epic pass suggestions

[midwestfabs]

the boss of me and i are looking to do an quick weekend getaway ski trip early in the season, sometime b/w thanksgiving and xmas. we don't need knee keep powder and would be fine w/ just skiable snow. thinking of a place that is on the epic pass family to possible save cash on lift tickets. we ski breck every year w/ the peppered vail, beaver creek days if time permits. so colorado was kind of out of the running since we are going there this season as well. also looking for an easy in and out travel destination coming from the midwest and would prefer non-stop flights if possible.

since it would be w/o kids was thinking of a nice quick getaway w/ the boss of me and pamper ourselves a bit while throwing in some possible skiing. asides from colorado we haven't skied UT or CA hills that are on the epic family.

was thinking about canyons, but on another site some said snow is somewhat questionable.

any suggestions, ideas, etc. would be great

thanks

 

[Tony Crocker]

I'm the one who said Canyons' snow that early is questionable: Don't do it. Vail is the only Epic resort with a good long term early track record. None of them were any good mid-December 2 years ago, and only Kirkwood last year.

In general, anyone who wants to ski between Thanskgiving and Christmas should WAIT to see where the snow is before committing any $$$. It's slack time in the travel business so you will have no issues with finding last minute lodging wherever you go. Tahoe's notorious volatility has an upside. They could get slammed in November, and if so you should go there.

 

[johnnash]

It's undoubtedly a good idea to wait as long as possible, and one option to keep in your back pocket is to book a flight (before fares skyrocket -- about 2 weeks out), but not any non-refundable rooms, then if conditions are good in Summit/ Vail, go there, or if not, take a look at Wolf Creek in southern Colorado. It's about a 5 hour drive on good roads from DIA. It's got a completely different weather pattern from Summit/ Vail and on average gets the most snow in CO. Can't use Epic pass, but it's cheap, and you'll also save a bundle on lunch, compared to Vail. Two seasons ago, we had Epic Passes and planned to ski Summit early season, but conditions were awful. Tony and EMSC suggested WC, and we went there and loved it. Conditions were still awful in Summit by the end of the season, so we went back to WC. Saved our season!