Comparing Colorado Ski Resorts

Trying to pick the best area for your Colorado family ski vacation? Here’s a cheat sheet with the vital stats from Colorado ski areas to give you an idea of what each has to offer.

 

Of course, many other factors go into your decision, like ease of access from highways or airports, snow type and depth, and scenery from the lifts.

 

When perusing the following table, keep in mind that one area’s expert runs are another’s intermediate terrain, and vice versa. Also, lifts may be two-person chair lifts, gondolas, poma-lifts, or moving carpets for ski schools.

 

Different ski resorts list acreage differently. Some list total acres permitted for ski area use, while others list patrolled or skiable terrain. So take those numbers with a grain of salt, although they can give you a rough estimate about the size of a place.

 

Families who are trying skiing for the first time, may be better served by choosing a small, inexpensive area, because they will probably not have the skills to ski all the runs on a huge mountain. On the other hand, with good lessons at the ski school, kids will improve quickly, and after several days of skiing, they will be bored with limited ski runs and need opportunities to test themselves on more advanced slopes. 

 

If you are the parent of pre-teens or young teenagers who are venturing out on their own, you may prefer a resort with fewer lifts, and thus fewer places to search when it’s time to wrangle those colts back into the lodge. 

 

Whatever your preferences and needs, use this chart as a beginning for planning a great family ski vacation.