Hi! I thought I’d start a page to give you some skiing tips as I see a lot of questions every winter. This page will discuss lift tickets, to parking, to where to take the bus to start skiing. I really wanted to start this page to help with lift tickets. I know the window rates are crazy expensive these days. Hopefully my ideas may help you still have a good ski trip, even if you missed out on the early deals.
Lift Tickets/Where to ski:
First off lets start with lift tickets! If you do not buy ahead of time you are going to find any Epic or Ikon mountain to be very expensive. So my first suggestion, is to buy early!!! The earlier the better.
Epic Passes go on sale in mid-end of March. You do not need to buy a season pass, if you are only doing a few days of skiing they will sell epic day passes. These are from 1-7 days of skiing. They are heavily discounted, so buy early!!! So what do you do if you decided in December, after epic passes have gone off sale, that you’re going to take a ski trip out this way? Well, this is when people get stuck with the crazy window rates. And they are high!
If you find yourself in this boat, the only way to get a discount at an EPIC/IKON mountain will be to find someone that has a season pass and can get you a discounted ticket. Unfortunately these discounts are not that great. Don’t be expecting a 50% discount!
What are your options if you don’t want to pay the window rate? I understand. My kids are on ski team, and Steamboat wanted me to pay $200 for a lift ticket a few years ago. And that’s the discount they wanted to offer local, ski team parents! Before I had a season pass we paid about $85 for a lift ticket and I thought that was high. The point of me writing this is to let you know you do have some options, but they are to NOT ski Breckenridge.
- If it is a Thursday that you are skiing, check out Copper Mountain. They offer $99 tickets on Thursdays.
- Are you a good skier? Do you like to ski non groomed stuff? Check out Arapahoe Basin. I do not recommend A Basin for green skiers, as there are not a lot of green trails and I think you would get bored quickly. There are groomed trails, but it is mostly a non groomed mountain. If you are looking for a place to learn though, I think it would be fine. As you’re going to spend most of your time on the bunny hill anyway.
- If you are a beginner check out Loveland Valley. They have $50 tickets for the section of the mountain that is geared for learners. They do offer lessons. I think you can do a 2.5 hour lesson here and then have the rest of the day to practice what you learned.
- If you are not a beginner…Check out Loveland Basin.
- A little further away, up in Leadville you have Ski Cooper.
- If you are just learning, you could also do lessons at Frisco Adventure Park. The one thing with Frisco is there is no lift, just a magic carpet. So you don’t get to learn how to load a lift.
Parking:
Maybe you’re staying in Blue River or somewhere that isn’t to convenient for the bus. You may be asking where is the best place to park. I hear people say, there is no free parking in Breckenridge but that is not true. There are two options to park for free. You have the Airport Road lot (bigger free lot) or you have the Ice Rink (smaller lot). Both of these lots you will have to take the bus to get to skiing.
Then there are pay lots. Instead of me listing them all I will provide the link. Beaver Run is a great option for slope-side parking, but it is very expensive! You could outweigh the cost by bringing your lunch and eating at the car. If you are here on a busy day and you are not a green skier. I strongly suggest avoiding the quicksilver lift. This lift is the one where you see the pictures of the crazy long lines.
A little tip…if you are only skiing for a few hours, F lot will only cost you like $2-3 on a weekday for that short period of time.
BUS:
Lots of lodging within Breck will have access to the bus. Some people may ask where should I go, which base? I personally always go to Peak 9. I just don’t want to take the bus to the gondola and then a gondola ride, I want to start skiing! So I take the bus to Beaver Run. If your lodging is closer to Peak 9, and you can ski blues then I would suggest just going to Beaver Run. You can always take the super connect over to Peak 8 if that is where you would like to be. Would you rather take a run or ride the gondola?
What else can I help with? Leave a comment and I can add to this page. Since I live here I don’t know much about rentals. But you have options in town and at the base of the mountain.
