Keystone or Winter Park?! (Vail, Silverthorne: ski resorts, home, where to live)

[Mitis006]

Hey im looking for some advice on where to live next year... Keystone or winter park? I've never been to either but am moving from Canada, and would like to know some personal opinions about each area. Which hill is more advanced? Who usually gets better snow? What about lines? Better powder/ tree skiing? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated

[Josseppie]

Well if you live in Keystone you have the option of all the ski resorts in Summit County, Brek, A-Basin, Copper Mountain. So I would go with Keystone.

[Fuzz]

Both resorts have advanced terrain -- at Keystone you may have to explore a bit more for it. Winter Park gets better snow. Since I haven't skied WP in a few years, can't tell you how the lines compare. You can get better pow days at WP. Both resorts have great tree skiing. If you like bumps, WP will be heaven (specifically the Mary Jane side).

The advantage of Keystone is the proximity to many other ski areas and better social life.

[BarryK123]

I'm at WP now, for the first time. I probably won't come back. My biggest issue with the place is all the poling required to move around the mountain. Most of the connector trails are either flat or even uphill in spots.

[tfox]

Overall, WP is going to offer you a lot more variety than Keystone by itself. As another poster mentioned, WP is most famous for mogul skiing -- if you like that you'll probably like WP. As others mentioned, Summit County is home to four resorts: Keystone, A-Basin, Breckenridge, and Copper. WP is basically off by itself, with the only other ski area nearby is tiny SolVista.

If you have a pass, you can ski A-basin, Keystone, and Breckenridge all three, plus depending on the type of pass, Vail and Beaver Creek for a total of 10 days. That ought to be enough variety for anyone.

WP is now teamed up with Copper Mountain with their pass. So, if you have that pass, you can do those two mountains.

[motoracer51]

Originally Posted by BarryK123

I'm at WP now, for the first time. I probably won't come back. My biggest issue with the place is all the poling required to move around the mountain. Most of the connector trails are either flat or even uphill in spots.

Stay off the green trails.

[Fuzz]

Regarding passes, if you get a pass at Keystone, you're good to ski at A-Basin and Breck, with some days at Vail/Beaver Creek (or unlimited Vail/BC with some extra $). From Keystone, you're about 5 minutes from Basin, 25 minutes to Breck, 40 minutes to Vail, and 1 hour to Beaver Creek. The times will vary slightly if you don't live right at Keystone and instead live in nearby Dillon or Silverthorne.

For WP, you can get just a WP pass, or for some extra $ you can get one that allows you to ski Copper as well plus some days at Steamboat. The only thing to note is that it's a 1.5-hour drive from WP to Copper, and longer to Steamboat.

If you work at Keystone, then you get to ski any of the Vail resorts (Basin, Keystone, Breck, Vail, Beav). If you work at WP, you get to ski any resort in Colorado (except for the Vail resorts) for free.

Most larger ski areas require some amount of poling to explore/navigate fully (especially for the good stuff). WP has the long traverse on the backside of Parsenn/Vasquez Cirque (as well as many other places around the mountain if I recall correctly). At Keystone, most of the stuff off the Outback will require a traverse at the bottom (especially long if you ski from the hike-to bowls). Breck is notorious for them (although you can navigate them pretty easily if you know how). Copper has some too (bottom of Spaulding, getting across the face of the frontside). Vail is full of them everywhere.

[BarryK123]

Originally Posted by motoracer51

Stay off the green trails.

My wife made me do it