Fly to Denver & Ski (Boulder, Breckenridge: ski resort, spring break, rent)

[delta07]

I would consider one of the Colorado "Gem" ski areas. They are not large resorts, but go back to the days of early skiing in Colorado. I live in Grand Junction and we have Powderhorn about 45 minutes from town. It's a fun little ski mountain, and would offer plenty for beginner/intermediate skiers. There are condos on site, so you wouldn't have to drive into town every day.

Glenwood Springs has Sunlight mountain, which is really fun! It is probably 20 minutes from Glenwood and it is a beautiful town. There are hot springs and would offer something for nightlife possibly. Glenwood is about an hour from Aspen as well. So you could check out those mountains one day, but not feel like you have to stay the week there. The gems will offer inexpensive prices (for Colo.), while the larger CO resorts are very pricey. You could fly into Grand Junction, but you would have to cross the Rocky Mountains. You could also drive over from Denver (about 3 1/2 hours) and avoid mountain flying.

[jazzlover]

Flying in the Colorado mountains in March (one of the snowiest and most unsettled months of the year) is hardly something someone with no mountain flying experience should attempt. Some planes are simply incapable of flying at safe altitudes in the Rockies, especially in bad weather. The airports at Aspen and Telluride (two mentioned in other posts here) can be especially tricky. The OP is probably wise to fly into an airport such as Jeffco (though Chinook winds can certainly be a factor, too), and then drive to one of the resorts.

Like the old saying goes, "There's old pilots and there's bold pilots, but there ain't no old, bold pilots." Sadly, this hits close to home. I had a cousin who was a bold pilot, but he didn't live to be an old one--backcountry flying got him.

[Katiana]

I'm sorry for your loss.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by pittnurse70

I'm sorry for your loss.

Thanks, pittnurse70. It happened quite a few years ago. Had another cousin on the other side of the family that met the same fate the same year crop-dusting in Texas.

One of my best friends is a terrific mountain pilot--one of the best I know (been flying for 40 years+). He is also one of the most cautious pilots I know--that's probably why he has such a perfect flying record. His dad, also a crack pilot, wasn't so lucky. Many years ago, he made the mistake of flying into a storm he thought he and his plane could handle in mountain country he had flown in many times. His plane crashed, killing all on board--ironically, only few miles from where I would later live for several years.

I personally have had two commercial planes on which I was a passenger de-pressurize over the Colorado Rockies, one land with compromised landing gear (which nearly threw us off of the runway), and one plane (one of the old Frontier airlines' 48-passenger Convair 580's) that hit severe clear-air-turbulence over Kenosha Pass. That last one was the real hair-raiser. Popped about 200 rivets on the wings and bent the port-side prop. We limped into Denver and landed safely. Had the plane been one of the smaller 20-30 passenger "commuter" planes used on those routes today, we probably would have crashed from that encounter with clear-air-turbulence. Figured I used up one or two of my nine lives on that one. I never worried about flying on a Convair 580 after that--those tough old birds were pretty much indestructible--a great mountain airplane. (Photo below)

[wankel7]

Yeah, those convairs are cool planes....IFL has some of them running charter cargo. They have a few 5800 versions. Really nice and glass cockpit.

[mdp_az]

I was thinking Eldora, too. Another airport option for you is the Fort Collins-Loveland airport. That way you could avoid the DIA airspace alltogether. You could basically follow I-80 west and then break away in western-NE to head SW to FNL.

[Mike from back east]

Here's a photo of the airport near Telluride.... CO - USS Telluride on Flickr - Photo Sharing! (http://www.flickr.com/photos/tsmyther/40533074/ - broken link)

[jkcoop]

Longmont has an airport as well.
There is a Best Western in Nederland too.
Eldora is a nice little mountain if that is what you are looking for.
Eldora Mountain Resort
My son spent many a weekends up there training and while he loves all the big, big mountain resorts, he also loves Eldora since it was his home hill

[vfrpilot]

Flying a Cherokee with little or no mountain flying experience, you should use Jeff CO(BJC). It's on the west side of Denver and is large enough to have car rental agencies. This would be way more reliable to assure that you get to ski as much as possible. Like Jazzlover said, the weather is crazy unpredictable in March. Flying through the mountains can be very dicey even on clear days due to winds. I've crossed the Rockies numerous times using passes and turned around several times due to severe turbulance. There are even AWOS stations on many passes to report current weather conditions. You can't rely on forecasts or reports that are a few hours old.
Or you could take a commercial flight into Eagle and save the $700+ in fuel
Picture is out of a Diamond DA20-C1 at 12.5k', looking for Wolf Creek Pass.

[Fuzz]

If you're not used to mountain flying, then, as others have already stated, it is definitely not advisable to fly into one of the high country airports.