Epic Pass Entitlement.

eheathI mean, why wouldnt you get an epic pass if you live in boulder?

RICK_ROSSyeah epic pass is pretty much your only bet. im a huge fan of copper and winter park but with and epic local you have your pick of way more mountains.

Keystone14As Long as you are smart about when you travel. Friday Nights/Sat mornings are awful going up there. Like.....3-9 hour drives. Coming back Sunday after 12, awful idea 3-12 hours. Keystone park is awesome, breck is breck, abay is A LOT of fun but has no high speed lifts and the runs arent all that long. I think most people on the epic local call Keystone home.

Z-JuiceI go to CU as well and split park and "big mountain" about 50-50 as well. I grew up in Colorado and have skied the epic pass mountains for many years.

Keystone - A-51 park is great. Quite simply, anywhere else is not so great. A few fun hits scattered around but meh overall.

Breck - I don't ski Breck that much, but they have a phenomenal park obviously. Rest of the mountain is pretty fun. New peak-6 hike-to terrain is awesome. T-bar/horseshoe bowl is solid as well along with lake chutes and peak 10.

Vail - Best resort to ski entire mountain consistently, best areas are cliffs in and around Northwoods and Blue Sky (cliffs, trees, steeper runs). The bowls are overrated in my opinion, they get crusted with any sun, are typically windblown, and visibility can be pretty poor often. Worth mentioning is chair 4 cliffs/jump, cliff band isn't too great for me (short tranny and taking a tumble can be real dangerous), but I love the jump - usually by mid season it's prime and I've seen some dubs on it. Gold peak park is underrated, not very crowded, good rail garden, decent jumps.

Beaver Creek - Quite boring overall. The one place you need to go is Stone Creek. Great cliffs and pillow lines, nobody skis there, landings can be nice for a while although warm weather takes its toll there. Park is alright, hit their park once this year and jump shaping was quite different.

A Basin - Last but not least. Nice long season, good terrain, and no security. Unlike 95% of Summit, Pali is actually steep so it's nice for pow days. Zuma cornice and East Wall are worth mentioning.


Now... traffic. I honestly don't think it's as bad as some people make it seem. You can navigate I-70 easily if you plan a little. I'm amazed with how many people still drive at the worst times (6-8 Saturday morning and after 1 on a Sunday). Sacrifice an hour of sleep or an hour of skiing to avoid the traffic. Unfortunately with snow on the roads, accidents are almost guaranteed, this is the worst part of I-70.

Resorts will consistently be more crowded than you are used to. I don't quite understand why Breck is the dominant hotspot, but weekend crowds are notably rough there. Anywhere else isn't too bad (maybe I'm just used to the crowds), resorts are typically twice as crowded on weekends.

bighomieflockLol everyone way over-exaggerates the drive from Boulder to summit. Yes the traffic is shitty but "3-12 hours" is straight bullshit. Peak season your probably looking at 2-5 in bad traffic and 1hr 30 without any traffic. Yes it's not the best college in the world for proximity to the mountain but I've still managed to get 60+ days this year, mostly day-tripping

Keystone14I'm assuming you do day trips during the week instead of class? I work, so I can only to weekends. If you can make a college schedule with a day or two off then yes. Very easy.

And yes it's taken me twelve hours to get home on a Sunday. Once we even had to turn around because the tunnel was closed

HP123It appears some people have become immune to I-70 traffic. Which is not good. I guess you are forced to if you live on the front range.

Yes there's ways to get around it if you plan accordingly, and wake up at 4 am. Or just don't go on weekends.

If you don't really care about getting that much skiing in, then it'll work for you. But if you plan on skiing alot while you're in boulder, then be prepared to spend half of your time in a car. It's just the reality.

Z-JuiceAgain, traffic isn't as nearly as some posts in thread are making it seem so I'll chime in again. If I were excited about moving somewhere new to start school and ski a lot, I wouldn't want to be discouraged about something as small as ski traffic before even getting to start the experience.

I-70 traffic is certainly heavy. It's really simple to figure out though, on a Saturday morning get on I-70 (in Golden) before 6. This isn't as bad as it sounds, if you were arriving at the hill a little before 8:30 you would need to be on I-70 around 7 anyway. Sunday mornings are much more random and there tends to be half the traffic.

Eastbound is usually more difficult. There's consistent traffic on Saturday afternoons from 3-6, sometimes later. Sundays are awful. Traffic starts as early 11 am and lasts after 8. Do yourself a favor and never plan to drive between 2 and 5, this is the time when some of the monster delays mentioned earlier are certainly possible.

As I said earlier, the biggest hassle on I-70 are accidents. Whether thousands are rushing to get that sick pow, someone from Missouri is going to Cali, or a semi needs to meet a deadline, snow on the roads causes accidents constantly.

I might have better experience because I'm from Evergreen which is 25 minutes into the mountains, that helps with traffic although it happens to be right where the westbound bottleneck starts too. You'll also notice that this whole description was for the weekend. Traveling Mon-Thurs is a breeze, minor issues Friday.

Blah blah blah enough about that. Welcome to Boulder, I hope you have a great time here and enjoy the shredding. Hit me up if you have any more questions.

Z-JuiceAgain, traffic isn't as nearly as some posts in thread are making it seem so I'll chime in again. If I were excited about moving somewhere new to start school and ski a lot, I wouldn't want to be discouraged about something as small as ski traffic before even getting to start the experience.

I-70 traffic is certainly heavy. It's really simple to figure out though, on a Saturday morning get on I-70 (in Golden) before 6. This isn't as bad as it sounds, if you were arriving at the hill a little before 8:30 you would need to be on I-70 around 7 anyway. Sunday mornings are much more random and there tends to be half the traffic.

Eastbound is usually more difficult. There's consistent traffic on Saturday afternoons from 3-6, sometimes later. Sundays are awful. Traffic starts as early 11 am and lasts after 8. Do yourself a favor and never plan to drive between 2 and 5, this is the time when some of the monster delays mentioned earlier are certainly possible.

As I said earlier, the biggest hassle on I-70 are accidents. Whether thousands are rushing to get that sick pow, someone from Missouri is going to Cali, or a semi needs to meet a deadline, snow on the roads causes accidents constantly.

I might have better experience because I'm from Evergreen which is 25 minutes into the mountains, that helps with traffic although it happens to be right where the westbound bottleneck starts too. You'll also notice that this whole description was for the weekend. Traveling Mon-Thurs is a breeze, minor issues Friday.

Blah blah blah enough about that. Welcome to Boulder, I hope you have a great time here and enjoy the shredding. Hit me up if you have any more questions.

HP123It sounds like you've become immune to it. I-70 is one of the worst commutes to the mountains if not THE WORST in the country. Yes there's ways to navigate around it. but OP if you want to spend the majority of your time skiing instead of commuting you'd be better off looking elsewhere.

gavinrudyIt's bad, but super manageable... Not hard to figure out the frontage road system and cut a lot of time out of your drive. On days with bad traffic I still can make it to the mountains with only a 30 min delay from usual driving times...

Brocka_FlockaFalse. These roads DO NOT exist. Especially on Pow Days. just stay home.

JakeSmithI know that I have never seen any of these "frontage roads" Gavinrudy speaks of.

But for real, if the traffic is really bad, the frontage roads are the last place you want to be. You might get to be moving 40mph while everyone on i-70 is going 25, but once you have to get off the frontage road and back on i-70 it is a complete shit show, every single person who has lived in Colorado for more than a year knows about the frontage roads and will be sitting there in a massive jam waiting to get back on i-70

J_BergThanks guys. All useful stuffm. My friend has a place at steamboat so Who knows! As of now I'll probably do the epic local

Z-JuiceI go to CU as well and split park and "big mountain" about 50-50 as well. I grew up in Colorado and have skied the epic pass mountains for many years.

Keystone - A-51 park is great. Quite simply, anywhere else is not so great. A few fun hits scattered around but meh overall.

Breck - I don't ski Breck that much, but they have a phenomenal park obviously. Rest of the mountain is pretty fun. New peak-6 hike-to terrain is awesome. T-bar/horseshoe bowl is solid as well along with lake chutes and peak 10.

Vail - Best resort to ski entire mountain consistently, best areas are cliffs in and around Northwoods and Blue Sky (cliffs, trees, steeper runs). The bowls are overrated in my opinion, they get crusted with any sun, are typically windblown, and visibility can be pretty poor often. Worth mentioning is chair 4 cliffs/jump, cliff band isn't too great for me (short tranny and taking a tumble can be real dangerous), but I love the jump - usually by mid season it's prime and I've seen some dubs on it. Gold peak park is underrated, not very crowded, good rail garden, decent jumps.

Beaver Creek - Quite boring overall. The one place you need to go is Stone Creek. Great cliffs and pillow lines, nobody skis there, landings can be nice for a while although warm weather takes its toll there. Park is alright, hit their park once this year and jump shaping was quite different.

A Basin - Last but not least. Nice long season, good terrain, and no security. Unlike 95% of Summit, Pali is actually steep so it's nice for pow days. Zuma cornice and East Wall are worth mentioning.


Now... traffic. I honestly don't think it's as bad as some people make it seem. You can navigate I-70 easily if you plan a little. I'm amazed with how many people still drive at the worst times (6-8 Saturday morning and after 1 on a Sunday). Sacrifice an hour of sleep or an hour of skiing to avoid the traffic. Unfortunately with snow on the roads, accidents are almost guaranteed, this is the worst part of I-70.

Resorts will consistently be more crowded than you are used to. I don't quite understand why Breck is the dominant hotspot, but weekend crowds are notably rough there. Anywhere else isn't too bad (maybe I'm just used to the crowds), resorts are typically twice as crowded on weekends.

snomasteryou should really consider the rocky mtn super pass...

copper - best overall resort in summit, lift lines are no issue
winter park - get storms that summit and vail do not get, stays open longer, easy to hit in combination with a couple laps on Berthoud Pass, miss out on half of the i70 traffic
eldora - easy to get to, no i70, got a slew of snow this year
steamboat - 6 days
crested butte - 3 days
loveland pass - free hitching/shuttle laps

slothkingSimilarish question- I grew up skiing little cottonwood and am going to be in Golden for school. Would you guys recommend getting an epic pass or getting a pass at snowbird and just skiing holidays when I go home?

slothkingSimilarish question- I grew up skiing little cottonwood and am going to be in Golden for school. Would you guys recommend getting an epic pass or getting a pass at snowbird and just skiing holidays when I go home?

gavinrudyYou going to Mines?

slothkingSimilarish question- I grew up skiing little cottonwood and am going to be in Golden for school. Would you guys recommend getting an epic pass or getting a pass at snowbird and just skiing holidays when I go home?

slothkingYep!