Skiing near Fort Collins/ CSU

Gameday

Gameday

Member
What's up nsers, I'm probably going to be a freshman at Colorado State in the fall. It seems like summit county is too far away so where do most people ski?
 
Eldora a smaller area that is the closest, probably 1.5 hours away. Otherwise, pretty much every other resort is 3 hours away (Summit County, Winter Park, Steamboat, etc.).

Fort Collins is an awesome town but unfortunately it isn't the closest place to the resorts.
 
I've done my research on what CO schools are best for skiing, and CSU is not one of them. You're going to be driving a lot to get to any good resorts.
 
I ski in summit county and I live in the springs. It's a long drive but you usually wont hit traffic because you can take 24 and get there before the denver crowd.
 
without traffic you can get to loveland/a-basin in about 2 hours, keystone, breck, copper, around 2:30, vail 2:45. totally depends on if you hit traffic, I70 is a fucking mess though, its basically all of the front range ski traffic funneling into two lanes, so many shit drivers going 20MPH in the left lane at the first sign of snow causing massive traffic jams. leave real early on weekends and you'll be good though.

Id recommend steamboat too. gets you away from the I70 crowds and its one of the best mountains in CO. pretty fun park too as good if not better than any of the i70 resorts. thats about 2:45-3:00 from Ft. Collins, but an awesome traffic free drive. thats one thing Ft. Collins really has over boulder and denver is its good access to steamboat.

plus its not boulder, it may be a 40 minute shorter drive to the i70 resorts from boulder, but you have to live in boulder, so fuck that.
 
if you want to avoid I 70 you can go to steamboat, thats what the people i know who lived/ went to school their did
 
Eldora is closest, and NO I-70! That will be important on Sat afternoons in winter. Next is all up I-70, starting with Loveland, then A-Basin, then Keystone, then maybe Copper or Breck.

The skiing at Eldora is just ok, no big runs, but decent basic downhill. Next up is Loveland, slightly better skiing. A-Basin is no-shyte, great and steep downhill stuff. Worth driving over the pass. Keystone is all around good stuff, it's another 10 min down the road. After that, you have Copper and Breck, about the same distance and time away. Forget Steamboat, it's forever drive to get there.

Best bet is the Vail resorts Summmit Value pass. Offers unlimited at A-Basin and Keystone, and a few blackouts at Breck. That's a lot of skiing for one price. Welcome, enjoy, and ski like you mean it.
 
I grew up in fort Collins and has passes to Loveland and steamboat. Steamboat is about 3 hrs away but never has traffic, Loveland is 2 hrs with minimal traffic and way more with weekend i-70 bullshit but still closer than other summit county resorts. Foco is a super rad town but you're shit outta luck if you want close skiing options
 
Yo! 'sko rams! I'm a current CSU student. Here's the thing: its a fucking haul. I over-romanticized it a ton, but its a fucking drive. 2.5 hours to Summit area (+/- depending on where specifically you're headed) on a good day, which rarely happens during ski season. i70 is one of the worst roads on the fucking plan, i25 (FoCo Denver) is horrific too. There have been days where I was stuck in traffic for north of 5 hours. i70 sucks, plain and simple. The only decent time to drive it is between 10PM and 4AM.

That said, thats only if you want to do an Epic pass. Steamboat is 3 hours through Cameron pass (top of the Poudre, so to speak), and there is rarely traffic. Downside is that not many CSU students get a boat pass (unless its offered with the SuperPass, is it? I'm not sure).

But, at CSU, backcountry is king. RMNP, Estes Park, and Cameron pass are all amazing, and totally doable for a dawn-patrol to get back for morning classes, just keep in mind you'll spend a solid chunk of time driving. Bank on at least 3 hours round trip to go touring, but most likely closer to 4.

That said, Fort Collins is fucking amazing, there is a phenomenal culture of raddness out here, skiing and climbing are definitely supreme. Not much downhill, unless you trek to Winter Park.
 
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