X-mas Ski Trip

[Sibhusky]

Oh yeah. Whitefish will not be a direct flight. But the airport is only a half hour from the ski area. And we've only got three gates, so baggage retrieval and car rental is laughably easy compared to a big hub.

Direct flights from Seattle, Denver, Minneapolis, Salt Lake. The odd direct flight also from Las Vegas or Chicago.

 

[Philpug]

I hear people talk about Deer Valley controls ticket sales. Well, I went the first time I went there was for this reason and it was a zoo like any other resort. I think they limit any days ticket sales based upon the maximum that can sold.

 

[Jim McDonald]

My wife and I "went to Aspen" (actually, we stayed in Glenwood Springs and skied Jan 1 at Sunlight) in 2013 -- missed ya by a year, Tony!
Skied two days each at Ajax & Snowmass (coldest damn skiing I've ever experienced) and never waited more than one chair for a lift, except at Snowmass base where I think once we waited two chairs.
Conditions were OK, nothing soft anywhere, no fresh snow, off-piste was washboards and icy bumps but trails were groomed to perfection and very fast.
Fat Tire on tap at Snowmass base, bit after 3pm and we could walk right in and get stools at the bar.
Wife rented skis at Aspen base one morning without standing in a line; took longer to fill out the form than to get the skis and head for the gondola.
PITA factor moderate to high if not staying on-mountain, especially at Snowmass.

 

[ella_g]

Im biased but I think no one does Christmas quite like Northern Vermont. We're in NYC and spend xmas there bc my family is outside of Stowe. The quad opens at 730 and if you head up early you'll beat crowds. You can ski til noon, then eat lunch, ski more or xc ski, hike, snowshoe, dogsled, ice skate, the 9yo can indoor rock climb, Ben & Jerrys factory, etc etc. There's a lot to do. The flight from NYC is short (45 min) and the drive from Burlington is under an hour. There's plenty of cozy, Christmasy places to stay & good restaurants. If you get bored of Stowe you can ski a day at Smuggs, MRG, Sugarbush, blow the 9yo's mind and go to the waterpark at Jay, etc. Skiing Christmas Day is fun, and if you want to freeze you can head to the Old West Church in Calais which is heated by wood stoves and lit by candles for Xmas eve lessons and carols. If you're NYC public I'd skip school fri and beat the wknd travel crowds. In fact, you could skip school Thurs too, bc hey it's xmas

 

[Jerez]

Honest to Ullr, I didn't mean to be snarky.

Just that it will be a zoo, so why stress about that? Just go where you want that will have decent conditions and easy access (Heck, 2 out of 3 isn't bad.) and enjoy all the good things about skiing at Christmas. The lights, the torchlight parade, the good mood everyone is in. So you wait in line? Have fun.

 

[Tricia]

My wife and I "went to Aspen" (actually, we stayed in Glenwood Springs and skied Jan 1 at Sunlight) in 2013

Aspen as a destination out of Glenwood Springs makes Sunlight a great option.

I still think BigSky is a good option, with Bridger as a sidekick.

 

[TonyC]

Park City/Deer Valley may be in Utah, but they get half the snow of the Cottonwood Canyons. Most of the time there will be heavy snowmaking dependence at Christmas. I'd bet on surfaces at Aspen being better due to higher altitude and more north exposure. If you go to Salt Lake, stay in town for cheaper lodging and plan on skiing the Cottonwood Canyons, which have an excellent early season track record.

We don't have a budget per se but we do not have an unlimited budget either and things can indeed quickly add up during that time of the year.

Whether you can afford it or not, skiing during that week is a misallocation of resources vs. skiing at a more reasonably priced time. The saved $ could pay for extra skiing or whatever else is important to you.

LKLA has not answered the questions about other school vacation periods of the 9 year old.

 

[Crank]

When we were skiing onto the lifts at Solitude and Alta with no wait we heard horror stories about half hour lines at PC.

 

[Tricia]

Park City/Deer Valley may be in Utah, but they get half the snow of the Cottonwood Canyons. Most of the time there will be heavy snowmaking dependence at Christmas. I'd bet on surfaces at Aspen being better due to higher altitude and more north exposure. If you go to Salt Lake, stay in town for cheaper lodging and plan on skiing the Cottonwood Canyons, which have an excellent early season track record.


Whether you can afford it or not, skiing during that week is a misallocation of resources vs. skiing at a more reasonably priced time. The saved $ could pay for extra skiing or whatever else is important to you.

LKLA has not answered the questions about other school vacation periods of the 9 year old.

LKLA asked for advice for skiing during Christmas Week.
You've given your advice to consider an alternate time. Please learn to respect other members.
Not everyone has your flexible lifestyle. In fact, most people don't have your flexible lifestyle.

 

[Tricia]

I suspect that we can all agree that it's not the ideal time to travel for a ski vacation, but family, school and work schedules all dictate the plan. And, truth be told, it is most often still an awful lot of fun! Not optimal? Sure. Taking some chance on the amount of snow? To some degree, sure. And paying the top dollar prices for ANY destination resort? Yes.

This resonates with me.
My experience with people on the boot bench during the Christmas holiday, at the base of a major Tahoe resort includes the customer telling me that they ski 6 days a year and this is it.
There are many reasons that Christmas is the busiest ski week of the year which include(but are not exclusive to) schedules from other interests(soccer, basketball, band, etc), family events and obligations, available vacation time from mom and/or dad's work, ...

The idea is to make it the best Christmas ski trip you can.
Lets do our part to give the best advice.

 

[Muleski]

Agree, @Tricia.

A lot of people have very demanding careers, and many obligations. And for some, their ski season is one or two vacation weeks and perhaps two long weekends.

It sounds to me like @LKLA would like to plan a special and fun vacation over the Christmas break. One that the entire family will enjoy and remember.

At times I really think we need to do our very best to listen to the questions as posed, and to do our best to respond. Or in this case, best options or ideas given his needs..

Lots of good ideas offered. Probably no "perfect" answer!

 

[TonyC]

Not everyone has your flexible lifestyle. In fact, most people don't have your flexible lifestyle.

That may be true now but it was not for much of my ski career. I base this advice on my own experience during family years. My older son Adam took to skiing at an early age. Due to overall family and work obligations we had time for only one full week destination ski trip per season, though I might get in a 3 or 4 day weekend in addition. Furthermore my ex-wife was a teacher, also constraining some trips to school vacation periods.

The results of the one week vacations from 1983-2007?
14 were during the spring breaks of Adam or my ex, usually the week containing April 1. Only 1986 in Jackson was bad, but we salvaged most of that week by relocating to Salt Lake.
Two were for a week before Christmas in 1994 (Tahoe) and 1995 (Summit County CO). In both cases the trips were put together based upon good early snow in November.
Three were during the Christmas Zoo week. Mt. Bachelor 1985 was pretty good, and that's another solid recommendation for manageable holiday crowds and costs. The other two (Alta 1986-87 and Tahoe 1992-93) were severely crowd impacted and I chose not to repeat those experiences.

So no I don't buy that Christmas is the only time a family can take a week off for skiing. Some families maybe, but not most. It is precisely because I respect that people's time and financial resources are limited that I

on this topic every season. If you only have one full week per season for skiing, try to make the most of it!

And no disrespect to the OP, who may not realize that there are several of these threads every fall for the past decade or more. Since it's such a popular topic and may recur for the same families in future seasons, it's worth critical examination. If you take that one week at Christmas for multiple family years, it's going to add up to big $$$ over time with horrid snow conditions during some of those years like 2011-12.

 

[David Chaus]

^^^^^^ which is precisely why I mentioned less prominent, and therefore less crowded and less expensive places like Schweitzer and Sun Peaks, both places I have been to between Xmas and New Years, with nary a lift line and many wide open slopes.

 

[TonyC]

^^^^^^ which is precisely why I mentioned less prominent, and therefore less crowded and less expensive places like Schweitzer and Sun Peaks, both places I have been to between Xmas and New Years, with nary a lift line and many wide open slopes.

These, along with Whitefish, are constructive suggestions, as is Mt. Bachelor which I mentioned in my previous post. But the OP constrained himself further by wanting direct flights. The point I'm making is to think outside the box and minimize those constraints as much as possible. And I'm not advocating doing anything I didn't do myself when I was taking my kids on ski trips with limited available time.

 

[Monique]

Another general thought: zoos tend to develop and worsen through the day. Wherever you go,

• start with the first chair
• Lunch when it gets heaviest, 11 to noon
• Back to the slopes while everyone eats
• Might need to leave when they all come back, but hey

Husband and I used to have a tradition of skiing Christmas day at Vail. The mornings before 11am were a ghost town. Wonderful skiing.

(Now that we have a condo elsewhere, we can't bring ourselves to drive to Vail.)

Is slopeside a requirement? If not, what about Loveland in Colorado? Okay, it's small for a Colorado resort - but one word no one ever uses for Loveland is "crowded."

 

[ChrisFromOC]

I would welcome recommendations for a family ski trip (two adults and a nine year old) over the x-mas break (Dec. 25 - Jan. 1)?

Our two priorities are few crowds and direct flight from NYC / no more than 1-2 hour drive from local airport. Decent conditions/terrain would be nice as well .

While places like Vail came to mind, I am afraid that it will be a zoo during that time. I am also not sure what conditions tend to be like at that time of the season (on the early side). Perhaps places in UT or WY tend to have better conditions then places in CO or MT. Not sure.

Thanks!

My family has done trips to Park City that time of year many times. School-aged kids and busy sports schedules really limited our options as to when we could go ski for a week or so. Sure, there were always crowds and the snow was somewhat sketchy some years, but all in all the trips were incredibly fun time with the family.

My oldest is now in college in Denver, so we will be heading to Breckenridge for a week around New Year's time this winter. I have no doubt that it too will be a great time for all, crowds and all.

Enjoy.

 

[Scotty I.]

When my kids were young, we took them to Mt. Bachelor every Christmas for two weeks. It was never crowded. Sun River is a great place to stay. The best two weeks of skiing that I've ever had was on one of those trips - one storm after another every single day. We drove there from California, but Portland, OR is about three hours away and easy to fly in to. Imperative to have a car there.

 

[Jersey Skier]

I've done a bunch of the popular destinations during Xmas week over the years. Most were crowded, but we never had a bad time. Thankfully my son just started his senior year of HS so this "should" be our last vacation restricted to this week. Big Sky was by far the least crowded during Xmas week. I'm leaning that way again for that reason. There are direct flights from Newark for the OP too.

 

[teledance]

Whitefish can be a zoo at XMAS, but that was my experience, having a local tell me they do 50% of their business in that 2 weeks was obvious.
Silver does have a waterpark in case of bad snow or a bored 9 yo, and XMAS is not as bad as Presidents day.

 

[Jersey Skier]

This thread got me thinking (for myself or the OP). What about Europe for Xmas. Good, better or worse than the US that week? Any recommended areas that are relatively easy to get to?