S.P.A.M.'s Feedback on where to go

From a transportion standpoint I think they'll all be acceptable to me (air route info below is solely for my benefit).

Telluride/Purgatory: kind of a tweener wrt everything
Big Sky/Big Mountain: cheap, big, good difficulty mix, close to Yellowstone, and Glacier Nat Park
Aspen/Snowmass: 4 mountains, looks to be more difficult on the whole, probably easiest to get to, expensive

My current ranking is below but they are all close/acceptable

1. BS/BM
   
2. A/S
   
3. T/P
   
   Telluride
   $76/day
   Air Routes: AA (Chi), UA (Den)
   ?? Runs: 22% Green, 38% Blue, 40% black
   Snow making: ??
   
   Purgatory
   85 Runs: 23% Green, 51% Blue, 26% black
   Air Routes: UA (Den)
   $56/day
   Snow making: 21%
   
   Big Sky
   150 Runs: 17% Green, 25% Blue, 37% black, 21% double black
   Snow making: ??
   Air Routes: NWA (Minn, Det), Delta (SLC), UA (Den)
   $65/day
   
   Big Mountain
   91 Runs: 20% Green, 50% Intermediate, 30% black
   Air Routes: NWA (Minn), Delta (SLC)
   $49/day
   Snow Making: ??
   
   Aspen/Snowmass
   Maps weren't too bad at: http://www.aspensnowmass.com/onmountain/trailmaps/default.cfm
   Air Routes - Aspen/Eagle: UA (Den), NWA (Minn), AA (Chi [Eagle])
   $78/day ($70/day over six days)
   Snowmass
   88 Runs: 6% Green, 50% Blue, 12% Black, 32% double black
   Aspen Mtn
   76 Runs: 0% Green, 48% Blue, 26% Black, 26% double black
   Aspen Highlands
   131 Runs: 18% Green, 30% Blue, 16% Black, 36% double black
   Buttermilk
   44 Runs: 35% Green, 39% Blue, 26% Black

-- Sean


-------------------- (more comments from SPAM)

Well,
Obviously we know our hood the best - some great skiing and town is the best you'll find anywhere in terms of places to eat and drink.
Aspen, Highlands, Snowmass and Buttermilk are all here, furthest from town is snowmass which is 25 mins in the bus. That means you can ski any of them on a different day. All are different and all have intermediate runs - buttermilk and snowmass have more in the way of beginner terrain while highlands and aspen are more geared toward advanced and intermediate skiers. If thinking of late January bear in mind that X-Games are in town from Jan 27-31 - its a cool time to be here with a ton of events and free concerts but hotels probably hard to get and town is busy and overrun with punk teens. You can also stay up in snowmass - more reasonable and tons of condos - downside is its snowmass (limited town/ restaurants), and you are 20-30 mins from town of aspen which is way cooler.

Have not skied Purgatory - only been to durango in the summer.
Telluride - Great town and ski resort. The town is bit hippier/ free spirit, and very casual. The mountain resort is separate from the town, but tjhere is a gondola that links them so you can stay in either one. In terms of skiing, all ranges, but a lot of mogul runs. Only challenge with Telluride is that it is difficult to get to. can either fly to denver (then a pretty long drive) or fly into montrose.
Big Sky - from what I understand (although again never skied there) Big Sky is a relatively steep mountain with lots of advanced terrain - thats not to say it doesn't have other stuff too - I just don't know.
Big Mountain - wrap up real warm - it'll probably be freezing up there in January! - Only been there in sumer but town is real small, kind of quaint in old ranchy sort of way.

one other suggestion: if you are keen on two half weeks, do aspen/ vail. for aspen, you have 4 mountains above. for vail, it is close to breckenridge, beaver creek, copper, a-basin, etc. (not as close as aspen's 4 mountains, but doable if you are in that area)


enjoy,
dave and ali

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Here are a couple more emails from my cousins.
--
Following-up on Dave's note, here are the details of the promo they are
running. It might be just hotels, but worthwhile looking
http://www.stayaspensnowmass.com/p-early-booking-special.php
>
> If you can fly into Aspen I would definitely do that - it is less than
> 10 mins from town.
> Eagle is 1:40 drive away, Denver is 3:45 (or much more depending on
> weather).
>
> Re accom - there is a company (and website) www.stayaspensnowmass.com
> that has comprehensive listings of
> condos in both Aspen and Snowmass - I think some of the others only
> deal with hotels. Bunch of other services also, www.ski.com
> is actually based here so they should have good
> info and there is a colorado state specific ski one that I can't
> remember the name of. You may also want to check it out soonish
> because I believe they are running some lift and lodging promos for a
> free ticket and night. Google is your friend here.