in Colorado forwork next week. Taking an extra day to get turns in at breckenridge on Saturday. Finding affordable Weekend for a single skier is crazy, so decided to do a hostel on Friday night. 1/8 price of private room. Based on web site liking loud rock and roll music and beer a must. It will be like frat days, hoping I can hang for one night ;). Pics on web site were multi-generational so hoping the grey hair is not too out of place. Was going to do two nights but even they are sold out Saturday. I got a peaks pass, but will have to stop by ticket window anyway since I will not get it before I leave. Any Friday evening or trail recommendations?
Best tourist trap is the crep cart. For 10 bucks and an hour wait you get better creeps then in france. I kid you not. Mach 2 is a really nice double black. Peak six is fun. So is imperial and George's thumb and whales tail.
Have a good visit. Which hostel are you looking at? Vince and I have stayed in a bunch in recent years, Tevere in VT, Maine Roadhouse near Saddleback, White Mtn Hostel in Conway, NH, TmaxNTopo at Lake Placid, etc. I stayed in Abominable Snowmansion near Taos about 20 years ago for $10 including breakfast!
Will be in CO first half of Feb and thought about staying at dorm part of Fireside Inn/Hostel at Breck, but found a private motel room in Minturn for same price. The Bivvi hostel at Breck looked good and new and I considered that as well.
In the hostels I've stayed at in recent years I've seen about 70-30 mix of under 40 vs. over 40 including lots of gray hair.
I am staying at the Bivvi. Not a bad review anywhere and looks really nice. Did not realize fireside was hostel as well, trying to find ways of doing a ski weekend in hundreds versus k's so I can do it more often
Bivvi looks pretty upscale, yet low priced. Not too many hostels with a hot tub! Hope you will report on it and Breck when you return. I may ski Breck first time ever in early Feb, definitely during Mar.
Good deal! I might ski Breck for the first time ever next week. How did the Bivvi work out? How were your lungs at 13k feet?
JimK wrote:
Good deal! I might ski Breck for the first time ever next week. How did the Bivvi work out? How were your lungs at 13k feet?
Been meaning to post a summary, but busy took me all week to just get the pics up :). Bivvi was actually very nice. Generational mix was from retirees to college age. Mix of Americans, Aussies, and Canadians. The hostel itself is great. Employees are super nice , they keep it clean and the breakfast is good. Bunks were comfortable. Showers, towels, sheet were hotel quality. Also had a big comforter to keep you warm. A few tips, ear plugs or buds a must. First night I had a middle bunk and the snoring above and below kept me awake until I remembered my ear buds and dozed off to some Beatles. I changed rooms from 6 to 4 person second night due to availability, but think it is worth the extra 10 dollars. Two fewer people in the room seemed to make it twice as comfortable. Be aware college age folks like to party, so expect a few late night door slams, loud "whispering" and giggles. Oh,and even the occasional borderline appropriate cuddling between guests. So if your easily offended or a grouchy person when woken up, may not be place for you. They do have two person rooms if you are traveling with someone, but price goes up as occupancy goes down. I hooked up with about 6-7 folks from hostel on Saturday night and we went to dinner and a few drinks afterward. It was fun and funny to watch because, except for a few exceptions, folks almost peeled off for the night based on age, with oldest throwing in towel first. For me skiing all day at altitude I pulled off around 930pm and walked back to hostel to have a beer with the other old guys :). Skiing was very good. Heavy winds at top of mountain made it a chore. I enjoyed emperial and t-bar lifts. I skied most of the peaks except 6 and spent 90% of my time on 7. I just did not make it over to it. Areas around the trees had the best snow. Wasn't bad near the top, but wind keep a few spots blown off. After my first two hours I was beat, but got a second wind after I ate and went until they closed the lifts. I had to stop on hard slopes get my breath most of the day. I was wearing a pack with camera and water and if I was going to be more then one day would have ditched the pack on first day because I could tell I had it on at altitude, but I do like taking photos. I did not go hiking, being by myself and getting winded easily I decided hitting the bowls off emperial was good enough for my first trip. I took a couple top to bottom runs with one skiing accross the mountain and through the trees on my down. That was very fun, until I got to bottom of peak8/9 where a lot of beginners hang out. But then just worked my way back to 7. Just a couple more tips. Traffic gets heavy in AM on weekend. I caught the bus right outside Bivvi, but between wait for bus and traffic wish I had skipped breakfast and got out a little earlier. The other is even if your just a day out, order your ticket/epic card online. Cheaper and you can pickup at the express line. I would have cried if i would have had to wait in the regular line after the bus ride. After seeing those lines on weekend, I was so glad I had ordered ahead! All in all, I very much enjoyed myself, had a great time skiing and made some new friends.
