Here’s a place we can chat about our recent skier experiences… ski resort reports, equipment feedback, fitness prep tips, technique hints and more. Since we like to meander on CC, it would be fun to hear about family skiing memories too.
In Colorado (and elsewhere), Nov/Dec has been rather warm with disappointingly little snowfall. Since I have an Ikon pass for first time ever, I have done two short ski outings at the nearest place - more on that later. Has anybody else been out on the slopes?
Funny you should mention this. Just made reservations for Banff Christmas week 2026. I am NOT a skier. My first ski trip was with my husband when we were dating and it was not a fun experience and almost ended our early relationship at that time….but he was cute. I love the winter wonderland (not to live in, but to visit and hang out in the warming hut with a hot toddy or spiced apple cider). First trip was to Breckenridge when dating in 1983, 2nd trip with kids to Breckenridge in early 2000s, then North Carolina, then Banff, then Vail. No one in the family are great skiers, but they all (mostly) like to make it a vacation when we can. Just checked Vail (hardly any snow) lift pass and almost fainted at $335 for 1 day when Banff is $370 for 3 days and for a senior it is $95 for 1 day. Ski resorts have always been pricey but they are getting ridiculous and maybe that is the point - to further separate the haves from the have nots.
We’re getting ready to head to Whistler/Blackcomb in a couple of days. Looks there’s decent snow there - at least compared to Colorado - although it’s sure to be super crowded.
You winter trips sound lovely!
Most resorts have now started encouraging annual passes for about $1000/person, to get a guaranteed big layout of cash pre-season. The big pass groups are Epic (around us in CO, includes Breckenridge & Keystone & Vail & Beaver Creek… plus Aspen and more resorts if you pay extra. And Ikon- in CO includes Copper, Winter Park, A-Basin and Steamboat and Eldora near me and more resorts if you pay extra). You have to pay a little more if you want the pass to be good on holiday weeks. Some years I just get a 4pak at Loveland, near Eisenhower tunnel - that makes a ski day about $89… paper tickets you can use for one person or share.
Tip - The past few years Copper Mountain has been having $99 Thursdays. Still a lot of money but less than half of list price - Play Forever at Copper Mountain
3 of us live in Atlanta and 2 in California and 1 in Colorado but he doesn’t ski and doesn’t like ski people 
so we have a lot of round trip airline tickets and resort or vrbo stays that make a ski vacation pricey for us. We all plan and save for our winter trips. They are about twice the price of summer vacations, maybe more. But, we love the winter vibe and I think Banff at Christmas was the prettiest place I’ve ever been. Walking down the main drag toward Mt. Norquay with snow and lights everywhere was like being in a living Hallmark card!
For any kid going to Colorado State or Boulder, you might as well figure in the price of a (discounted) Ikon pass. It has made Christmas shopping for the last 3 years easy, though. The only problem is that we get it as an early Christmas present and then there isn’t much under the tree.
We are heading to Burke in VT next week. Still independent, which is nice.
In March we are going to Italy to support our niece who’s competing in the Paralympics and will take a few days to ski as well. We are staying in Cavalese. If anyone has any recommendations for ski areas, I’m all ears. I know there are a lot of reviews out there, but first hand experience would be great.
H and I stayed in Banff and skied in 2023 Lake Louise and Sunshine. We loved Banff and one of the highlights was the dogsled ride our daughters and SIL got me for an early birthday present. We live in Southern California and drove to Banff. H and I do a long ski road trip every winter since we love to ski and are still pretty good at it.
We are heading to Mammoth to ski after the New Year with our family. Mammoth and the Sierra are getting tons of snow right now which they desperately need. We have had Ikon passes for 7 out of the last 8 years. We did the Epic pass for one year. We usually get about 20 or more ski days a year so passes are worth it for us. We also like the passes so we don’t feel bad if we only ski a few hours some days.
Per super high lift day ticket prices, in addition to reason mentioned above of encouraging purchase of annual pass… I think it’s done for resort advantage. This way they can say, “and hey.. if you book at our resort-owned hotels/condos, you qualify to purchase $100 tickets”. And they can also build packages that include lift tickets.
I am really glad that we skied as a family before the ridiculous prices. About 25 years ago, we would buy paper 4paks from Copper and Eldora for $60 (ie $15 each - didn’t even both to buy kids tickets). The church youth group would send a van up to the slopes. We’d borrow and lend our kids with other families. If extras, we’d sell to friends (not technically allowed but there was not way to check). Keystone/Breck also had great deals for via photo card.
At the time, in CO you could enroll for 5th graders to ski free (and 6th grade $50/season). I just check to see if it is still the case and found something cool…
TIP for COLORADO RESIDENTS (or maybe visitors too? not clear) - That’s 76 days of skiing for just $77 (gr. K–2) or $82 (gr. 3–6)! Kids Ski Passport | 76 Days of Skiing for Students Grades K–6
@Colorado_mom Utah also has a program for kids that has discounted lift passes. When our girls were young and we skied the Utah resorts in Big and Little Cottonwood Canyons you got a free kids ticket with each adult lift ticket purchased.
Our GD is just a baby, but D1 and SIL are already talking about getting a little set of skis for her to use after she is walking. They are moving to Connecticut next month and figure that in 2027 they will put her on the skis and at least pull her around the yard to get used to it! There is a small ski resort about 20 minutes from their house and that’s where they plan to teach GD when she is older. Of course when they come out west to visit us GD is going to love our “big” mountains where we will take her to ski!
This is the first year that I can remember that my husband hasn’t bought the Ikon pass or some sort of pass to use in Mammoth. This year he just has one trip planned so bought a multi day discount pass. When the kids were younger he would do several trips with them and a few trips with friends. He is good with just one trip. He’s got some cervical spine issues and is beginning to feel he should be more cautious. He is a snowboarder and goes with a friend who is an expert skier. He could see himself going with the grandkids down the line which would be a less aggressive trip.
When my kids were growing up we did a January trip to Mammoth each year with the grandparents and aunts and cousins. My kids all learned to ski and board. Two of them love it and the other doesn’t like altitude. One has switched from Mammoth to Tahoe and will definitely get her child on skis. I didn’t learn as a child and never enjoyed the experience. Everyone else was off and I’d be in lessons on the bunny hill.
OOOh my type of thread!!!
Older s and his family just headed out to Northstar yesterday. Fortunately after the big snow dump!! I have been following the conditions and sadly several resorts (especially in CO) have poor conditions for the holiday. Sad that Mammoth had to close yesterday after an avalanche injured 2 employees, and Telluride is closed due to a ski patrol strike!
We are heading out in Feb to Northstar, taking both kids and their families. Will see if younger s’s older s will try skiing (he is a bit timid). His wife isnt a skier so she will take the little one on a sled, I suppose. I will ski a bit and spend quality time with the kids/grandkids. So looking forward to having everyone together, even if only for a few days.
Colorado slopes got some snow yesterday/today. Desperately needed.
Saw a video yesterday of Breckenridge with a rider going up a chairlifts and no snow beneath them 
In past years I’ve just bought multi-day passes. Last season I did ikon 4-pac. Also (because daughter had Epic multi-day pass) 1-day EPIC…. which resulted in a splendid 2024 Thanksgiving day at Keystone, where we had not skiied in recent years.
What I like about the season pass is ability to ski short days without a second thought. That’s nice because my husband no longer skis, just kindly drives to the slopes. I like being able to hang with him too doing something else.
Yes, snow is in short supply in Colorado. But so far I’ve had some decent skiing with my Ikon season pass at the local-ish Eldora (about an hour from home, 20 miles uphill from Boulder where we often go for errands etc). First day was just to check out my pass and my equipment. Only did 2 runs because of severe wind. Eldora is know for wind, but it was by far the worst I’ve experienced there. The lifts were soooo slow, and the weather report prediction of declining wind late afternoon was wrong.
My second outing was at Eldora again on Christmas day (the kids were gone, visiting grandparents on east coast; we celebrated a few days early in CO). This time it was warmer and wind was not bad. Conditions were surprisingly good. I did 9 long-ish runs, with a break in the middle. Parking lot was pretty full, but the lodge was fairly empty. And I actually NEVER had to wait more than 3 chairs to load at the liftline. Most times I actually ended up riding solo.
Colorado snow report Colorado Ski & Snow Report | Colorado Ski Country USA
Best snow this weekend at Steamboat, Winter Park, Aspen
10 days ago the winds were so strong (in Denver area and all through the mountains) that any snow they got was just blown away and I don’t think they could make snow because of the wind.
My daughter was at Breck over Christmas, and actually snowboarded just for fun rather than skiing. The snow was bad.
I’m not sorry we ditched our plans to find a Winter Park condo for 2 nights. Instead we did the Eldora daytrip. Then spent Friday in Denver, really enjoyed the Pissarro exhibit at art museum…. plus a lovely overnight stay at the Brown Palace hotel.
Every year, I swear it’s gonna be the last year we buy the epic pass, but we’ve been able to pull it off and it’s such a ridiculously good deal for us because my husband was military that we buy the season pass because it’s less than a day of skiing. Last year we got caught in the Park city ski patrol strike although it only affected us for a day (it affected our kids for two days) but they gave us an extra 25% off the season passes. They practically paid us to buy them 
The avalanche at Mammoth was so scary especially with 2 ski patrollers getting injured. I know that area where the avalanche happened. The chutes off of that mountain are double blacks and scary. I don’t ski them anymore.
We leave for Mammoth in a week to ski 3 days. I will just ski partial days and watch GD so D1 can do some skiing before the move to CT. It is a bittersweet trip for our family since we taught our girls to ski at Mammoth 26 years ago.
