After a crazy busy summer, Corona ups and downs, kids learning remotely, and a shifting jobs and real estate market, we can’t even begin to explain how happy we are that BRECK IS BACK!
We took the opportunity of all of our kids and jobs being remote and spent quite a bit of time in Breckenridge this year. We hit two resort opening days (Keystone and Breckenridge) and skied 20 days straight at the beginning of the season. This allowed us to do a couple things:
- Learn the ins and outs of the Breckenridge reservation system. It’s busy, but not “hard;” the system is easy to use and straightforward, but it’s going to be a bust year with pent up demand and limited capacity on the mountains. If you have the ability, try to ski mid-week (Tuesday-Thursday) to get the best access. Friday – Monday you’ll need to log in to the reservation platform as soon as it opens.
- Test out the pool reservations system. Again… it’s busy, but to keep corona at bay they had to limit capacity as well. You can get reservations at ColumbinePool.com which opens at 9am each morning for reservations the next day.
- Taught our 3 year old how to ski! This was quite an accomplishment because while I am an avid skier, I don’t define myself as a “good” skier. For our other kids, we leave ski lessons to the professionals at Breck Ski & Ride School, but they have not opened lessons for little kids yet. So, we loaded the princess onto borrowed skis, took her on the bunny slopes and magic carpet, and she LOVED it. By the end of the day she was on Quicksilver and skiing down the mountain with a harness. On day 3 she skied 20 miles!
- We joined the Carboy Winery Club. We were literally the last customer they had before they closed indoor dining. The wine was great, and we are looking forward to our first box of wines. In fact, our Christmas guests might even have a little treat under the Christmas tree…
All in all, Breck is doing a great job keeping lines in order, masks up, and getting everyone on their way to a great day of skiing or riding. Peaks 7, 8, and 9 are mostly open, and 6 & 10 are just around the corner. The biggest difference off the mountain is the lack of indoor dining… hopefully they town gets that figured out soon so we can eat without a jacket!
Our biggest recommendations are:
- Book early! Don’t wait for lift ticket and reservations. Get them now!
- Be patient. In traffic, in lift lines, or on the slopes.
- Be kind to the lifties (and each other). I understand some of us don’t like wearing masks, but the kids on lift duty don’t make that rule.
- Slow down towards the bottom. Remember, beginners (and parents with their 3 year olds!) are struggling to stay upright after a year of quarantine. We can all enjoy this mountain together!
- Be generous with your servers – they had a ROUGH early 2020, and the ones that are showing up for work need our support. After all, they could be sitting at home on unemployment benefits, but they are out here helping us get back.
