Is Breck only good for park?

Ben_Mo-Fat

Ben_Mo-Fat

Member
So i am going to either breck, vail, or aspen/snowmass for the first week of march with my family. Obviously, i know breck has a sick park but how is its terrain besides that? I would be skiing for 5 days and 3 of those days would be with my dad who loves steep terrain and good scenery, Is the top of breck entertaining enough for 3 days without getting old and do they have enough variety? Vail is appealing because it is huge and has blue sky basin plus a decent park. But i was really curious of how great the bowl skiing is a brick and the steep tree skiing?
 
Breck is probably the flattest mountain I have ever skied. Park is sick, lake chutes are decent. But overall, flat as a pancake.
 
Ehh I disagree. There are a lot of blues but if you look in the right places you can find some steep runs. Lake chutes, echair, parts of peak 10, and some of the bowls are all decently steep. Vail is a fairly flat resort when it comes down to it also. The back bowls are damn big and there are lot's of places to find powder but there is in no way an abundance of extreme skiing.
 
Aspen was awesome if you want to ski some park go to buttermilk if you want some steep stuff go over to hyland and ski the bowl also snow mass and Ajax are in the middle of the two snow mass has really carried stuff mostly steeper at the top and the snowmass mark is really sick
 
yes, 3,398 feet vert is flat as a pancake.

Off the top of my head Peak 10, E-Chair, 6 Chair, Whales Tail, T-Bar, Imperial Express are all fun if your are a good skier.
 
Because you are definitely skiing 3,398 feet of continuous vert on every run at Breck. Vert doesn't matter if there is no steepness or continuity.
 
if by "good skier" you mean enjoys skiing a few black runs then sure but if you want to ski anything steep, big, and fun then go elsewhere. Really you need to go to the san juan mountains to get big stuff unless you wanna drive to utah, montana, wyoming or one of those places which arent too far from like denver area of you take a day to drive out
 
Plenty of double blacks over here on the east coast for us. Black diamond is real shit here too..
 
That is pretty much what I mean by "good skier". I don't know OP's specific skillset, but that can be harder for some people who aren't used to it. You aren't really going to find any steep, big, and fun in any summit county resort (except maybe a-basin). Most of summit county's more difficult is more on the mini golf side rather than big, steep runs. Comparing the San Juans to Summit Big mountain-wise is pretty much apples to oranges.

Of the three mentioned in OP I would go with Vail
 
agreed. all of summit county is like that, you want some good front range skiing go to Mary Jane at Winter Park so much better.
 
Coming from BC, i was surprised at how flat all of the mountains from Denver to aspen were. Driving along that highway must have been the most disappointing thing ever. All the peaks in the back way past the resorts looked great, but damn. So flat. Perfect looking parks you could see from the road though
 
dude that area isn't even that great. maybe if you're a snowboarder who likes mellow trees lol. there's only like one drop lol. maybe hiking further past it like into twin chutes, etc...

being a core big mtn guy in breck is tough, but I entertain myself on the cliffs in horseshoe/contest bowl. lake chutes and peak 7 bowl also have plenty of hucks.
 
This.

Last year me and my friend were doing some minigolf over a big grass patch on whales tail... in late February. And when we went to the bottom, the T-Bar had a 30 minute wait because some gaper broke his collarbone from falling off when it speeds up when you get on and he wouldn't let patrol move him from the path of the tow
 
Breck actually does suck. Too many hardcore gangster thugs. It's like the south central of la only just the clothing and bad attitude.
 
not further out on the track from the windows gate, hike above the chair... lol you obviously don't know breck at all
 
brecks a great mountain take imperail chair up and hit up lake chutes, snow white or whales tail all decent runs.
 
Are any of you even in Summit County right now?

It's February and there is NO SNOW. Breck is something like 90% "Open" by open they mean, there is about an inch of ice over the rocks, so if it's soft be careful. I can't believe the ridge line is open.. Looking at it today and it looked barely possible to get down without destroying your skis.

As far as Vail goes, my friend who is a groomer there says that it's only surviving because of how grassy the mountain is.

At the moment, there are about 3 - 6 inches in the forecast before the 15th, but its been so damn warm that it isn't likely to do much and will be lucky if no rain is involved in that.

So if you pick vail or breck, your hoping on a lot of snow over 2 weeks time otherwise there will be no tree skiing, only hard pack icy blue runs.

The San Juans on the other hand have been doing very well with snow. Aspen is the better choice.
 
i found this out the hard way. was trying to make the traverse from the top of the park to the chair that goes to the top of peak 9, and there was one section that was sooo exposed. like dodging exposed patches between moguls the whole way down for 100 yards or so
 
id say a-basin has some steeps, as does loveland even though its not in summit county. and If you want steeps and a decent park, id say crested butte or take the time to go to telluride or even silverton. But from my own experience breck was pretty flat, vail was just as flat but kind of had more to explore and copper was better but had less snow even though they are so close. Never got to keystone.
 
Vail is generally a very mellow mountain but they Re the only one with any good cliffs besides abasin, and aspen has some sick steeps as well
 
Loveland has dropped a bunch of ropes the past week, and the hike to access points and gates along the ridge are opening. As for mountains within range of Denver, Loveland is pretty fun right now, even low on snow. Park is not even close to the level of the other options.
 
Yup

What Vail has going for it is being spread out (so you won't get huge bumps in bowls and stuff like you do at Squaw which does ruin Squaw a little) and there is sick nightlife in the village at the bottom of the gondola.

But its gaper heaven. If you consider yourself a real skiier go somewhere else.

I had a fun 3 days there but it was plenty, if I go back it'll be for the drinking/partying not the terrain b/c it sucks fat dick.

That said the full epic is justified by those 3 days...and I met a good (female) skiier who wants to hit up Verbier in a month when at Vail so I don't regret going. Shes already booked up and shit so the alps better have fucking snow pumped for there, Cham, and Zermatt.

But I'd take a golf vacation before I dropped coin to ski fucking summit county. And I'd convert to mormonism and live in SLC before I lived in Denver (b/c the skiing sucks.)
 
Nothing, it was a bad sentence.

On that note. The San Juans are doing great. But you didn't list anywhere there, so go to Aspen and do a day in Wolf Creek or Silverton if snow the snow hits. Easier to get there from Aspen.
 
this.

Thinking about moving down south next year if this season doesn't pick up in Summit.

to op, Breck is really only good for park. Sure there is some descent shit off 6 chair, imperial, e chair, but it's nothing worth make a trip out here for. Go to Vail if you're set on summit.
 
Haha Colorado is gapetastic. I was born in snowmass and loved it when I was a little kid. I moved to ak when I was 8, and returned to snowmass when I was 15 on a family trip. I quickly realized that the whole state of Colorado is massively overrated in terms of skiing. There's a reason resorts in Colorado build amazing parks, it's because it's all they have to offer. The steeps are laughable, the snowfall is pitiful, and the place is crawling with groomer skiing rich people who think they've arrived in skiing heaven. I currently live in Utah and even snowbird is relatively lame compared to AK. If you want REAl skiing in REAL mountains you need to head to BC or AK. That is all.
 
"not enough steeps, no snow..." BLAH BLAH BLAH... Obviously none of you have ever skiied on the east coast. Where the blacks are literally easy blues here, and the runs are made of pure ice. "No wonder they have the best parks." Blah blah blah. Seriously all I hear on this site is complaint after complaint. Also, I have seen more pros at Keystone resort than any other place I've ever skiied. (ironic since you all think it's so shitty) TO THE OP: Snowmass is sick, but you should definitely check out keystone if you're about park. There's barely any snow this year so that does suck, but vail is your place if you want typical skiier mountain. I have to admit, there are a ton of rich ninja gapers around.
 
ya um try skiing out west. also not too many big mountain pros come from colorado.... all the pros you see in colorado are just lapping the park cus its all there is to ski
 
lol wut dude who cares what you want to compare it to, summit county skiing is just not as good as other places like washington, montana, wyoming, utah, cali, etc. Its pretty flat, they don't get a ton of snow and its cold as fuck. Silverton and Cresent Butte are like the only two really legit ski places in CO that compare to places like Baker, Squaw, Jackson, Big Sky, Alta/Snowbird etc. Sure there are tons of shitty mountains even in the west but telling some east coast kid these runs as as good as at home is pointless, I'm gonna tell him how it is.

And pros are at keystone to hit the fucking park you idiot.
 
Only mtn I've skied in CO where I had as much fun if not more than parks was CB. Of course I havent skied every mountain, but I kinda like to live at one for a season to really check it out.
 
yea, and how many of those pros skied anything outside of the park? no one says keystone's park is shitty, because it's not. we all know its one of the best parks in the world. with that said, keystone is flat as hell and no fun at all unless you ski park. breck has some fun terrain like the lake chutes but not much besides that. vail is gigantic and great to explore, but they don't offer anything in terms of "extreme terrain." my favorite mountain in summit county was a-basin. wide open, strictly skiing, no shitshow resort feel. if i go back to summit county to ski its gonna be at a-basin.
 
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