Vail or Breck

[BoozeTan]

Where would you go? Why?

[jimmywilson69]

I dont buy the cool guy talk that either place sucks.

You're not going to get tons of pucker your checks skiing there but both offer great skiing

Back bowls are pretty cool places to ski 2k vert of no tree wide open skiing

Breck offers a lot of good tree skiing and the above treeline stuff is great albeit short.

Breck is a much better town.

Going with Breck will likely get made fun of by cool internet ski bros

The bonus of Breck is Abasin is 20 minutes away. Thats where you get the big boy lines

[spanky]

Keystone shouldn’t be overlooked either.

[heiusa]

I have been to both ski areas, and the back bowls of Vail blows away anything at Breck. Breck is mainly a blue ski area, not saying that is bad, but that can be found anywhere. As far as I know there is nothing in like the back bowls of Vail in the area. I did like A basin also and it is also way better than Breck. The the only thing I liked at Breckenridge was the town .

[wannabeskibum]

Breck is my favorite. Terrain off the E-chair (Devils Crotch, Inferno, etc) is challenging and old time narrow double fall line stuff. Windows glades off the E-chair is like the Anarchy Ridge. High Alpine terrain - particularly the t-bar serviced terrain has some great glades and pitches. The Burn off peak 10 is another great gladed area. Peak 6 terrain is also exceptional and Chair 6 terrain leading up to Imperial Chair has great pitches. Vail is too big - it takes forever to get to Blue Sky Basin which is the best part of Vail. Vail bowls are nice but they don’t compare to the high elevation terrain at Breck. Breck is also higher elevation so snow quality tends to be better. There is almost a 2500 ft difference in base area elevation and the peak of Imperial Chair sits at 13000 ft.

[wannabeskibum]

I have been to both ski areas, and the back bowls of Vail blows away anything at Breck. Breck is mainly a blue ski area, not saying that is bad, but that can be found anywhere. As far as I know there is nothing in like the back bowls of Vail in the area. I did like A basin also and it is also way better than Breck. The the only thing I liked at Breckenridge was the town .

I beg to differ, you don’t know Breck that well - and the back bowls of Vail are over rated - unless you are skiing Shangra La glades and some terrain in Mongolia, Blue Sky Basin is the best part of Vail.

[KingsFourMan]

Love them both, but would go with Vail unless it's a weekend or holiday in which case I'd go to Beaver Creek. I'd almost go to Beaver Creek anyway unless you've never been to Vail.

[KingsFourMan]

Keystone shouldn’t be overlooked either.

I haven't skied Keystone since the 80's when I was in college out there at CSU, wasn't a huge fan back then given all of the other options. But if I was staying in Breck for a week, I would definitely check it out.

[heiusa]

“Vail is too big” Now that’s funny. To say “ the back bowls of Vail are over rated” is where we differ. I have skied at Sqaw Valley, Mammouth, Snow Bird, Alta, Jackson Hole, Taos, Breckenridge and A Basin and none of them have anything that compares to the back bowls of Vail. All you need to do is compare the trail maps of the two areas and you will see that Vail has way more bowl skiing than Breckenridge has. If you like tree / trail / glade skiing, sure Breckenridge has that, but so do most ski areas, but what Vail offers, skiing in wide open bowls, snow fields as far as the eye can see, that is not available at Breckenridge and is what makes Vail special.

[heiusa]

Skiable acreage
Vail = 5,289
Breckenridge = 2,908

[jimmywilson69]

Peak 10 is great. You've got some steep groomers and excellent tree skiing on either side. I like to go there as it never seems crowded. Alternate runs of trees and high speed groomer runs.

As noted it is a chore to get to blue sky Basin but there's some great stuff in there

[deadheadskier]

“Vail is too big” Now that’s funny. To say “ the back bowls of Vail are over rated” is where we differ. I have skied at Sqaw Valley, Mammouth, Snow Bird, Alta, Jackson Hole, Taos, Breckenridge and A Basin and none of them have anything that compares to the back bowls of Vail. All you need to do is compare the trail maps of the two areas and you will see that Vail has way more bowl skiing than Breckenridge has. If you like tree / trail / glade skiing, sure Breckenridge has that, but so do most ski areas, but what Vail offers, skiing in wide open bowls, snow fields as far as the eye can see, that is not available at Breckenridge and is what makes Vail special.

The reason many people think the back bowls at Vail are overrated (myself included) is they are not well pitched. It's largely blue square bowl skiing. Fine if that's what you are into, but Breckenridge has far better steeps. Those steeps don't have a ton of vertical, but they're definitely more challenging than anything Vail has to offer.

[f.a.s.t.]

“Vail is too big” Now that’s funny. To say “ the back bowls of Vail are over rated” is where we differ. I have skied at Sqaw Valley, Mammouth, Snow Bird, Alta, Jackson Hole, Taos, Breckenridge and A Basin and none of them have anything that compares to the back bowls of Vail. All you need to do is compare the trail maps of the two areas and you will see that Vail has way more bowl skiing than Breckenridge has. If you like tree / trail / glade skiing, sure Breckenridge has that, but so do most ski areas, but what Vail offers, skiing in wide open bowls, snow fields as far as the eye can see, that is not available at Breckenridge and is what makes Vail special.

The reason many people think the back bowls at Vail are overrated (myself included) is they are not well pitched. It's largely blue square bowl skiing. Fine if that's what you are into, but Breckenridge has far better steeps. Those steeps don't have a ton of vertical, but they're definitely more challenging than anything Vail has to offer.

Try doing a PPL-10-High at Vail and then tell me Vail isn't challenging? Prima to Pronto to Log Chute to chair 10 to Highline. One of the best combo runs anywhere. The back bowls at Vail are some of the most iconic ski slopes in the world, no matter what their difficulty is. The attached photo of the Sundown Bowl taken from chair 5 shows what I'm talking about. Towards the left are the glades Seldom-Never-Oh sh*t at the ski area boundary, duck the rope to ski WFO (Way the f-ck Over) this area one of my favorite places in the world.

[deadheadskier]

I'm not saying Vail is without challenge, but Breck has considerably more of it. That is not a subjective opinion

[f.a.s.t.]

I'm not saying Vail is without challenge, but Breck has considerably more of it. That is not a subjective opinion

I've never skied Breck, so I can't really compare the two. I will add two backcountry options at Vail for Boozetan to consider. Hire a guide to take you backcountry to the East Vail chutes, there's plenty of challenge there, even scary stuff. A great way to end a ski trip to Vail for a last run is the famous Minturn Mile (back country-more like two miles) to the village of Minturn and beers at the Minturn Saloon. It's about a mile walk from the end of the trailhead to the Saloon (Mexican food), but well worth it and a lifetime memory.