Looking for advice for southern Colorado

[MarzNC]

So I have a trip planned with ski buddies to Taos in February. Last season we drove to SLC after a Taos Ski Week, and finished up with a few days at Steamboat. It was nice to fly home on a non-stop from Denver. This season we are thinking about the idea of driving north into Colorado. Would be skiing the week before Pres. Day weekend. Idea is to ski Sun-Wed and fly out on Thu.

I've skied relatively little in Colorado for assorted reasons. Higher altitude is one of them. Since becoming an advanced skier (after age 55) who likes bumps and trees, I skied a half day at ABasin following a friend (Jim Kenney), did a couple trips to Aspen (all four mountains), and caught a powder day at Steamboat.

Wolf Creek would probably be the the first stop. Question is where to go after that? Does Wolf deserve two days? I'm interested in checking out Monarch and Loveland. Haven't been to any of these places. But also curious about Copper, and we all have Ikon.

Any suggestions about where to sleep? Especially for Wolf and Monarch. My friends and I are on the spoiled side. Prefer a decent hotel or lodge and we don't usually share a room. We sometimes shared a condo or house when staying 3+ nights. My go to motel is usually a Best Western if there's one around.

Paging @jamesdeluxe or anyone else with experience at Wolf and/or Monarch.

 

[Milo Maltbie]

I've never been to Wolf. Monarch is worth a day, but it's small by Western standards. It's a struggle for me because the parking lot is almost at 11000 feet, but you can stay in Salida, which is a nice town with lots of lodging and only 7000. Loveland is worth a day or two. I like Copper almost as much as A Basin.
Plan on all your plans being disrupted. Last year the concern in Colorado of Denver residents mixing with tourists prevented reopening late in the season. The operating plans for next season seem to be converging on 50% capacity, reservations and no food and beverage. That seems like a prescription for operating losses, and you have to wonder how many areas are willing or even able to bear those losses. OTOH maybe travel will be down so much that limited capacity has no effect.
I'll go to Denver to visit my grandchildren, but I have no expectations about skiing.
Good luck.

mm

 

[jamesdeluxe]

Paging @jamesdeluxe or anyone else with experience at Wolf and/or Monarch.

I don't have any experience with Telluride, Purgatory, or Wolf Creek due to the long drive times. Check out my TRs and article about Monarch (if it has fresh snow, there's enough to keep you busy for two days/as MM mentions, overnighting in Salida is easy) and Crested Butte, which I don't consider to be southern Colorado.

 

[MarzNC]

I've never been to Wolf. Monarch is worth a day, but it's small by Western standards. It's a struggle for me because the parking lot is almost at 11000 feet, but you can stay in Salida, which is a nice town with lots of lodging and only 7000. Loveland is worth a day or two. I like Copper almost as much as A Basin.

Thanks. Good to know about lodging in Salida. One reason checking out Colorado skiing a bit before heading home is that we'll have been sleeping at 9000 ft at Taos Ski Valley for a week beforehand. I'll start with two nights in Taos, which is 7000 ft. That's worked out pretty well in the last few years.

One friend from the east coast has been reading about the trees at Monarch. She has issues with low visibility so that's why she's interested in Wolf and Monarch. My ski buddy who lives in Albuquerque (I'll be riding with him) likes Wolf but doesn't have local friends willing to ski trees any more. He's pushing 70 and his advanced skier friends are even older.

Plan on all your plans being disrupted. Last year the concern in Colorado of Denver residents mixing with tourists prevented reopening late in the season. T

I'm well aware of what happened in CO in the spring in the weeks after the ski resorts closed abruptly. I started reading everything I could find after getting home from Steamboat on Feb. 19. A ski buddy from NC flew to Denver for a spring break ski trip in March with his daughter. I thought the day before he left, they would get in a few days of skiing before things shut down. But they arrived the day every lift shut down by order of the Governor. They spent two nights in a condo in Aspen and he managed to get an early flight home. The good news was that the condo owners refunded money and he got a flight voucher from the airline. He may join me in CO.

There were documented cases of COVID-19 in February of people who took ski vacations at destination resorts in Colorado. What made local public health authorities sit up and take notice was the death of a woman over 80 who attended a bridge tournament in Colorado Springs for several days while she was infectious. That bridge tournament in late Feb was the source of a serious outbreak, with other deaths. It was pretty sad.

 

[jamesdeluxe]

You're not hitting any of the other northern NM ski areas? None have Taos's high-end terrain but all are worth checking out.

 

[MarzNC]

I don't have any experience with Telluride, Purgatory, or Wolf Creek due to the long drive times. Check out my TRs and article about Monarch (if it has fresh snow, there's enough to keep you busy for two days/as MM mentions, overnighting in Salida is easy) and Crested Butte, which I don't consider to be southern Colorado.

My ABQ ski buddy, Bill, knows Telluride and Purgatory well. The same crew thinking about CO after Taos this time went to Telluride after Taos the last year it was on the MCP. He likes Purgatory. But neither are exactly on the way to Denver, so not on the list this time. The non-stop flight out of Denver is a key factor for which way to drive from Taos.

Saving CB for a winter when it's worth getting an Epic pass.

Bill will drive anywhere for a ski trip. He's also originally a New Yorker and went to North Country School a few years before I did. But we didn't start skiing together until 2008 at the first annual NCS alumni event at Alta Lodge in April. He's an old bachelor with no pets, so can be away from home for as long as he likes. He bought a Range Rover Sport and equipped it with two ski boxes a while back when I started organizing mid-season ski trips every winter. Longest ski safari he and I did was in May 2018. He picked me up in Boise and I flew home from Las Vegas. We skied Bachelor, Mt. Hood Meadows, Squaw, and Mammoth, plus spent a day in Death Valley.

It's great that you did the work to help pull over your trip reports to Xenforo. Thanks!

 

[MarzNC]

You're not hitting any of the other northern NM ski areas? None have Taos's high-end terrain but all are worth checking out.

Do any have good trees? That's what the friend who started the idea is most interested in. She's the youngest and still working full-time building a career so for trips with her, I tend to follow her lead. She also is the most fun to plan ski trips with over the summer. The other friends are generally happy to let her and I all the research and come up with a plan.

A couple years ago I stopped by to look at the base of Pajarito on the way to Taos. It was mid-Jan and midweek so not crowded. It had snowed a lot the week before. Looked like fun but I was with an intermediate and we were meeting another friend for dinner so didn't take the time to ski that day.

 

[Cornhead]

Wolf Creek is pretty sweet, think miniature Abasin. Nice trees. I left Taos without gassing up, was looking on my phone for gas stations. I asked a guy who got dropped off hitchhiking if I was going to hit a gas station, he said yes, then said, he thought it was closed. I turned around and went back to Taos for dinner and gas, 20 miles. It doesn't seem like a great place to run out. I don't remember if I had cell service, but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't, no one lives out there.

I was surprised to find a hoard of Texans at Wolf Creek. I was surprised they drove that far. They were at Taos too. Early in the morning everything was hard as rock. I had to stick to groomers. I felt like Body Miller amongst all those Texans.

 

[MarzNC]

Wolf Creek is pretty sweet, think miniature Abasin. Nice trees. I left Taos without gassing up, was looking on my phone for gas stations. I asked a guy who got dropped off hitchhiking if I was going to hit a gas station, he said yes, then said, he thought it was closed. I turned around and went back to Taos for dinner and gas, 20 miles. It doesn't seem like a great place to run out. I don't remember if I had cell service, but I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't, no one lives out there.

I was surprised to find a hoard of Texans at Wolf Creek. I was surprised they drove that far. They were at Taos too. Early in the morning everything was hard as rock. I had to stick to groomers. I felt like Body Miller amongst all those Texans.

Wolf has been on my CO bucket list for a while.

LOTS of Texans in Taos, especially on holiday weekends. Place felt like 50% Texans in the mornings the one time I went during MLK week. Most were off the slopes after 2pm.

I understand the feeling about gas stations in that region. My first trip to Taos I had a rental car. The plan was that one of my ski buddies and I would do a Wed-Wed trip while other ski buddies did Fri-Fri. I drove him to ABQ on Wed morning and dropped him off after lunch for his flight. Went to experience the Sandia Tram since my flight wasn't until the next morning. But my Southwest flight was canceled just as I was ready to leave the Tram park. Ironically due to snow . . . in Baltimore. I decided to re-schedule for two days later and head right back to Taos since my friends were still there. Didn't think to stop for gas until after I was past Santa Fe. The fuel gauge was on empty when I found a gas station near one of the casinos in the middle of nowhere. I was pretty relieved since it was getting dark by then.

Texans who drive to Wolf remind me of Floridians who drive all the way to WV to ski at Snowshoe on a holiday weekend. I've also run into families from FL who don't know how to ski at the Massanutten ski lodge. There are non-skiing parents who put the kids in ski school and hang out at the lodge. In the evenings the entire family enjoys the indoor water park or snow tubing.

 

[MarzNC]

Question about Monarch, does it ever develop bumps? My friend read that Wolf doesn't really get bumps due to lots of snow and relatively few people.

While I've learned to enjoy bumps, powder in a bowl or trees is what I'm hoping for during any trip out west.