Avon, CO – Pass through the town of Avon, cross
the Eagle River on the bridge named simply "Bob," and you’ll soon
know something’s up. If you somehow miss Beaver Creek’s Reception Center,
you’ll know right away because a security gate will prevent you from going
any further.
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Huh?? A ski area that’s actually a gated community? Welcome
to Beaver Creek. Dee-luxe.
Day skiers have a choice: pay parking in underground garages
in the resort village, or free parking in the nearby town of Avon followed
by a shuttle bus to the slopes. A certain smug sense of satisfaction crosses
your face if you’re staying in the village as you flash your pass to the guard
and continue climbing the road to Beaver Creek, past vacation homes of truly
immense proportions.
Beaver Creek Village is a compact core of large hotels (including
a Hyatt Regency), condominium lodging, restaurants, a performing arts center,
furriers, art galleries and high-priced boutiques, all built around a central
outdoor ice skating rink. Heated sidewalks will keep you from slipping on
ice and snow. Outdoor escalators will ease your tired legs to and from the
slopes. Seemingly no convenience is overlooked.
The duct-tape crowd need not apply. Bogners are de rigueur.
Snow began to fall in earnest as we checked into our comfortable
quarters in Townsend Place, a set of condominiums less than five minute’s
walk from the skating rink that houses a few of the resort’s 3,431 beds. Beaver
Creek’s reputation for creature comforts left our expectations for the resort’s
skiing somewhat muffled. "I’ll be anxious to have my preconception that
Beaver Creek is nothing but groomed cruisers dispelled," I told communications
maestro Emily Jacob in advance of my arrival.
"Ooh — a challenge," Jacob replied coolly. "We’re
up to it."
GET USED TO IT
Luxury has a habit of wearing off on you. After walking back
and forth to the village core several times on the night of our arrival, instead
of walking up again with our gear to access the Centennial Express high-speed
quad, we picked up the phone and called Beaver Creek Transportation. In a
matter of minutes, our own personal Chevy Suburban arrived to whisk us up
to the slopes. All of this comes with the price of admission – plus tip, of
course.
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(Click to open a full-size trail map in a new browser |
Beaver Creek is spread out along both two freestanding mountains,
plus an extensive ridgeline. The founders of nearby Vail in fact originally
sought to develop the mountain at Beaver Creek, but when land acquisition
proved difficult they turned their attention a little further east in the
Vail Valley. Years later after succeeding in purchasing the land from local
sheep ranchers, they returned to carve Beaver Creek’s runs from the forests
above Avon.
Beaver Creek’s easternmost peak is most directly accessed by
the tandem succession of the Centennial Express™ and Birds of Prey Express™
lifts, both high-speed detachables. Unlike many areas, Beaver Creek’s easiest
terrain is up high near the mountain’s summit, where numerous low-angle runs
await fledgling snow sliders who are no longer relegated to lower slopes without
views. It is nonetheless also here that the famed Bernhard Russi-designed
Birds of Prey World Cup downhill course drops precipitously to the valley
floor 2,460 vertical feet later at Red Tail Camp, at the base of the second
summit, Grouse Mountain.
Grouse is the experts’ exclusive playground, housing terrain
that some years ago finally put Beaver Creek on the high-octane trail map.
Advanced skiers have a detachable quad to call their own, accessing steep
bumpers like Screech Owl and Osprey. The Royal Elk Glades plunge into the
ravine separating Grouse from the start of the ridgeline leading to Bachelor
Gulch and Arrowhead. In between, however, don’t overlook the opportunity to
sample some of the delights in Larkspur Bowl, seemingly overlooked by many
of Beaver Creek’s patrons, likely due to its slower fixed-grip lift. It is
here that acres and acres of open terrain will delight the intermediate, yet
provide thrills for the advanced skier willing to actively work a bit to seek
them out.
Moving to skiers’ left, the Strawberry Park Express Lift™ and
Elkhorn Lift continue the journey to Bachelor Gulch, where a brand-new Ritz-Carlton
resort will be opening in November 2002. The 237-room luxury hotel, to be
modeled after the grand lodges found in many of America’s National Parks,
will have ski-in/ski-out access on the 1,700 vertical foot Bachelor Gulch
Express™ – yes, yet another high-speed quad. Finally, the westernmost flank
of Beaver Creek is populated by the Arrow Bahn Express™ detachable quad on
Arrowhead Mountain, once contemplated as a separate ski area.
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Beaver Creek takes its racing heritage seriously.
Endless corduroy to the village.
Anybody feel like skating? |
Beaver Creek possesses many other unique characteristics. Atop
the entire ridge line from Larkspur Bowl all the way over to Arrowhead Mountain
is a broad plateau known as McCoy Park™, the high-altitude home to most of
Beaver Creek’s Nordic ski network. It’s placement at 9,840 feet of elevation
ensures good snowfall and snow preservation.
As long as we’re on the subject, Beaver Creek averages 310 inches
of snowfall annually, supplemented by a snowmaking system that covers 605
of the resort’s 1,625 total skiable acres. Combined with the mountain’s high
Colorado Rocky Mountain elevation, decent snow conditions are relatively assured.
Even though Beaver Creek is able to advertise 4,040 vertical
feet of terrain, that’s from a high point atop the Birds of Prey Express Lift™
at the resort’s far eastern end, to a low point at the base of Arrowhead at
the resort’s far western end. Accordingly, it’s not possible to ski 4,040
vertical feet without a lot of traveling and lift riding in between. Still,
the skiable vertical of 3,340 feet at Beaver Creek proper is nothing to sneeze
at.
Traveling is one of Beaver Creek’s banes, however, in this writer’s
opinion. Frankly, getting from one end of the resort to the other can be a
real slog, and it is somewhat surprising that at a resort conceived as recently
as 1980, it can be difficult if not darned near impossible to work your way
past the village traveling on skis from Beaver Creek toward Bachelor Gulch,
or vice versa. Doing so may require any combination of bridges and magic carpet
lifts criss-crossing the access road, or a horrendously long pole and skate
across the top along McCoy Park™ (don’t forget, there’s a reason that the
flat terrain there serves as a cross-country center!). It seems that for a
resort that promotes a "European-style Village-to-Village™" ski
experience (yes, they do have that trademarked, too), a strategically placed
lift and a couple of additional trails in between would make the process an
easier if longer proposition.
While Beaver Creek did dispel my preconceived notion expressed
earlier regarding a preponderance of groomed terrain by bringing us bumps
on Grouse, delivering divine woods skiing off of Larkspur, and serving up
steeps off of the Westfall lift, Beaver Creek’s well-deserved claim to fame,
in addition to luxurious pampering of its guests, is definitely the grooming.
Miles and miles of perfected corduroy await the high-speed cruiser as a full
one-third of Beaver Creek’s skiable terrain is groomed nightly. Sometimes
it feels good to just cut loose, and cut loose we did with a milk run on Centennial
and Latigo. It was the perfect warm-up for the day’s adventures, pumping the
blood through the capillaries on a morning with temperatures in the single
digits. Certainly, the self-induced wind-chill effect did little to help thaw
our numbed noses.
After a morning spent covering ground while collecting our bearings,
the early-morning chill had warmed to our comfort level, and we sought sustenance
in Beaver Creek Village. Somehow, with a resort as luxurious as Beaver Creek
you feel a need to partake in the finer thing’s in life, even while dining
for lunch. It was only fitting, then, that the standard-issue ski area hockey
puck hamburger was nowhere in sight. We slid up to the generously spacious
patio of the Rendezvous Bar & Grill™ (yep, that’s trademarked, too!),
where culinary delights such as my calamari steak grilled and served on homemade
foccacia bread seemed deliciously appropriate.
In all, Beaver Creek offers 24 restaurants to soothe lunch and
dinner appetites. In addition to the Rendezvous, standouts include the casual
style of the Dusty Boot Steakhouse & Saloon™ (those damned trademarks!)
and the local flair of the Coyote Cafe, with a painfully long margarita menu.
High-end Italian is served up in the village at Toscanini™. Diners looking
for a unique dinner experience may reserve a table at one of Beaver Creek’s
exclusive restaurants on the mountain, including Beano’s Cabin™ (between Larkspur
Bowl and Grouse Mountain) and Allie’s Cabin™ on Beaver Creek mountain, both
accessed after skiing via snowcat.
Getting used to seeing those trademark symbols? Good.
THE BLACK SHEEP IN THE FAMILY
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Beaver Creek, as seen from high above Avon. |
Beaver Creek lays claim to only 250 year-’round residents. Avon,
just down the hill at the I-70 interchange, is Beaver Creek’s working-class
cousin that a more realistic 3,000 residents call home. Claiming another 19
restaurants, 4 bars, and numerous hotel rooms – plus ironically enough Vail
Resorts’ corporate offices – Avon also provides the typical "real town"
amenities such as schools, a library, a municipal skating rink, ball fields,
and a sure sign of everyday life: a Wal-Mart. Somehow, the "gatekeeper"
separating the two seems as symbolic as functional.
Plans are afoot to try to link Avon to Beaver Creek’s slopes
via a long gondola. Doing so will bring Avon’s beds into range to satisfy
many visitors, add a new Vail Resorts ski village along the Eagle River in
West Avon to be known as Beaver Creek Landing, and eliminate the need for
the shuttle buses for day skiers. Many area residents, however, are actively
resisting such change.
Designers at Vail Resorts envision a bustling ski village with
restaurants, shops and hotels rooms on 18 acres at the base of the gondola
that would travel up the mountain to Bachelor Gulch™ and the top of the Strawberry
Park™ chairlift. Originally plans called for the lift to continue on down
to Beaver Creek Village, but that leg was hacked from the plans to save $10
million on the price tag. Avon officials, however, have tempered their enthusiasm
for either project, saying they want to see the final plans for Beaver Creek
Landing before trying determine if the village and the gondola will be a financial
boon for the town.
Vail Resorts has asked Avon, the Beaver Creek Resort Company,
the Beaver Creek Metro District and Bachelor Gulch to share the cost of the
$30 million gondola. While the other agencies have reacted favorably, Avon
has yet to offer any cash for the gondola. While Avon officials have been
cautious in their approach, Vail Resorts has reportedly expected progress
as speedy as the proposed gondola.
When the new bridge over the Eagle River was built, the town
held a contest for the naming of the bridge. Somehow, it’s only fitting that
the nondescript and understated "Bob" prevailed. And notice that
it’s not "Bob™".
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