Steep skiing out of boulder

A

andreweckels

Member
I'm from Washington but i just checked out CU boulder this weekend. The school and the surrounding area were awesome, but i drove up into the mountains and looked at some of the ski areas and they all looked kind of flat.

do breck keystone or eldora have much in the way of big steep faces or many cliffs.

A basin was the exception but its not all that big.

am i right that these mountains lack steep skiing, and if they do how far do i have to go to find it

also how is the backcountry around boulder, and how high up is there a snowpack most of the winter?
 
not really a whole lot of steep skiing in that area, southwest CO has alot like telluride and silverton. Berthoud Pass is fairly close to Boulder and parts of it are steep, check it out.
 
legit answer

yea there are some steeps, you have to look a little harder for them.

I'm guessing you saw lots of the resorts from I-70, if thats the case many resorts have backsides and bowls hidden up higher.

Eldora is pretty terrible compared to the rest of the resorts.

There is a bunch of backcountry around boulder. Me my brother and some friends are trying to explore around a little more this winter. About 20-45 minutes out of boulder will get you to a bunch of skiing, i'm not too sure of specifics, but my bro has a big list of things to ski this winter.

But, if you are going to ski backcountry here I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU GET AVALANCHE TRAINING, it is serious business, you can mess yourself up really badly or get killed
 
abasin has some pretty legit hike to terrain but it can have snow issues. breck is alright, nothing gnarly but you can entertain yourself IF you know where to go which seems to be a big issue for people not familiar with the area. keystone doesnt have much, some ok trees i guess. vail and beaver creek are fun but a little farther. heard good things about the backcountry around berthoud pass. that's about it for the colorado pass. what's your home mountain? i know i hit way more cliffs at stevens than i do around here, but the parks are just hands down the best in the world.
 
ive taken level 1 twice and got all my gear, although colorado snowpacks are very different then the PNW so i would definatly take a refresher if i went there

my home mountain is alpental, which is all steep and filled with cliffs

it was funny coming into the tour i was super stoked on the skiing and not really sure about the school, and left really stoked on the school and less hyped on the skiing.

thanks for all the answers, got a couple more questions though

how is eldora's park?

and is there much slackcountry at any of the I70 resorts?

 
eldora sucks at everything, no use in getting that pass. and definitely slackcountry around breck, theres sky chutes on the back side which end up at copper, the windows, peaks 6 and 7 and some stuff at 10. and abay has a bunch too. and then theres east vail which is a super fun zone even if it is a huge lap.
 
Eldora is terrible, park is barely even a park

slackcountry, again i've heard good things, but i'm just starting to get into the scene as well

The SKY chutes mentioned above are illegal if accessed via breck

good thing on the avy one classes
 
if you want steep, summit really isnt that good. Not saying its bad but all the gnarly/really good shit gets skied off way to fast with the amount of people. SW colorado seriously is da bomb though in terms of steeps and snow.
 
Everything i had to say has beem said, but yeah, there is come good backcountry in the front range within an hour of Boulder.
 
Why do people expect to get good backcountry in Summit? I just met a new chick at Abay who was from Washington expecting to get epic backcountry. This is why I'm planning a trip to Jackson.
 
I feel like most people have touched on the keypoints, but I'll try and fill in a little more detail and add my own personal opinions about the backcountry near Boulder.
Front Range BC outside of Boulder - I personally don't think the midwinter backcountry in this area is that good. More than anything else the Front Range is extremely windy, and the snowpack lies relatively high up, so skiing protected areas out of the wind is pretty difficult to find. The slackcountry around Eldora suffers from this problem: There is some good terrain, but unless you hit it after a recent snowfall you will probably be skiing heavily wind affected snow. However, springtime backcountry in the front range is awesome! Big lines, easy approaches and close to Boulder. Despite that there is definitely some good midwinter backcountry to be had especially up in RMNP and Rollins pass, although I have not skied Rollins in the winter.
Berthoud - Deeper snowpack than most of northern colorado. There are some big lines here, but most of them are off limits midwinter because of avalanche danger. There is awesome mini golf, drops and trees here.
Vail Pass - Deeper snowpack, good mini golf.
Loveland pass - the stuff clearly visible from the pass is generally not that amazing, but drop over into surrounding basins and there is some BIG terrain.
Souther Colorado - obviously awesome stuff. Generally a deeper snowpack than the front range, generally high avalanche danger too. Nor is this near Boulder.
Also, there is reasonably good bc in summit
 
That is if you haven't lived in Utah, Jackson Hole, Whistler, So. Colorado, most of the PNW..........

Don't kid yourself, in terms of the difficulty of resorts, slackcountry and backcountry Colorado may be the weakest of all the major Western states.
 
Records said it right, there is some amazing buisness to be found and you just have to look for it, the hunt is what makes the front range so fun, takes a long time to figure out whats good. Also it depends on whether you are willing to work for it; Rocky Mountain National Park is absolutely amazing and not far from Boulder, you just have to skin to hit the nasty lines.
 
A sled helps.
North and south fork outside of breck. Vail pass. Sledding out of Montezuma is pretty good. Boreas pass. Little Alaska.Lots of sick stuff along the divide via snowmobile.
In short, go to school in Boulder, be a weekend warrior, and when you have an extra $2000, buy a sled for the best access in Summit County.
 
I have done some slackcountry out of vail and it was a blast. Would highly recommend just getting a epic pass though.
 
really hard to find steep skiing around boulder, crested bute is probalby the closest which is like 6 hours away, jacksons 9 hours out though so i'd just go to boulder and make trips to jackson
 
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