There are good times to be had at Winter Park when you’ve got kids in your group. Over spring break, we set out to find family-friendly adventure on the mountain and in the village. Here’s a roundup of 14 fun things to do at Winter Park, from skiing on blue snow to getting your pal to eat a barf-flavored jelly bean.
Home Alone
February 20, 2019 by 3 Comments
We love to ski with our kids, but every now and again, it’s great to get out there with the over 21 crowd. Or in this case, mostly over 50.
When Mom Joins the Kids’ Adventure Race
April 8, 2018 by Leave a Comment
Last summer, I got off the bench and got in the game for a thrilling adventure race with my daughter. The good news is that I survived it. The challenge was called the “Darwin Dash,” a name that suggested impending doom. Imagine a blue rubber mat the size of a […]
Locals’ Guide to Hiking Highland Bowl
March 1, 2018 by 2 Comments
Slogging up the ridge at to the top of Highland Bowl with my teenager in tow made me realize, there’s got to be a better way. Three locals’ share their wisdom. Hiking Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands is a rite of passage for any diehard skier. It’s a 782-foot bootpack […]
Ski and Snowboard Gear for Hiking Highland Bowl
March 1, 2018 by 2 Comments
Hiking the nearly 800-foot bootpack up to the top of Highland Bowl at Aspen Highlands should be on your bucket list. For good reason. The descent will be unforgettable. Power, steeps, views, trees and lots of grins. But it’s not a short or easy hike. It helps if you’re outfitted […]
Luxe Camping Gear
August 2, 2017 by 2 Comments
Sounds like an oxymoron, but there is such a thing as luxury gear for backpacking, from high-tech pillows to whimsical lighting. Why not? My two sons and I just spent a superb three days backpacking in Colorado’s Indian Peaks. Our campground had a lake view and a perfect sawed-off stump […]
Getting Wrecked at Copper Mountain
July 14, 2017 by Leave a Comment
And I mean “wrecked” in a really good way. When the kids go back to school, our July 4 weekend will be the trip they write about in that obligatory “What I Did this Summer” essay. In front of us, grey pads the size of lunch trays were suspended […]
Zen and the Art of Sea Glass Collecting
July 6, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Combing a pebbled-covered beach is a little like raking a Zen rock garden. I’ve discovered a new form of meditation: searching for sea glass. I’ve never been able to meditate in the traditional sense. I’ve tried. But my mind soon wanders and starts to churn on all of life’s crud: […]
Spring Break at Vail
April 15, 2017 by Leave a Comment
I’ve always loved spring skiing, but the reasons have changed slightly over the years. Spring break today means something vastly different to me than it did some decades ago when I was care-free college student. Back then, while fellow coeds were jetting off to Ft. Lauderdale to party righteously in […]
Crested Butte: Big Drops and High Speeds
March 17, 2017 by Leave a Comment
I was standing on the vertiginous slopes of Crested Butte’s double-black North Face with my son and his ski team this past February. Accessed off the North Face T-Bar, the area is like an enormous rumpled-up sheet, filled with steep cirques, cliffbands, benches, ledges, and chutes that plunge through […]
Ski Flick Psych-Up
October 27, 2016 by Leave a Comment
One fall years ago, in the middle of a screening of a new ski movie from Warren Miller, my 4-year-old daughter fell asleep on my lap. It sure was an expensive nap. (PS: Yes, she was wearing earplugs to mitigate the thundering soundtrack.) As our kids have grown older—they are […]
P is for Panda
March 31, 2016 by Leave a Comment
There are five things I love about Ski Cooper: Pandas, powder, platoons, close-in parking, and prime rib nearby. It’s the perfect place to learn to ski and snowboard, get a dose of history, have an untracked adventure in a low-key way, and cap it all of with a mighty steak. […]
Loveland: Where Gore-Tex Meets Good Vibes
February 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A weird day makes for high adventure at Loveland Ski Area. Over the holidays, I had one of my strangest days on snow, including a cosmic run-in with a Buddhist monk from Fort Collins. This day will also remain, I’m convinced, one of my most memorable days on skis with […]
Little Slednecks
March 26, 2014 by 1 Comment
A day at Vail’s Adventure Ridge with pint-sized adrenaline junkies means snowmobiling, ziplining, and tubing. Half a dozen kids, some as young as seven and all less than 100 pounds, sat straddling snowmobiles at Vail. Each had on a pint-sized but burly looking full-face helmet. The fellow in charge was […]
Adventure Racing for Kids
August 29, 2013 by Leave a Comment
From mud pits and ziplines to mountain biking and rappelling down a cliff face, this year’s kids’ adventure race at Vail boosted self esteem and suppressed the usual bellyaching. Here’s something I love about kids adventure racing: Kids bike, run, and climb—and I mean hard—for nearly two hours and they […]
Need for Speed
February 4, 2013 by 5 Comments
Better than Band Camp: Steamboat’s Speed Camp for Ski Racers My tweenage son, who weighs in at a willowy 70 pounds, recently was clocked at 59 miles per hour. He was not in a car. Or on a bike, for that matter. He was balled up in a tuck, sliding […]
Keen Vail Kids Adventure Race
September 20, 2012 by 7 Comments
Adventure racing requires teamwork. What happens when serial squabblers (kids, that is) compete? My children bicker incessantly over the most inane things. Who goes first at piano lessons. Who gets the blue water bottle. They argue over cupcakes, radio stations, pizza slices, hunks of watermelon, stuffies, lacrosse pads, and ski […]
Backcountry Essentials Checklist
February 5, 2012 by Leave a Comment
What’s in Your Pack? Here’s a list of 12 things you should have in your pack when you forge into the backcountry even for a day hike. Especially if you’re bringing the kids along, you want to be prepared for every eventuality short of the apocalypse. Because you are big […]
