Hey Everybody,
We've been talkin' about the Colorado options since Utah and the two locations we would do Monopalooza 2010 are either Summit County or Aspen.
HHmmmm,
It seems we are almost completely split on Vail/Copper zone or Aspen area. Open discussion in this thread...
Vote Here:
http://lateralpressure.yuku.com/topic/1429
For all of you taking a two week trip, if MonoP is in Aspen, we will only be there Thursday through Sunday and will hang in the Summit area the rest of the time which offers Loveland, A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper, Vail and Beaver Creek. Copper works with local gas stations offering 2 for 1 deals and these passes are also good at Winter Park 1.5 hours from Summit and Monarch 2 hours from summit but only 1.25 hours from my house in Leadville... maybe Steamboat this year which is 1.5 hours from Summit. Vail and Beaver Creek have no deals on tickets unless you are riding with a passholder. If staying in Summit, Vail can be a treacherous drive over Vail Pass and you might not make it there just because you want to ride at Vail. Us passholders get 4 $59 tickets and there are a lot of us. This discount will be hard to find pre and post MonoP due to the locals having to work. We also get regular discounts daily but the specifics change each season. A lot of us that have the Vail/Copper passes rarely if ever go to Aspen, so it would be a nice treat for many of us to travel to a destination resort rather than fighting the potential crowds on the I-70 corridor.
Aspen:
Those of us in Colorado can get discount passes to Aspen ski areas for 4 or 7 days pretty reasonably priced in the Fall, but you can't just order the pass, you must be there. I have a friend that lives in the Aspen Valley that is great friends with Aspen's Prez', and his wife runs a department on all 4 mountains as well, so ordering bulk tickets for all the non-colorado residents might be possible or maybe it will be a good deal for the Colorado residents to get on board as well if that gives us steeper discounts, like what we did with Squaw a few years ago. This is a lot of work to collect $$$ for discount tickets, so I'll know more by the Fall, maybe we can have a direct call-in offer optioned... ???
Lodging:
The big house won't be a problem, plenty in our price range, but nothing bigger than a 7 bedroom thus far. The rest of the valley does have some deals and considering the economy, there might be more lodging deals popping up by next winter season. Ed Small stays in Carbondale at the Super 8 for $100ish, but that's a half hour from town. If you can all get together on renting townhouses, you can get reasonable deals, but the 2 person thing will leave you spending some big bucks for lodging.
Transportation:
Flying into Aspen isn't cheap and the drive from Denver is about 3.5 hours, thus why a lot of Denver locals don't go to Aspen much. I'd suggest organizing flights together and getting a super stretch limo that can handle 8 to 10 people ... or renting a car. Free bus system all around the valley.
Nightlife:
The Aspen nightlife is def' very fun and they have some extremely nice restaurants as well as a few cool locals hangouts. The food on the mountains is excellent just like the rest of the valley
Summery:
Snow loading similar to Summit/Vail, but different storms drop here, always a crap shoot on snow, expensive lift tickets without buying on bulk or being a Colorado resident, lodging reasonable if you get together with others, long trip from DIA, fun night life, superb dining and something very different as far as skiing for those that have been to the center of the I-70 corridor and nowhere else. Those taking extended trips, you will be in Summit County anyways the rest of the time. Highlands and Snowmass are the best mountains, but we'd have to ski Ajax (Aspen Mountain) because you ski right into the middle of town, probably after ski party at Cooper Street, nice locals bar with plenty of space to hang.
Summit/Eagle:
Most of us in Colorado have either a Copper Pass or a Vail/Summit Pass and can get discounts for noon-passholders at the window. Phillipps 66 had 2 for 1's this year with purchase of 10 gallons to Copper Winter Park and Monarch. 4 packs are available to Copper and some good deals to some of the other summit zones. Copper offers a $399 pass to Copper, Winter Park and 6 days at Steamboat, Vail offers the Colorado pass for $479 to A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge with 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek or the Epic Pass to all the same resorts with unlimited days at Vail and Beaver Creek as well as unlimited skiing at Heavenly Valley in California. So if we go to Aspen, some of these potential pass deals will not quite be worth it for the travelers.
Lodging:
Plenty of reasonable and very nice lodging options available across the board in Summit. Same with Vail/Beaver Creek but a bit more expensive.
Transportation:
1:45 hours from DIA less than an hour from The Eagle/Vail airport, plenty of shuttle options available, discounts for groups taking the shuttles together, reasonable rates for limos in a group too, then you can work their liquor cabinets. Free shuttle all around Summit County, but no buses over to the Vail area and vise-versa for Vail area over to Summit.
Nightlife:
Plenty of options for evening play and dining throughout Summit and Eagle counties.
Summery:
A bit cheaper to travel here with more discounted pass options, weekends are far more crowded than Aspen which is a destination area. We probably wouldn't make it over to Aspen for any skiing but have the option of Steamboat and Winter Park if we want to travel a little bit. For those staying at my place in Leadville, I'm sure we will go to Monarch and maybe Ski Cooper for fun. www.coloradogems.com this a great pass to have for skiing all the little places worth $10 most places, so it's worth it (cost $10) if you go twice.
For most of you, regardless where we have MonoP this year, you will probably be flying into Denver though Grand Junction or Eagle Vail airport is a bit closer to Aspen.
I think this forum has a survey option, I'll be looking into it a little more in the coming weeks so maybe we'll just have to do a flat out vote. I will be promoting Monopalooza to monoskiers hard this year, I'm refining my database and will be in contact with somewhere around 1000 monoskiers in North America within the next couple of months trying to get more Monopalooza visitors. I would guess we could get 2X as many monoskiers at the Summit/Vail area's than Aspen with over 300 monoskiers in state (in my database anyways)
Now that you are all totally confused....
We've been talkin' about the Colorado options since Utah and the two locations we would do Monopalooza 2010 are either Summit County or Aspen.
HHmmmm,
It seems we are almost completely split on Vail/Copper zone or Aspen area. Open discussion in this thread...
Vote Here:
http://lateralpressure.yuku.com/topic/1429
For all of you taking a two week trip, if MonoP is in Aspen, we will only be there Thursday through Sunday and will hang in the Summit area the rest of the time which offers Loveland, A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge, Copper, Vail and Beaver Creek. Copper works with local gas stations offering 2 for 1 deals and these passes are also good at Winter Park 1.5 hours from Summit and Monarch 2 hours from summit but only 1.25 hours from my house in Leadville... maybe Steamboat this year which is 1.5 hours from Summit. Vail and Beaver Creek have no deals on tickets unless you are riding with a passholder. If staying in Summit, Vail can be a treacherous drive over Vail Pass and you might not make it there just because you want to ride at Vail. Us passholders get 4 $59 tickets and there are a lot of us. This discount will be hard to find pre and post MonoP due to the locals having to work. We also get regular discounts daily but the specifics change each season. A lot of us that have the Vail/Copper passes rarely if ever go to Aspen, so it would be a nice treat for many of us to travel to a destination resort rather than fighting the potential crowds on the I-70 corridor.
Aspen:
Those of us in Colorado can get discount passes to Aspen ski areas for 4 or 7 days pretty reasonably priced in the Fall, but you can't just order the pass, you must be there. I have a friend that lives in the Aspen Valley that is great friends with Aspen's Prez', and his wife runs a department on all 4 mountains as well, so ordering bulk tickets for all the non-colorado residents might be possible or maybe it will be a good deal for the Colorado residents to get on board as well if that gives us steeper discounts, like what we did with Squaw a few years ago. This is a lot of work to collect $$$ for discount tickets, so I'll know more by the Fall, maybe we can have a direct call-in offer optioned... ???
Lodging:
The big house won't be a problem, plenty in our price range, but nothing bigger than a 7 bedroom thus far. The rest of the valley does have some deals and considering the economy, there might be more lodging deals popping up by next winter season. Ed Small stays in Carbondale at the Super 8 for $100ish, but that's a half hour from town. If you can all get together on renting townhouses, you can get reasonable deals, but the 2 person thing will leave you spending some big bucks for lodging.
Transportation:
Flying into Aspen isn't cheap and the drive from Denver is about 3.5 hours, thus why a lot of Denver locals don't go to Aspen much. I'd suggest organizing flights together and getting a super stretch limo that can handle 8 to 10 people ... or renting a car. Free bus system all around the valley.
Nightlife:
The Aspen nightlife is def' very fun and they have some extremely nice restaurants as well as a few cool locals hangouts. The food on the mountains is excellent just like the rest of the valley
Summery:
Snow loading similar to Summit/Vail, but different storms drop here, always a crap shoot on snow, expensive lift tickets without buying on bulk or being a Colorado resident, lodging reasonable if you get together with others, long trip from DIA, fun night life, superb dining and something very different as far as skiing for those that have been to the center of the I-70 corridor and nowhere else. Those taking extended trips, you will be in Summit County anyways the rest of the time. Highlands and Snowmass are the best mountains, but we'd have to ski Ajax (Aspen Mountain) because you ski right into the middle of town, probably after ski party at Cooper Street, nice locals bar with plenty of space to hang.
Summit/Eagle:
Most of us in Colorado have either a Copper Pass or a Vail/Summit Pass and can get discounts for noon-passholders at the window. Phillipps 66 had 2 for 1's this year with purchase of 10 gallons to Copper Winter Park and Monarch. 4 packs are available to Copper and some good deals to some of the other summit zones. Copper offers a $399 pass to Copper, Winter Park and 6 days at Steamboat, Vail offers the Colorado pass for $479 to A-Basin, Keystone, Breckenridge with 10 days at Vail and Beaver Creek or the Epic Pass to all the same resorts with unlimited days at Vail and Beaver Creek as well as unlimited skiing at Heavenly Valley in California. So if we go to Aspen, some of these potential pass deals will not quite be worth it for the travelers.
Lodging:
Plenty of reasonable and very nice lodging options available across the board in Summit. Same with Vail/Beaver Creek but a bit more expensive.
Transportation:
1:45 hours from DIA less than an hour from The Eagle/Vail airport, plenty of shuttle options available, discounts for groups taking the shuttles together, reasonable rates for limos in a group too, then you can work their liquor cabinets. Free shuttle all around Summit County, but no buses over to the Vail area and vise-versa for Vail area over to Summit.
Nightlife:
Plenty of options for evening play and dining throughout Summit and Eagle counties.
Summery:
A bit cheaper to travel here with more discounted pass options, weekends are far more crowded than Aspen which is a destination area. We probably wouldn't make it over to Aspen for any skiing but have the option of Steamboat and Winter Park if we want to travel a little bit. For those staying at my place in Leadville, I'm sure we will go to Monarch and maybe Ski Cooper for fun. www.coloradogems.com this a great pass to have for skiing all the little places worth $10 most places, so it's worth it (cost $10) if you go twice.
For most of you, regardless where we have MonoP this year, you will probably be flying into Denver though Grand Junction or Eagle Vail airport is a bit closer to Aspen.
I think this forum has a survey option, I'll be looking into it a little more in the coming weeks so maybe we'll just have to do a flat out vote. I will be promoting Monopalooza to monoskiers hard this year, I'm refining my database and will be in contact with somewhere around 1000 monoskiers in North America within the next couple of months trying to get more Monopalooza visitors. I would guess we could get 2X as many monoskiers at the Summit/Vail area's than Aspen with over 300 monoskiers in state (in my database anyways)
Now that you are all totally confused....
). so YEAH, come along to austria !!!
can organize it if you like ! (and they won't stop you on the piste for speeding.....)
