Breckenridge, Ski Resort

We stayed in Breckenridge last year (Jan 06) and as far as holidays go it was a mixed bag - Of which Altitude Sickness and Bronchitus did not help.

The title in itself is a bit of a red herring as the town of Breckenridge Is not a purpose built ski resort although there is accommodation in town itself most of the skiing facilities are across the main road -Which is a nightmare to cross during a weekday - especially when you are carrying ...
...need that stress before you have even got to the chairlifts or ski schools. To be honest most of the decent accommodation is all slope side, which makes the whole thing so much easier not to say convenient.

A BIT ABOUT THE TOWN

Breckenridge was founded in 1859 it was created to service the booming silver and gold mining explorations moving up from Colorado. It is a quaint town (If you like that sort of thing) very Norman ... more

We stayed in Breckenridge last year (Jan 06) and as far as holidays go it was a mixed bag - Of which Altitude Sickness and Bronchitus did not help.

The title in itself is a bit of a red herring as the town of Breckenridge Is not a purpose built ski resort although there is accommodation in town itself most of the skiing facilities are across the main road -Which is a nightmare to cross during a weekday - especially when you are carrying skis, boards, poles blades and Quilted, jaded children. You don't need that stress before you have even got to the chairlifts or ski schools. To be honest most of the decent accommodation is all slope side, which makes the whole thing so much easier not to say convenient.

A BIT ABOUT THE TOWN

Breckenridge was founded in 1859 it was created to service the booming silver and gold mining explorations moving up from Colorado. It is a quaint town (If you like that sort of thing) very Norman Rockwell. The guidebooks all say it has the feel of a Wild West town and has been renovated sympathetically in that theme (mmmmmm) I was not so sure of this, you get the feeling that it was developed with tourists in mind. But saying that it's not unpleasant and after all you are on holiday, Some times its nice to be a tourist.
The town centre itself runs along a main street that is about 3km long, The main bulk of which is Bars, Restaurants, gift shops, coffee shops and high end sports retailers - However you have to bear in mind everything is a lot cheaper here than in the Uk - so you can still pick up some good bargains. The rest of the town runs of the main street in a typical American grid fashion - Its worth exploring these streets as we discovered that the better and less expensive restaurants and quirky shops were to be found hiding away from the glitz of the main drag. It has to be remembered that Breckenridge is an all year round town with a pretty healthy Permanente resident population of about 3000 people so the town infrastructure is very good and well serviced. We were particularly impressed with the free bus system that runs through out the town and up the different base stations that serviced the ski slopes they also go to neighbouring towns such as Silverthorne (Great for discount outlet shopping) There was something quite comical in seeing skiers all kitted out in there garb for a hard days skiing, sitting next to shoppers who didn't seem to mind in the slightest that they were being dripped on. The busses all run on bio diesel and run late into the night. We found that we had no need for a car to be honest unless you plan to ski far an wide it would be a waste of your money and time at the beginning and end of your holiday - There are excursions organized either by your tour operator and local companies to other resorts close by (All covered by the lift pass) such as Aspen, Keystone. Copper and Alta.

ALTITUDE SICKNESS

This is really important, take it from me, if you are not careful it can ruin not just your holiday but everyone else's too.
Due to its height 2925m it is one of the highest resorts anywhere and when you tie in with this the jet lag (12-14hr flight) the first few days can be tough. You need to make sure you eat enough, drink plenty of non alcoholic fluids - I know, what a bummer, but I can't stress how important this is, just wait till you've acclimatized. Don't dream of drinking caffinated tea or coffee, and take it easy - I know sounds daft when you have flown half way round the world to ski, But it is a good idea to stick to nice long easy runs to get your self acclimatized. Or better still spend some time in Colorado or a lower resort before you hit Breckenridge (Or any of the higher North American resorts).
Unfortunately there are no tablets you can take to make this any better - Don't get fooled by adverts you see saying that a tablet can cure it. The only thing that can ease it is Oxygen. Some of the apartment blocks have Oxygen tanks at reception with trained staff to help you The medical centres are great and you will be covered on your insurance for the use of their services. There are also Oxygen bars in the town; they pump it directly into the rooms to boost you up (Thankfully they have banned smoking inside in America - or this could be a bit tricky).
The symptoms for the first few days are hard to differentiate from bad jet lag. But if the pounding headache and spaced out feeling has not gone after 3 days you know you've got altitude sickness.
Oddly enough I found that although I felt bad in the morning and just getting up the mountain was more than I could bear, by the time the chair lift was half way up I did start to feel better.

STAYING THERE

We stayed at the "Pine Ridge" condominiums, which were fantastic. The Apartments themselves where phenomenal (Well ours was, It was number 4D) they are privately owned but leased out through tour operators. We had a 2-bedroom apartment, which was more than comfortable for two couples. But reading the guest book we saw that one family had got 12 people in there!!! There was a maid service and very helpful reception staff who couldn't do enough to help.
Its position at the base of the 12Oclock run was perfect as we could ski back to the back door (Although there is a 2 min walk uphill to the chairlift to start you off in the morning - I was not too keen on that especially on the first day, I felt like I was scaling Everest.
Much of the slope side accommodation is in Condominiums or private Chalet style homes. I cannot comment on their level of décor or comfort but talking to other people staying around the resort it all seems to be of an equally high standard - No naff, cheap tired old European Self Catering Accommodation here.
The Hotels all seemed to be very high standard and the one we did sneak in and have a look at was the "Beaver run" at beaver run resort base. This although huge and at odds with its setting was very Swish and had lots of outdoor pools and hot tubs dotted around the resort, all with amazing views of the mountains. We ate out here a couple of times and the food was excellent and good value for money.

SKIING

Beginners

Peak 9 Is an excellent beginners area is relatively flat area with some great meandering greens to move onto for confidence the only problem is that they put the fear of god into you by saying on the beaver run main chair lift "Intermediated and above only" don't let it put you off if you can hold a snow plough turn and stop then you will be fine - although, there are one or two frightening looking runs trust me they are not and great for building your confidence. If however you are put off by that then head off on "Quick sliver" chair for all the green runs you could desire and work up to the blue/ greens. Peak 8 also has some nice greens but lots of Snow Boarders.
Although we did not use the ski school the classes that we saw were well organized. Not too big and the instructors seemed to be taking time with the whole group and not just skiing off in the great follow and keep up fashion so popular in Europe.
The nursery slopes looked great, made me want to be 6 again lots of fun toys and they even have there own "kiddies" grading system for slopes and areas where only the ski school can go in the trees, With great runs such as the Ghost train and Pirates Heaven, There was always lots of laughter and the sounds of fun coming out of the trees.

Intermediate

Great blue cruising runs all over the mountains although not as many long runs as dedicated piste bashers would perhaps hope for. Again as I have said Peak 9 Is the easiest with no nasty surprises, although there are some steep runs they are very wide giving you the confidence to ski out of disaster.
There are a lot of enforced slow skiing zones here; this is great for building your confidence. Peaks 7 and 8 have the best tree runs quite a few of which are left "unbashed" or groomed for several days to get you used to rougher terrain. Peak 10 has more blue/blacks, which are great for building up you confidence for speed.
The glades on Peak 7 are amazing after a big dump of snow. The powder there was as the Americans say "Awesome" and just right for tentative forays off the edge of the pistse into Huge Blankets of Virgin territory.

Experts

52% of the runs are classified black but they use a diamond system to denote the particularly challenging runs so a double diamond black is the more difficult whilst a plain old black is great for a more experienced intermediate to progress too.
All the peaks have blacks but 7 and 8 are the maybe the most fun and a "Quad" chair called "Imperial" services several single diamond black runs into lots of bowls.
Peak 9 has lots and lots of steep Mogul fields (AND I MEAN STEEP) if you are not too confident then it can take an age to get down.
The burn off peak 10 is a great wooded off piste Playground but be careful to watch out for steep drop offs here that can catch you out and leave you stranded if you loose confidence.

All in all the skiing at Breckenridge is out of this world, I am Biased and would say it is not as good as Canada but then it's a whole cultural thing, The Americans we met were friendly if not a bit over courteous, Very prone in engaging British people in Political discussions both on the chair lifts and restaurants, They are not shy in coming forward. Which is great if you like that!
The chair lift system is incredibly efficient and gentle on the skier.
The grading system on the slopes is better and more forgiving than Europe, something to bear in mind when you return to European skiing (If you ever do!) as it can be a bit of a shock thinking you are better than you are.
Mountain restaurants were Affordable but not much to shout home about - Mostly based on the cafeteria system, but I do have to say that the food choice was very varied and always of a high standard.

Breckenridge is not a cheap option, Although the cost of living is lower than The UK, It is a holiday resort and you will need to budget accordingly we found that a can Of Coke in Vending machines varied from 75cents in the town to $3.00 on the mountain but say a hotdog/ burger and fries was never over $4.50 and a bowl of stew could be $2.00.
Eating out in the town varied a great deal the cheapest meal we had was at "Rasta Pasta" $4.00 for lasagne and Salad. The "Gumbo" Place was also excellent value but took a long time to get the food after it was ordered.
Take a ways were numerous and varied with a typical 12" pizza being $12.00, Chinese restaurants abound in Breckenridge and you can get a huge meal for 4 for $20.00 compared to £30-40 here.
If you plan to eat out in a restaurant then be advised that they generally have 3 sittings being at 17.30, 19.30, and 21,30 and if you don't book then you are in for a long wait.

Weather
Season Starts anwhere from October to November depending on the snow fall. Most Uk tour operators run trips from December till April.
Snow fall is consistant with the biggest powder falls being in March and April. Whilst we were there in January it snowed 10 out of the 14 days, and out of those 10 only 2 days were storm conditions (We chose to go to Aspen on those days as its tree lined runs are better when the weather closes in)
It is very very very cold in Breckenridge- Unless you get a freak southerly wind which raised the temperature to -2c instead of -17c, Incidentely all the local weather stations still use Farenhieght instead of Celcius ,talk about confusing.
Back to the wind - all of the peaks are very exposed till you get to the tree line and wind can be an issue, with lifts closing regularly for a few hours but thankfully the mountian restaurants are numerous and are well placed to sit out a brief storm.
There is one problem with wind in the tree lined runs also that they tend to act a bit like wind tunnels, it is not unusual to see some skiing within there own mini whirlwind - Disorentating bit not dangerous. 

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