Breck trail recommendations?

nikoosh

nikoosh

Member
Me and a buddy are headin up too Breck from the east coast from the 18-25th, and I just wanted to have a general idea of what I should look for.

I know its not a very backcountry oriented mountain, but what are some sick backcountry runs I should look out for?

Thanks for any responses
 
Believe me, if it was up to me I would be skiing at a much more backcountry oriented mountain.. I didn't organize this trip and its my only opportunity to go west
 
Definitely consider A-basin if you're looking for "backcountry" terrain.

At Breckenridge look around lake chutes, e-chair, horseshoe bowl, and windows.

Vail can be super fun also but it's made up of mellow powder fields for the most part instead of steep, challenging terrain.
 
I have some doubt much of Breck's "Big Mountain" stuff will be open then, much less A Basin. At Breck, lapping the TBar or imperial express, or 6chair is usually a good time but it gets bumped out fast. It really helps to be a strong bump skier at Breck if you don't ski much park. At A Basin, Upper East Wall usually opens in February or March and all the other stuff until then is mini-golf-cliffs, steeps, and bumps. Once again it helps to be a strong bump skier.

Surprisingly, I find Keystone's hike-to terrain pretty fun. They range from 400m to a mile or two and on a good day will be powder and until the next storm won't get too bumped out and you can really get ripping if you know how to ski chunder and crust well.

I don't really have any knowledge of other summit county resorts so I can't weigh in on those
 
So thanks for all the resort reviews, but I don't have a choice on resort. It is Breck, and it is not up to me. And I'm a pretty good bump skiier so I guess I'll just see what goes down when I get there and hope for some snow. Thanks again
 
There are bus lines that run between the summit county resorts for free if transportation is the issue, but Breck should be a good time regardless.
 
Just note that Breck will probably be pretty crowded when you are there. I almost got killed by a gaper literally gaping taking pictures on the bootpack above Imperial when his fat ass slipped off a foothold and fell into me.

So yeah, beware of fat tourists with iphone cameras and be ready for long lift lines. I would suggest just chilling in the town of Breck or in Silverthorne on Saturday and Sunday, those days are the worst.
 
You are going to have to hike to find most good terrain.

I recommend keystone though, go to outback mountain and hike up to the bowls. Tons of fun and they generally aren't too skied out like breck or vail.
 
You can still get to A-basin for the day even if your group is skiing Breck. Go to the base of the BreckConnect gondola and catch the Swan Mountain Flyer (bus) over to a-basin. The bus is about 30 minutes, get to the stop at least 10 minutes early so you don't have to stand the whole way. It's free, and your lift ticket should be good there unless there's some weird rule about group lift tickets.
 
You're from the East Coast, I wouldn't be so quick to scoff Breck. I think you'll be impressed when you pull into the parking lot and see how big it is, plenty to entertain you if they get it opened up.
 
would defiantly recommend heading over to vail, if you get an epic pass for the days your there you can go to vail without having to buy another lift ticket. just show up and ski some sick terrain.
 
there are two trails worth riding at breck

park lane and freeway. and they are good. dont go to summit to freeride.
 
Figured it out so that I can spend a day in Vail, so any info on that too would be sweet. Gettin so hyped.
 
Alright, I'll bite...

Definitely open:

Park Lane/Freeway obviously sick as fuck.

Stuff off of E Chair, all really good bump runs, the windows and doors are great for trees, and if you want some other trees that don't get skied quite as much head down Volunteer on Peak 9, then on the skiers left there will be an opening onto "Needles Eye" which is always pretty sick.

Horeshoe Bowl/contest bowl other stuff lookers left of the TBar are good especially if it is a powder day, the stuff lookers right of the TBar will hold snow longer

Might be open:

Peak 6 (hard to say, they are hoping before Christmas but it all depends on snow, but some of the terrain looks decent)

South side of Peak 10, the runs are like Mustang, Dark Rider, and they are generally pretty good/good trees back there/don't get skied off too quick.

Lake Chutes

To avoid lines:

Ski the Peak 8 super connect mid station. The trees between Rendezvous/Tiger are generally pretty sick and don't get many people skiing there, and then you just hop at the mid load of the superconnect and you can avoid the craziness of Breck a bit.

As others have said, the bus system in Summit County is decent. The Swan Mountain Flyer is running now so you can get from the base of the gondola at Breck to Abasin in 50 minutes so that isn't too bad, and you can get that same bus to Keystone and that only takes about half an hour.

Keystone gets a lot of hate because it is overall pretty flat, but there is good stuff at Key and no one really skis it so the snow stays good for ages.
 
Breck is gonna surprise you this year in a way in a way that it has never done before. The terrain will be unhindered by the past...we're going big. The town is unparralleled in the ski town way. You might find something different elsewhere but you won't regret coming to breck...everything else is so close. Our snowpack is becoming tremendous. Thank God.
 
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