Winter Park reviews - World Snowboard Guide

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Thu 5 February 2009 jat147

Certainly not a resort put together with boarders in mind, but thats not to say were not catered for at all. The Railyard parks have some of the biggest kickers you'll ever see, a nice big superpipe, and loads of obstacles in between are all serviced by lifts closeby. Move further away and your likely to stray into one of the many mogul fields, which the resort seem happy to leave alone with no grooming at all. The resort is pretty well spaced out though and the gradients are fine in all but a handful of places which makes travelling around easy enough. Snowfall is good, we had a massive powder day and got out first thing to be the first to carve it up. Tree lined runs are plentiful, and tearing through a foot of fresh powder down black runs made for one of my top3 days riding ever, trully unforgetable. The town is not for the ravers, but enough to keep you occupied with a few places to eat & a bus that runs all evening.

Fri 10 March 2006 Speed Freak

We went here in March 2006. Historically, this is THE month to be here for snow. This year was the worst on record. The resort village has a lift going to the middle of the mountain and it's quite fast. After a couple of days, the slopes were icy and hard as concrete. That's not the end of the world, but Winter Park isn't far from it. The mountain is a mess of runs. Black, Blue and green runs are all over the place, but what really annoyed us was the amount of deliberately moggled black and blue diamond runs. The left side is all black diamond runs. 8 out of 9 are moggled and we saw 2 poeple on them over 2 days. When we did find blue and diamond runs, they were straight, short and boring.

Up to the Mary Jane bowl and we were so disapointed. If you want to know what a shock absorber in a car does, go to Mary Jane and watch your legs. It was so bumpy and even the skiers were moaning. Now bear in mind we are carvers riding stiff gear and like big wide steep runs, Winter Park just was not for us, but we didn't think that much of the park and didn't find the pipe.

To be honest, we did all the decent runs in a day and after turning sharp right on a blue diamond, hitting mogels and literally taking off on the second day, we decided to change mountains as the lift pass covers Copper Mountain.

However, It's not all bad news for Winter Park. The company that owns Copper and Vail have just taken over Winter Park and they do have big plans for the future starting this year. Bring it on - we agree with WSG - this place is for pensioners but we don't agree with your rating - too generous guys!

Resort Statistics

Resort Type: Alpine
Winter: Nov to April
Summer: None

Lifts

Total Lifts: 24
Chair lifts: 18
Other lifts: 5 Magic Carpets, 1 Rope tow
Max people per hour: 35,030
Board Leashes required: Yes

Mountain

Total pistes/trails: 134
Total ride area: 2762acres
Longest run: 5.1 miles (8.2km)

Top lift: 3676m
Vertical drop: 933m
First lift: 2743m

Piste suitability

Green runs: 30%
Red runs: 21%
Black runs: 49%

Lift Passes

Lift Passes:
1 Day pass - $59
5 of 6 Day pass - $295
Lift times:8.30am to 4.00pm

Snowfall

Average annual snowfall: 9.1m
Artificial snowmaking coverage: 20%

Facilities

Snowboard Schools: Beginners package lift, hire & 2 1/2hr lesson $89/99 per day.
Various group lessons 2 1/2hrs $49/59
Snowboard Hire: Beginners Board & Boots $28/32
Demo Board & Boots $40/44
Night Riding: : No