Winter Park

by Nathan Borchelt and Claire Walter

Winter Park, the closest ski resort to Denver, has long had the reputation as Colorado’s favorite ski area. It's understandable that lucky locals who have the best skiing on earth on their doorstep appreciate a ski area with grandiose and varied terrain, constant upgrades to lifts and day lodge facilities, consistently good snow, exceptional children's and beginner facilities, and moderate prices. And the fact that it’s not on most tourists’ radars makes the resort all the more of a treasure.

Think of Winter Park as three mini-resorts in one, with three main peaks to choose from—but the overall experience is best described as no-frills fun. Winter Park has the biggest supply of green, blue, and black trails, Mary Jane sports a huge stash of ultra-steep black bump runs along with Parsenn Bowl via the Timberline Lift. The latter is an above-the-treeline realm with wide-open blue and blue-black runs that feed into a bounty of tree skiing with pines sparse enough for even novice glade skiers and ‘boarders to link their turns. Mary Jane’s summit also links up to Whistlestop and High Lonesome, two green trails that beginners can cruise for 2,200 feet. And if your skill levels register on the other end of the spectrum, there’s Vasquez Cirque, 435 acres of expert-only terrain—just take Timberline to the top, hike it to one of five extreme headwalls and chutes, and keep the cursing to a minimum. Tree skiers typically gravitate toward the lower region of Parsenn Bowl or the stretch of pines between Drunken Frenchmen and Outhouse, which offers tighter turns, provided it’s not skied out.

The three terrain parks are all on the Winter Park peak, and include Dark Territory. Introduced during the 2005-06 season, this special-access portion of the Railyard Park is no joke; it’s got some of the sickest freeriding terrain in the state, but to get access you have to attend a safety orientation, sign a liability form, and pay a $20 season-long access fee.

The confluence of three peaks within one resort can make for a confusing time—especially if you’re on the far slopes of Mary Jane and need to meet folks for lunch near Winter Park. But this also lends an element of frontier discovery to Winter Park—just don’t be ashamed about pulling out the trail map if you end up skiing down slopes that look inviting, rather than the ones that should lead you where you want to go.

Lodging is relatively inexpensive within the nearby town of Winter Park, and there are two slope-side options, Iron Horse and the Zephyr Mountain Lodge. The Ski Train also makes daily trips from downtown Denver to Winter Park, depositing you shy of the park entrance just as the lifts start running, and returns to Denver each evening. The resort also offers a unique alpine dining experience: the Zephyr Express lift is modified to accommodate 20 gondola cabins for supper service at the Lodge on Sunspot, so it may pay to linger around after the lifts stop running.

Winter Park also is home to the world's finest program for teaching the disabled to ski.

Where: 67 miles from Denver, via I-70 and U.S. 40.

What's There: 2,610-foot vertical drop, 134 trails, 2,762 acres, eight high-speed quads, four triples, seven doubles, five Magic Carpets, and three terrain parks, including the special-access Dark Territory.

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