Snow skiing in the West $$$$$
 

A group of 10 adults and children are looking for a place to snow ski in the west. We're a mix of expert to beginning skiers and we've skied Breckenridge, Copper Mountain, and Crested Butte over the past several years.

However, with the kids getting older (ages 7-10) the cost of lift tickets, equipment rental, lodging, etc is about ready to "break the bank". Is there anywhere that is more reasonably priced than the Summit County CO ski areas of Breck, Copper, Keystone, etc? Also, because we will be flying, getting to Summit County incurs the additional cost of a rental car or shuttle from DEN. The shuttle for our family of four would be almost $400 OR we rent a car for $250+/-.

We've thought about New Mexico, the Salt Lake City ski areas, Steamboat, even Whistler, but I'm not familiar with these areas and the cost of lift tickets looks about the same. Years ago, Crested Butte had a lift ticket deal where the child's lift ticket was their age--- a 10-year-old paid $10 to ski all day. I guess those days are gone!

Am I missing something or has the cost of skiing skyrocketed over the past few years? Where would you recommend to take a couple of families that don't need luxury accomodations (aka Beaver Creek or Aspen!), but reasonable prices?

Thanks,
Marla

Salt Lake is the budget ski capital of the U.S. -- you can do it as cheaply )or as expensively, i.e. Deer Valley) -- as you want.

Alta is the best bargain in U.S. skiing (no snowboards).

If you really want to cheap it out, get a place in Salt Lake and take the TRAX buses out to Alta/Snowbird or Solitude/Brighton for $5 roundtrip.

Kids under 12 are $20 at Alta. Adults $47 -- with some discount tickets away at local ski shops.

Keystone has a number of deals you can get. Usually if you stay at one of their accommodations you get a ski free package (includes other activites). Call their 800 number and see what kind of deal you can get. Stay in a condo for the best deal and to avoid restaurant costs.

I know getting there from the airport gets expensive. But if you call Colorado Mountain Express, ask for a discount.

Hello from Northwest Montana
You may want to look into Big Mountain in Whitefish, Montana. Lift tickets are getting high here also but no liftlines during the week and small lines on weekends.
Tickets this year are as follows;
Senoir 65 or older $39.00
Adults $49.00
Juniors 7-18 years $36.00
Tots 6 and under free
Most resorts on the mountain will have free transportation from the airport to the slopes.
We also have a smaller ski area that is in it's fifth year of operation on the other side of the valley called Blacktail Mountain.
They are closed Monday and Tuesday. Rates are as follows;
Adult $30.00
Ages 13-17 $20.00
Ages 8-12 $13.00
7 and under Free
For more information
www.bigmtn.com
www.blacktailmountain.com
www.whitefishmt.com
www.kalispellmt.com
Both Big Mountain and Blacktail open officialy Thanksgiving day.
Come on out!

My vote is for Whister. ((y)) This was the most incredible place I've ever skied. We've skied Colorado and Utah as well as New Mexico. With the rate exchange (CA$ vs AM$) ) it's not too bad. They have luxury resorts as well as reasonably priced ones.

What makes it so unique is the village. You won't need a car...you walk everywhere you want to go. Plenty of shops, restaurants, pubs and the 2 lifts are RIGHT THERE...in the village! There are also inexpensive sandwich shops as well as a little grocery store if you want to make any of your own meals.

You will need to fly into Vancouver then take a shuttle. You can travel in a 10 person van for $557 round trip. Or you could take the Whistler Express which is a luxury motorcoach. It would be more expensive, but more room for your group. It's $100 round trip for adults and $69 per child (5-12) round trip. It's a beautiful 2 - 2.5 hour drive traveling on the "Sea to Sky Highway".

Once you're in the village (lots of places to stay in and near the village) there's lots to do besides skiing, too. You can go dog sledding, snowshoeing and, of course, snow mobiling. As I mentioned above, lots of shopping and "people watching".

There are two mountains, over 8,000 skiable acres with plenty of variety for all skill levels. Lastly, even though they have a vertical rise of over 5200' (Vail is 3450'), the elevation varies from around 2200' in the village to just over 7000' at the very top. So, you can actually "play in the snow" without some of the affects of high elevations.

I just received their new 2004-2005 vacation guide so that's why I'm appearing so knowledgable!

Last year we were able to reserve our skis and purchase our lift tickets online and received a discount for both. You can do the same again this year.

After going last January, we recommended this place to another family who went over spring break. They thanked us over and over again. It's unique to any place we've ever skiied before.

Your best bet is to check out www.whistlerblackcom.com

Have fun wherever you go! <):)

Another ski destination you should consider if you don't want to make the trek to Canada...although I hope you do~

Have you ever skied Purgatory (Durango, CO)? We've been there a zillion times because we could usually find a good rate and there are virtually no lift lines if you ski on the back side. Plus, there are charters that fly directly into Durango. We always booked ground transportation (shuttle or van) so we didn't need to rent a car. We enjoyed the convenience of staying in one of the condos in the mountain village (ski in-out), but the elevation is so high there that it was hard to sleep. I-) We pounded the water, but that didn't help much. We found it better to stay in the town of Durango...better sleeping, lots of restaurants and shops. The downside is the drive back up the mountain everyday to the ski resort. :( If you won't have a car, then there are shuttles that pick up at most hotels and drop you off right at the entrance.

Wow! Thanks for all the information. I'm off to research the Alta/Snowbird/Brighton areas of Utah, Keystone's packages and Purgatory.

Unfortunately, our frequent flyer miles won't work into Montana. I did look at the website and it looks wonderful.

Any more suggestions?

Marla

Steamboat--

Kids 12 and under ski free with adult lift ticket. I think they also have fly free during non holiday periods!

Have you looked into Europe? It is much cheaper than skiing the rockies in the US. My second vote would be for Canada.

Another vote for Whistler. You can fly into vancouver and take a shuttle to Whistler. Huge ski-able area, great village. Check out allura.com for rentals. You can search by property type, dates, etc. We've had excellent luck with them on three trips. The exchange rate makes this much more reasonable than colorado and everything is basically walking distance.

make that link alluradirect.com for condos. sorry

Have you considered Banff? We have three kids and got tired of spending what it would cost us to go to Europe for a week of skiing in CO. We tried Banff a few spring breaks ago and fell in love with it.

It is the most beautiful place to ski and very family friendly. The only negative for some (but not for us) is that Banff is in a national park and there are no ski-in, ski-out resorts. However, they have an excellent shuttle system with large, comfortable passenger busses that drop you off at the base of one of the three major mountaings.

Skiing is great for beginners and at Lake Louise, the beginner's run is much longer than any I've skied. We rent our equipment in Banff and it's very reasonable. Last year we paid $900 dollars US for a beautiful 3 bedroom condo a block from downtown Banff. In town, there are dozens of great places to eat and fun shopping.

You fly in to Calgary which is served by all the major airlines and is about an hour's drive. I think our round trip tickets from Tampa were about $300 each.

Another plus since we're limited to skiing at spring break is that the snow is always good. There is plenty of powder; as a matter of fact, the last time we were there in mid-March it snowed every day.