Colorado Mountain biking - ski lift assisted
 

Hi all. Want to find a new place to ride up the ski lifts with mountain bikes. We've done this in Keystone and Copper, and want to check somewhere new out. Haven't ruled anything out except Vail, on principle, b/c of the outrageous gondola fees.

Looking for hopefully, a variety of trails once you get to the top of the lift. I can handle intermediate singletrack and prefer downhill. I know you purists think the fun is in the uphill, but not me - downhill is the fun part!

Any recommendations?

I would think Breckenridge has it--son has done some sort of race there.

We rode the FREE gondola up the mountain in Telluride, CO in July. They are equipted with bike racks..and are very roomy inside. Lots of trails up the top...or ride down. We didn't do this because it was raining the day we went. But it looks like an interesting place to bike.

Beaver Creek has bike racks on their ski lift. Some nice trails at the top.

http://content.mtbr.com/cat/united-s...S_5844CRX.ASPX

http://content.mtbr.com/cat/united-s...S_5843CRX.ASPX

At WWW.MTBR.COM, you can read Trail Reviews after clicking on this term at the top of the start page. Select Colorado in the Western Slope or the Front Range, etc.

yes, and you can also go to the forums in MTBR.com (separate Colorado forums + separate downhiller forum) and ask your question. you should get lots of responses.

I've asked mtb questions on fodor's before and you pretty much get crickets.

Thanks, all, especially for the websites. Sounds perfect.

LOL, litespeed. Just what exactly is a cricket? I am from the mostly flat, urban east - I don't get to do nearly enough mountain biking as I'd like.

She means "no response". All you can hear is the crickets chirping. No people.

Thanks, 3sec. I thought maybe it was a term to refer to mountain bike people, like me, who only want to go downhill or something.

We mountain biked in Big Mnt., Montana a few weeks ago and I'll never forget the response of the bike store clerk to us. He was showing us loop trails that were not served by the chairlift. I told him we were mostly interested in the ski lift trails. He replied, well, you know, they really aren't physically challenging. Maybe not for your legs, but my arms felt those vibrations! We did the trail he showed us, and it kicked our butts. It only had about 1 mile uphill, but I had to get off my bike. I regularly do a .7 mile hill climb on a steep street, but it didn't seem to help me on the mountain bike.

Karens,

You can ride the Gondoobie at Steamboat and have a variety of double and single track trails to ride down or up. Last time I did it was in the $20 range. Lots of vertical for the money.

You might want to see if you can get a Steamboat Card which is free with an application usually found at ski/sports stores. You can't get the Steamboat card in Steamboat but the Denver area should have some. It helps a bunch on ski tickets but I don't know if it will help on bike trips,


Beanman