Thread: Summit County
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Old December 20th 04, 08:12 AM
Monique Y. Mudama
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On 2004-12-20, snoig penned:
As Monique said, the Basin can be cold and windy. I usually don't go there
until the spring. Since Palli and the East Wall are not open yet, there's
really no reason to go. If you do decide to go, check the forcast and try
to pick the warmest day of your trip.


Oh, I don't know. I had the Colorado pass (choice of A-Basin, Keystone,
Breck, Vail, and BC) last year, and I skied at A-Basin the most. A lot of
A-Basin's blues are fun, and pretty challenging as blues goes. The trouble is
that the Palli lift and the east wall comprise most of the resort, so if you
go when they're closed, you don't have nearly the variety you might have at
another resort.

Some reasons to like A-Basin: don't have to go through the Eisenhower tunnel
(doesn't apply to the OP); earlybirds get awesome parking; old-school,
non-commercial feel; cold enough that snow doesn't degrade as quickly as at
other resorts, so it is a good pick when it hasn't snowed in a while;
typically short lift lines; slow lifts, which limit the number of skiers
sharing the slope with you.

Now, all that being said, I probably wouldn't take a novice skier to A-Basin.
I think you have to be hooked on skiing to see things like cold weather and
slow lifts as benefits =P

If you can go to Vail, I would pick Vail or Beaver Creek for the
weekends. Vail gets about the same skier numbers as Breckenridge but
has twice the lift capacity and terrian so it will usually be less
crowded than Breckenridge for any given weekend. Better yet, use the
weekends for other activities like shopping, ice skating,
snowmobileing or XC skiing.


Vail's crowds kill me. I've heard there are strategies to avoid the
crowds, but I've never managed it. It seems to take me half the day
just to get to the areas I want to ski. It is nice and sunny, though,
and all the bowls are yummy. If you had to ask me why to ski at various
places, I'd say Vail has the bowls, but BC has the moguls. I don't know
that I've skied Beaver Creek enough to really say, though. Of course,
if I *really* wanted to ski moguls, I'd probably go to Mary Jane at
Winter Park ... which is back to having the "old school" feel rather
than the "resort" feel.

--
monique
Longmont, CO

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