OFFICIAL I70 BITCH THREAD....

[Foggy_Goggles]

A good site for finding the answers:
http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/lost/genevabasin.html

Geneva Basin might not be a bad one to reopen. I might be one of the few, but I sure miss Berthoud pass ski area. Had some great times there and at least all that terrain was patrolled. I'd say that it is even busier now than it ever was back then though.

Absolutely, I could waste my whole day talking about it but the reality is that if BP stayed open just a year or two longer they would have killed it. They used to have "4 for$ 40" specials i.e $10/person and the lot still would not be full.

The amount of untracked powder I skied at that place was unreal. The only thing better was riding snowmobiles around after they closed the last time. To think that was only 15 years ago is unbelievable to me.

[adrenalated]

Absolutely, I could waste my whole day talking about it but the reality is that if BP stayed open just a year or two longer they would have killed it. They used to have "4 for$ 40" specials i.e $10/person and the lot still would not be full.

The amount of untracked powder I skied at that place was unreal. The only thing better was riding snowmobiles around after they closed the last time. To think that was only 15 years ago is unbelievable to me.

I quite enjoy touring on the pass, but I do really wish I had skied there when it was still a ski area.

[simple]

I quite enjoy touring on the pass, but I do really wish I had skied there when it was still a ski area.

Back when it was open the current trend was Telemark skiing and snowboard park laps. It was a sad time in history. Lol

[Foggy_Goggles]

I quite enjoy touring on the pass, but I do really wish I had skied there when it was still a ski area.

What is your excuse? Something that gets overlooked is that many people toured from the top of the lift sidecountry style. You could even purchase a one ride. The master plan had a Poma going up No Name from Pumphouse Basin.

[adrenalated]

What is your excuse? Something that gets overlooked is that many people toured from the top of the lift sidecountry style. You could even purchase a one ride. The master plan had a Poma going up No Name from Pumphouse Basin.

I'm a youngin'... I was 16 when the lifts closed and for better or worse I wasn't as focused on skiing during my formative years as I am now.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Back when it was open the current trend was Telemark skiing and snowboard park laps. It was a sad time in history. Lol

Well that was the early trend. Toward the end the trend was to live in Summit County and come over to OUR ski area. Probably was, when the Scummit Kids brought their girl friends with them, they'd never leave.

Joking aside, it was kinda Idaho Springs Kids (they were the OGs who's parents worked in the caf), us punks and handful of kids from Summit who tried to tell their friends how good it wasn't and the employees from all over. Oh..and Robb Gaffney used to come up from Med School in the city, take a couple runs down the Plunge seeing how many backflip he could throw (3 was normal) and then go do homework in the lodge.

[Name Redacted]

Back when it was open the current trend was Telemark skiing and snowboard park laps. It was a sad time in history. Lol

I remember lapping that park hundreds of times. Seemed to specialize in gaps to flat, features buried by snow for days , and a really shitty QP. So fun.

[Danno]

Colorado is still growing, pretty soon, when it takes 4 hours to go from the Denver/Boulder to Vail or Summit County damn near 100% of the time due to traffic, people will absolutely drive all the way to CB to ski. If I'm going to spend half a day in the car, I better be covering more than 100 miles. I think it's time to build some more ski areas.

When it takes 4 hours to go from Denver to Summit, what makes you think it will still take 4 hours to get to CB? By that point, it will take 7 hours.

Why would people commute to CB for the weekend right past Monarch? Same reason they drive past LL to go to Breck I guess.

If I were a Franger, (which generally means intermediate skier anyway) I'd stay in Salida or BV for cheap and ski Monarch. Cheaper, good snow (more than CB most years), pretty mellow, fun mountain and affordable towns that aren't overrun with tourons.

The only thing CB has is terrain, and really, most frangers can't handle that anyway.

But yeah, I don't know how much longer people can stand the I70 shitshow. But they do it. Every fucking weekend, they just keep coming back.

Your assessment of front range skiers is way off the mark of the skiers I know. While not all are extreme, most appreciate good terrain. The fact that you think they are mostly intermediate does not mesh with my reality. So yes, terrain matters. Monarch is a nice hill, and heck, I'd be happy to live in Salida and have it be my home hill, but come on, it's no CB, not by a long shot, and yes, that matters.

Moreover, and as has been stated before, it is not the same skiers driving 5 hours round trip every Saturday. The ones who ski every Saturday are leaving way early, or spending the night in the mountains. The regular weekend traffic is fueled by the fact that 3 million fucking people live in the metro area, not by the same exact people doing the same exact thing every Saturday.

CB is a guaranteed 4 hours one way, rain or shine.

I want to drive what you're driving.

[Danno]

I too wish I had been able to ski Berthoud. My first winter living on the front range was 2000-2001, which was its last season I believe. Didn't realize how much I was missing.

[doebedoe]

Danno spot on with the analysis.

The Front Rangers who would seriously consider making CB their regular ski-locale are serious skiers. Not those sitting in 4hrs of traffic. And while they probably don't all shred Third Bowl like Sam Smoothy would, many of us happily lap Sock-it-to-me, Headwall, and Funnel happily.

Monarch is okay. I'd be happy to have it as my home hill. But on a low-snow day it bored me much faster than Loveland.

[Telemarketeer]

Your assessment of front range skiers is way off the mark of the skiers I know. While not all are extreme, most appreciate good terrain. The fact that you think they are mostly intermediate does not mesh with my reality. So yes, terrain matters. Monarch is a nice hill, and heck, I'd be happy to live in Salida and have it be my home hill, but come on, it's no CB, not by a long shot, and yes, that matters.

Not meant to insult you or your buddies, but there are a lot of shitty skiers on the FR who have no business skiing on anything other than a groomed green run. Every ski area has those.

Never really compared Monarch to CB, totally different mountains. But why waste money and time going to CB to lap red lady all day? Just saying that Monarch is a viable choice for most shitty skiers and there are a lot of them on the FR. 2.5 hr ride ain't bad for that.

[concretejungle]

Maybe a train or a bus?

[hatchgreenchile]

I want to drive what you're driving.

A Jeep?
I didn't realize 4 hours minimum of driving from Den to CB was ridiculous.
I70 could be 4 if all goes to hell. It could also be 60-90 minutes with a bit of planning and common sense.

[Tryingtostaywarm]

So, is the reason that Colorado doesn't have many resorts at all is because the snow is too concentrated? So, Colorado is three times larger than Austria land area, but Austria has ~3million more people. They have 425 ski resorts. Yes folks, you read that right. When I first moved to the States to Colorado and started experiencing the ski scene here..my first question was "why are there only like 5-8 main resorts in the whole freaking state". Ski passes are super fucking cheap because they have so many resorts, you go to Sankt Anton Am Arlberg is which world class ski area with 87 fucking lifts with 5000ft of vert and you pay 52 euro for an adult day pass which today is $55 FUCKING DOLLARS. That price hasn't changed since last time I was there in 2014.
Mind you, this doesn't even include France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy...
Yes, I understand that a ton of Colorado is plains.
Do I miss Europe every time I try to do anything outdoors involving I-70, fuck yes I do. Do I love Colorado because it's about as good as it is going to get in the lower 48, fuck yes I do.

[Danno]

Not meant to insult you or your buddies, but there are a lot of shitty skiers on the FR who have no business skiing on anything other than a groomed green run. Every ski area has those.

Never really compared Monarch to CB, totally different mountains. But why waste money and time going to CB to lap red lady all day? Just saying that Monarch is a viable choice for most shitty skiers and there are a lot of them on the FR. 2.5 hr ride ain't bad for that.

I'm not insulted, I just think you're very wrong about the typical front range skier. Again, there are 3 million people in the Denver metro, so sure, "there are a lot of shitty skiers on the FR", no argument. But front range skier does not, IME, "generally mean intermediate". Just about every one of my good friends can and does ski expert terrain at CB, and I don't think my group of friends is some front range oddity. Your perception that everyone or most people on the front range are blue-green skiers is pretty ridiculous.

[Foggy_Goggles]

Train = Too expensive to build a line other than what is already there. The train to Winter Park is sold out for the season at some exorbitant price.

Bus = http://www.frontrangeskibus.com/ There is a bus but it cost $40 and sits in the same traffic as everyone else. Now, if there was an HOV lane for buses maybe.

Summit is our infrastructure and public policy expert. I think he advocates a drive on/drive off train.

It is really easy to forget that the only problem is the capacity of I-70 at peak times (no withstanding accidents and poorly equipped drivers which is an easy problem to solve).

[Danno]

A Jeep?
I didn't realize 4 hours minimum of driving from Den to CB was ridiculous.
I70 could be 4 if all goes to hell. It could also be 60-90 minutes with a bit of planning and common sense.

When you said 4 hours rain or shine, I read that as "I can always get there in 4 hours". 4 hours minimum makes a lot more sense!

[Name Redacted]

I'm not insulted, I just think you're very wrong about the typical front range skier. Again, there are 3 million people in the Denver metro, so sure, "there are a lot of shitty skiers on the FR", no argument. But front range skier does not, IME, "generally mean intermediate". Just about every one of my good friends can and does ski expert terrain at CB, and I don't think my group of friends is some front range oddity. Your perception that everyone or most people on the front range are blue-green skiers is pretty ridiculous.

Proof that you live in a bubble. "None of my friends voted for Trump. There's no way he could have won".

[Danno]

Maybe a train or a bus?

[concretejungle]

TGR peeps can make it from Denver to Durango in five hours.

[Danno]

Proof that you live in a bubble. "None of my friends voted for Trump. There's no way he could have won".

And how do you know that most are green/blue skiers? And even if most are, again THERE ARE 3 MILLION FUCKING PEOPLE that live in Denver metro, and that stat doesn't include Boulder, Ft Collins, or C Springs (though Springs skiers don't generally drive I-70 anyway). So even if MOST of the front rangers are green/blue skiers, there are still a shitton of more expert skiers on the front range. And you know what? I bet there's a correlation between skiing skill and the amount of days spent on the hill. So the idea that the front ranger skier's problems could all be solved if we went to Monarch is pretty ridiculous.

[Foggy_Goggles]

So, is the reason that Colorado doesn't have many resorts at all is because the snow is too concentrated? So, Colorado is three times larger than Austria land area, but Austria has ~3million more people. They have 425 ski resorts. Yes folks, you read that right. When I first moved to the States to Colorado and started experiencing the ski scene here..my first question was "why are there only like 5-8 main resorts in the whole freaking state". Ski passes are super fucking cheap because they have so many resorts, you go to Sankt Anton Am Arlberg is which world class ski area with 87 fucking lifts with 5000ft of vert and you pay 52 euro for an adult day pass which today is $55 FUCKING DOLLARS. That price hasn't changed since last time I was there in 2014.
Mind you, this doesn't even include France, Switzerland, Germany, Italy...
Yes, I understand that a ton of Colorado is plains.
Do I miss Europe every time I try to do anything outdoors involving I-70, fuck yes I do. Do I love Colorado because it's about as good as it is going to get in the lower 48, fuck yes I do.

Honest Questions: "Are those resorts of public or private? Who owns the lifts? Are they profitable in an economic sense? What role did the government's have is creation of the resorts/lift systems?"

My uneducated American ass has been led to believe that European resorts are often a socialistic endeavor and as such have a completely different cost structure. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm wrong so educate me.

[The SnowShow]

I know this will be unpopular but Monarch should put a lift in Mirkwood and then expand their hike-to terrain further out. It would draw more expert skiers there that don't necessary want to hike laps. Also, if the road from Denver to Poncha Springs were a real highway, suddenly Monarch and CB become even more viable.

[summit]

Summit is our infrastructure and public policy expert. I think he advocates a drive on/drive off train.

In my fantasy world of make believe

[Tryingtostaywarm]

Honest Questions: "Are those resorts of public or private? Who owns the lifts? Are they profitable in an economic sense? What role did the government's have is creation of the resorts/lift systems?"

My uneducated American ass has been led to believe that European resorts are often a socialistic endeavor and as such have a completely different cost structure. It wouldn't surprise me if I'm wrong so educate me.

Foggy, I have an idea but don't want to answer because I really am not too sure. Maybe somebody else can chime in who knows.