# 2014 Winter Park Trip??? Help...



## slyder

*2014/15 Winter Park Trip??? Help...*

Hey Gang, 
Slow time of yr for most of us so I thought I'd do some mild investigating for a trip I wanted to take my boys on. Most of you know me, my kids and our abilities. I've always wanted to go and now the boys are at a point I think this would be a great trip for us. I'm not set on WP but I thought any mountain for us would be way more than we have ever ridden so why not here. 

*End of Feb* one of the last 2 weeks, as Valentines Day weekend is a black out for specials per the website

I'm considering driving vs Amtrak
Driving: $400 in gas 
Train : $441 + baggage fees (I'm guessing)


Drive: 15 hours ish Leave Fri midnight get there Sat early afternoon
Train: 22 hours Leave Fri early lunch get there sat early afternoon & 1.5 hr lay over in CHI

Both boys drive but weather and late night driving I'm not comfortable sleeping while one of them drives cross country in the winter mainly at night since we'd be leaving around midnight.

The train option is only slightly more expensive, way less hassle, arrive time is the same, departure is a tad different with a lay over and sleeping in coach. HELL I can't sleep in a car for shit anyway. Plus I have a sports car with snow tires, worried about weather....a car rental cost wise isn't an option for me.

How do I get from Fraser Amtrak station to resort/hotel, taxi or do the resorts have shuttle service? 
Has anyone used Amtrak from Midwest or Chicago to Denver ish, what were your thoughts?

How about accommodations. I won't have a car so I want to be able to basically ski in/out or small walk to the hill. Grocery shopping to help save on food would be great, night life is not a concern as the boys are 18 & 17 (will be) Hot tub of course but what resort/hotel in CO doesn't have one. 

I have not looked into package deals at WP yet I'm sure they have them. Does anyone know when the best time to book a package deal is? Summer, early spring, late fall?

Gear? We are set up for hard pack Midwest groomers and ice. Short boards lots of park riding. We have ridden in weather below zero so I think our clothing will be fine. 
Will we be ok gear wise? Will I need to adjust stances for powder, since we have never truly ridden powder or in mountain terrain. Our highest elevation was 1200 feet, equivalent to your bunny hills !!!!

I'm sure I missed a ton of questions as I'm doing this over my morning coffee and on a whim here so I'm sure I'll have more questions at a later time

Any tips, recommendations, or general helpful info that you have, can share, or what-not would be great.


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## killclimbz

I think they start offering next season booking deals around August. Maybe earlier. 

There is a new village at the base of Winterpark. Lots of accommodations there. That is where you want to stay. Check with Amtrack, they may not have baggage fees. Not sure if that has trickled down to trains or not. During the season, a free bus service runs up and down the valley.

Mount you stance back is all you need for powder.

Now for the downer. Having lived in Colorado for 24 years now, and Winterpark is probably my favorite front range area. NOAA is calling for an El Nino year. Pretty much every past El Nino has sucked for I70 corridor resorts. Sometimes the spring is awesome. Sometimes it is just one month that is good. In 98 the only good month was January. Then it snowed like hell after the resort closed. Areas in the Southern part of the state tend to do better during these seasons. Telluride, Silverton, Crested Butte. 

Now there have been good El Nino years too. 6 or 7 years ago was a great one and Winterpark-Berthoud Pass did great. So it is not always bad. I would try to make sure you have an acceptable cancellation policy for your trip just in case is all. I guess that is true for any year.

Time of year to book for? March is usually the snowiest month and the temps are not as cold as in January. Much more mild. Last week or two of February can be really good and so can the first week of April. Bonus for April, the crowds go way down. 

Hope that helps.


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## slyder

It does help, I will update my initial post but I was thinking last weekend of Feb'ish
Room was a grand for 7 days. It was called Vintage Hotel studio w/kitchenette
I assume this was just lodging and didn't include lift tickets? 

I can always move the set back when we are there. So that is fine.

I have a buddy that lives near Crested Butte, when I was looking at their trail map it seemed much smaller. Less terrain and trails than WP is this the case. That was the appearance from the 2 trail maps. 

I may call the resort to see if they have pkg deals lodging/lift all together

The El Nino sucks even though I don't know much about those things so I'll take your word. 
The unfortunate part is I must schedule my vacation a year in advance and I can't change it. So we would have to go and make the best of what ever riding is available to us.


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## Argo

With kids I'm guessing your gonna go in December or March during school breaks? I'd go with march break personally. February is great.....

Get a Colorado super pass and get some hotels.com or bookings.com lodging nearby. We travel a lot and this works out the cheapest usually. If you can find some ridiculous deal for lodging and riding then that works too...... Usually for multiple days, like 6+, season pass is cheaper.


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## Argo

Crested butte is small. Aside from having a cute town 5 miles from the mtn village base, it was quite underwhelming. Telluride is awesome.....


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## MikeIn248

A guy I used to know from another forum has done Michigan <-> Winter Park by train several times (also through Chicago, I believe). He said one strike against the train is the return trip Colorado -> Michigan. Apparently the train on that route originates in California. If there are any delays along the way from California to Colorado, that affects your departure time at Fraser. He mentioned having a scheduled departure at Fraser for 11:00 or so at night that had him staying at the train station until 3-4 am.

Me, I'm doing a family driving trip to Colorado this summer from Michigan (Detroit area) as a test run to see how bearable/unbearable it is -- to gauge the possibility for future snowboarding trips to Colorado by car. My kids (5 and almost 8) are excellent car travelers, but Colorado will be two solid days in the car for us -- 20ish hours to Summit County I think. (I don't drive overnight.)


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## slyder

The car trip is still a consideration. But with weather and cost nearly equal I thought the train made more sense and much less hassle. 

As to the time I am not opposed to pulling the kids out of school for a week for this. I am flexible in when we go. I just need to pick a week and schedule it. Like I said I must pick my vacations for the full year and I set these in the end of October

Again in the exploration phase of all this


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## Argo

The drive fucking sucks. Mainly for lack of scenery to keep you engaged.... Have some good tunes on a play list if you drive. I have done the drive a few times. It's easy in the fact that it's all interstate, those roads in winter can get really bad though with the strong winds that blow over the highway causing serious ice.....

I would drive over train but I drive a lot....


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## Argo

I also like night driving in bad weather since no one is on the road.


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## slyder

I also drive for a living hence why I am more prone to opt for the less stressful way  plus with weather I really can't afford nor miss time at work with a weather delay or unexpected hotel stay or 2 from a freak snow storm. 

I would love to fly but the cost is just out of my means


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## West Baden Iron

I did a couple trips to Winter Park from Indiana this year. It was my first time to the Rockies, so I'll give you my perspective and maybe it will give you some helpful info.

If you are going to ride more than 4 days, get a Rocky Mountain Super Pass as Argo suggested. Not only is it cheaper for the pass holder, it comes with 10 Friends and Family passes for $59 a piece. I used all 10 of mine this past year which saved my family over $300 in ticket prices.

First trip was meeting my brother-in-law at DIA and driving a rental car to WP. We stayed 4 days at the Beaver Lodge about 2 miles from WP Resort. It was $52 a night I think and I loved it. It was a 70's style lodge and not fancy at all, but still great in my opinion. I boarded at WP the first 2 days and Copper Mountain the 3rd. I did the freestyle lesson at Woodward with Cro from here on the forums and it was awesome. Hope to do it again next season.

Second trip was in March on spring break with the entire family. 6 of us drive a mini van from Indiana to WP. Total in gas was about $400 plus the rental cost of the van. We were gonna fly, but we still would have had to rent something in DIA so that mitigated the rental cost. It was about a 20 hour drive and 2 of us drive straight through. I have a 10 and 7 year old girls and they did pretty good for that much driving. We stayed in a condo in WP which was about 3 miles from the resort.

We had awesome weather in March. We got 5+" of fresh powder 4 of the 7 days I was there. The last 2 days had a ton of fresh powder. I now understand why people love it so much. It is such a completely different way of riding than shitty midwest snow (obviously). I've never had so much fun snowboarding.

The only time that wasn't awesome was getting caught in a white out blizzard on Berthoud Pass in that mini van. I literally could not see 2 feet in front of me and was afraid to stop and lose my momentum. My brother-in-law was sticking his head out the window to guide me down the road. It took us about 1.5 hours to go 15 miles. I've never seen it snow that much in my life. We didn't die, so in retrospect, it was kinda awesome. Good story to tell anyway.

I really enjoyed WP Resort, but it isn't necessarily set up the best for snowboarding in areas at least. It took the first couple of days to figure out how to not get stuck in the flats. Especially on the skiiers left side of the mountain in the Winter Park area. Once we figured out where not to go and where to bomb it to get throught the flats, it was much better. It worked out good to come on the first trip to work out some details before my kids came. They would have died on some the really long skates we had the first couple of days. The last couple days, I spent most of my time in Eagle Wind. It was so much fun being in powder in the trees on steeps.

I would definitely recommend it, but I don't really have anything to compare it to out west so it really doesn't mean much I guess. I've been to Europe, Vermont, and Indiana and it is so much different out west. I can't wait to go back next season.


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## slyder

Thanks for the input from a fellow Midwesterner you can totally relate to what I ride

I will consider the Super Pass but I know for fact this will be my only trip of the year. This would take away any local trips as well. I need all my funding to pull this off. 

Meeting up with Cro for a lesson for all 3 of us would be a dream. Meeting and riding with any member of the forum that lives out there would be great as well !!

Everyone is giving me great information !!

Note: Here is what I found on the Rocky Mountain Super Pass
2014/15 Rocky Mountain Super Pass™ 
Benefits:
•Unlimited skiing and riding at Winter Park Resort and Copper Mountain
•50% off walk-in rate at the Coca-Cola® Tube Hill at Winter Park Resort. Based on availability
•20 Friends & Family tickets. 10 for Winter Park and 10 for Copper. $59/day (open - 12/19) and $69 (12/20 - close). Valid for teen, adult, and 70 + season passes
•*Free one-year subscription to SKI magazine Click Here 
•10% off full day group lessons at WPR
•40% discount on walk-in rates of ski or snowboard rental equipment (excluding lesson packages) for pass holder and up to 2 friends & family at Winter Park Resort
•10% off retail purchases at West Portal Outfitters, Columbia, Showcase Snowboards, and The Jane Shop at Winter Park Resort
•Free summer scenic chairlift rides at Copper Mtn.
•20% off Woodward at Copper Freestyle Lessons, Intro Sessions, Drop In Sessions and Skate/Bike Sessions

question on the 3rd point, does this mean I get 20 tickets to give to someone??? It lists pricing does that mean what each ticket is worth and what I would be saving per ticket OR I can buy that ticket for $50/day a little confusing


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## West Baden Iron

I guess they changed it a little for next season.

You would get 20 tickets total (10 for each resort) that you can print out and give to whomever you like. You don't have to print out, you can just show your pass to the ticket window and you will receive the discount for the person getting the ticket. The tickets will cost $59 per person per day before 12/20 and $69 after 12/20. This season is was $59 all season long, so they upped it a little for peak times I guess.

I believe face value tickets bought at the window were $99 weekdays and $109 on the weekend (I could be wrong, I didn't buy any that way). So even if it was only weekday rates, you would still save quite a bit. If it we me, I would buy the pass and then have 10 passes for your 2 kids. You would save $300 in face value just for your kids for 5 days per kid (depending on ticket prices next season).

Last season was 50% off rental and 2 people in my party were renting, so that a bonus for me as well for buying the season pass. I ended up buying my kids season passes as well, but I really didn't save much money there because they only rode 4 days each.

Also, if I could only go out west for a week, or ride my home resort all season, I would pick out west. Before I went, I wouldn't have thought that would be the case. I had that much fun that a week out there beat 3 months of Indiana riding.

At some point, they sent me a 40% off the Freestyle lesson and that is when I booked it. Well worth the money in my opinion. Cro was so fun to be around and watch ride. Corrected some bad habits and helped with a few new tricks as well.

Jason


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## slyder

Jason the light just went on :dizzy: I can buy 1 RMSP and then use the discounts to buy the kids their tickets, duhhhhhh.

I will still be buying the family a season passes to our local hill, that won't change. The extra weekend trips or day trips to other local resorts will be taken off the table and used for this one big trip. 

Now I need to start putting dollar values into a spread sheet to tally up some estimates.


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## West Baden Iron

slyder said:


> Jason the light just went on :dizzy: I can buy 1 RMSP and then use the discounts to buy the kids their tickets, duhhhhhh.
> 
> I will still be buying the family a season passes to our local hill, that won't change. The extra weekend trips or day trips to other local resorts will be taken off the table and used for this one big trip.
> 
> Now I need to start putting dollar values into a spread sheet to tally up some estimates.


Oh ok, I misunderstood about the local hill. I would hate to give that up as it definitely helps with the progression.

As far as lodging costs, the rooms at the base are obviously the most expensive. If you could afford it, I would definitely do it because that would be awesome to be able to walk out of the room and go straight to the lift. We have a time share, so I used that to stay at the Silverado II Resort in the town of Winter Park. There are free shuttles in town to get to the resort, so if you do stay in town, getting to the resort or back to town is not an issue.


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## killclimbz

Crested Butte is a top 3 ski area in Colorado IMO. There is a reason Seth Morrison became the bad ass that he is. The area had a big hand in that. Plenty of very committing lines there. Most of which I have not done and will not do. The area is a test piece. The ski town is great. They also do not have front range lines, which Winterpark being a Front Range resort, does.

Slyder if you have a hook up there, don't overlook it. The surrounding backcountry is also amazing. Sled access or earn your turns style. CB has it in spades. The area will challenge you plenty. 

The super pass deal would work good for you too. I also think you can swing a similar thing with CB. I do believe last year they got into the whole cheap pass war thing. Finally. 

Anyway, it sounds like you have good options. Winterpark doesn't suck either.


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## Argo

I have never riden WP but if I'm around I will give it a shot..... 

Get a place with a mini kitchen and buy groceries. We also live on clif bars some weekends as they are free for us during competition week. 

None of this will help slyder but..... I know seth and I work with his mom, he likes the back country there. He very rarely rides the resort area. The back country looks great, he lives at a ski/sled to house about 7 miles out of town, you can ski some great lines off his porch with skin or sled approach. He spends way more time in vail, east vail and summit than he does in CB. He also has a home in summit county.


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## linvillegorge

Eliminating the need to have a job (wouldn't that be nice), if I could pick anywhere in CO to live, it just might be Crusty Butt. Crested Butte is fucking amazing. :thumbsup:


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## MikeIn248

Here’s my outsider’s view of Crested Butte. I don’t know the original poster’s or his sons’ ability levels (sorry), but I’ve been to Crested Butte twice (actually it’s the only place in Colorado I’ve ridden), and while I had a great time overall, it was probably not the best choice of places for me at the time, because I wasn’t at the skill level to take advantage of much of what it had to offer.

My third season snowboarding I managed to score a free season pass to CB, so that’s why I ended up going there that season. I took two one-week-long trips. At the time I was, I guess, about a low intermediate. Previously I had been to Vermont numerous times and once to Tahoe and some medium-size hills in PA and NY. So it wasn’t my first big trip out of the midwest by any means. The trouble for me at CB was that there didn’t seem to be a steady progression of terrain to work my way up through. The greens and blues I was completely fine on. (This was after the Muellers took over, so all the blues were getting groomed. I understand that wasn’t always the case.) Some easier black diamonds I was fine on too, but, more than other places I’ve been, there seemed to be a huge leap in skills required going from the easier terrain to the more difficult stuff. I’m not even talking the crazy double-black steeps and stuff the place is famous for. I even took some lessons to try to get some help, but this, I don’t think, was the place for me to work out my issues.

Now, years later, with quite a bit more mileage under my belt, I’d love to go back to CB and tackle stuff I didn’t have the skills for back then. But that impression of mine remains — that the easier to middle stuff I rode could have been anywhere and so much more was available to explore but it was completely out of my league.

This may or may not interest you, slyder, but there is a very nice hostel in CB. I stayed there on my second trip. (The first time I went with my father-in-law and we stayed at a motel.) I don’t know if the hostel make sense price-wise for a group of three, but it’s worth looking into. They did have a sizable communal kitchen.


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## killclimbz

Seth lives in Summit/Eagle county but he became a bad ass by riding Crested Butte and the surrounding terrain of course.


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## BurtonAvenger

I've taken the Amtrak from coast to coast and while I wouldn't say it was a bad experience there's some things to be prepared for. The damn thing stops more than you would think, it gets delayed a bit more than you would think too, and pack food as they rape you in the dining cabin. 

Now the good thing is the seats even in 'coach' are like sitting in a double stuffed lazy boy that's extra wide. If you get a row that's empty it's easy to sleep in them. The lounge cabin is spacious and has an observation deck with lots of windows to look at nothing, because lets face it that's the most boring part of the journey. 

With going to Fraser I'm not sure if the train actually runs in there or at some point you have to get off and they bus you in. Last time I checked when I wanted to do it, they bused you. 

As far as driving goes. I've done parts of that drive mainly all the states that suck and it's not bad just boring as fuck. Depending on weather and winds you can actually pick up time. I made it from Western NY to Breckenridge in 21 hours, would have been 18 but the guy I was driving with decided to go slow once we hit the mountains for fear of wildlife. 

As far as WP as a mountain, fuck that place. Seriously fuck it! Town sucks, mountain sucks, and the people are weird and I don't mean in they're mountain town weird I mean in the I smoked too much meth and molested my sister kind of weird way. But that's my .02 cents. 

For lodging you could stay in the base area but you will be butt raped on prices for groceries and what not. I stayed out there at a bed and breakfast just outside of town (10 minute drive) that had a free shuttle it was about 45 a night if I remember correctly. Wasn't bad, had my own room with three beds, tv with cable, and bathroom. Plus they served breakfast in the morning. 

Get the Rocky Mountain Super Pass if you're going that route as mentioned it will save cash. 

Powder riding it's personal preference. If you're on a short board might benefit you guys to push your stances all the way back so you have more nose than tail, or just be prepared to rag doll as you learn how to do it. The good news is the snow is light and fluffy here so getting bogged down isn't as much an issue as if the snow is heavy and wet. 

If you want a second option for a trip with cheaper lodging, food, and free transport I would say look at Summit County. You have 4 mountains on a free bus so getting too and from is easier, more grocery store options, still has fast food for the kids if you need to go that route, the season passes are cheap and if you went with the Epic Local you would have 2 resorts out in the Midwest you could go to as well Season Ski Passes | Compare Lift Ticket Passes | EpicPass.com As far as lodging there's a few b and b's that are cheap. Fireside Inn, The Bivy, or you could stay at one of the Motels/Hotels in Silverthorne/Dillon. Plus for nightlife you could take the kids to Woodward at Copper and let them bounce around on the tramps. 

I know you're thinking CO another option I would toss out is Montana. Amtrak rights right into Whitefish/Big Sky area. See if there's any possibility of that as well since you have plenty of time to plan a trip accordingly.


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