Beaver Creek

Terrain:

Beaver Creek is a great place for beginner and intermediate skiers and boarders. This is also why Beaver Creek has an awesome ski and ride school. The sheer amount of introductory terrain and how it progresses into more advanced terrain helps those learning or wanting to improve their riding here. Specifically, Red Buffalo Park is the perfect area for kids to learn. Although it does take a few lifts to get there, so you need to be able to get on and off lifts already. Since there is so much beginner and intermediate terrain, Beaver Creek is the perfect place to ski with your family. The runs are open, given your family plenty of space to ski together and learn.

When wanting to improve your families skiing or boarding, the progression into more advanced terrain is integrated into the terrain. In these beginner and intermediate areas, you can find some blacks in between. This enables the rider to pop into the black to practice, but if it is too much simply pop back to the greens and blues. These blacks are also wide open to give you plenty of space to practice and enjoy.

For the parents who just want to drop their kids off at ski and ride school and go off to ski on their own, Beaver Creek has some great advanced terrain. Since Beaver Creek is for families who want to ski together, the advanced terrain is usually very empty and it isn’t hard to find fresh tracks. Specifically, the Upper and Lower Stone Creek Chutes are a blast to ski in. These are on the far left side of the mountain off of Red Buffalo and Rose Bowl Express Lifts. To get to these areas you do have to dodge a few ski and ride school groups and go through some kid areas, but then you will have these great tree runs to yourself. There is also an area the locals call the football field, which can’t be found on the map. This area is past the Cinch Express Lift. You have to go through a gate and hike, the length of a football field or less, and drop into a gully which almost always has fresh snow. This area starts as a big open field which falls into a gully made by the steam. The end of these runs can be tight trees next to the steam, so getting out can be a challenge, but worth the lovely powder that can be found at the top.

More great advanced terrain can be found on Grouse Mountain, which just has blacks and doubles blacks. Then there are great open aspen glades that are all over the resort. These can be found on the lower right side of the mountain. I spent almost an entire ski day going through these glades and dream about skiing them during the off season.

Beaver Creek has some great beginner learning terrain parks as well. These are perfect for getting into park riding. They are also a blast to take your kids through. The parks are set up so you can learn to hit features and eventually get better at hitting bigger and bigger features as you get more comfortable in the terrain park. But Beaver Creek also has hidden park features most people don’t know about. These are in the woods mainly on the front side of the mountain. These features are made out of wood and need a lot of snow to even be hittable. These features can be seen in a few ski and board edits and movies. When you’re exploring in the trees keep an eye out for them if you want to hit gnarly features in the woods. These are only for advanced terrain park skiers and boarders. They are often not used by most people at the resort so they can be hidden in snow, but if you’re daring enough, you could be the first to send them.

Base Elevation – 8,100 ft

Peak Elevation – 11,440 ft

Number of Lifts – 24

Number of Trails – 150

Total Terrain – 1823 acres

Easiest Terrain (Greens) – 38%

More Difficult Terrain (Blues) – 30%

Most Difficult Terrain (Blacks)  – 24%

Expert Terrain (Double Blacks) – 8%

Resort Hours – 8:30am-4pm Daily

Atmosphere and Locals:

Beaver Creek is known as the most luxurious family resort in Colorado. Thus, you will find mostly families at this resort. And not just Colorado families, but families from all over the world. I met families from South America, Europe and Asia while I was there. They have a great environment for kids of course. They offer free cookies at the end of the ski day. These are mainly for the kids, but if you ask nicely you can snag one for yourself as well. And who doesn’t love a warm chocolate chip cookie at the end of a good ski day?

Since Beaver Creek is aimed towards families, they have a great ski and ride school. This does mean that the school classes can be found all over the mountain. Which means you always have to be vigilant of where you’re going because there are usually kids everywhere.

For those skiing and boarding at Beaver Creek that are not families, you can find mainly employees enjoying a day off. Beaver Creek can be far for a day trip from Denver and most Summit County locals will go elsewhere to enjoy a ski day. Thus, you get more tourists than locals at this luxury resort.

Accessibility and Parking:

When driving around the Beaver Creek, it can be quite confusing with the, what seems like, an endless amount of roundabouts. Thank goodness for GPS, otherwise I would be going around in circles and miss out on the snow. They do provide free parking in almost all lots at the base and a free shuttle service all over Beaver Creek. This allows visitors to ditch the car on vacation and not worry about driving on snowy mountain roads.

Beaver Creek is also one of the resorts furthest up I-70 from Denver; over two hours. When going to Beaver Creek you do have to drive over Vail pass. This is one of the most dangerous areas on I-70. I see multiple crashes on this pass every single season. From tight corners, fast drivers and lots and lots of snow, always use extra caution when going over this pass in the winter. Have the proper winter car equipment and give yourself plenty of extra time getting to Beaver Creek.

Pricing: $$$

Lift Tickets – 

Currently Unavailable due to COVID-19.

Associated Season Pass – Epic Pass

Lessons – 

Currently Unavailable due to COVID-19.

Rentals – 

Demo Skis: $94

Performance Skis: $84

Sport Skis: $59

Junior Skis: $53

Demo Board: $94

Performance Board: $84

Junior Board: $53

For more information visit https://www.beavercreek.com/