Monthly Archives: January 2010

Breakfast Hot Spots in Winter Park

Posted on by
2
 
 

Winter Park Colorado Breakfast

Winter Park, Colorado Breakfast

In the Denver Post this weekend, an article highlighted their favorite breakfast places in Colorado ski towns and Winter Park hot spots made it into two of the 10 spots.  Sweet pastries, amazing eggs benedicts, fresh donuts and even coffee roasted right here in the valley, the breakfast options in Winter Park are pretty impressive for a ski town. To start, we love the melt-in-your-mouth crepes at Goody’s and the tasty breakfast burrito at the Back Bowl Soup Company, two new restaurants with breakfast at the Village at Winter Park.  Plus, if you stay with us, you’ll get sweet savings at both eateries.
Let’s not forget Carver’s Bakery, a long-standing tradition for breakfast in downtown Winter Park, with eggs benedict that will keep you coming back. They, along with the Rise & Shine Bakery, also make their own fresh pastries and bagels and serve delicious cappuccinos. Rise & Shine also offers our guests $1 off any specialty drink.
For a quick bite to eat and some coffee, we love the Rocky Mountain Roastery. They roast all of their coffee beans at their store in Fraser, plus they also have a good breakfast burrito, cinnamon rolls and muffins. For more quick breakfasts, see our list of the five best places for a quick breakfast on our Winter Park Blog.

Lots of places to get your morning grub Winter Park style and then get out to the slopes for some deep powder turns.

Ski Helmets Mandatory for Winter Park Ski Patrol?

Posted on by
1
 
 

Ski Helmets Mandatory at Winter Park Resort?

I came across an article this morning in the Aspen Times about the popularity and use of ski helmets.  In  a nutshell the old and young are being smart and the rebellious late teens and early twenties are shunning the  use of the ski helmet.

This year all Winter Park Resort ski school employees and students are required to wear the brain saving head buckets.  At all Vail resorts ski patrol and all on mountain resort employees are required to wear helmets.  Is the inevitable coming to Winter Park Resort?  I’m thinking yes especially if the insurance companies have anything to do with it.

Nationally nearly half of all skiers and riders wore helmets last season, according to an annual demographic survey performed by members of the National Ski Areas Association (NSAA). Usage climbed to 48 percent in 2008-09 from 43 percent the season before.  The latest national survey showed 77 percent of children 9 years old and younger wear helmets, as do two-thirds of those between 10 and 14. On the other end of the age spectrum, 63 percent of adults ages 65 and older wear ski helmets.  Only about one-in-three skiers and riders between ages 18 and 24 wore helmets last season.

At a New Years Eve Party at our neighbors House, the Glancy’s, a discussion about ski helmet use with several Winter Park and Sol Vista Ski Patrol employees ensued.  My point was why wouldn’t all on mountain employees want to wear ski helmets for extra protection.  They are warm and offer protection from wayward tree branches and out of control skiers/boarders.  The patrollers retort was that ski helmets only offer protection up to 10 miles an hour and the average skier skies at over 25 miles per hour.  And if the resorts wanted employees to wear helmets then the resort should bear the cost of the helmet.

My final say on the ski helmet issue, not only for patrollers but for all, is if the helmet offers some protection than that is better than none.  It also shows that not wearing a helmet is not a status symbol on the slopes.

So put your head in a brain bucket and try to avoid having someone wipe your rear end for the rest of your life after a ski crash.

Mountian Pine Beetle Effects on Winter Park Resort Skiing

Posted on by
Reply
 
 

Winter Park Mountain Pine Beetle

Did you hear the one about the tourist who wanted to know where he could get one of those pretty red pine trees to take back home? If you haven’t heard it, you don’t live in Colorado.

Mountain Pine Beetle here in Winter Park, Colorado is no laughing matter.  The trees and the health of the forests that surround our homes and businesses here have great effect on everything from the economy to quality of life.  At our home in Tabernash we have removed over 300 trees at not an insignificant cost, and the 400 left need to be sprayed each year.  It is even a matter of life and death for, if God forbid, our surrounding forests would sustain a major fire more likely than not we will be talking about fatalities. So I do not take the pine beetle lightly.

With all the doom and gloom though I found an article in Ski Magazine about the pine beetle infestation that says this may be a bit of good news for ski resorts.  It is hard to believe that all the dead trees could be good for the ski resorts in Colorado but I think there is some truth in this article.  We have suppressed fires for so long that the mature trees are susceptible to the beetle and here in Winter Park we have a mostly lodge-pole pine forest with not a lot of diversity.  As the Ski Magazine article says the loss of most of the lodge-poles will bring new species such as aspen and fir to creat a more diversified forest.

How will this affect skiing? The predictions, perhaps surprisingly, are mixed. There are places where it will enhance the skiing by opening up areas, while other areas may have to be closed.  Researchers are investigating possible impacts on the snowpack. Loss of the forest canopy means there will be more snow on the ground . But the resulting loss of shade will trigger an earlier spring melt. North-facing slopes will remain the best places to find powder long after a storm because these areas contain spruce and fir trees, which beetles tend to ignore. South-facing slopes, where lodge-pole thrive, could be snowier than ever just after a storm due to fewer treetops intercepting snow.

I would really like to see the beetles just up and die but that doesn’t seem realistic, so I will cling to the hope that in the long run the pine beetle will produce a more viable forest.

And we will keep spraying our trees.

Lunch at Mary Jane/Winter Park Club Car

Posted on by
Reply
 
 

Skiing and Eating at Mary Jane

The crazy, crazy season for Winter Park Lodging Company is on the down side of the hill for this holiday season.  So, I was able to get out and spent an entire day on the slopes at Mary Jane/ Winter Park on New Year’s day.  There was 11 inches of new snow in the last 24 hours and the sun was out, lets hope all of 2010 is just like this, and I guess all the Winter Park visitors were too hung over hit the slopes as there were very short lines at the lifts.  Seemed like it was a Monday in the middle of January the lines were so short.  All around it was a very good New Year’s Day.

I was out skiing with my doctor buddy Mr. Steve Worth and one of Winter Park Lodging Company’s home owners Mr. Frank Jedlicka.  We three made a good skiing crew wanting to hit the bumps but not break any of our over 40 year old bones.  At mid-day both Frank and Steve suggested we hit the Mary Jane Club Car for lunch.  I, being my typical weary self, was not so keen on eating at the on mountain eatery.  I was wanting a Cosmic Dog Burrito but the plan was to spend the whole day on the slopes, so here we come Club Car.  We walked right up got a nice table in the sun on the Club Car deck and three barley pops were on the table in no time.  We had some potato chips with blue cheese dressing, an attainable  new years resolution being to gain weight, and three burgers for lunch.  Meal was filling, tasty and served quickly, all that you can ask for with a ski lunch.

After the meal we had another brew and chatted, and in the background we noticed the absolute worst collection of songs being played through the outdoor speakers.  It wasn’t just that it was bad, it was that it was really really bad and at a high enough volume that once it was noticed you could not stop noticing it.  We asked our very friendly server about the music and she whole heartedly agreed that it was beyond bad.  She also mentioned that they have had complaints about some offending songs such as Eric Clapton’s “Cocaine”, so the higher ups were a little gun shy about any controversial music (Eric Clapton on the cutting edge? Who would have known).  The tables around us soon took notice and a conversation ensued about how out of place the music being played was.  I would describe the genre of music as really bad Bobby Brown and Back Street Boys type music.  And yes, I will have to say that I do not think this even classifies as music.  But here we were stuck waiting to see if the next song we could recognize or would it continue to drive us off this prized deck seating.  Well, the music won and we were back on the Super Gauge lift trying to forget that buzz-kill music.  So bless that soul who chose the collection of Bobby Brown B sides for getting me back on the slopes and off my arse for a whole day of darn good skiing.

Anywho, it was a great New Year’s Day and I would like to thank Bobby Brown and the  Back Street Boys for my sore legs today.

Winter Park Rec Center: Video and Photos

Posted on by
Reply
 
 

Need to take a break from skiing? It costs a family of four about $200 to ski at Winter Park (with coupons from Winter Park Lodging Company) but for only $40, the same family can take a day off of skiing and enjoy the fun of the new Fraser Valley Grand Park Rec Center.   It’s a state of the art facility with a lazy river, toddler water park, three story water slide, four lane lap pool, diving board, hot tub, steam room, sauna, basketball courts, gymnasium with a tramp-aerial jump pit, and an entire 2nd floor of workout equipment each with their own flat screen TVs.  Don’t forget to try out the climbing wall or one of the many classes offered (yoga, spinning, aerobics, etc).  

Book with Winter Park Lodging Company and use the facility for $8/day with our special passes. Stop by our office on the way to the Rec Center to pick up as many as you need.