 Poster: A snowHead
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Hi folks,
Staying at Beaver Run (stop sniggering at the back) in Breckenridge for 10 days in early Feb. Keep looking for any background knowledge on the resort as neither of us have skied North America before, let alone Breckenridge.
Any tips would be gratefully received.
I've found some cracking runs from this site before when we've been out to european resorts, but there's not much on here. I've found a recently opened microbrewery in the town that looks worth a visit. Beaver Run is underneath peak 9, so there's a good looking bar at the top called coppertop I think. I remain slightly confused about the north american classification of runs though - we can both ski down pretty much anything, but my enjoyment on something mogully will be hampered significantly if I've taken the wrong (pure piste rather than the all mountain) skis out with me.
Any good places to eat for lunch? I gather it's all canteen style stuff, which is no drama but occasionally we would like something a bit more formal.
Any particularly busy lifts to avoid at the weekends?
Any must do runs, or is that too weather specific. Wife is averse to off piste due to insurance cover, but will happily go in the patrolled areas.
Thanks in advance.
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Take all mountain skis. There isn't really any true off piste until you go outside the ropes , even the short but breathless (you're at 13,000 ft) hikes off Peak 6 and Imperial are controlled. There is lots of great ungroomed especially in the high alpine. Lower mtn is fairly flat busy and dull. No idea on fine dining save it for dinner. Learn which way crowds go and do the opposite. R.g. start Peak 6 first thing in the morning. Peak 10 is rarely busy cos it's too steep for most tourists.
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Oh scope the runs off peak 9 down to E chair carefully from EChair before committing. They are pretty steep and narrow and build huge bumps. You see many " get down anything" heroes having a distinctly bad day there.
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Take plenty of water and maybe some sickness pills. Chances are you'll suffer from altitude sickness for the first couple of days. Try to fit in a day at Vail/Beaver Creek if you can.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Quote: |
| I remain slightly confused about the north american classification of runs though |
@wadgebeast, the main thing is to forget European notions of 'runs'. In North America, the whole resort area is within bounds and avalanche controlled unless there's a big warning sign telling you to keep out. If you go to Breck and stick only to the named, marked runs, you're missing out on the fun.
Greens and blues (squares and circles) more or less correspond to European greens, blues and easier reds. However, you'll often find that half the run is left as a gloriously ungroomed bumpfest, and most runs won't be groomed every day. Some blue runs may only be groomed a few times a year, so, if you don't like bumps, you might want to consult the daily grooming report.
Single diamond blacks are like trickier reds or normal black runs in Europe. However, there's a big difference: most black runs are groomed only infrequently, and many will retain significant natural hazards such as trees, bushes and exposed rocks. Tread carefully until you know the run.
Black double diamond runs have no European equivalent. Never groomed, they will be extremely steep in places and will also have one or more of the following hazards: dense tree cover, narrow pitches where you cannot turn or side-slip, deep powder that never properly compresses, or dangerous rock formations. Double diamond runs will normally have no navigational aid other than a scary-sounding name hammered to a tree somewhere near the top. Once you start, you're expected to be smart enough to find your way to the bottom without any piste markers. Picking a good line is half the fun, and most people will ski a double-black run many times as each trip down will be very different. I strongly recommend that you do not venture into a double-black run alone; even with a partner, familiarise yourself with the dangers presented by tree wells before you start. Tree wells kill more skiers than any other hazard in North America - please take care.
In between the double-blacks, you can legitimately pick an almost infinite number of lines down the hill. At the risk of stating the obvious, you should scout these out before you venture in. Breck has some seriously good skiers, and following someone's tracks can easily lead you without warning to a 20' drop.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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| Jonny Jones wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I remain slightly confused about the north american classification of runs though |
@wadgebeast,
Black double diamond runs have no European equivalent. . |
I would say they are the equivalent of the itineraries you have Verbier for example... I haven't skied the double blacks at breck, but I have around Tahoe - and Utah - so I think the rating is about the same.
I skied Breck years ago, but going back next year - looking forward to it
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Second the notion of the Greyhound bus to Vail, well worth the trip and easy to do.
Avoid the "4o'clock run" later in the day as it isthe main route back and can be a nightmare.
The main drag has loads of small bars and restaurants all offering the standard American fare, ribs, steaks etc but don't remember anything "formal". Enjoy the local Amber beers, can't remember names because they go down too well!
All in all Brec is a great place, has more charm than other US resorts, hope you enjoy yourselves.
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| HeidiAmsterdam wrote: |
| Jonny Jones wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I remain slightly confused about the north american classification of runs though |
@wadgebeast,
Black double diamond runs have no European equivalent. . |
I would say they are the equivalent of the itineraries you have Verbier for example... I haven't skied the double blacks at breck, but I have around Tahoe - and Utah - so I think the rating is about the same.
I skied Breck years ago, but going back next year - looking forward to it |
I haven't skied Verbier, but I wouldn't compare double-blacks with the itineraries that I've skied in St Anton, the Espace Killy or Zermatt, which are significantly less challenging (albeit still a great deal of fun!).
This is a typical double-black - it's the chute in the Tower 3 trail in Jackson Hole, and it's the trickiest part of one of the easier double blacks in the resort. At this point the run has a sustained pitch of 40 degrees or more and (unless you have to balls to straight-line it  ) you have to make every turn in exactly the place demanded by the mountain. If you make a single mistake, you'll slide all the way to the bottom. Side-slipping is impossible - there are too many rocks and some short pitches are simply too steep even for that.
I've never seen an itinerary like that in Europe although you can, of course, gain access to huge amounts of similar terrain by going off piste.
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You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
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That looks like the double blacks in Jupiter Bowl in Park City - - Portuguese Gap - though tree coverage was thicker on the sides...
so yeah, European skiing ~ can't beat the relaxed experience compared to the American hard core, everything to the max, non stop...
Anyway, the difficulty of the above does compare to some bits of some of the Verbier itineraries I've skied...
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Bit of hyperbole in here I think - hard to get cliffed out at Breck though you might get into less than comfortable chutes or have to nail turns round some stumps. The alpine is pretty much the ideal intro to "offpiste inbounds" and gets enough wind to buff up nicely even when there hasn't been a big fall overnight. Peak 6 and Imperial chairs can however be brutal rides if same wind is up.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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| Dave of the Marmottes wrote: |
| Bit of hyperbole in here I think - hard to get cliffed out at Breck though you might get into less than comfortable chutes or have to nail turns round some stumps. |
@Dave of the Marmottes, I haven't been to Breck for 15 years and I wasn't then a strong enough skier to enjoy the double blacks. The comments I made above are primarily based on Jackson Hole and a few less well known smaller resorts. I think the Colorado resorts have a reputation for slightly less aggressive grading, which is consistent with what you say.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Jackson, at least on the tram side is a pretty steep long vert mountain e.g the Hobacks are a fair top to bottom run alone for non ski gods. The major Colorado resorts just don't have the same sustained pitches other than Aspen Highlands and Grouse at Beaver Creek.IME.
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Note to Wadgebeast..............
Greetings from the USA. I'll simplify matters. Breckenridge is an easy going, overall intermediate facility essentially "divided" by three regions. Scan a map and you'll see what I'm talking about. Inasmuch as several steeper regions exist (from the top) which are short, again the mountain is a nice cruising scenario for any skier, albeit a bit off camber so often. They groom a great deal as is the case with most US facilities and right now (I'm in Snowmass) there's been a lull in snow, average base is between 35 - to - 44" base, packed powder so you can bank on the fact that grooming IS in full swing anywhere in Colorado for the sake of making as much of conditions as possible. You and your wife will not have to worry about moguls. Any day you ski simply look at the available grooming report at the lifts and you'll see where you are best placed. Reference............. Green is "beginner", blue is "intermediate" and black is "expert". Double black or double diamond is of a higher "expert" level.
There's more than decent food on the mountain. In town there's a mix from funky to adequately fancy, the latter typically at hotels. Inquire at your hotel, they should lead you right, as well, walk around. It's a small village of a town that is easy to walk around for all your needs. If you are renting a car which is not essential then you have obvious greater choice be same dining, shopping, possibly going somewhere else for a day of skiing, etc. I will put in a good word for Ski Cooper, NOT Copper Mountain. Cooper is an hour away, north of Leadville by ten minutes and while "small", a real secret gem. Scope out their website if this is of interest. You and most certainly your wife I know would be v. much taken by Cooper. If you go, you drive west on I-70 from Frisco, at Copper Mountain take 91 South then just as you get into Leadville, take the sharp right onto 24 North. At the top of the pass on your right is this nondescript gem.
Here's another tip................. If you have a car................. Midweek, NEVER, EVER on a Sat/Sun ski for one half of a day, if that. Get some food. Go back to the hotel. Clean up and dress appropriately for the outdoors as if you were skiing........... Rent some snowshoes from a shop (I highly recommend REDFEATHER brand over ANYTHING else, period!). Hop in the hooptie with your snowshoes and poles and drive north toward Frisco. Get on I-70 West and drive toward Vail. Now this is important..... At the TOP of Vail Pass which is about 5 or 6 miles west of Frisco there is an exit, an overpass. Take THAT exit. If you miss that, you're forced to drive essentially all the way DOWN to Vail and back and you do not want to do that. So make fully certain to NOT miss the exit. Taking the exit..........., on top, take a left and go straight across to the other side. You easily see a parking lot. Park in there. Get out and walk toward the mountain until such time as to put on the snowshoes and start heading in toward the distant mountain which is unmistakable. It's all high meadow. Super easy walking. You'll trek in about 1.5 miles and tool around. To be up there come sundown/dusk is a real treat. Beyond memorable. Bring your camera.
Easy as pie to walk out, hop in the car and drive back to Frisco, or Silverthorne or Breckenridge for dinner.
If you are into ice skating do not overlook what Breckenridge has, ABOVE ALL Keystone Lake at Keystone! Gorgeous venue for ice skating and a twenty minute drive from Breckenridge.
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You know it makes sense.
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Wow! Thanks chaps. That's exactly what I was looking for. Wife is an absolutely amazing skier, has been skiing since she was 4 and raced GS for several years as a yoof. We'll be having a lot of fun on the black diamonds by the sounds of it; we spend enough time in Scotland faffing around on awkward mountains to perhaps cherry pick the better of the double blacks. We won't be hiring a car, but the trip to Vail was always on our itinery - the only reason we're in Breck is that we couldn't get suitable accomm on the right dates in Vail.
I have a lovely new pair of Nordica GS skis that I guess will be staying behind until I can find a few days in France in spring. Breckenridge sounds like a job for me big 98mm rossis!
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Try Relish and Twist in Breck. for something different. Twist is old style American comfort food, well, with a twist. Very good, with a nice ambiance.
Relish is a tad more upscale. http://www.relishbreckenridge.com/
Hearthstone is steaks and seafood with a Colorado touch. http://www.hearthstonebreck.com/
Venture off to Vail and Beaver Creek for a day of skiing at each. If you go to Vail hit the Sonnenalp Bully Ranch for Apres drinks.
And your 98 mm Rossignols will be perfectly at home in Colorado.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Another place to go skiing if you don't have a car is Keystone, you can catch a free bus down to Frisco and change and catch the Keystone bus, we had the Epic season pass when we went (cheaper than a 2 week pass) so could ski there for free. We timed our bus back to catch the last gondola back up the mountain at Breck so we could ski down to our apartment to save another bus trip
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Well, we got back from some of the best skiing I've ever had! Here's the gist:
The Breckenridge bowls, when open (high avalanche risk when we were there but hey, that means fresh powder!) were just superb. The Whale's Tail in particular was a favourite. If the main express lift was closed, we used the T bar to open up access into various other parts of the bowls and some cracking runs through the trees on black diamonds. The snowboarders and many skiiers hated the t bar, so it was also a good one for when it was busier.
Peak 10 was the quietest of the peaks - 3 groomed or semi groomed black diamonds, lots of double black diamonds and some gnarly moguls in the trees. Good fun!
Peak 9 had a couple of cracking black diamonds, mostly groomed that led into long blues. Best peak for intermediates or beginners at the lower levels.
Peak 8 takes you up into the bowls. Still trees at altitude and so many ways down through them on a multitude of 'runs', basically just descending through the trees to arrive at a lift. Marvellous stuff.
Bottom of peak 8 was fast blues and was pretty busy. Bottleneck lift at the bottom. Avoid on weekends.
Peak 7 had a lot of fast blues, less busy. Some great black diamonds between 7 and 8 that we really enjoyed, basically off piste skiing with regular ski patrols.
Peak 6 was pretty bleak at times but had some fantastic tree runs again. There was access into the bowls, but neither of us could be arsed hiking up to it.
Express lifts were reasonably quick. Avoid lifts that don't have the word 'express' in them. Surprisingly, none of the lifts had heated seats or pulldown covers, in a place where we were skiing at -20 degrees. Guess the Austrians are spoilt....
It was pretty busy at the weekends, especially at the bottleneck lifts at the bottom of peak 7 and 8. Avoid going to the bottom if you can. The queues are well managed and very polite, merging in turn, but still busy on the weekends. We went to Arapahoe Basin on the Saturday we were there (50mins away, free bus) and had a fantastic day's skiing with the locals. Dirt cheap food and drink (more Colorado IPAs), very very friendly and some brilliant skiing on fairly short runs. Very slow lifts, but definitely better than queuing for 15mins.
Also took a day trip to Vail ($90 for the pair of us) which was well worth doing. Got there about half 9, got picked up at half 4. The lifts out of the back bowls shut at 1530, so we didn't manage to do as much as we would have liked, but still got to play in most of the bowls. Lots of good skiers and bad boarders in Vail. In Breck it was the other way round; lots of beginner and bad intermediate skiers, but the boarders were generally really well skilled (and very friendly!).
Never got round to night skiing in Keystone. Missus reckons that next time she would ski Arapahoe in the morning and then go to Keystone for a late long lunch and do night skiing there before heading back.
No dramas with ski patrol / speed police on the slopes. They were in evidence at the net chicanes towards the bottom of the blues, mainly on peaks 7 and 8 where you deserve to lose your pass if you're going that fast. I ski fast on empty slopes and never had any issues in Breck.
Restaurants on the peaks were all self service and enforced a one beer per person with id rule. Unless you're a 40 something bloke buying beers for him and his wife, in which case common sense prevailed and we were never tested. Sevens at the foot of peak 7 (duh) was a quality and not ridiculously expensive restaurant, but worth either booking in advance, sending an advance party, or biting the bullet and having an hour long lunch. Only during the week and on the coldest days did we wait less than 5 mins. However, it's got a good bar attached to it. More about Breck beer below! There were options for proper eateries at the base of peak 9, but the food wasn't as good. All of the bars did bar food. The self service bar near the lift for peak 10 was a lovely airy place and the beer (Avery IPA) was epically good. Self service foodhall next to it.
Some cracking restaurants in town. Sadly the microbrewery required taxi to get there, so we never made it. Breck Brewery in the middle of town was a sweaty place and not too pleasant sadly. Some cracking pubs there though - found the Breck distillery tasting bar, which won't charge you for sampling their wares, especially if you're nice to them. Still ending up buying a very nice bottle of bourbon though! Relish was the pick of the restaurants in town. Trying to remember the name of the overpriced steakhouse we went to; something rose IIRC. Big bill. Not the best food we had out there either.
Highlights - sharing a bottle of cinnamon whiskey with boarders on a lift. Avery IPA beer in most of the bars. The Whale's Tail. Blatting through trees in fresh powder. Skiing down biblically steep and gnarly double black in Arapahoe at my missus's suggestion
Lowlights - jetlag. Not sleeping properly through jetlag and weird altitude dreams. -25 deg C on one day. Queues at the weekends.
We'll be back!
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
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Hi @wadgebeast - have been to Colorado a few times now, amazing how many resorts u can fit into a trip. 😃 Yay for A Basin - especially Montezuma bowl and Pali areas - really glad u got to visit there as well as Breck. I usually find things normalise re: sleep after a week, have been back a week and a half myself but still buzzing from powder run down from Pk 6 hike terrain on last day. Hope u settle back to reality soon...........
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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If visiting Breck do not underestimate the risk of serious altitude sickness. On my first visit 2 out of a party of 4 had to bailout from Breck and drive back towards Denver to sleep at a lower altitude. This was on medical advice.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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| Quote: |
| If visiting Breck do not underestimate the risk of serious altitude sickness. |
I'll second that. During night one in Breckenridge, Mrs MA was woken by her heart pounding at an alarming 150+ per minute - very scary. She also felt completely laid low. Ended up at the local 'ER' the next day - diagnosed with Acute Mountain Sickness, taking beta blockers plus sleeping on oxygen for a few nights. Also had to avoid alcohol (on holiday!) and caffeine.
This was despite being a seasoned alpinist who had slept at altitudes of 3000m+ with no problems on a fair few occasions. The big difference though, was ascending slowly (on foot or ski touring) to those altitudes - as opposed to racing up by bus from Denver.
Altitude sickness can kick in at any point above 2000-2500m (milder symptoms at lower altitudes).
A few years later we had a problem-free stay in Winter Park - despite it being only (IIRC) a couple of hundred metres or so lower than Breck.
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