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ksampson3

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I'm trying to figure out what the least crowded resorts on the Epic pass at Christmas time would be (Note: the 3 that I list below are the ones that I'm interested in. And yes, I know that the BC resorts (Kicking Horse, Fernie, and Kimberly) would be a lot less crowded. We skied Kicking Horse at Christmas 2 years ago and there were not a lot of folks there.) Would you folks give me some feedback on the following 3:

Kirkwood
Crested Butte
Telluride

Maybe rank them in order of least crowded to most crowded. Thanks much.
 

djetok

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I have never been during x Mas to cb, I have been during mlk, presidents, new years, and spring break this year. The lines were not bad at all, especially spring break this year Oddly enough last year we did the same days minus presidents day and it was not as busy as last year.
 
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ksampson3

ksampson3

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One off of your list but perhaps the least crowded Epic resort would be Sun Valley. Perhaps the longest sustained steeps in the country but not the gnar.

The kids have no interest in Sun Valley. Too many groomers and not enough gnar.
 
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ksampson3

ksampson3

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I have never been during x Mas to cb, I have been during mlk, presidents, new years, and spring break this year. The lines were not bad at all, especially spring break this year Oddly enough last year we did the same days minus presidents day and it was not as busy as last year.

We've been to Crested Butte in March, but that was years ago before they were bought out by Vail. I was wondering how much more crowded it is now than it used to be.

Also, I'm assuming that all 3 resorts would be having a good early snow year. I typically wait until 2 weeks before Christmas to book my trip as I've been burned by booking too far in advance (I'm talking to you December 2017).
 

tball

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Even in a good snow year, it's rare that CB or T-ride will have any gnar open. Black single diamond bump runs are the best you'll get in a good year. It would have to be an off the charts exceptional year for double diamond terrain to open at Christmas.
 

Tony

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Whichever one has the least snow and fewest trails open will be the least crowded one.
Doesn't necessarily apply to CA resorts. A lot of people go to Tahoe (and CO) between Christmas and New Years no matter how much is open so crowds will be worse if there is not enough open to spread them out. This year was very good. See pictures I took of my son at Kirkwood on Dec. 2 this winter. Next year may not be the same.

Crested Butte and Telluride are not good choices early in season as most of the gnar will usually not be open. See http://bestsnow.net/swconet.htm which includes "February/March. Extreme terrain usually limited before February." under best time to ski for Crested Butte.
 
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ksampson3

ksampson3

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I'm really trying to figure out which pass to get that will get me a combo of open terrain and lower crowds during Xmas. Two years ago we did Lake Louise/Sunshine/Kicking Horse and last year we did Big Sky/Bridger. Both were really good choices as we had the Mountain Collective and crowds were sparse. I'll probably end up defaulting to Canada next year as the Revelstoke/Big3 (IKON) and Fernie/Kimberly/Kicking Horse (EPIC) choices are probably safe bets for decent early snow and low crowds.
 

gwasson

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Less snow and less trails could actually mean greater crowds

Right! Have you ever been to Killington during early season when no one else is open and they have limited terrain? Scary crowds
 

RJS

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Revelstoke/Big3 or Fernie/Kimberly/Kicking Horse could be good choices. Were Sunshine and Louise not crowded during Christmas break? That surprises me a bit, as they're the places that get crowded with day trippers from Calgary. I would have to imagine that even with possible traffic increases from Ikon and Epic, respectively, Revelstoke and Kicking Horse wouldn't be bad during Christmas break. I'll defer to Tony Crocker for guidance on how reliable each are for early season snowfall. My anecdote is that I skied them in mid-December last season (so in 2017) and that the snow was excellent up high. At Revelstoke you had to download on the gondola, but a lot of the magic at Revelstoke is in the higher elevation terrain anyway.

I haven't been to Sun Valley, Telluride, Crested Butte, or Kirkwood, but they also all sound like excellent choices.
 
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ksampson3

ksampson3

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Were Sunshine and Louise not crowded during Christmas break? That surprises me a bit, as they're the places that get crowded with day trippers from Calgary.

Yeah, we were shocked, too. We didn't find out until we got home from the trip why it was so uncrowded. The temps when we were there were insanely cold. On our drive from Canmore to Louise one morning it got down to -36 as we drove through the park. Hey, at least it warmed up to -15 by the time we got to the parking lot, where we parked in the first row in front of the lodge. It turns out that it was so cold that the locals refused to go skiing (the Calgary paper did an article about how much revenue the hills lost that week due to the cold weather). In retrospect, I'm not sure that I would have gotten out of bed if I lived locally. But, hey, it was Christmas vacation and I had already paid for the Mountain Collective - so SKI TIME!
 
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