I need help planning a Christmas ski trip to the Park City area and since none of us have ever been.
We're a family of 2 adults & 2 kids (age 12 & 13) who normally skis I-70 Vail resorts on the Epic pass. We warm up blues and do blues and blacks of varying degrees depending on how our legs hold up. Only 1 of us does double blacks. We enjoy moguls and glades over speed. I would say as a family, we are a solid blue family with smattering of blacks sprinkled in -- especially when at a new mountain that we don't know as well.
For various reasons, we decided that the IKON pass makes the most sense for us this coming ski season. However, we will be at Hilton Sunrise Lodge at the Canyons (Vail resort) this Christmas.
Since PCMR/canyons is not a part of our IKON pass, we would have to pay out of pocket to ski Park City. We decided that we're willing to spend out of pocket for 1 or 2 days at PCMR since it's right outside our place.
We don't anticipate going to Utah very often, so we want to check out other places since we're there and take advantage of the IKON pass even though it seems silly for us to stay at Sunrise and not ski PCMR.
How would you recommend allocating our time?
We were thinking of allocating the 6 days in this order:
2 days Deer Valley because closer,
1 day Alta/Snowbird,
1 day Brighton or Solitude?,
1 day rest & check out SLC or 3 of us rest & 1 goes out by himself at PCMR to do what he wants to do,
1 day PCMR
Any comments/criticism? What would you do given our interests?
(IKON pass includes: Solitude, Deer Valley, Brighton, AltaSnowbird)
Does any resort get crazy at it nears Christmas/post Christmas that we should definitely avoid? Brighton or Solitude or 2 days at Alta/Snowbird instead? (We don't mind snowboarders. All we know is life with them and don't understand the appeal of a no snowboarder mountain.)
A few other notes. My kids hate Keystone because of the walk (regardless of the wagon). They are okay with Vail's walk since we park Lion's head side. They were okay with Taos but did get a little grumpy with the combination of drive and walk (we stayed 5 min south of Taos farmers market square). If we have a long walk after a drive to alta/snowbird or brighton/solitude, it may be an issue.
We have noticed that the few times we skied during Christmas, the greens and blues are filled with a lot more erratic/learning skiers which made us nervous, but it was fine once we got to the intermediate+ runs. Is there a resort where the lifts force you to all merge in the same place? I would like to avoid the crowds, especially if it funnels the beginners/intermediates together into a massive lift area. This may be a factor as well.
We're a family of 2 adults & 2 kids (age 12 & 13) who normally skis I-70 Vail resorts on the Epic pass. We warm up blues and do blues and blacks of varying degrees depending on how our legs hold up. Only 1 of us does double blacks. We enjoy moguls and glades over speed. I would say as a family, we are a solid blue family with smattering of blacks sprinkled in -- especially when at a new mountain that we don't know as well.
For various reasons, we decided that the IKON pass makes the most sense for us this coming ski season. However, we will be at Hilton Sunrise Lodge at the Canyons (Vail resort) this Christmas.
Since PCMR/canyons is not a part of our IKON pass, we would have to pay out of pocket to ski Park City. We decided that we're willing to spend out of pocket for 1 or 2 days at PCMR since it's right outside our place.
We don't anticipate going to Utah very often, so we want to check out other places since we're there and take advantage of the IKON pass even though it seems silly for us to stay at Sunrise and not ski PCMR.
How would you recommend allocating our time?
We were thinking of allocating the 6 days in this order:
2 days Deer Valley because closer,
1 day Alta/Snowbird,
1 day Brighton or Solitude?,
1 day rest & check out SLC or 3 of us rest & 1 goes out by himself at PCMR to do what he wants to do,
1 day PCMR
Any comments/criticism? What would you do given our interests?
(IKON pass includes: Solitude, Deer Valley, Brighton, AltaSnowbird)
Does any resort get crazy at it nears Christmas/post Christmas that we should definitely avoid? Brighton or Solitude or 2 days at Alta/Snowbird instead? (We don't mind snowboarders. All we know is life with them and don't understand the appeal of a no snowboarder mountain.)
A few other notes. My kids hate Keystone because of the walk (regardless of the wagon). They are okay with Vail's walk since we park Lion's head side. They were okay with Taos but did get a little grumpy with the combination of drive and walk (we stayed 5 min south of Taos farmers market square). If we have a long walk after a drive to alta/snowbird or brighton/solitude, it may be an issue.
We have noticed that the few times we skied during Christmas, the greens and blues are filled with a lot more erratic/learning skiers which made us nervous, but it was fine once we got to the intermediate+ runs. Is there a resort where the lifts force you to all merge in the same place? I would like to avoid the crowds, especially if it funnels the beginners/intermediates together into a massive lift area. This may be a factor as well.