of the skiers in our group. We did have several non skiers come along. I'm told that Breckenridge is behind us in the photo. One hellava bluebird day.
Glad to hear the you enjoyed Keystone. It IS my favorite hill. Hopefully you got a chance to try the best/fastest groomers:
Diamondback/Go Devil/ Starfire -- all Black; followed by the Blues: Outback's Elk, NorthPeak's Last Alamo, and Dercum Mountain's Wild Irishman. It's real easy to get over 60 mph on the first three.
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Looks fantastic out there. I will be there March 21st. My group is also deciding whether to ski Vail due to the price. $150 for a ticket, ouch. If you plan ahead you can get a great deal at Copper. We bought the four pack last April for $145.
Your forum handle sums up some of my thoughts. At the skill level of myself and our group - itdoesntmatter. Each place was 2 - 3 times the size of our home mountain of Snowshoe. The blue cruisers at Copper were just as much fun for myself and our gang as the cruisers at Vail and Keystone - for 1/2 the price.
At the end of skiing on Saturday, we all agreed that we were fortunate to have had the opportunity to ski all 3 places and formulate our own opinions. That's part of the adventure. We wanted to ski 3 different places in 3 days.
As a first timer to that area, I look forward to a return visit. It was an absolute blast.
Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder.
I hope you enjoy your trip as much as I did ..... because going to work sucked today.
bob wrote:
Glad to hear the you enjoyed Keystone. It IS my favorite hill. Hopefully you got a chance to try the best/fastest groomers:
Diamondback/Go Devil/ Starfire -- all Black; followed by the Blues: Outback's Elk, NorthPeak's Last Alamo, and Dercum Mountain's Wild Irishman. It's real easy to get over 60 mph on the first three.
Why do you want to go 60mph on an open to public ski slope?!!
Blue Don 1982 wrote:
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Your forum handle sums up some of my thoughts. At the skill level of myself and our group - itdoesntmatter. Each place was 2 - 3 times the size of our home mountain of Snowshoe. The blue cruisers at Copper were just as much fun for myself and our gang as the cruisers at Vail and Keystone - for 1/2 the price.
Enjoyed your pictures and post.
For accuracy sake: Make the comparison of each of the three mentioned Colorado ski areas to Ssnowshoe read 15+- times as large vice "2 or 3 times as large".
MorganB
aka The Colonel
"Why do you want to go 60mph on an open to public ski slope?!!"
WHY?? Because, it's fun and exhilerating when the wind is thundering past your ears, and if you do it when no one is in front of you on the slopes, it is safe. The only risk is to you, the one doing 60. I personally limit myself to about 50 mph by always staying on an edge, but I've been passed like I was standing still by others running flat.
I limit myself to 50 because the risk of somerthing going wrong at 60+ is exponentially higher than it is at 50 or lower.
BTW according to Tracesnow (the cell phone skiing/boarding app) the speed record at Keystone is 118 MPH - probably on GoDevil (the downhill course) or Diamondback.
I use the ski tracks app as well. My high speed one time 51 one time. But if you look at the speed profile it was only for one split second. It's not like I was flying down the hill the whole time at 50+ out of control. I also question the accuracy of the app. My daughter and I have skied the same slopes for a day and she ended up with a couple of hundred more vertical feet for the day.
Counting down the days until I fly out!
The Colonel wrote:
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Counting down the days until I fly out!
Where/when headed?
3/21 through 3/28. Staying in Silverthorne, skiing 4 days at Copper. Plan to ski A-Basin one day, and the 6th day to be determined. Vail (never done, maybe I need to ski it once, but very pricey)? Keystone (been once, cheaper ticket...)? Breck (been once, just about as expensive as Vail, wasn't overly impressed, IMO a lot of trails get very flat on bottom half of mountain)?
I know I'm very fortunate to have to make this hard decision! I could be deciding between Whitetail and Liberty.
itdoesntmatter wrote:
The Colonel wrote:
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Counting down the days until I fly out!
Where/when headed?
3/21 through 3/28. Staying in Silverthorne, skiing 4 days at Copper. Plan to ski A-Basin one day, and the 6th day to be determined. Vail (never done, maybe I need to ski it once, but very pricey)? Keystone (been once, cheaper ticket...)? Breck (been once, just about as expensive as Vail, wasn't overly impressed, IMO a lot of trails get very flat on bottom half of mountain)?
I know I'm very fortunate to have to make this hard decision! I could be deciding between Whitetail and Liberty.
Maybe consider Beaver Creek...costly lifty like Vail & Breck but parking is free and for one day it has everything you need. Less crowded too.
itdoesntmatter wrote:
Looks fantastic out there. I will be there March 21st. My group is also deciding whether to ski Vail due to the price. $150 for a ticket, ouch. If you plan ahead you can get a great deal at Copper. We bought the four pack last April for $145.
Two points here.
1) You can buy lift tickets online in advance for any Vail hill. If you buy at least 2 weeks in advance the discount is about 20%. Go to snow.com for detail/prices.
2)You can get a " buy one get one free" coupon for use at Copper. Just buy at least 10 gallons of gas at a (Shell, I think) gas station. Summity County has 'em. I presume that Denver does, too.. See one of Blue Dons contributions earlier in this thread for details.
bob wrote:
2)You can get a " buy one get one free" coupon for use at Copper. Just buy at least 10 gallons of gas at a (Shell, I think) gas station. Summity County has 'em. I presume that Denver does, too.. See one of Blue Dons contributions earlier in this thread for details.
Yes - we bought 10 gallons of gas at the Shell gas station in Dillon. You have to take your pump receipt into the store to get the coupon. Take coupon to the ticket window and they will charge you $144 and issue you 2 tickets for that day only. Not one today and one tomorow.
