March 5, 2017 Winter Park

The drive off I-70 on highway 40 goes to the top of Berthoud Pass at 11,315' and then down to 9,450' to the ski resort. To drive the road in a snow storm would be a white knuckle drive. We parked in the Vintage Parking lot for $10 on the weekend. You can use your MAXX Pass without getting a lift ticket. Just put it in your lower left side without any thing else in that pocket and go skiing for 5 days. We met some competitors who were there for the weekend mogul competition. The weather was spring conditions. I skied Mary Jane 35 years ago when the mogul trails required 205cm skis. That was in my hey day when my body enjoyed doing stuff like that. There is a train link that runs from Denver that restarted in January 2017 after not running for several decades (so we were told). It was interesting to hear the train whistle in the village. The area is enormous: 143 trails, 26 lifts, 3060 vertical. It was a groomer day. The lift access from our parking lot was by a Cabriolet (an open-air horizontal gondola) that connects the parking lot to the village. The bad thing is that from the Cabriolet to the lower lift it's long slightly descending walk to the ticket building. The setup is similar to that at Northstar at Lake Tahoe where you have to walk by all the stores selling anything a skier/boarder “needs or desires” – food, clothing, gear, etc. The walk is so long that they have wagons for all your stuff, equipment, kids,.. They have hundreds of wagons with multiple pickup and drop-off points – no charge. Get one when you walk the long way back up to the Cabriolet. Another interesting item is the Vasquez Cirque via the Cirque Sled which would be great on a powder day. We enjoyed our day, even though it was a Sunday, due to the large area and varied terrain.

Another great report--THANKS!