Resort Review: Winter Park, CO
I’ve been to Winter Park a total of 3 times. The first trip was back in 2004. It was a bit of a romantic Thanksgiving trip with my girlfriend at the time. The snow conditions were fairly good. We had accomodations across the main road from the resort. It was just far enough that we took the free shuttle. My second trip happened on New Years of 06. This was a great trip with good friends. Seven of us drove out in a rented van and crammed into a tiny motel room. Again we had fairly good snow conditions. Our little motel room was in the town of Winter Park. My most recent trip was this past season. I went with 3 friends on a locally organized bus trip for Thanksgiving 06. The snow conditions were not very good. We got very little fresh snow and the existing snow as packed hard.
Winter Park is connected to another mountain called Marry Jane. You’ll see bumper stickers proudly explaining Mary Jane “is a hooker, not a drug” often followed by “and I ride her every day.” The main mountain has lots of enjoyable runs and is well designed for beginners. It drops about 1700 feet and has roughly the same amount of beginner, intermediate, and advanced runs. Mary Jane, on the other hand, drops over 2600 feet and is 80 percent advanced runs.
The mountain has a handful of terrain parks and usually sports a nice half pipe. Some of the larger jumps I’ve ever tried were during the new years trip at Winter Park. There are usually a variety of jumps, big and small. They did have some rails, although not a lot. The locals are good riders and can be really fun to watch. I did notice, however, that the locals aren’t very eager to give riding advice to Texans.
One of my favorite things about Winter Park is the base camp area. They’ve got a nice fire pit, lots of stores, and a nice open area to hang out in and compare stories with your friends. All of the staff I’ve interacted with have been great – some of them just down right fun. Unfortunately, I’ve never stayed in one of the rooms on the slopes, so I can’t really comment on them. I know the whole area is currently under heavy renovation so I’m sure things are getting even better. Apparently the company doing a lot of the improvements is the same company that did Whistler.
I think, for the most part, Winter Park is known for getting good snow. I have found resorts such as Wolf Creek that simply have better average conditions. My biggest complaint about Winter Park has to be the crowds. Even if you get away from the base camp area, you’re still likely to see lines on the lifts – especially around holidays. They do have some nice high speed lifts.
The most interesting thing I’ve heard about at Winter Park are the hidden huts. I’ve yet to look for them. They are apparently out of bounds and often stocked with emergency… medical?… supplies by the locals. I’ve seen photos of these huts so I’m sure they exist. I might try looking for one on my next trip out.
All in all, it’s one of the better places I’ve been. If you don’t mind a very commercial experience, you’ll probably love Winter Park. If you hate commercial, maybe you can just try and stay on the Marry Jane side of things. If you find a hut, give me directions! On a scale of 1 to 10, I give Winter Park an 8.5.