I always travel with a dog and I can’t say enough good things about lodging options for canine-human-blended families in Aspen and Snowmass. Well, two dogs – Duke and Bobbi. Duke is an American bulldog mix and Bobbi is a potcake from the Bahamas who won over Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell while shopping in Aspen last Christmas. Anyway, celebrities aside, my pups absolutely love Aspen and Snowmass because their resorts love dogs! Their favorite places to stay are Aspen’s The Little Nell (where the chef prepares doggie dinners nightly) and the Viceroy Snowmass, where they are treated like the canine celebrities they are.
More than seven feet of snow have already fallen at Copper Resort this season, where a number of U.S. Olympic snow sports teams train — Copper is hosting the slopeside and halfpipe sochi qualifying events Dec. 19-22 for example. But for those of us not qualified to ski in the Olympics, Copper is still super accessible. And the massive amount of recent snow is a good sign for those ready to gamble on Copper’s famed snow day pass (visit www.coppercolorado.com/snowdaypass to purchase). Here you pay $99 (it is only around for a limited time, so check online for expiration) and then you get to ski free every time it snows more than four inches the night before. The mountain usually gets around 30 of these snow days per season, so if you’re a Colorado native it’s a pretty safe bet.
On Jan. 1, Colorado becomes the first place in the world where you will be able to legally purchase taxed marijuana from a shop — Amsterdam’s coffee shops are still only quasi-legal. And while the ski resorts themselves are imposing strict rules about lighting up on the lifts — don’t try smoking Mary Jane while riding the lift, for instance — the après-ski scene is about to smell a lot different. So if you’re craving a legal Rocky Mountain high this winter, then head to Colorado. As the mayor of Snowmass announced to the crowd at the town’s annual holiday party in Denver a few weeks ago, “We haven’t changed our name to Snowmasterdam yet, but we might as well.”
This year the resort unveiled 543 acres of new terrain know as Peak 6 – to go along with Peaks 7, 8, 9 and 10, which are all linked by trails and lifts at this one-time raucous 19th century, silver-mining boomtoom. Today Breck is one of Colorado’s most popular resorts.
Loveland Ski Area sits on the Continental Dive and is one of the closest to Denver. As of Dec. 16, it reported a 113-inch base and seven lifts open. One cool thing about this resort is it offers free snowcat rides into back country terrain, offering you the opportunity to ski or board down virgin tracks.
The snow is already starting to pile up in Steamboat Springs, which is famous for its champagne powder and massive annual snowfall totals.
Wolf Creek is famous for epic annual snowfall totals, which are higher than any other Colorado resort. The problem with skiing Wolf Creek — in the San Juan Mountains in Southwestern Colorado — is the location isn’t exactly convenient to any airports. Albuquerque is the closest major airport and it’s five hours away. That said, if you make the trek, you’ll be rewarded with some of the sickest powder, not just in the state but the world.
Aww yeah, A-Basin, which is the highest-elevation ski resort in North America, is open for business and boasting packed powder conditions and a good early-season base. What I love about this resort is its perennial low-key (very Colorado) party attitude — it is known for impromptu parking lot tailgating parties and wacky festivals, plus it has closed as late as July 4.
If you live in Boulder or you’re visiting a family member attending college in this picture-perfect Rocky Mountain town and you have a hankering to ski, Eldora is the only resort in this corner of Colorado accessible by public transport. It’s located just 45 minutes from Denver. Pretty sweet, eh? And the powder isn’t bad either, especially not this year. If you don’t have a season pass, they’re also more affordable than a lot of other resorts.
On a bluebird champagne-powder day, nothing beats Vail’s backbowls in my book. I just love cutting fresh tracks through knee-deep powder without a tree or if I’m lucky (gotta go mid-week for that) another person in my sights. Best of all, if you’re not an expert snow rider, the Blue Ski Basin area allows you to experience the majesty of back-country bowl terrain at less steep inclines.
