Mountain Sports Club Blog

These are two magnificent resorts which truly live up to their slogans! Vail says it is “like nothing on earth” and Beaver Creek’s motto is “Not exactly roughing it.” If you ask any skier or snowboarder what their favorite areas in the world are, most will say Vail or Beaver Creek, if they have had the good fortune to make the visits.

But, these are no cream puff areas. Despite the many wide, gleaming, and groomed green and blue runs, there are also a lot of steep, challenging black diamonds. The altitude of 9 to 11,000 feet can get to you quickly, especially if you have just arrived from sea level. Most of the visitors we met seemed to be from the East, the Midwest, or Texas, and we were all challenged.
These resorts can be very expensive, but there are a lot of ways to minimize the costs. There are attractive off season packages for all the resorts. We met some visitors who booked great package deals from their ski clubs, or from many of the on line travel services or groups, such as Mountainsportsclub.com. With many of these packages, you are getting the best rates and often staying in luxury accommodations. Sure, you can still find some homes for sale in Beaver and Vail for up to 12 million dollars, but you don’t have to go that route! You can also join a private mountain club, for $50,000 to $250,000, but my guess is, there is now less demand for such exclusive clubs on the mountain. A lot to pay for parking, lifts, and meals, in my estimation. And, we all sit on the same ski lifts, with the same parts of our anatomies!

We arrived in Beaver Creek on the 10th, after driving about an hour from Breckenridge. It was sad to leave the friends we had met at the Hartford Ski Spectacular, but we hope to see many of them in upcoming events. It was also hard to pull away from Breckenridge that day – the weather was mild and the slopes in good condition. But, in Colorado, there are also so many excellent choices to make, you can overdoes with too much sweetness.

In Beaver Creek/Avon, we were met by Jen Brown of Vail Associates – a real dynamo who accomplishes much more than the average person. She is a former ski racer (for 20 years) and another ex Easterner who moved to Nirvana. She installed us in a spacious condo at “The Seasons at Avon.” It is always a bit strange to move into someone else’s home, and take it over for a few days. It is beautiful, with the large kitchen, living room, and switch-on gas fireplace. From the front sliding window, you can see the trails of Beaver Creek. Great to watch the full moon over the slopes, and see the groomers at work throughout the night. These homes can easily accommodate 6 or 8 visitors, if you are not big on privacy.

On Thursday morning, Charles and I walked across the street, and took one of the many free, “eco” buses to Beaver Creek. You can drive, but it is discouraged. Parking is expensive at all the areas, but that is also meant to try to convince drivers to leave their cars someplace else, and take the bus. There are, of course, some discount rates for disabled and seniors, but it can be hard to get those parking spaces on crowded days.

Beaver Creek is one of the areas in the world which is truly visitor friendly. After a short walk from the bus, there is a series of escalators which take you to the lifts. At the end of a beautiful day of skiing and boarding, waiters circulate and hand out their hot, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. What a change from the early days of ski dorms and cold, icy outdoor bathrooms of my teenage years!

At Beaver, we rode up two chairs, the Centennial and the Cinch Express. We met one of the many Guest Service representatives, BT Trumpower, and he made our day. He is a snowboarder, and showed us the mountain. By coincidence, he is a Marylander, and still lives in Ocean City in the summer. He showed us the good groomed cruisers, and advised us to follow the grooming trucks. As soon as they finished, we danced down some of the best corduroy I have ever experience.

Beaver is a large mountain, but not as sprawling or complex as its sister resort of Vail. It now hosts the “Birds of Prey Men’s World Cup” and has a wide variety of challenges including the Rose Bowl and steep bumps on Grouse Mountain. It also has the beautiful long Cinch run, where those wanting easy skiing and riding can cruise from the top to the bottom of the mountain. Safety and speed are carefully monitored, especially on “Gold Dust,” which has signs proclaiming, “speed is monitored from the air!”

Visit to Vail – one of the largest snow resorts in North America

What can I say about Vail? It is so beautiful, I literally dream about it at night. It is sweeping, immaculately groomed and kept up, and has some of the biggest area and varied terrain of any resort on earth. It is also extremely visitor friendly, with a large number of Guest Service Representatives and Mountain Ambassadors to help you every step of the way. These are fascinating people – the ones we met were semi—retired doctors, teachers, or accomplished professionals from a wide variety of disciplines. I know this advocation has long been one of my goals, if I ever semi retire.

I first came to Vail when Jerry Ford was President. He enabled the White House press corps, and their families, to follow him on many trips to Vail, and to Beaver, which was just under development at the time. These trips were definitely better than the vacation White Houses of many other Presidents. I was pleased to see the many buildings named after Gerald and Betty Ford at Vail and Beaver. Maybe we could convince the Obamas to visit the slopes, if they ever have any spare time!

At Vail, my husband and I drove, but perhaps should have taken an inexpensive “eco bus,” which is cheaper if you get a senior discount. We were fortunate enough to find free parking on Frontier Road, and then walk across to a shuttle bus to Vail and Lionshead. It is much better to make your way to Lionshead, even if you have to take two buses. Your are quite close to the base of the Gondola, and can get to any trails or the world class bowls.

There are paid parking areas, but they can cost about $35 and often entail more walking up and down stairs, and through the village. Again, with heavy boots and skis, it is not fun. How I desperately wish I could snowboard – life could be so much easier! Alas, that has passed me by.

On the top of the Eagle Bahn Gondola, we met two of the Guest Service Ambassadors, and took a fast, comprehensive tour of the mountains. We covered an enormous amount of territory, and looked down into the bowls, but did not take them this time. The snow was falling and the flat light gave way to blinding snow. We all knew a one week blizzard was predicted, with temperatures well below zero. So, after two hours of fast skiing (for me), we retreated to one of the many fine mountain top restaurants, had a terrific meal, and took the Gondola down. I felt like such a sissy, but many others were taking the same route. I missed some of my favorite blue cruising trials. I also missed the famous Vail vistas, although some were visible through the snow. But, I knew they were there from the many visits I had made to Vail. Better to be prudent, and live to ski another day.

The next day, Saturday, we resisted the temptation to ski, despite the fresh snow. The temperatures were dropping and the forecast was frightening. We returned the fine rental equipment at Vail, although we had first picked it up at Breckenridge. This is one of the many advantages of renting the newest equipment. It is good quality, and we did not have to lug it to the airport, and pay the extra charges for the flight. I have long advocated rental, but I may break down and buy new boots, if they are light enough.

After another great meal at one of the many Vail resort restaurants, we were on our way. My husband Charles did a great job driving over the snowy Vail pass, and through the Eisenhower and Johnson tunnels. There were lots of spin outs and accidents along the way. I was terrified. Thanks Charles! We made it to a motel in Denver, and had a relatively smooth flight on United the next day. The airline was very good about accommodating stand-bys, because schedules were so messed up with the storms.

We left Colorado with the knowledge it, Utah, and the other mountain states were getting pelted with snow. It is a good omen for Christmas and, hopefully, a good sign for the future.

The holiday break for those of us in Boulder Colorado started late and extended deeper into January than I ever recall. This scheduling quirk led our family to plan and end of holiday 3 days ski and snowboard vacation that would start at Arapahoe Basin and have us spend the last 2 days at Vail.

After a very slow start in November, that had the Colorado Ski areas concerned - as there was record low natural snowfall, the skiing and snowboarding has gotten very good. December turned around quickly as many resorts reported record snowfall for the month of December. The snow has regularly been falling feet at a time and the start of 2008 has seen this same pattern of deep snow continue in Colorado. With a great base the resorts are serving up spectacular conditions with powder days being a regular occurrence. With the storms has come some very cold skiing as well. While resulting in more frequent breaks to warm up the cold temps has ensured the snow is staying dry, soft and light.

This trip was going to be interesting as we are spending a couple of nights at The Antlers in Vail. This condominium/hotel complex is one of the properties in the Lionshead area of Vail that has undergone a facelift and is walking distance from the Gondola and chairs. Having never stayed here I was curious as to the facility. The stay was a pleasant and enjoyable stay. Big rooms, great service – free movies for the kids and popcorn, heated pool, sauna, huge hot tubs with killer jets to massage out the kinks and aches from hard days on the mountain. The business center receives high marks for me as I had to stay in touch with emails and ran a conference call and demo one day. This business center had 4 computers wired and with printers. I would strongly recommend a visit to The Antlers if you are planning a visit to Vail. I know we will be back. The staff was friendly and helpful and the amenities and comforts met and surpassed our expectations.

The start of this mini vacation was a day at Arapahoe Basin. We arrived at the basin late morning on Sunday the 6th. There had been several inches of new snow each of the last several days ensuring soft broken powder throughout the mountain. WE skied pretty much all around the mountain including the alleys on the far side of Palivaccini. Snow cover is excellent and the entire mountain skilled very well. After a nice casual day of skiing we headed over to Vail for the next part of our mini ski getaway. Of special note was how the area emptied after 2 PM . Most of the crowd was trying to beat the I-70 traffic and the area was quiet. We are usually part of the crowd trying to avoid the traffic, so it was a treat to heading the other direction – westbound.

The next couple of days we spent skiing at Vail Mountain. Monday and Tuesday saw fresh snow each day. The first day reminded me of one set of reasons why Vail continues to be such a world class resort for all. My two sons who are taking up snowboarding and have not exactly been pushing it were who I would ski with. They had yet to snowboard down a blue run, either of them, but the decision this day was we would ride the Gondola and try Simba which is a manicured and relatively easy blue intermediate run. This would prove to be a breakthrough day. The snow was soft and silky as well as freshly groomed. The corduroy was the kind of ego snow all skiers and snowboarders need when there is some trepidation and one needs to get over the proverbial confidence hump. This day was one to remember for each of them. They loved the corduroy and reveled in their truns and the fact they were both now cruising blues. As a Dad really looking for the breakthrough in our skiing/snowboarding family this was the right set of runs and the day we had been looking for.

Tuesday was the better of the days in my book as I got to go and enjoy a full on powder day. We were able to hit the Gondola area by 8:40 am and were able to stay ahead of the crowds. This is a key strategic move, if you wish to avoid huge lines and cut up snow in the back bowls. Our approach was to take the lifts next to the gondola and head into Game Creek Bowl. After a quick run here we jumped into the back and had an epic run down Ricky’s Run. There were huge swaths of deep untracked snow. We eventually made it back to Blue Ski Basin and were surprised to see the one lift was not running. When speaking to one of the patrollers we were informed this chair is not running all the time due to staffing. We approached this by coming back again anyway. It was along traverse out but the pow in Champagne Glades was well worth it, and the fact the chair was not running preserved a few extra runs in the powder.

One note was the small restaurant at the top of Blue Sky Basin, does not even have hot water and the grill is on allowing you to bring your own meat to barb-que. From here we went back to the front side. One surprise was how untracked and deep the runs were off the Rim Runs. A few runs, here and then more fresh lines in Riva glade. By this time of the day my legs were becoming jelly and it was time to head back down until the next trip back to the mountains.