Beaver Creek, CO 2/8/25

EMSC

EMSC

Well-known member
I'm sure this and my next TR are quite unexpected. They were for me as well!

My brother, his son and their family friends dad/son from Pittsburg somewhere/how decided to take kids out of school for a couple days and fly in to ski for a long weekend at the last minute. I made the decision to ski for the weekend days (my sons grades aren't where they need to be to pull him out for more).

Anyway, they had hit Keystone and Breck earlier and were shifting to the less Denver impacted VR resorts for the weekend. It had been a very warm week in Colo last week and finally some snow came Friday night. 6" reported at BC with some show during the day for ~1-2" more. So better than dust on crust, but on many aspects it was soft on top of chunky ice. Perhaps a bit less horrible than that sounds, but you were definitely hitting the base on most turns except on groomers. As 3 of the 4 visitors had never been and my brother had been like one time 14 years ago I was also playing tour guide as to trying to find best aspects, pitch, general navigation, etc... Part of the day was group of 6, [art of it was group of dads and separate group of teens. Snow depths seemed less than they should be for this time of year in some places. I assume at least partly due to the much too warm prior week. I got very few pics being tour guide.

Interestingly, none of us were particularly impressed with some aspects of what are supposed to be top notch customer service. For one example: It took the ticket window 20+ minutes!!! to get buddy passes printed out for example (I don't have Epic). And on a theoretical 'powder day' when time should matter. Even with a supervisor eventually helping after 5-ish minutes. I think I counted ~19.6K vertical for myself (east coast dads didn't do all my runs).

Royal Elk Glade off Grouse mtn
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Upper Goshawk in Birds of Prey
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Somewhere near Strawberry Park
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Darn, I forgot my ice skates
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Also forgot to mention BC gets more demerits for charging for 100% of all parking starting this year as well. $13 for remote shuttle lots. Not sure how you get to such a bizarre price point either. Or you can pay $50 to park in the village itself...
 
jamesdeluxe said:
I'm afraid to ask how much those are.
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I was afraid to ask even at the counter. $199 for adults on buddy passes... Of course, walk up tickets are $319 which makes literally no sense. There is no way you could ever get >$300 worth of skiing even on a big powder day. Outside of working World Cup races I can't imaging why I'd ever go back just for the skiing frankly. No one in the group thought it was really worth its reputation and certainly not at those kind of prices. It's a less crowded Keystone at best IMO.
 
EMSC said:
$199 for adults on buddy passes
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LOL. There was a time when the Buddy Pass was a decent benefit.

EMSC said:
No one in the group thought it was really worth its reputation and certainly not at those kind of prices. It's a less crowded Keystone at best IMO.
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It's fun for a day. The last time I was there was 2017 for a long weekend with friends skiing Vail/Beaver Creek.

Yes, it's less crowded due to distance from Denver and prices, but its terrain is relatively homogenous. Tree-lined slopes or some glades. The area where the BofP, Grouse, and Larkspur lifts is fun/ok, not remarkable. The groomers on BofP or Centennial are interesting to speed down. However, even areas like Stone Creek or Royal Elk Glades have nice trees, but nothing to write home about.
 
Buddy passes were $182 last season. Well worth it including the $50 parking for the 14-inch powder day last March.

On the non-powder day the parking was free at Arrowhead. We learned that from our local contact Paul.

That must have been a major warmup last week. Beaver Creek is high and heavily north facing, which is why Deer Valley looks so mediocre in comparison.

Liz loves Beaver Creek, largely influenced by the stellar conditions she has experienced there. I’ve been there a few more times but never with less than half winter packed powder conditions.

But yes for terrain scale and variety I much prefer Vail.
 
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EMSC said:
$199 for adults on buddy passes
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Tony Crocker said:
Buddy passes were $182 last season. Well worth it including the $50 parking for the 14-inch powder day last March.
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Isn't it a rarified world where one pays $200 without blinking an eye. I understand that EMSC was there to ski with friends and Tony had a nice powder day with a friend; however, I'd be tempted to say no purely on principle -- take my ball and go home or elsewhere, which is difficult along the I-70 corridor. Loveland is $149 walk-up, leaving only Cooper as an indie, non-gouging alternative.

BTW, is that a typo below from Cooper's website: $45 walk-up on weekdays? That's the price for a locals hill in Europe! I always enjoy myself there for a one-day visit; however, most of it is intermediate and some here would say "you get what you pay for." I'd counter that there's value in not being surrounded by obnoxious mega-pass types.
:smileyvault-stirthepot:

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Kirkwood Buddy tickets are $112 this season. I think it was $104 last year. Other Buddy ticket prices in West: Heavenly $146 (48% savings vs. peak period walkup price), Northstar $172, Stevens Pass $103.

Friend I skied with last week who wants to bring daughter and granddaughter to the snow said adult Heavenly Gondola tickets (sightseeing, no skiing) are over $110. I found Adult $117 Non-Peak/$129 Peak and Child $81/$90. But if you know an employee, you can get a freebie.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
Loveland is $149 walk-up,
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Pre-Vovid, I think $149 was 3 days at Loveland or similar. They had a good multi-day early season purchase that friends would buy (and I used 1-2x when visiting). Loveland - and, to a lesser extent, A-Basin - are desirable since you do not have to go through the Eisenhower Tunnel.
 
jamesdeluxe said:
BTW, is that a typo below from Cooper's website: $45 walk-up on weekdays?
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Not a typo. New pricing plan to attract weekday visitors this year by Ski Cooper.

Lets be clear, Vail and Beaver Creek are the two most expensive Buddy tickets that I could possibly buy. I tried to convince them to hit Breck on Sunday, but they had already been and the kids wanted to see the infamous Vail. At least an extra $100 decision for my pocketbook...
 
On a Feb. weekend I would much rather be at Vail than Breck.

Surely it’s worth paying up for optimal conditions, which applied to us at Crested Butte as well as Vail/Beaver Creek last March. The 24K/13K of powder was our best day of the season (also Joel Gratz’) and needless to say much less $$$ than our Canada snowcat days.

The bottom line is that we want whatever the price to represent fair value for the experience. The VR Buddy Pass prices raise the bar considerably and I need quite high expectations to consider them.

And as I pointed out at the time big picture cost was reasonable since we were staying with friends in Eagle and had a dirt cheap but decent quality motel in Gunnison. So the ensuing 2 days in Aspen on Ikon weren’t any cheaper because the hotel was $300.
 
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jamesdeluxe said:
-- take my ball and go home or elsewhere, which is difficult along the I-70 corridor.
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I share ChrisC’s overall view of the I-70 corridor and doubt I will ski those places much more. Last March we expected to be skiing the Southwest after Crested Butte but changed our mind when the Southwest was enduring a 3+ week dry spell. It’s worth paying a little extra when you have high confidence in conditions on short notice.
 
Tony Crocker said:
I share ChrisC’s overall view of the I-70 corridor and doubt I will ski those places much more
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I want to go back and ski some terrain expansions: Keystone finally being above the treeline, Copper's Tucker Mountain (replacing the odd snowcat route), and ABasin's Beaver Lift zone. Only A-Basin seems interesting.

I think Breckenridge is much improved. By March, crowds had dissipated, winds had subsided a bit, and the above treeline had become enjoyable. I liked Peaks 8, 7, and 6: The Imperial Bowl lift and Lake Chutes, easier access to Peak 7, and the newer Kenso lift with a quick hike to Peak 6 Ridge. Add to this the steep cruisers on Peak 10, T-bar/Hoshoe Bowl, and the bumps that run into the valley between Peak 8 & 9 - Breckenridge has been somewhat reinvented for advanced skiing in the last 10-15 years.

Mid-Winter: Forget Breck.
 
ChrisC said:
Keystone finally being above the treeline
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It's blue square stuff, so may or may not really be of interest...

ChrisC said:
Copper's Tucker Mountain
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Worth better part of day, especially with new snow.

ChrisC said:
ABasin's Beaver Lift zone
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Again, worth better part of a day, especially with new snow.

ChrisC said:
I think Breckenridge is much improved.
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I have more than 50 days at Breck and I can find plenty to keep interested for a day or two there. Primarily from your list... I've also spent enough time there to know how to avoid the hordes for the most part (many of my days there were concentrated in time when I had good friends living in breck and could crash at their place on non-coaching weekends).
 
I had two excellent early April days at Breck (one of them in 13 inches new snow) enjoying the zones ChrisC describes. And I have not yet skied Tucker or the Beaver Zone.

I have gone to A-Basin twice in late season of bad Sierra years in 1987 and 2015 and would certainly do that again. But some of those years Bachelor (2007, 2012) was more compelling to me.

The bottom line is that any future visits to the region are likely dictated by seasonal snow conditions with April being the likely time and the decision being made not much more than a month ahead.
 
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