I was looking for some old vintage trail maps for Winter Park Resort and I came across this old trail map from 1980. And boy does it show just how much bigger and better that Winter Park/Mary Jane has become.
The trail map for the coming 2010/2011 season should look very similar to the 2009/2010 version as there have been no on mountain improvements for the last couple of years. That can be understood with the economy being in the tank the last few years. Mr. Garry DeFrange, Winter Park Resort President, has been saying that more development is coming to the Winter Park Base Village in the form of town-homes and a hotel. When that will be remains to be seen. There still lots of vacant retail spaces in the Winter Park Village but Mr. De Frange is saying that there are tenants waiting to sign on. We are hoping that the large restaurant space is taken for this coming ski season but at this point it is not looking likely to be open for this ski season.
On mountain expansion is hopefully coming soon to the resort with lots of area to expand skiing on to adjacent mountains of the Winter Park/Mary Jane Resort. Again probably not going to happen in the next few years as the economy has put a wobble in the ski resorts walk.
Anywho, I liked the above ski trail map and thought I would share. Below is an even older trail map of the original Mary Jane side of the ski area from 1976 that is pretty cool.
Ski Mary Jane
Summer season is coming to an end so lets get ready for this coming ski season: tune the boards, buy the ski pass and book your lodging with Winter Park Lodging Company for the best deals in WP.
Winter Park Resort will bring the US Alpine Ski Championships back to Colorado for the first time since 1994 this spring 2011.
The four-day series opens Thursday, March 31, with mens giant slalom, followed by womens GS on April 1, mens and womens super G on April 2 and finally slalom on April 3. The U.S. downhill championship will be held earlier in the winter in conjunction with the NorAm stop at Aspen, on Feb. 16, in order to ensure solid winter snow conditions.
Winter Park hosted a string of championships from 1992-94 and has been an integral host to early season technical races on the NorAm circuit for over a decade. The U.S. Alpine Championships opens the weekend following the Nature Valley NASTAR National Championships, a culmination of the largest recreational ski and snowboard race program in the world.
Expected to race at the championships is Lindsey Vonn, pictured above. And in addition to top local ski racers, celebrity athletes expected to compete besides Olympic medalists Lindsey Vonn of Vail are Julia Mancuso of Olympic Valley, Calif., Ted Ligety of Park City, Utah and Andrew Weibrecht of Lake Placid, N.Y.
2011 U.S. Alpine Championships at Winter Park Resort Colorado
Wednesday, Feb. 16: Men’s and Women’s downhill*
Thursday, March 31: Men’s giant slalom
Friday, April 1: Women’s giant slalom
Saturday, April 2: Men’s and Women’s super G
Sunday, April 3: Men’s and Women’s slalom *The U.S. downhill championships will take place at Aspen
The last few years the snow has been great in late March and April. Now is the time to plan your ski trip and take in the US Alpine Ski Championships.
The snow just keeps on coming here in Winter Park. In the last three days we have had almost ten inches of snow and there is more predicted for the next three days with this coming Tuesday looking like we will get hit pretty hard.
Here is the snow report for today the 4th day of April, 2010:
New Winter Park Resort Snow (In Inches)
24 hrs
48 hrs
72 hrs
Season
2″
3.5″
9.5″
251.
There are only two weeks left for this ski season and now is the time to get out and make some turns. Check out the snow forecast at snow forecast.com and see all the snow we should be getting in these next two weeks. This week Thursday and Friday should be spectacular days for some spring skiing. With highs in the 40′s it will be a light jacket day with plenty of sunscreen needed. Not a better way to spend a day on the slopes and an afternoon on the deck having a beer.
High pressure ridging aloft holds through next Thursday, weakening on Friday as a major storm brews out west. Another unsettled pattern which is kicked off by this system starts next Saturday (10th), and may continue off and on through the 16th/ 17th, maybe beyond, in the form of cut-off low pressure systems possibly. Pacific storms (with snow) should move through with good frequency into the last half of April. Plan now to get the snow that these storms are going to dump
Come celebrate spring in the Rocky Mountains. Winter Park Lodging Company is offering a fourth night free special and the best lift ticket deals around. April is the best time to ski in Colorado so don’t miss out. Head on up and spend a few dys on the slopes under the blue, blue Colorado skies.
It is time to get your season ski pass for Winter Park! As of April 5th prices will go up so get your ticket for fun and freshies all next season. Ski Colorado and Winter Park are offering a deal that you pay $49.00 down now and the rest isn’t due until next September. Do not procrastinate the time is now to get your ski season in the pipeline.
Hurry, this price only guaranteed through April 5, 2010.
$409 Prices guaranteed through April 5, 2010
Unlimited skiing and riding
at Winter Park and Copper
and six days at Steamboat.
Season – long benefits:
• Double your $59 Friends & Family discount tickets to 20 to be used anytime during the 2010/11 season**.
• Discounts on Rental/Retail, Food & Beverage and Ski & Ride School.
• Receive special passholder offers via the Pass Perks email.
• Discounts off full-window rate lift tickets at most Intrawest resorts including Whistler Blackcomb, BC (excluding Colorado resorts).
Also Available:
Rocky Mountain Super Passes, Winter Park season passes and Copper season passes.Click here for details.
If I say it enough times we should get one of these storms to hit us head on, no? After being missed by last weeks storm that some forecasters had us getting us much as 15″, we got .1″, I am strarting to believe that thrownin’ darts at a board is better than any of the snow forecasters ability to predict when we here in Winter Park will get snow.
That great 16″ snow storm that crushed Winter Park Resort, not one forecast predicted anywhere close to that. Now we have a couple of snow predictions for snow storms to hit this week. I’m seeing anywhere from 4″ to 15 inches for the Tues/Wed storm and 3″ to 12″ for the Fri/Sat storm. Bring it on. It looks like, if these predictions are a even a little bit correct, that this Thursday and Sunday should be good bluebird ski days.
It looks like winter made sure to leave good snow storms for spring. After a Monday – Wednesday (29th – 31st) break (partly cloudy/ mostly sunny, milder), we may see a strong late week storm, and another snow storm that weekend, for frequent snowfall during the first several days of April. Pacific storms (with snow) should move through with good frequency right into mid April, to finish off the season on an improved note we believe (improved weekly snow amounts compared to weekly mid winter totals).
Join Winter Park Resort Thursday, March 25th in West Portal Plaza as they kick-off the Nature Valley NASTAR National championships. The opening celebration begins at 6:00p.m. with a Warren Miller screening of the directors cut of Dynasty, followed by a live performance by The Greyboy Allstars at 7p.m.! Enjoy the movie, enjoy the music, and stick around for the huge fireworks display after the sun goes down!
Come and enjoy the last three weeks of this ski season. The big storms will be hitting us soon, Y’all keep your fingers crossed.
Day three os teaching the little ones to ski at Winter Park Ski Area went rather well despite the snow and wind. We headed up to the bunny slopes with the idea that this would be our first day on the lifts. When we arrived at the resort the snow was blowing and there was no sun to be seen. We decided that it would be better to work on our skiing technique at Sorenson Park rather than risk a break down by the 2 year-olds.
It was a success as Willem skied down the whole slope looking very confident (as you can see in the video above). Nicholas has a developed a nice right turn that is effective at slowing his speed. We took about six runs down the hill with plenty of M&M’s bribery before the cold became a factor.
All in all it was a good day and we will head up to Discovery Park next week with our first ski lift for the twins. So far Nicholas and Willem are excited to go skiing and all seems to be working well. Turning is not really being done with a conscious deliberation and shuffling needs to be coaxed but they want to go to the ski hill so that, I think, is a success.
We will keep you posted as to how the ski lift goes next week so wish us luck that there are no two year old melt downs. Day three for the future Olympic skiers was a success.
Not to beat a dead horse, but my favorite time to ski in Colorado and specifically Winter Park and Mary Jane Resort is the awesome months of April and March. March is Colorado’s snowiest month and April is true spring skiing with a light jacket and sunglasses. So far this March Winter Park Resort has been getting hit with some very big storms and some great weather.
Did you get a chance to watch the Olympic skiing events? Want to see how well you stack up next to the pros before the snow melts? Bump (mogul) runs can be tough to navigate midseason – the lack of fresh powder (and hard snow) can wreak havoc on your knees – but spring skiing is a great time to take a few turns and work on being able to ski the whole mountain. Winter Park Resort, located here 95 miles from Denver International Airport, is widely considered one of the best places to ski bumps in North America.
To play on Winter Park’s signature terrain, start early and head up the Zephyr Express. Warm up by heading down Outhouse and Mary Jane before heading up a variety of lifts providing access to tight glade runs, hellacious black diamonds and steep bumps. The mountain, however, isn’t all wild ups and downs. Kids ski school and a variety of intermediate terrain provide skiers of all levels with enough options to fill any vacation.
We also have some great music festivals to go along with the great skiing in March and April. At the Winter Park Music Festival for the past 20 years, Winter Park has been inviting young musicians to compete in its organized music competition held over two weekends in April. Judged by professional adjudicators, individuals and groups descend upon the town to perform while capturing some end of season ski and snowboard.
What else is there? Great snow, warm weather and music – Spring skiing in the Rockies is what ski dreams are made of.
After getting to ski some of the best powder we have had here in Winter Park in the last year I was doing some searches to see if any of the national media had picked up on how good our snow has gotten here in Colorado and especially Winter Park in the last month.
I didn’t find much besides an article in our local Sky Hi Daily News and a mention in the Westword blog about skipping work to go skiing. Too bad you Denverites would have had to drive the long way through Silverthorn to get to our pristine 16″ of new new powder yesterday. We love all the Front Ranger’s here in Winter Park, Colorado but sometimes it is very nice to have some of the skiing all to ourselves. Anyway there wasn’t much the national media was saying about the snow we have been getting here in Winter Park but with a couple of more good storms like this past weekend and I’m sure we will be all over the airwaves.
However, I did find a nice article that came out last week in the Winnepeg Free Press about Winter Park Resort skiing and Nordic skiing at Devils’ Thumb Ranch. The article could not have come out at a better time with all the powder we have gotten in the last month or so here Grand County.
Keep your eyes out for the next storm up here in WP because the forecast is calling for lots of snow from now until the end of the ski season. Here is the long range forecast from Snowforecast.com:
Next Monday (8th) we remain unsettled with some clouds/ sun, + light snow showers and little/ no accumulation as low pressure leaves and an unsettled northwest flow aloft remains. Mid next week (10th) we could see weak high pressure and mostly sunny skies. Late next week into Saturday, another low pressure system moves through with snow across the area. The rest of March and most of April still look potentially snowy.
Yes potentially snowy! We are at about 206″ of snow for the year and our average is 350″ so I expect that from now till the end of ski season, April 18 we should be getting lots of snow. Come on up and get your Winter Park/Mary Jane Resort bump skiing and powder skiing in before the season takes a bow for the year.
We are proud to claim an Olympian amongst our own Winter Park circle. The freestyle aerial ski jumper Ryan St. Onge, one of Winter Park’s own, finished at fourth place in British Columbia on Thursday, Feb 26th, just 2.5 points off from winning the bronze. Congratulations, Ryan!
Ryan and his family, including his brother Chad, another US Ski Teamster, moved to Winter Park in 1991 when he was eight years old. Ryan then trained with the Winter Park Competition Center for the next eight years. At the age of fourteen, he was selected to compete with the US ski team, performing two our of four jumps perfectly at the selection event.
Since then, Ryan St. Onge has gone on to win seven World Cup victories, three national titles, a silver medal in the 2009 World Cup Grand Prix and a gold at the 2009 World Championships held in Japan in March 2009. What an athlete! This is his second time at the Olympic games.
Winter Park Competition Center has 28 current or former athletes that have gone on to join the US Ski Team. Wow! In 2009, Winter Park Alumni Liz McIntyre was inducted in the US Ski Hall of Fame, another Winter Park Alum, Michelle Roark, won the US National Moguls Competition and the Winter Park Head Aerials Coach, Chris Seemann, was selected as the USSA’s freestyle coach of the year.
Let’s hear it for the first-class athletes of Winter Park!
With all the snow we have been getting here in Winter Park I thought it would be a good time to do a best of or favorites list of runs here at Winter Park/Mary Jane. There are lots of runs here in Winter Park so this was no easy matter coming up with a short five.
Well then, here goes my top five ski runs at Winter Park/Mary Jane Resort:
1. Runaway/Trestle – there are a couple of ways to ski this and it all depends on the snow which is better. If snow is thin take Runaway to the lower part of Trestle avoiding the rock face on upper Trestle. If the snow is plentiful do all of Trestle and enjoy the jump turns on the rock face.
2. Upper Arrowhead Loop/Rainbow Cut – You get to ski right past Sterling Way and Golden Spike where it seems all the other skiers are heading. Upper Arrowhead has some very steep bumps and usually great snow. The run then opens up after the “hero bumps” (that’s how you feel after you ski them) into Rainbow Cut. Nice and wide with good snow usually up against the trees.
3. Eagle Wind – Not a true run but all the runs off this lift kind of mingle together and there is always good snow and good tree skiing. The run out at the bottom can be hell on the legs but it’s usually worth the the skiing you were able to enjoy.
4. Belle Fourche ( Bella Foosh) – Thick thick powder, kinda hard to get to and the same crappy run out as Eagle Wind, equals some of the best skiing in Colorado.
5. The Trees – To be specific ‘Topher’s Trees or Buckaroo Trees. Not on the map and on opposite sides of the resort but some great fun tree skiing. Ask a local and you may get a guided tour.
I left out Panoramic Express terrain because that is where all guests seem to be heading these days. There is great skiing over there but anymore there are lots of people to go with them. And it is chilly on top of Parsenn Bowl.
Think I’m way off or right on? Leave a comment on what are your favorite runs at Winter Park/Mary Jane.
Ski Winter Park, Colorado
Ski Mary Jane
Skiing | Chris | 
August 4, 2010 12:49 pm | 
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