36th Annual Wells Fargo Ski Cup at Winter Park Resort

Posted on January 6, 2011 by Chris

March 4th thru 6th, 2011 – Winter Park Resort

The Wells Fargo Cup is one of of the ski season best events and is now in the prime ski month of March. This charitable event is coming upon us quickly and lodging at Winter Park Resort id filling up quickly. The Wells Fargo Cup brings together world-class disabled ski racers, Denver celebrities, Broncos alumni along with amateur skiers and snowboarders of all abilities for a weekend of activities to benefit the National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD). Competitors in the Governor’s Cup, a Pro Am race, assemble a team of five friends, family members or co-workers to compete for cash prizes and bragging rights. The highlight of the weekend is the World Disabled Invitational, when disabled skiers compete head-to-head on parallel courses. The Celebrity Challenge is one of the most entertaining events of the weekend as celebrities and former football stars make their way down a racecourse. A giant silent auction attracts frivolous and frugal shoppers alike!

The Wells Fargo Cup is an annual fund raising event for the National Center for the Disabled. It has numerous events scheduled which included a silent auction for merchandises and certificates, a celebrity/team race that everyone can participate for a fee or watch for free (on Saturday) and the World Disabled Invitational race on Sunday.

Help raise money to support the life changing programs for the NSCD and win great prizes like ski passes to Winter Park Resort (raise/donate only $100), VIP hospitality at the 36th annual Wells Fargo Ski cup and season passes to Winter Park Resort for the 2010/2011 season.

To help raise money and participate in the Wells Fargo Cup check out the NSCD.

Lodging is filling up quickly so book your Winter Park Resort Lodging with the Winter Park Lodging Company.

SIA Snow Show Returns to Winter Park Resort

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Chris

SIA Winter Park Resort

The SIA Snow Show returns to Denver and Winter Park Resort for the second year after a long run in the desert community in Las Vegas.

After 37 years in Las Vegas, the SIA Snow Show reported a six-year attendance high for the inaugural Snow Show held at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver from January 28-31, 2010. The sold-out Snow Show attracted 18,045 attendees and featured over 3,100 exhibitors representing 845 snow sports brands, including 125 new exhibitors.

For four days in 2011, the snow sports industry returns to Denver, Colorado to do business, socialize and network. With over 18,000 all under one roof, the snow sports community comes together once a year to see the latest trends, styles and innovations from ski, snowboard, cross country, AT/tele, backcountry, snowshoe and fashion.

The SIA Snow Show is two parts. One spent in Denver at the Convention Center and the other spent at Winter Park Resort with an on snow component. The Snow Show schedule is as follows:

SIA SNOW SHOW
Thursday, January 27 — Sunday, January 30, 2011
Colorado Convention Center
Denver, Colorado USA

Thursday, January 27
Friday, January 28
Saturday, January 29
Sunday, January 30

9A-6P
9A-6P
9A-6P
9A-3P

ON-SNOW DEMO / SKI-RIDE FEST
January 31 & February 1, 2011
Winter Park Resort, CO — Alpine, Snowboard, AT, Telemark, Backcountry
Devil’s Thumb Ranch, CO — Cross Country, Snowshoe

The SIA Snow Show, January 27-30, 2011 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO, delivers the largest, most concentrated and authentic trade event in the snow sports industry. It is the first time globally that the styles, technologies, innovations, culture and energy of snow sports is presented. Close to 20,000 industry professionals will meet to engage in business, networking opportunities, parties, brand events and seminars to feel the true essence of snow sports.

On January 31 and February 1, 2011 the industry will head up to the mountains for the On-Snow Demo/Ski-Ride Fest at Winter Park Resort and Devil’s Thumb Ranch. In conjunction with Western Winter Sports Reps Association’s (WWSRA) Rocky Mountain Demo and in partnership with Cross Country Ski Areas Association (CCSAA), buyers can try out the latest gear for ski, snowboard, AT/tele, backcountry, cross country and snowshoe while all other attendees can get some time on the hill with the brands, reps and media. Attendees of the SIA Snow Show and On-Snow Demo/Ski-Ride Fest get free lift tickets and entry to Winter Park and Devil’s Thumb.

The SIA snow show is the place to check out the new trends in everything SKI. Up at Winter Park Resort all the latest will be tested on the hills.

Looking for lodging for the on snow demo session in Winter Park, CO? Look no further than Winter Park Lodging Company for SIA Snow Show lodging.

Crankworx Colorado at Winter Park Resort

Posted on July 26, 2010 by Chris

Crankworks Colorado

Crankworx is here at Winter Park Resort this week starting Thursday the 29th. This is the premier downhill bike festival in the United States and if you have not had a chance to check it out, you are missing out.

Crankworx Winter Park Colorado

Check out the above link to get an idea of what the downhill course is like at Trestle Bike Park that the athletes will be riding. We here at Winter Park Lodging Company had a chance last week to give Trestle Bike Park a ride and it is a rush and those that are professional in this sport are amazing athletes.

Here is the schedule of events for Crankworks Colorado 2010:

Thursday, July 29

Dual Slalom

Slopestyle Qualifiers

Friday, July 30

Super Downhill

Best Trick

Saturday, July 31

Cross Country

Slopestyle Finals

Sunday, August 1

UCI/PRO GRT Downhill

This is one of the coolest festivals of the year with a great feel, live music, great athletes and Trestle Bike Park is open so you can give the downhill bike a try and see what all the rage is about.

While the temperatures are hitting the high 90′s down in Denver and Boulder here in Winter Park we are in the 70′s and 80′s with nice cool night temps of 50 or so and surrounded by the beautiful Rocky Mountains. Lots to do up here this time of year. If you have any appreciation of bicycles at all you do not want to miss Crankworx. This is the bike festival of the year!

Winter Park Beer Festival

Posted on July 7, 2010 by Chris

Winter Park Beer Festival Pricing

The Winter Park Beer Festival being held at the Winter Park Base Saturday August 14, 2010 has set the beer tasting prices. See list below.

The WP Beer Fest will be held in Hideaway Park and there will be over 25 breweries sampling there products with live music onstage and vendors vending all that you will need to celebrate a beer festival high in the Rocky Mountains. The WP Beer Fest benefits the National Sports Center for the Disabled, one of the most worthwhile causes that I know of.

Winter Park Beer Festival tickets:

Unlimited Tasting!
From 12-5pm
Only $25 (Save $5)
Live Music and Fun Included
Pre-Sale Price
Expires 8/12/10 at 5pm
$30 At The Door

VIP Tasting!
Unlimited Tasting From 12-5pm
Only $45 (Save $5)
Includes:
Commemorative Glass Mug,
Private VIP Patio, Private VIP
Seating Near The Stage, Lunch
Buffet and More!
Pre-Sale Price Expires 8/12/2010
$50 At The Door

Click Here to Purchase Winter Park Beer Festival Tickets

Here is hoping that the above three young ladies will be attending and serving some cold suds at the WP Beer Festival.

To get your Beer Festival lodging visit Winter Park Lodging Company.

Winter Park, CO Chocolate Festival

Posted on June 16, 2010 by Chris

Colorado Summer Food Festivals

Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate …. who doesn’t like chocolate? What is your favorite chocolate? Well lets try some of the best before we make that call.

Winter Park Resort is putting on a summer food festival that is all about the love of chocolate.

Winter Park CO Chocolate Festival

June 26th 2010

A treat for the Winter Park vacationers and a destination for chocolate lovers around the state! Everyone loves chocolate! The Winter Park Chocolate Festival will include chocolate samples and fine chocolates for sale from a wide variety of regional vendors. Special guests and a full-day’s event schedule round out the fun!

There is even a wine pairing with chocolate session. Now that is right up my alley – wine and chocolate.

Saturday the 26th

10am - Winter Park Chocolate Festival opens!

11 am – Pudding Eating Contest!

Rounds for kids and adults! The catch – no hands!

12 noon – Denise Nickerson on Stage!

Star of the original Willy Wonka film talks about ”My Life as the Blueberry Girl”

1 pm – Truffle Competition Awards Presentation

2 pm – Truffle Demo with Chef Trusan

3pm – Chocolate and Wine-Pairing demo with The Chocolate Therapist, Julie Pech

3 – 5 pm – Wine Tasting

5pm – Festival closes.

Sounds like a great way to to enjoy some tasty treats and in Colorado Rockies.

What is your favorite chocolate? The favorite in our home at the moment is the Lindt dark chocolate with sea salt . Sounds odd but man it is delicious especially with red wine.

Winter Park, Colorado Beer Festival

Posted on May 19, 2010 by Chris

Colorado Mountain Beer Festival

The first annual Winter Park, CO beer festival has been announced and will be taking place in Hideaway Park in downtown Winter Park, Colo on Saturday August 14, 2010. This is Winter Parks first foray into the beer festival world but we are thinking that the Winter Park Beer Festival will be bigger and badder than the Great American Beer Festival in no time.

The Winter Park Beer Festival will be a celebration of beer, music and mountains, can you have any of these without the others?, in the beautiful environs of Winter Park, CO. There will be over 25 breweries represented doing beer tastings and selling merchandise with local and national bands to keep all entertained. There will also be vendors in Hideaway Park selling all that you will need to make this a fun and friendly day of beer drinking. We are hoping that the three young ladies to the left will be attending to help peddle some of the suds.

Breweries that can be expected to be attending, but in no way guaranteed to be, include New Belgium Brewery, Odell’s Brewery, Coors, Budweiser, Great Divide Brewery, Oscar Blues Brewery, Sierra Nevada Brewery, Left Hand Brewery, Grand Lake Brewery, Deschutes Brewing and Flying Dog Brewery. There should be some great beers by some of the best brewers in the nation.

As for music, the lineup should be fun with lots of good beer drinking tunes. Here is who will be playing:

JJ Grey and MOFRO

“intriguing and fortuitous… Grey’s a songwriter with a sharp wit and a knack for skewering the hypocrites, jive politicians and carpetbaggers who litter the landscape. The MOFRO vibe travels freely among swamp funk, blues, rock and soul, and does so with a certain down-and-dirty swagger that’s as real as it is appealing.”

Filthy Children

This funk/jazz/rock septet serves up a funkinetic frenzy of fresh, original, mind moving music; reminiscent of such groove giants as Soulive, Greyboy Allstars, John Scofield, and Deep Banana Blackout. Filthy Children deliver action packed funk that’s sure to be “a big fat kick in the groove”

Cowboy Dave

Hillbilly yuckster by day, Saturday-morning-cartoon hero by night, Cowboy Dave and his band of honky-tonk all-stars are poised to put the western back in country and western. Known to many as the deadpanned FortyTwenty frontman and fiddle player, Cowboy Dave Wilson has spent the better part of this decade honing his craft throughout the honky-tonks of the Midwest and South.

Sounds like some good grooves to get a good beer drink going up in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. This festival being on a Saturday lets you come up and enjoy a Free Ride Friday in Trestle Bike Park then the beer festival on Saturday and maybe some cross country/ single track mountain biking on Sunday before you return home.

I forgot to mention that the Winter Park Beer Festival benefits a truly worthy cause in the National Sports Center for the Disabled. I do not know of a better cause to give to and to do it all by drinking some beer and listening to some music in the Colorado mountains, now that is one heck of a weekend.

So come on out and celebrate summer with some beer and music!

Winter Park, CO Music Festivals

Posted on May 15, 2010 by Chris

Summer Music in Winter Park Colorado

Music is in the air this year in Winter Park, Colorado. The big festivals are back and there is a smattering of some new events to make this a great year up here in Rockies. There will be jazz, blues, rock and country festivals through the season at the Hideaway Park venue in downtown Winter Park, CO.

The Winter Park Jazz Festival - A Colorado tradition for over 20 years and it just keeps on getting stronger. This year featuring Chaka Khan and Norman Browns Summer Storm. The Jazz Festival is the premier summer jazz fest in the Rocky Mountain region.

Blues From The Top Music Festival – From the Grand County Blues Society this is one rockin’ show that blues lovers do not want to miss. Tis’ is a full weekend of music with a Friday night show at Smokin’ Moe’s to get the party started right.

The Fox Classic Rock Music Festival – Featuring that ‘80′s hit producing machine Night Ranger, tell me you don’t remember the high school classic Sister Christian. Come out for a day of Music, Food, Beer Pavilion, Vendors and Fun. 103.5 The Fox brings a GREAT line up of music and fun. Gates and Vendors open at 10 am for this FREE EVENT! Yes it is free, not something you hear very often when it comes to live music! Show is 8/7/2010 from noon to 6PM. Contact winter Park Lodging Company for your tickets.

KYGO High Country Music Festival – Another free festival featuring Chris Cagle, The Josh Abbott Band and Kory Brunson. No editorializing here as I’m not a Country Music aficionado. I bet though it would be a great time and a lot cheaper than the $300.00 U2 is getting for their Denver show this summer.

There is also the season long High Note Thursday free shows in Hideaway Park. Artists have not been released yet. Also there is the season ling Fraser Picnic In The Park Series with Denver and local artists.

We have a lot of music going on up here in winter Park, CO along with great weather and more outdoor activities than you could name.

Come have a great summer time in Winter Park, Colorado.

See Winter Park Lodging Company for tickets to all events and the best music lodging available.

Winter Park Colorado Fourth of July

Posted on April 30, 2010 by Chris

4th of July in the Colorado Rockies

Looking for somewhere to spend the fourth of July weekend up in the Colorado mountains? Winter Park is the place to be for fourth of July. Come celebrate summer in Winter Park and the Fraser Valley this 4th of July Weekend.

There are a bunch activities happening, including the long-going Rendezvous Run for Independence, the Hi Country Stampede Rodeo and of course the spectacular fireworks display. There is also a great fireworks display over in Grand Lake, a short 25 minute drive from the friendly confines of Winter Park and Fraser.

Monday, July 4th
3:00pm – 10:00pm
Every year, locals and visitors alike bring their families, BBQs and blankets to the Fraser Ball-fields to play & relax out in the gorgeous mountain air for the 4th of July. Kids run & play on the huge grassy fields, live music sounds for listening and dancing, and everyone enjoys the day as we wait for the spectacular fireworks display at nightfall. At the Fraser Ball-fields, just north of the town of Fraser. For more information call the Winter Park & Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce 800-903-7275 or 970-726-4118.

Grand Lake Fireworks
Grand Lake boasts the largest fireworks display in Colorado on the 4th of July, with gorgeous colors exploding over and reflecting in the lakes.

Run for Independence
Saturday

8:00am – whenever the last racer crosses the finish line!
This is a five-mile race course from the base of Winter Park Resort to the Town of Fraser. With an elevation loss of over 600 feet, anyone can enjoy walking or running on the scenic and paved Fraser River Trail to help raise money for the Scott Hughes Endowment Fund. This foundation provides scholarships for children on kidney dialysis to attend Camp Chief Ouray at Snow Mountain Ranch-YMCA of the Rockies. Registration will be available online soon or you can register at the starting line from 8:00am – 9:00am at Winter Park Resort. For more information call the Winter Park & Fraser Valley Chamber of Commerce 800-903-7275 or 970-726-4118.

These are only a few of the activities that can be had here in Winter Park for the 4th of July weekend. Check out Winter Park Lodging Companies full activity schedule for this years Fourth of July in Winter Park Colorado.

Winter Park Spring Splash Pond Skimming

Posted on April 23, 2010 by Chris

Winter Park End of Season Pond Skimming

Here is a video of contestant #15 at Spring Splash. From the time that we watched the pond skimming competition this guy by far had the best run. The Spring Spash this year was was very good and very spring like. Last year there was a ton of new snow on closing weekend but this year was just a bunch of spring-like slush.

The locals party over at Mary Jane C-Lot was very fun with local musicians and people BBQ-ing, having some drinks and an all around good time. The weather cooperated with no rain or snow and delightful sunny skies. We will post some of the pictures from splash in the next day or two.

Now that Winter Park Resort is closed we are getting some spring storms that are just making me wish the resort was still open. Maybe a trip up to Berthoud Pass for some back country skiing will end this ski season on a proper note. Oh well it was a good ski season with some big storms followed by some dry periods but we got some very good days in and overall the season was not bad. El Nino held for the entire year and we were a little short of our average snow fall.

Goodbye ski season and hello mountain bike season. Well, after all this snow melts that has dropped in the last few days.

Last Week of Skiing at Winter Park Resort

Posted on April 12, 2010 by Chris

spring skiing in colorado winter Winter Park Resort Closing Ski Day

We are down to the last day of ski season here in Winter Park, Colorado. And this if the time to come up to make some turns. The last day of the 2009/2010 ski season is April 18th this year and that is the day to be here up here in the Rockies.

This week there are lots of events in the Winter Park Village. There will be live music in the village and a beer dinner at The Cheeky Monk this Thursday. The weather this week is looking good with snow predicted for Tuesday the 13th.

The grand finale of this ski season will be the Winter Park Resort Spring Splash. Check out the link and make plans to attend the oldest tradition of its kind and on its 42nd year. On Sunday, April 18, athletes begin at 12pm as spectators watch skiers and riders struggle through obstacles on the Larry Sale trail race course and attempt to skim across an icy pond to reach the finish line and post a time. Live music sets the tone for a closing day party that is fun for everyone!

The official party is held at the Winter Park base and the unofficial wilder side is over in the C-Lot at Mary Jane. Come enjoy some music, BBQ, beer, and an all around good time at the Mary Jane Spring Splash celebration.

This is the last week of ski season here in Winter Park, CO so lets get out and wish ski season a grand goodbye ’till next November.