I just spent 4 ½ days skiing in Breckenridge for the first time. A friend was there at the same time with her extended family, so I spent some time skiing alone and some time skiing with her and members of her group. When I skied alone, I used Carv to keep me company and to try to improve my skills.
Breckenridge is high: the base is about 9,000 feet and the top of Peak 8 is over 13,000 feet. I usually do ok at altitude, but as a precaution I started taking Diamox (prescription needed) two days before I arrived. I think it helped, and I didn’t have any adverse side effects. YMMV.
I stayed at The Residence Inn Marriott, which is not slopeside, but offers a free shuttle to the slopes between 8 am – 6 pm. Outside of those hours, the city runs a free bus service, but I never had occasion to use it. The hotel had a decent free breakfast, a hot tub and a pool. I stayed in a studio with a full kitchen, which I stocked from the City Market about four blocks away.
The weather was warm all week, even reaching 50 degrees one day. The slopes were icy until 10 or 10:30 am, soft until 1 or 2 pm, and mushy after that. I don’t mind ice – except in bumps, which I avoided early in the day – so I got out around 9 am every day. I also ended up skiing until 4 pm most days because it was too hard to quit when the skies were sunny and blue!
I skied mostly blue and black runs. I found the slope ratings easier than they were at Sun Valley, where I’d skied in February. Some of the runs that would have been blue at Sun Valley were rated black at Breckenridge. One example: I really wanted to take the Imperial chair on Peak 8, which is the highest chair lift in North America (topping out at 12,840 feet). But all the runs off that chair were rated double black diamond and I thought they’d be beyond my ability. After talking to some regulars, however, I learned that at least one run had previously been rated a single black diamond in the past and more recently inflated to a double black diamond (kind of like vanity sizing in clothing!). I also ran into a group that invited me to ski off Imperial with them (& perhaps call Ski Patrol if necessary), so I took the lift up at about 11:30 am one day, got a picture with the altitude sign, and made my way down the bowl on skier’s left of the chair. (I had been advised to go directly under the chair, but the group I met up with noted that the bumps under the chair were larger because a lot of people go that way.) It was no more difficult than other ungroomed single black diamonds on the mountain, and in fact a bit easier because the bumps were relatively small. The run got shorter and easier the further left you went.
View from Imperial summit
I also took the Horseshoe Bowl T-bar up another side of Peak 8. It serves blacks (skier’s left) and double blacks (skier’s right). I took Pika, a single black, which had good snow, as did most of the higher runs. I thought the T-bar was a pain, though, so that was a one and done for me.
Horseshoe Bowl and T-bar
I really enjoyed the groomed black runs off the Falcon chair on Peak 10 (Crystal, Centennial, Cimarron and Double Jack). Again, some of them would be blues at other resorts, but they were steep, wide and fun. All the runs off the Falcon chair are blacks or double blacks, and I never encountered any lines there – I think people are scared off by the “experts only” sign by the lift. I also liked Ten Mile Station near the lift, which was less crowded than other on-mountain restaurants.
Peak 6, served by the Kensho chair, is another “experts only” area, even though many of the runs are blue. It’s over 12,000 feet at the top. We enjoyed Reverie (skier’s left), Bliss and Euphoria (skier’s right). Intuition (a single black on skier’s left) looked doable, but I never got around to it.
Peaks 7 and 8 offer a lot of blue groomers that were scenic and not too taxing. Monte Cristo off the Freedom chair was my favorite. Peak 9 has a little bit of everything – a lot of greens off the Quicksilver chair, blues and easier blacks off the Beaver Run and Mercury chairs (American, Peerless and Volunteer), and double blacks off E chair (C chair, which is also on Peak 9, wasn’t running when I was there; it apparently runs only on weekends).
View from Peak 9
There’s no shortage of terrain of all kinds at Breckenridge. It’s huge, and it takes a while to ski from Peak 10 to Peak 6, but you can do it with only two lift rides. There is even more terrain if you are willing to hike. There are large swaths of the resort that I never got to.
I had a good week all in all. I would go back for the variety of terrain and the relative ease of access from Denver Airport -- but perhaps earlier in the year for better snow conditions.
Breckenridge is high: the base is about 9,000 feet and the top of Peak 8 is over 13,000 feet. I usually do ok at altitude, but as a precaution I started taking Diamox (prescription needed) two days before I arrived. I think it helped, and I didn’t have any adverse side effects. YMMV.
I stayed at The Residence Inn Marriott, which is not slopeside, but offers a free shuttle to the slopes between 8 am – 6 pm. Outside of those hours, the city runs a free bus service, but I never had occasion to use it. The hotel had a decent free breakfast, a hot tub and a pool. I stayed in a studio with a full kitchen, which I stocked from the City Market about four blocks away.
The weather was warm all week, even reaching 50 degrees one day. The slopes were icy until 10 or 10:30 am, soft until 1 or 2 pm, and mushy after that. I don’t mind ice – except in bumps, which I avoided early in the day – so I got out around 9 am every day. I also ended up skiing until 4 pm most days because it was too hard to quit when the skies were sunny and blue!
I skied mostly blue and black runs. I found the slope ratings easier than they were at Sun Valley, where I’d skied in February. Some of the runs that would have been blue at Sun Valley were rated black at Breckenridge. One example: I really wanted to take the Imperial chair on Peak 8, which is the highest chair lift in North America (topping out at 12,840 feet). But all the runs off that chair were rated double black diamond and I thought they’d be beyond my ability. After talking to some regulars, however, I learned that at least one run had previously been rated a single black diamond in the past and more recently inflated to a double black diamond (kind of like vanity sizing in clothing!). I also ran into a group that invited me to ski off Imperial with them (& perhaps call Ski Patrol if necessary), so I took the lift up at about 11:30 am one day, got a picture with the altitude sign, and made my way down the bowl on skier’s left of the chair. (I had been advised to go directly under the chair, but the group I met up with noted that the bumps under the chair were larger because a lot of people go that way.) It was no more difficult than other ungroomed single black diamonds on the mountain, and in fact a bit easier because the bumps were relatively small. The run got shorter and easier the further left you went.
View from Imperial summit
I also took the Horseshoe Bowl T-bar up another side of Peak 8. It serves blacks (skier’s left) and double blacks (skier’s right). I took Pika, a single black, which had good snow, as did most of the higher runs. I thought the T-bar was a pain, though, so that was a one and done for me.
Horseshoe Bowl and T-bar
I really enjoyed the groomed black runs off the Falcon chair on Peak 10 (Crystal, Centennial, Cimarron and Double Jack). Again, some of them would be blues at other resorts, but they were steep, wide and fun. All the runs off the Falcon chair are blacks or double blacks, and I never encountered any lines there – I think people are scared off by the “experts only” sign by the lift. I also liked Ten Mile Station near the lift, which was less crowded than other on-mountain restaurants.
Peak 6, served by the Kensho chair, is another “experts only” area, even though many of the runs are blue. It’s over 12,000 feet at the top. We enjoyed Reverie (skier’s left), Bliss and Euphoria (skier’s right). Intuition (a single black on skier’s left) looked doable, but I never got around to it.
Peaks 7 and 8 offer a lot of blue groomers that were scenic and not too taxing. Monte Cristo off the Freedom chair was my favorite. Peak 9 has a little bit of everything – a lot of greens off the Quicksilver chair, blues and easier blacks off the Beaver Run and Mercury chairs (American, Peerless and Volunteer), and double blacks off E chair (C chair, which is also on Peak 9, wasn’t running when I was there; it apparently runs only on weekends).
View from Peak 9
There’s no shortage of terrain of all kinds at Breckenridge. It’s huge, and it takes a while to ski from Peak 10 to Peak 6, but you can do it with only two lift rides. There is even more terrain if you are willing to hike. There are large swaths of the resort that I never got to.
I had a good week all in all. I would go back for the variety of terrain and the relative ease of access from Denver Airport -- but perhaps earlier in the year for better snow conditions.
