Posts tagged Colorado

Winter Park and Mary Jane provide a lot of terrain to explore and are worth a several day visit. However, the downside is there are many long, green runs that are required to navigate the mountain. The night life is also very slow and does not have much option compared to somewhere along the I-70 corridor or in a bigger town like Steamboat.

Winter Park offers a wide variety of terrain. It just so happens that the mountain is naturally separated into areas of interest. Mary Jane is mostly moguls with some great tree runs and moderately challenging blue runs dispersed throughout. If you are a skier and interested in bumps, there is no other area so purely devoted to them. For snowboarders, the Parsenn Bowl and tree runs are worth the ride. The rest of the moguls get old.

Within Winter Park proper, the middle mountain area is full of sick park features, beginner terrain, beginner park features and some other runs. The most friendly, least visited side of the mountain is the far right hand side where the Pioneer Express accesses several blue trails.

Winter Park and Mary Jane are not the most snowboard friendly in regards to getting from place to place.  There are many flat, long cat-tracks that if you don't hold enough speed will have you walking or hitching a ride from a passing ski pole. The long green runs that were absolutely necessary to get place to place drove me crazy but besides that, once on the run your are trying to get to, there are some beautiful, quiet runs with nicely spaced trees to ride through.

The town of Winter Park is beyond boring after a day of exploring.  If you combine Winter Park and the few po-dunk towns that surround it, what is offered is very limited. There are a handful of great restaurants, like Hernando's Pizza, but besides riding and going out to dinner in town (not much in the base area, which is under heavy construction right now), there really isn't much else to do.

Winter Park is a mountain I would ride occasionally for specific reasons, being some of the tree runs and certain areas of the mountain I really enjoyed. Besides that, it wouldn't be my destination trip after trip.