Colorado Ski Resorts
Arapahoe Basin – maybe the best alpine skiing in Colorado, focused on the black but enough variety for green and blue (for shorter stays). THE one for the laid-back and experienced ski community.
Aspen – altitude and nightlife are legendary, and great skiing too! Buttermilk is perfect for family trips and beginners as well as boarders, Aspen Mountain (Ajax) and Aspen Highlands are more challenging, overlooked alternatives, and Snowmass is the most popular, with the most variety — but the busiest and most expensive, too.
Beaver Creek – great skiing and good terrain park with lively apres-ski options in a typical Vail environment: costly, impersonal, and somewhat artificial.
Breckenridge – Breck is hard to beat. Authentic and lively village, with many incredible trail options (green and black especially) that suffer only infrequently from wind and ice. Bus and gondola options make cars obsolete!
Copper Mountain – great local’s resort but prices are creeping up recently, and anyone below black level will feel crowded too often. Best at weekday trips for the experienced skier.
Crested Butte – still (mostly) escaping the busier and more expensive trend, plenty to offer skiers of all levels. Blacks and boards will find the most to love, and the food gets rave reviews.
Durango Mountain (Purgatory) – big and beautiful but somewhat hit-or-miss when it comes to lift lines and grooming.
Eldora Mountain – close to Denver & Boulder, this small short-trip destination offers plenty of variety. Terrain park facilities a little shaky, and weekend greenies get crowded, but great (and relatively inexpensive) family fun to be had.
Keystone – good points: night skiing, convenient to Denver, great advanced blue and blacks. Not-so-good: can get very busy on weekends, grooming can be inconsistent. Apres-ski very local-oriented, and costs are reasonable.
Powderhorn – incredible views and powder, great variety, good trees and jumps. Reasonable prices and friendly folks balance out the older, smaller facilities.
Ski Cooper – small and cozy, but great skiing and instructors. Slower-paced and more intimate and friendly experience for beginners & families.
Solvista – excellent family learning environment with little crowding and even less nightlife.
Steamboat Spings – champagne powder and lower altitudes, with a friendly atmosphere. Amazing terrain park & Superpipe. A total win, unless you need many overpriced nightlife options. Check out Howelsen Hill for jumping and other Olympic fun!
Sunlight Mountain – a contender for ‘best-kept secret’, great powder and trails for green and black, though somewhat limited in the middle, and for terrain parks.
Telluride – downsides: costly and remote. Other than that, an unmissable ski and resort situation. Town and mountain alike will please everyone. Really.
Vail – ugh. Busy, expensive, pretentious. On the other hand, the skiing is amazing, as is the food, the views, the variety, the size…basically, if your patience and pocketbook can handle it, it’s well worth the trip.
Winter Park – less for boarders than skiers, but still plenty for everyone and convenient to Denver. New developments either help or hurt, depending on your view
Wolf Creek (Colorado) – outstanding amounts of snow, plus a more intimate resort experience. Remote and aging facilities, plus a lack of terrain features for boarders, may limit some folks, but this is maybe THE best kept secret for blue level skiers.