This will be for me and 3 buddies. Two options, looking at either Utah or Colorado.

Option 1:

RDU roundtrip to SLC is around $250 give or take depending on taxes/fees.
http://www.cheapflights.com/flights/Salt-Lake-City/Raleigh-Durham-Intl/

Extended Stay America in SLC runs about $60-$70 per night, with a
full kitchen so we can be cheap on food.
http://find.hotelguide.net/salt_lake_city/data/h100219.htm

It's right off I-15, so i'd guesstimate about 20-30 minutes to Alta fromthere.

Rental cars are around $35 per day for a midsize.

Lift tickets to area resorts:

Alta:
Day: $49 (weekday or weekend)

So flight ($250), plus 4 nights lodging($70), plus 3 days lift ticket ($147) + food and gas (~$75) = ~$540 total per person

Option 2: Colorado

RDU roundtrip to DEN is around $200 give or take depending on taxes/fees.
http://www.cheapflights.com/flights/Denver/Raleigh-Durham-Intl/

If we stay in Denver, hotel is gonna run around $60 per night. If we stay near a resort, we're looking at $120+ per night. But if we stay in Denver, we're driving 1.5 to 2 hours each way to ski each day. That could suck.

Lift tickets are about $58/day average for the big resorts with a multiday lift ticket.
rental car and food is about the same as SLC

So conservatively, flight ($200) + 4 nights lodging in denver ($60) plus 3 days lift ticket ($175) + food and gas (~$75) = ~$510 total per person

staying at breckenridge at their cheapest accommodations bumps it up to $570 per person.

-----

I've skied both Colorado and Utah, and live on the east coast, so ANYTHING out west will make my penis cough up some baby batter, and cost isn't a huge factor for me, but it is for the other guys.

Skiers who've been out west, where would you go? Also, I don't know a lot of the places to stay in colorado. So if you know of places on the cheap near any large ski resort within a few hours of denver, let me know. Ideally, i'd like an extended stay hotel with some semblance of a kitchen b/c i hate eating fast food.

Dates are 3/17-3/22, flexible by a day or two

2/14/2006 1:32:06 PM

no way in hell it'll end up being that cheap. I went to Snowshoe two weeks ago and spent around $450.

I don't have any advice about your decision though

2/14/2006 1:54:48 PM

I've actually done that trip to SLC before, and it was that cheap.. actually a little less b/c i got a much cheaper flight ($150).

2/14/2006 2:24:09 PM

I've been a few places my self Bobby and by far the most fun and cheapest trip I have had is when just me and one buddy went to Jackson Hole.

There are places alll over the place to stay and cheap as well, but not rat holes either. You are about 45 min from the airport in Jackson hole and the resort is about 15min from town.

I am not going to go into the "skiing is great out there" speak cause every idiot here with one trip out west is an expert so I trust you will read up on the website for any info about that stuff.

/my2cents

2/14/2006 2:49:29 PM

i'm doing steamboat springs, co for a long weekend march 9-12 - staying at the sheraton there that's a ski-in/out

you can get a decent/better rate for just about any hotel/rental car through various corporate discounts/promotional codes as long as you can network (or social engineer if you don't know anybody) the codes out of someone

i recommend almost anywhere in colorado instead of SLC - the drive from denver to just about anywhere isn't too bad

2/14/2006 3:12:25 PM

look at hotels in dillon/silverthorne and frisco

might be cheaper than breckenridge and will put you w/in 15 minutes of breck/keystone/a basin

2/14/2006 3:18:55 PM

^ ah, excellent idea

2/14/2006 3:46:00 PM

I think you should take it east with the nions, its making me dizzy

2/14/2006 3:50:26 PM

Just got back from a week at Vail. Conditions were awesome, it's been dumping snow there weekly since October. We got a pretty good deal....$1,000 pp for six nights, four days lift, and ski rental. Stayed at Lifthouse condos which is about 200 yards from the gondola. No matter where you go in Colorado conditions should be great.

2/14/2006 8:11:30 PM

Probably gonna do the Austrian Alps a time or two the first week in march.

2/14/2006 9:12:20 PM

^^fuck you

2/14/2006 9:22:29 PM

Quote :

"look at hotels in dillon/silverthorne and frisco might be cheaper than breckenridge and will put you w/in 15 minutes of breck/keystone/a basin "

Good advice. Get a map and check out other towns that are up in the mountains but without a ski area (Georgetown, for example.) Since you're not looking for luxury, Dillon or something similar could be your best bet. Of course, I've been known to stay in an unheated cabin with an outhouse, so my standards are low.

Also, strangely many of the ski resorts in Colorado sell discounted lift tickets at the grocery stores in Denver. At least they used to, I'm not sure about this year. Seriously, stop at or call Safeway and King Supers and see if they still do it. $58 a day is pretty steep (my Dad has a resident season pass that is good at several places and I think it was only $250.) You would even be better off getting one of those "Entertainment" books for Denver and using coupons, though they are not the deal they used to be. If you each shave $10 a day off the lift ticket price, then you could stay somewhere a little nicer without breaking the bank. Don't get too caught up in which resort; all the big ones are pretty good, so just get a good deal.

The drive from Denver is not at all bad, especially if you are on the western side of town near Golden. Many major resorts are within 2hours, but even locals tend to stay in the mountains if skiing several days in a row.

Have fun! The skiing out west is fantastic in March.

2/14/2006 10:04:41 PM

I would probably give Utah a shot. I hear the snow is awesome in the spring. Not just that they get a lot of it, but the actual snow quality. When I was in Aspen this guy was telling me about how heavily skied the mountains close to Denver were. I've never been though so I can't really say.

Oh yea, and Alta doesn't allow snowboarding so you can keep the bro/bra talk to a minimum. I can only take so much of people telling me how "stoked" they are.

2/14/2006 10:24:16 PM

I got someone that lived in Denver to buy me a 4 day pass in a grocery store a couple years ago, but I think they had to get it by October/November. Winter Park sometimes has lodging deals online. I remember a couple super-8 type hotels in Winter Park and the next town over.

[Edited on February 14, 2006 at 10:26 PM. Reason : .]

2/14/2006 10:25:21 PM

http://www.mayrhofen.at/fileadmin/mayrhofen/Dokumente/winterpanorama/Pano0506.jpg

If anyone needs me, I'll be there Sunday and Monday.

3/2/2006 10:11:40 AM

Is that in Austria?? One of the schools I"m looking at has a semester in Austria that I want to do if I go there (in winter of course)..

3/2/2006 12:10:48 PM

all options sound like winners

makes my excursion to winterplace saturday seem kind of lame

3/2/2006 12:32:20 PM

just go to tahoe instead

it's in california

3/2/2006 1:21:19 PM

Yea, .at = austria. It's like an hour and 20 drive there with no traffic.

3/2/2006 1:38:45 PM

oh yeah, we're going to do SLC.

two weeks from tomorrow.

I can't wait.

3/2/2006 5:07:23 PM

went to breckenridge over christmas break. skied for a week. it was awesome.

oar bucket and wirepatch rule all.

don't go to copper. that shit sucks. breck has sooo many trails.

[Edited on March 2, 2006 at 5:28 PM. Reason : breck]

3/2/2006 5:27:00 PM

ski trip

chase the cocaine high with liquor. it makes it last longer, G. you really have to nurse it.

3/2/2006 5:51:29 PM

Quote :

"went to breckenridge over christmas break. skied for a week. it was awesome. oar bucket and wirepatch rule all. don't go to copper. that shit sucks. breck has sooo many trails."

I spent a week at breck a few years ago. That was, by far, my favorite ski trip ever. I pretty much skied peak 8 the whole time, which, IIRC, is where all of the tree skiing was.

There's nothing in the world like carving into deep powder that nobody else has touched that day.

3/2/2006 6:00:49 PM

go to Colorado!! I live here and the weather is supposed to be awesome this coming week! If you're still looking for a place to stay, they have hostels all over the place you can stay in for about $20 a night. Personally, I really don't like breckenridge... its way too confusing and crowded. It's just way too talked up in general. If you like skiing bowls, keystone has some great ones. They also have a neat terrain park if you're into that sort of thing.

Quote :

"don't go to copper. that shit sucks. breck has sooo many trails."

Are you serious?? I thought Copper was awesome. Good half pipe and they put on a lot of big air shows towards the end of the day. I must have just hit it on an awesome powder day.



If you're gonna ski colorado right though, go to Vail. I haven't made it there yet, but i've heard amazing things. Hope that helps!

3/2/2006 9:26:02 PM

Colorado...I've skied Breckenride, Copper, Keystone, and Vail. Vail is by far the best in my opinion. Best two days of skiing my whole life. If you choose Colorado, Vail's Blue Sky Basin is a must. http://vail.snow.com/info/mtn.overview.bluesky.asp

3/2/2006 11:36:16 PM

Dear BobbyDigital,

I think there may be a bit of a typo in the title of this thread.

-ZiP!-

3/2/2006 11:40:08 PM

^haha...yea "opinionions" is pretty bad.

3/2/2006 11:47:53 PM

Quote :

"But if we stay in Denver, we're driving 1.5 to 2 hours each way to ski each day. That could suck."

yeah, you do not want to do this. If I recall, it's probably a 2.5 hour drive from denver airport to winter park (one of the closer resorts) and if shit hits the fan weather wise, you might not be able to go. besides, you don't want to face a 2-3 hour drive while exhausted from 6-8 hours of skiing

3/2/2006 11:53:32 PM

^winter park is only about an hour from denver depending on traffic. I can get to keystone from fort collins (northern colorado) in an hour and 45 minutes if i dont hit any traffic. Although someone usually wrecks on the way up there and ruins it for everyone

[Edited on March 2, 2006 at 11:58 PM. Reason : .]

3/2/2006 11:57:24 PM

Colorado is having one of the best snow seasons in 20 years....

but i dont care cause i am leaving for Lake Tahoe on sunday!!!!

3/3/2006 12:58:14 AM

^^^^^

I thought it was pretty obvious that it was intentional... oh well

3/3/2006 7:44:29 AM

OH WE BACK.

Flew up to SLC on Friday, and got on the slopes by mid afternoon. We skied Brighton, Powder Mountain, Solitude, and Alta. Definitely some of the best snow I've ever seen. It pretty much snowed every day we were there. I wish I was not back.


@ powder mountain


That's how deep the snow was. It was actually a little bit beyond the boundaries of "fun deep powder," especially with all-mountain skis. Having powder skis prolly would have helped immensely.


Me traversing across a bowl at Solitude.



This was a double black at Solitude called Navarone. It was actually not all that difficult, just steep as fuck with lots of trees, large rocks, and a cliff.


No ski trip to Utah is complete without someone getting injured. Last time I went to Utah, my wife ripped three ligaments in her ankle and had to be carted off by ski patrol. This time one of my boys broke his collar bone. Snapped the motherfucker in half.


The proper way to treat a rental.

goddamn, I don't want to be back in Raleigh.

3/23/2006 11:06:57 PM