Spring Break at Winter Park!
Written: Apr 03 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Ski schools, slopes, options!
Cons: High prices of restaurants in the area
The Bottom Line: Slopes for everyone, beginnner to advanced! Great ski schools. And plenty of lodges to rest while on the slopes.
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| KCFemme's Full Review: Winter Park |
This year we decided to spend Spring Break with the kids on the slopes. After living in Colorado for 13 years, I knew we had to go to Winter Park one of the best, and biggest, ski resorts. And since it was the first time for my kids to ever put on a pair of ski's I also wanted to make sure to go someplace that I knew.
Location
Winter Park is located about an hour and half West of Denver off of I-70 and is settled in the midst of the Rocky Mountains.
The town of Winter Park is about five miles long and you pass the ski resort before getting into the town itself. The area is beautiful and I highly recommend you bring your camera.
The Town
In addition to a lot of condos and hotels, you will also find a lot of ski and souvenir shops. The restaurants in the area are not the typical ones that you find in most cities. Instead, they are locally run and not franchised. Although they do have a Pizza Hut, Subway, and McDonalds, we found the prices there a little higher than we were accustomed to.
Transportation to the Slopes
If you are staying in Winter Park, I would HIGHLY recommend taking the shuttles that go through town every 15 minutes. They have ski racks on the buses and have pick-ups very near most of the hotels.
If you need to park at the resort, they have paid parking for $10 that is near the lodge and lockers. But if you don't get there when they first open, you will have to park in the free parking, which means a walk to the slopes. Although that might not seem to bad when you get there, after a day of skiing, you really don't want to walk anywhere, much less up a hill to get to your car.
Ski Schools
They have ski schools for everybody. For the youngest members of your family, to the experienced skiiers who just want to impove on their style.
I was lucky that all three of my kids would be able to go into the same class, a beginners class. They spent their first afternoon on the slopes learning how to stop, do the snow plows, and how to turn. They were taken up to specific area on the mountain that is designed for the schools. Not an area that experienced skiiers would want to go, too many human obstacles. :-)
My younger two spent an additional full day in the ski school because they definitely needed more attention. With the full day, they were also provided with lunch. And when you pay for the school, it includes their lift ticket for the day, so they can continue skiing after they are finished.
The Kids Reaction to Skiing
Let's just say they are already trying to plan another trip for next year. After three days of skiing, each of them got better and bolder. Even when they fell, they still were having fun. Luckily there were no injuries. My oldest ended up on a black run that took her 10 times longer to do than most people. And the younger two ended up on a few blues that they just loved. I'm really impressed with the amount they learned from the ski school.
The Slopes
Winter Park consists of a few different areas. There are 134 trails; 2,886 skiable acres; 22 lifts including 8 high-speed four-person lifts, 4 triples, 7 doubles, and 3 surface lifts; and the longest run is over 5 miles in length.
The difficulty of the slopes are clearly marked before you head down them.
- Green Circles are for the beginners. Some classify them as the bunny slopes.
- Blue Squares are for the intermediate skiiers, or at least those that like the downhill action more than the work of moguls.
- Black Diamonds are for the advanced set of skiiers. A lot of these are either moguls, jumps, or very steep hills.
The Winter Park slopes are the most used and primarily consist of greens and blues. There are a few blacks with small ski jumps and moguls that the more adventuresome skiers and snowboards tend to tackle.
Vasquez Ridge tends to get you out of the way of most of the skiiers but is primarily blues and blacks. But I'll tell you, it was some of the most fun we had during our time there. Being able to high-tail it down a mountain without having to worry about hitting the less experienced was exhilirating.
Vasquez Circue is only for the highly experienced. Consisting of blacks and double-blacks it is recommended that you stay away from that area. But you don't have to worry about accidentally finding your way there, it is on the backside of the mountain and you have to take very specific lifts to get there. And there are warnings at the lifts before you get on as to the difficulty.
Parsenn Bowl is very out of the way. It is above the timber line, and at 12,060 ft it is also the highest you can get. We took the Timberline Express all the way up and I have to admit that I got some wonderful photos. It is mainly Blue/Black so you have to make sure where you are going. The only thing I really didn't like was the Primrose run. It's great downhill at first, but quickly becomes cross country for almost a mile. If you aren't going too fast, it will be work.
Mary Jane is also considered an advanced set of runs. Although there are more blues than blacks, they also have a lot of double blacks. You can find your way around this side of the mountain pretty well without getting caught on a black, but you really have to be paying attention.
Ski Dining
There are ten different restaurants on the slopes that you can stop at. And the great thing is, you don't have to go all the way to the base to get lunch. There are lodges at the peaks, and some in the middle. So where ever you go, you've got a good chance of being somewhere close to snacks, or even a hot toddy!
Equipment
Winter Park offers a variety of ways of getting the equipment you need. But if you wait till you get to the slopes you'll end up paying more than you need to. Instead, check out some of the ski shops in town. We dealt with Viking Ski Shop, and since we called 1-800-525-2466 in advance to book our condo, equipment, and lift tickets, we were able to get all the kids fitted for free with an the adult purchases.
Shopping
Who doesn't want to take home a souvenir of their trip to a ski resort? There are several t-shirt shops and ski shops that present the Winter Park logo for you. But like the equipment rentals, you may want to wait until you get into town before making your purchases. You can usually find the same items for a bit less.
Final Recommendations
If I haven't convinced you yet that Winter Park is a great place to ski, I'd be surprised. :-) We had a lot of fun and do plan on returning. The one thing that really surpised me though was the fact that it was Spring Break and there was still plenty of room on the slopes for everyone. The lifts took 2-3 minutes waiting at the most. And finding something to eat took only a few minutes also.
Winter Park has the space and accomodations for a lot of people. And even though it may be one of the favorites in Colorado, it is not overly crowded. Or at least it doesn't seem like it while you are on the slopes.
Recommended:
Yes
Level of Experience Needed: All
Best Time to Visit: January
Best Suited For: Families
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Epinions.com ID:
KCFemme
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 - Top 500 |
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Location: Olathe, Kansas
Reviews written: 303
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