Full Article:
Our family has been traveling together during the winter ski season for the past twenty-five years. Yes, every year we look forward to leaving the snow and cold at home to vacation at 8,000 feet above sea level in the snow and cold of the Rocky Mountains. Of course, now, we are three generations…from ages 4 to 66…who, for a week, live together under one roof and share some fun that is ripe with laughter, camaraderie, and bravado. As you can imagine, the planning and preparations start several months before that first burst of chilly air comes.
Skiing can be an expensive sport. Air fare, rental cars, lodging, lift tickets, ski school…the list goes on. As the grandparents in this group, we have learned a few tricks over the years to help with the affordability.
First, we accumulate travel points using our credit card and travel reward programs. Our adult children do the same. Then, for the ski trip, we avoid the high seasons of Christmas, New Year’s, Martin Luther King weekend, President’s Day weekend, and Spring Break (beginning of March). Not only are the trails crowded, but the travel and lodging rates are higher at these times. We prefer to travel between mid-January and mid-February. We leave it to our kids (now parents themselves) to work out the absences from school. We have found that if we ski during the middle of the week, there are lighter crowds on the trails. It is true that January and February can be very cold in the Rockies, but dear old Mother Nature is always the Wild Card on an outdoor vacation. This year (Jan., 2016), we skied for 2 days with our jackets unzipped, wearing lightweight gloves.
We have skied many of the western U.S. ski resorts in Utah, Nevada, California, and Colorado but have found that the Summit County area of Colorado is the most convenient for our family. It has six mountains that we can ski with amenities that everyone in the family likes. While the cost of a rental car at the Denver airport can take your breath away, we watch for special promotions through our airline company, AAA, and the popular travel websites.
Likewise, lift tickets are expensive. If the whole family plans to ski every day, the cost can be very high. In Summit County, there are four Vail-owned ski areas (Keystone, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, and Vail). The lift tickets are interchangeable among the mountains. That gives us a variety of mountains to play on during our stay. Plus, Arapahoe Basin and Copper Mountain are also located in the area. Pre-season discounts on lift tickets can be found as early as mid-summer at www.snow.com . Local retailers have discount lift tickets, too. Another cost saver has been our membership in the Peaks Reward Program; we earn points toward free lift tickets during our stay.
There’s plenty of lodging in Summit County and it’s priced for all pocketbooks. Dillon, Keystone, Frisco, Breckenridge, and Vail are conveniently located off of I-70. We choose lodging based on the size of the property, its location, amenities, and value. We like having everyone under one roof but that can be stressful. So, we use the popular vacation rental websites and the Vail Resort website to find lodging that is affordable but has the essential elements we need for everyone to enjoy themselves. Pre-season discounts are often available before November. For us, the lodging is the heart of the trip.
Though this is a vacation and we all like to turn off the clock, we try to put some structure around the time that we spend together on the mountain. Ski school and child care have drop-off requirements which means that we try to have an agreed upon starting time for the day’s activities.
Off the mountain, we come together and separate according to our interests. We eat most of our morning and evening meals in the condo although we never miss the annual breakfast in Frisco at The Buttehorn, and we like to have a couple of nice dinners in town. Meal planning is done by the women (traditional roles in our family). Each one brings an idea for a simple meal and then the women share the kitchen for the preparation and clean-up. As grandparents, we are happy to entertain the little ones while their parents go out for the evening. The condo usually has board games and playing cards if the electronics don’t do the trick, although we’ve been known to pack Yahtzee and Twister in our suitcases. Uno was the big game this season.
On the mountain, we ski like a moving sandwich. Out in front are the leaders in the family. They are the navigators, picking the trails and moving us from one mountain to another. At the rear are…the mothers. It’s just the truth. They are the ones following, watching, rescuing, and cheering those of us who are sandwiched in-between. At about mid-day, we stop at a mid-mountain lodge. Once we find a table, we eat and rest. Grand-dad is keen on skiing under control, which means stopping for a break once or twice a day. In the middle of the day, we set aside time for people to go it alone or in smaller groups, taking time to play their own way. Finally, at two hours before the lifts close, we come back together at an appointed place to ride out the day.
Summit County has plenty of other activities to enjoy when we need a break from skiing. Ice skating, sledding, terrain parks, snowmobiling, dinnertime sleigh rides, and shopping can be found in the ski towns. Simply taking the gondola to the peak at Keystone you’ll find a snow castle for the children to play on and a lodge for lunch. These types of activities are easy to find on the internet. A search of Summit County, Colorado will get you started.
What is so enjoyable about this multi-generational trip is that we come together and, for one week, we live and play as one family unit. It’s precious time. History has taught us how to do that in ways that keep the family in-tact. It’s not always perfect but everyone comes away smiling, with their own favorite memories and ideas for next year.
Jeri Cundiff
February 19, 2023
