5 Tips for Saving Money on a Colorado Ski Vacation

Skiing Keystone in 2003

With the cooling temperatures, thoughts in this household turn to the coming winter. Thoughts of snow, skiing, snowboarding, and our annual road trip to Colorado's Summit County. Based on our past experiences, here are a few simple tricks to making these vacations more affordable.

1. When to go- The best prices for lift tickets and lodging will be during the early and late seasons (before Thanksgiving and the month of April). Good deals can also be found between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Possible downsides are a limited number of open runs, and the amount of snow on those runs.

Avoid the holidays (Christmas to New Years Eve, Martin Luther King Jr. weekend, President's Day weekend, Spring Break). Not only are prices higher, but it is also a lot more crowded. More people equals longer lines and wait times at the chair lift or gondola.

My favorite time to go is in January, before the holiday weekends and spring break. All the runs are open, and the snow is usually good for skiing.

2. Lodging- We like to rent a condo instead of staying in a hotel. With 3 boys, having the extra room is nice and having a kitchen saves us money on meals. We have found great deals just by searching for Summit County lodging on Google. Condos in the Keystone area seem to have the best prices, and Summit Cove has a nice site for vacation rental lodging in Keystone.

3. Lift Tickets- Discount lift tickets are available at Front Range King Soopers and Safeway grocery stores. You can also purchase them at sporting goods stores like Sports Authority. Something we haven't tried yet is buying lift tickets on eBay, but I've heard good things about the discounts you can find there.

4. Renting Equipment- If you need to rent equipment, don't wait until you get to the resort. You can save a lot of money if you rent from other places like Sports Authority in Dillon. Look online and compare prices before you leave your house. Websites like skicoupons.com offer discounts at various ski and snowboard shops.

5. Meals- If you have a condo, eat breakfast and dinner there. You can even pack a lunch and store it in a locker at the ski resort. Buying groceries is a lot less expensive than eating at the ski resorts, especially for a family. When you are on the slopes, carry trail mix or granola bars so you aren't tempted to stop at a chalet for an expensive snack between meals.


BONUS TIP: This year, we ordered a Denver/Boulder Gold C book over the internet. The $10 price of the book was well worth it. We saved over $125 on weekend lift tickets at Copper Mountain compared to the discounted price available at King Soopers. The savings are even more if you buy weekday lift tickets.

Related articles:
Keystone and Copper Mountain Ski Resorts
Friday Photo Post: Colorado Skiing

Skiing and Snowboarding at Whistler/Blackcomb

This was our first trip to Whistler, and we were excited to hit the slopes. Unfortunately, with all the rain on our day of arrival, most of the runs were very icy the first day.

The second day was better, although it was snowing so hard, the visibility was poor. It was beautiful to see, but hard to ski (and take pictures!)

Luckily, the third day was perfect, with blue skies and fresh powder. Our favorite runs on Blackcomb were Ridge Runner, Twist & Shout, Rock 'n' Roll, Jersey Cream and Wishbone. On Whistler, we liked Little Red Run and Franz's.

Our oldest son, Connor, had a great time at the terrain parks on both mountains. He also took the pictures for this post (except for the chairlift shot that I took.)

If you don't ski or ride, there are a lot of other things you can do at Whistler/Blackcomb. There is tubing, snowshoeing, snowmobiling, dog sledding, and Ziptrek ecotours. We talked to people who did the dog sledding and Ziptrek and they had a great time.

Keystone and Copper Mountain Ski Resorts

Keystone

This year, we went back to Keystone and Copper Mountain for our annual ski trip. The weather was perfect, sunny days with temperatures in the 30's.

Because of a late start on Saturday, we went to Keystone first so we could take advantage of the night skiing. There was fresh snow, and we had a great time on our favorite runs. It felt so good to be back in Colorado.

We went to Copper Mountain on Sunday. It was very crowded, and later on, people were being turned away because all the parking lots were full. The older boys went off to ride the bowls, and Doug and I stayed with our youngest, who favors the blue runs by the TRex Grill.

Doug is learning how to snowboard this year. He was doing great, connecting his turns and controlling his speed, but something went wrong, and he took a bad fall at Copper Mountain. We called the ski patrol and their preliminary diagnosis was a broken collar bone, or "right distal clavicle fracture" to be exact.

The ski patrol guys were so calm, patient, and friendly. Exactly what you need in a situation like that. They wrapped Doug up in a sled and a snowmobile took him down to the clinic. He told us to keep going, so we had lunch and did a few more runs, then met him at the village. We saw his x-rays that confirmed the fracture. He has a sling, and has to keep his shoulder immobilized for 6-8 weeks.

The hardest part for Doug? Having me drive back to Minnesota the next day.

Friday Photo Post: Colorado Skiing

We lived in Denver, Colorado for one year, and that winter we went skiing almost every weekend. We woke the boys up early in the morning to get on the road by 6:30AM for a 1 1/2 hour drive into the mountains. Our favorite resort was Copper Mountain, where this picture was taken from the American Flyer chairlift.

Another popular resort was Keystone, where this picture was taken. The boys were just learning to ski and snowboard, and both these resorts had great hills for them to play on. Later on, as they improved, we moved over to the more difficult runs. Since we've moved back to Minnesota, we've started a new tradition. Every winter, we road trip out to Colorado for a weekend of skiing and snowboarding.