SarahXC
Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks divas for all your tips and trip planning help! Here are my thoughts on my recent short trip (3 days skiing.)
Flight was to Denver—the nonstop on Frontier, even including the bag fees, often has some great fares from Charlotte, NC... but limited service—as far as times available usually just 1 or maybe two flights daily. We have done Sat-Wed before and it generally works well with our schedules so did that again. Arriving late Sat afternoon means getting out on I70 is rarely too busy. We did make sure to rent a 4wd for the traction law (which is not always enforced but there was snow happening before and during our trip so definitely a good plan, thank you call out to @Little Lightning!) I also found this website helpful for travel times, road conditions and cameras along the highway: www.cotrip.org.
We stopped and picked up groceries in Arvada because that’s where I used to stop before heading west when I lived in Colorado Springs 20 years ago and we were off to the mountains.
Our friends had offered us to stay at their accommodations in the Arrowhead side of Beaver Creek. It was snowing the whole night and we awoke to 8-9” of fresh snow! Wahoo!
Day 1 skiing (Sunday) We headed out and enjoyed the greens and blues off Arrow Bahn and Bachelor Gulch lifts as we made our way over to Centennial and eventually onto some black terrain at Rose Bowl. It snowed, but not hard, all day. A lot of the more popular stuff started to get pretty cut up by the early afternoon so we headed back to Arrowhead where the trees were not very steep and widely spaced—so much fun and very very few tracks.
Day 2: A member of our group had a sore knee from a fall yesterday so wanted to stick to easier groomed terrain. I took the opportunity to ski my telemark set up (for the 4th day ever) and had a great time. On my first run of the day a skier came up behind me and shouted out “nice turns” —conversation revealed he was Dave Bombard owner and designer of Bishop Bindings. We rode the next chair and he gave me a few technique pointers and a discount card. He said feel free to share back home too (telemark divas if you are interested send me a PM). Our group then made our way across the mountain to ride the Cinch and Red Buffalo lifts. The Red Buffalo runs were listed as “groomers choice” runs but the snow was falling so fast since midnight that we never experienced any of the famous Beaver Creek grooming. Will have to go back another trip for that one! We wrapped up the day on the Arrowhead side where once again even late afternoon had lots of little pockets of untracked snow to be found.
On the next trip plan...We also didn’t ski the larkspur, grouse mountain or birds of pray lifts. Would love to explore as least parts of those. I completely see what @Jenny and @j’aime skier say about there being something magical about Beaver Creek. The fresh snow and the Aspens and very little wind to dislodge the beautiful scene was absolutely awe inspiring.
Day 3: Today was date day just DH and I and we trekked over to Copper first thing. @Little Lightning wasn’t able to meet us but sent me a long beta of her favorite places. Had a great breakfast at a place in the middle village. Super creative take on the bagel with lox but of course now I can’t come up with the name of the place. It was kind of cold so we started on the American Eagle (with bubble!) and skied Coppertone as a warm up. We rode American Flyer then cut across to the SuperBee and skied a few groomed runs there. Was super pleased with Oh no to Rosi’s Run. Felt great about my completed turns and speed control (on tired legs after the tele day). Took a little boot break in the East village center then went up to Timberline lift. There were a ton of fun ungroomed blues which were perfect for the bumps skill set I have wanted to grow this season. After having skied them all at least once we headed across to the Sierra and Rendevous lifts next and made our way into Copper Bowl. Loved that you could cruise down the blue highway into the bowl and really shop for a nice drop in point. I think if I would have realized how manageable the terrain was I would have pushed to get up there earlier in the day as we only had a few runs. Came up Mountain Chief and fav run of the day was as the mountain cleared out and we skied Gold Digger to Jacques Pique—there was just no one else on these runs as far as we could see either direction and so picturesque with the trees and views. Copper is definitely on my go back and ski more short list!
Well this has gotten soooo long but hopefully will help someone else in deciding where to ski!
Flight was to Denver—the nonstop on Frontier, even including the bag fees, often has some great fares from Charlotte, NC... but limited service—as far as times available usually just 1 or maybe two flights daily. We have done Sat-Wed before and it generally works well with our schedules so did that again. Arriving late Sat afternoon means getting out on I70 is rarely too busy. We did make sure to rent a 4wd for the traction law (which is not always enforced but there was snow happening before and during our trip so definitely a good plan, thank you call out to @Little Lightning!) I also found this website helpful for travel times, road conditions and cameras along the highway: www.cotrip.org.
We stopped and picked up groceries in Arvada because that’s where I used to stop before heading west when I lived in Colorado Springs 20 years ago and we were off to the mountains.
Our friends had offered us to stay at their accommodations in the Arrowhead side of Beaver Creek. It was snowing the whole night and we awoke to 8-9” of fresh snow! Wahoo!
Day 1 skiing (Sunday) We headed out and enjoyed the greens and blues off Arrow Bahn and Bachelor Gulch lifts as we made our way over to Centennial and eventually onto some black terrain at Rose Bowl. It snowed, but not hard, all day. A lot of the more popular stuff started to get pretty cut up by the early afternoon so we headed back to Arrowhead where the trees were not very steep and widely spaced—so much fun and very very few tracks.
Day 2: A member of our group had a sore knee from a fall yesterday so wanted to stick to easier groomed terrain. I took the opportunity to ski my telemark set up (for the 4th day ever) and had a great time. On my first run of the day a skier came up behind me and shouted out “nice turns” —conversation revealed he was Dave Bombard owner and designer of Bishop Bindings. We rode the next chair and he gave me a few technique pointers and a discount card. He said feel free to share back home too (telemark divas if you are interested send me a PM). Our group then made our way across the mountain to ride the Cinch and Red Buffalo lifts. The Red Buffalo runs were listed as “groomers choice” runs but the snow was falling so fast since midnight that we never experienced any of the famous Beaver Creek grooming. Will have to go back another trip for that one! We wrapped up the day on the Arrowhead side where once again even late afternoon had lots of little pockets of untracked snow to be found.
On the next trip plan...We also didn’t ski the larkspur, grouse mountain or birds of pray lifts. Would love to explore as least parts of those. I completely see what @Jenny and @j’aime skier say about there being something magical about Beaver Creek. The fresh snow and the Aspens and very little wind to dislodge the beautiful scene was absolutely awe inspiring.
Day 3: Today was date day just DH and I and we trekked over to Copper first thing. @Little Lightning wasn’t able to meet us but sent me a long beta of her favorite places. Had a great breakfast at a place in the middle village. Super creative take on the bagel with lox but of course now I can’t come up with the name of the place. It was kind of cold so we started on the American Eagle (with bubble!) and skied Coppertone as a warm up. We rode American Flyer then cut across to the SuperBee and skied a few groomed runs there. Was super pleased with Oh no to Rosi’s Run. Felt great about my completed turns and speed control (on tired legs after the tele day). Took a little boot break in the East village center then went up to Timberline lift. There were a ton of fun ungroomed blues which were perfect for the bumps skill set I have wanted to grow this season. After having skied them all at least once we headed across to the Sierra and Rendevous lifts next and made our way into Copper Bowl. Loved that you could cruise down the blue highway into the bowl and really shop for a nice drop in point. I think if I would have realized how manageable the terrain was I would have pushed to get up there earlier in the day as we only had a few runs. Came up Mountain Chief and fav run of the day was as the mountain cleared out and we skied Gold Digger to Jacques Pique—there was just no one else on these runs as far as we could see either direction and so picturesque with the trees and views. Copper is definitely on my go back and ski more short list!
Well this has gotten soooo long but hopefully will help someone else in deciding where to ski!
