Vail/Breck/Keystone pros/cons and Season accomodation 08/09

C

Chrischess

New member
Hi,

We are 6 Swedish guys who are going to spend our winter (1 Jan - 1 May)

somewhere in Colorado, mostly the resorts covered by the epic ski pass,

that is, Vail, Breck, Abasin, Keystone, Beaver C and (Heavenly).

Since none of us have been to either of the places we would like to know which resort to live in/nearby.

All of us are really into skiing, and have skied very much the last years, both big mountain and park.

Of course we know that there is no PERFECT resort, but we are looking

for a place that has the best overall skiing (trees, big mountain and

park).

We would also like to have close distance to the lifts, ski in /ski out

would be perfect, but bus is also ok, and we'll probably also buy a car.

We would be very greatful if any of you could give us some pros/cons

for the different resorts, and if any of you know a place where we

could stay (vail would be the best, but its hard to find accomodations

for the whole season, looks like ppl only want one year lease or

nightly) it would be wonderful! Our budget for the rent will be about

$5000 a month, less is better
smile.gif


Thanks,

Chris
 
I worked at keystone and lived in the employee housing there. They have 3 bedroom units and like dorm room style with 2 people living in the same room and a kitchen and bathroom between 2 rooms. The dorm style is cheaper but you dont get your own room. Both are right down the road from keystone and they have buses that will take you there. There was also older stuff they had to open up for the 06/07 season cause there were so many people wanting housing. It was cheaper and slopeside but I heard it was pretty shitty. You could try to find a place in frisco but you would probably want a car. Breck would probably be a good place like mentioned above because it wouldnt be to hard to get around.
 
Well seeing the projected number up there then they probably won't find it hard to find a place, but later in the season I can imagine it's bad. Been there, done that.
 
Don't count out the Beave, the mountain is super steep with great trees. We also have parks top to bottom on main mountain. I live in Employee housing over here, its ski in ski out and free bus acessed to the village. To live in a 4 bedroom apt it's $475 a month. You have to work for Beaver Creek to live here though, but there are tons of jobs. On top of all that Vail is 10 minutes away and the summit county resorts are under and hour drive.
 
Vail is where its at the best pow skiing u will get out of all the epic pass mountains.
Breck and Keystone have sick parks but shitty ass pow skiing
 
You don't want to pay that much to live in Silverthorne. You should be able to find a nice place to live really close to the mountain at Breck or Keystone for that price. Getting a place at the beginning of January is going to be tough, be prepared to crash on a few floors.
 
vail=most overrated mountain in CO
For all mountain a-baisin is where its at and if your getting an epic pass a breck keystone combo will be amazing for park
 
You could look into cheaper stuff in Frisco or Dillon/Silverthorne if you wanted to do that. There are buses to and from Breck and Keystone, and Vail's not a far drive. With the money you listed above though, you shouldn't have a problem finding something decent near the resort in Breck or Keystone. Basically, Keystone and Breck are good for park, Vail is really fun all mountain, and Beaver Creek has a fun but not big park, and pretty good all mountain skiing.

Breck Pros: Sick park, good town, great pipe

Cons: Park lifts can be really crowded causing for slow laps, can be windy and shitty, decent all mountain

Keystone Pros: Most diverse park and maybe the best, fast laps, night skiing park is way fun

Cons: Not as much to do outside of skiing, decent town

Vail Pros: Sick mountain if you know your way around, some alright BC in the area

Cons: Shitty park, not the best town unless you got a bunch of cash to spend, a bit of a drive from a good park.

Even though I listed cons for everything, they are all pretty good choices. You can't really go wrong in this area.
 
he said they had 5000 a month, which is a lot, you can get pretty much any place with that...one option might be to get 2 three bedroom duplexes, as a 6 bedroom will be kinda hard to find in january.
 
No matter what your choice breck and keystone are within 20 minutes of each other, keystone is within 20 minutes of a basin, vail is within 30 minutes of breck. Brecks a pretty cool town and central to the rest of the mountains on the pass your gonna wana go to so id say stay somewhere there
 
breck and keystone are about the same distance from vail...the most central town would be frisco, but then you have to drive or bus everywhere.
 
seriously? if u talk to any gaper and ask "what mountains are in CO?" they will be like umm vail and breck. everyone has heard of them.
 
Thank you for all the great replies, really appreciated!

Looks like we have decided to try to find something in either Vail or Breck.

We are not looking for a 6 bedroom condo/house, two or three bedrooms with queen/king size beds will do great.

By the way, whats up with having like 4-5 bathrooms in a 4 bedroom condo? :)

Which place (Vail or Breck) is best suited for "living" apart from skiing. Nightclubs, bars, after-ski? Supermarkets, ski shops, free buses et.c?

Is it cheaper to go out in Breck compared to Vail?

Is taxi expensive?

Where do most skibums live? are there more skibums in vail or breck?

Sorry for asking a thousand questions, but its kinda hard to choose a resport when you dont know anyone who has been there, and its one the other side of the atlantic :)

 
oh, and one more thing, we are not going to work at all, just a 6 month vacation in CO, including a trip to hawaii and a roadtrip along the west coast :)
 
You got it man, im sure the CO kids think every park sucks when you compare it to key or breck, but im moving to vail from virginia for the same reasons and im sure ill be more than happy with whatever vail has...compared to fucking wintergreen and massanutten, jesus christ. but ill hit you up cause we should rip it when i move out there in december.

as for the swedish guys, do you need a travel visa to stay that long? if you do, and you havent gotten one, you might be screwed. i know CO stopped handing out seasonal work visas for this year, so there wont be many foreign employees. if it's the same deal for long-term travel visas you all might be fucked already.

hopefully that's not the case though.

 
no it really is as good as they say its just you have to be able to deal with the people and the town ,which suck now. the park is really good but it is goin downhill slowly so i dunnoh but the all mountain is unbeatable
 
I'm really kind of dreading the day I move in.

Dude, it can't be 350. There must be something missing, but then again Keystone and Breck have more of a life than Vail.

BUT you do have a KICKASS Wal-Mart.
 
What are you dreading about it? Meeting new people or what?

Oh and I didnt know Vail had a Wal-mart. damnit

Hope my roommates have a car I can steal
 
I never said Keystone has a night life. Vail doesn't have much of a life unless you're a gaper and you shop at Gorsuch. Breck has the night life.

BTW I'm only 20, and I don't drink much.

The Wal-Mart is in Avon.
 
I'm dreading the part about moving in with someone I don't know or haven't even talked to before. I don't have a problem with meeting new people at all, but moving in with them right away is another story.

Sorry, I'm a postwhore.
 
seriously? yes, vail is well known, and most gapers think it must be the shit. "i wanna ski dem back bowls" is something i hear texans say in my shop whenever vail comes up. but the guy you quoted was right, vail is EXTREMELY overrated. sick bc lines on east vail, but the in bounds shit pales in comparison to alot of other CO mountains, especially in the san juans, and the back bowls are basically a long, flat, shitty traverse on the way to blue sky basin
 
dude, im with skifreeordie on this one, vail is a lot of fun to ride. it's not a BC haven, granted, but if i wanted that sort of thing id probably move way out to telluride or something. plus my backcountry game needs a lot of work because ive been rotting on the mid-atlantic coast for 3 years. but vail is a huge mountain and it's loaded with little spots for you to find and exploit...i doubt we'll have much trouble finding fun stuff to do.

im moving out there from VA in december and i chose vail/beave because it's not an overwhelming scene. i always feel really outclassed at breck and keystone when im completely surrounded by pros and up-and-comers...i dont think ill make a bunch of friends because that's not really my kind of thing. i know a lot of you can't fathom that feeling, but it's a little embarrassing for me sometimes when im trying to learn a new trick out at breck or key, and ive been working hard on it and eating shit all day, and i keep hearing people shouting at me from the lifts and being dicks because they're on a different level. sorry i don't get to ski eeeeeveryday, i go to school south of fucking DC...not exactly a bastion of park riding down there, but we do our best.

as far as night life, im sure there will be some days when we head out to summit to party, but im moving out there to ski and have fun. im perfectly content for my "nightlife" to include 4 or 5 friends, a couple cases of PBR, and a hidden moonlight jib of some kind. did i mention im going to be studying for the LSAT starting sometime late in the season? yeah, i dont need to be getting blackout all the time.

this thread is really starting to exemplify some of the problems this site has always had. namely, people hating on mountains and scenes based on personal preferences. but THAT'S JUST IT, everybody has their own ideal situation, and some people would just rather be away from the day-to-day over at keystone and breck, even though a lot of other people really love it over there. it's the same thing with people moving east to west, everyone has a different idea of what they want to do once they make the jump, just accept it. shit.

this thread is SUPPOSED to be about HELPING people figure out how to make the move, because last i checked we all supposedly love this sport. show some unity guys.
 
There is a Gorsuch at Keystone too.

You are moving to Summit County and don't drink much? We'll see how long that lasts. When the forecast for the next day is a high of 18, 70% chance of snow showers and wind gust up to 42 mph, you can only stay motivated for so long. Then you will turn to your only true friend, the handle of BV in your work locker.
 
Usually skiing with a better people surrounding you makes you a better skier. You just have to learn not to care what other people think, it will make you a better skier and happier overall. If some 14 year old throws switch 10s both ways in front of you, just laugh it off.

Plus I haven't seen much outward hating at Breck or Keystone. Most just keep it to themselves, the only time people will actually hate is when some day ticketed bro comes rolling through throwing the ugliest shit known to man. If it is the vibe of the park itself then just get over it. If you don't belong in there then it will feel that way to you.

People are helping him based on personal preference, not some scientific ranking system, that is all they have to go on. Vail doesn't not have good terrain or a good park, yes it is big. But there are a hundred mountain with better inbounds terrain.

Why the LSATs? Being a lawyer is so 1980's.
 
I know there is a Gorsuch at Keystone. The one in Vail is just a little more exquisite. Then in Vail you have Sweet Basil, The Red Lion and enough art galleries to...well...I don't know.

I don't really care about my drinking ability because drinking alcohol is not something I value in life, but sure...I'll keep a flask on hand. LAWL.
 
yah i know riding with better people makes you better, and i try to whenever i can. i really DONT belong in the keystone park sometimes though, and that only happened to me one day when i kept just killed over and over by the same rail when i was trying to learn blindside switchups, but it just pissed me off that there could be such a negative vibe with people around there sometimes. this was like 2 years ago though, so maybe shit has changed. still, it can be really, really fucking crowded on nice days.

and why the LSATs? because im a history major and i dont want to be a high school teacher, that's why.

i'm probably not going to be an actual lawyer anyway, but getting a law degree and passing the bar really open up a lot of sweet opportunities for you in a ton of fields. im not going to be some sort of American Psycho type, if that's what you mean.
 
the dc area just breeds lawyers, its inescapable. i think i would do vail personally because it has all around the best of everything. good park, its huge, and gets decent snow. i think i would pick vail if i were in your shoes
 
Yeah thats my problem, I dont drink at all (im only 18 too)

I put in for the quiet housing because I dont want to deal with people partying and throwing up on my carpet.

its strange because I am a DJ, but I dont drink
 
Honestly, give Keystone another chance. Things have changed and I think Keystone has the best vibe of any park ive ridden.
 
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