How to Avoid Colorado Lift Lines This Christmas

by Greg Colquitt | December 14, 2017

It’s Christmas time and you’re headed to Colorado!

What a unique idea.
You and your college buddies or entire family will most likely be the only one on the hill, but just in case you’re not, here’s a few tips on avoiding standing in line until you fuse with your so comfortable ski boots. Breckenridge travelers take extra careful notes.

Go Early

Yes, you’re high. I mean altitude wise, and maybe you’re still adjusting to the time change so maybe also you’re feeling it a little bit in the morning. Never mind what your body is telling you because that lift line is growing by the second. No matter the snow quality, everybody and their mother is pining to stage jaw dropping photo-ops at the top of the mountain for next year’s Christmas card or for their flatland Snapchat friends who had to spend Christmas in their childhood home drinking spiked cider. Ugh.

A not-so-jolly Christmas vacation

Get your butt out of the chalet, boot up, and start dispersing yourself around the mountain. Chair lifts at the base of the mountain can exceed wait times of 45 minutes and you didn’t pay $180 per day to stand in line did you?

Consider somewhere other than Summit County.

Ah, the holy grail! Five ski resorts dot the county map and capture what it’s like to live in the Colorado mountains away from the hubbub of city life, affording ample time to focus on the important things oft missed back home–like family values and renting skis. In fact, it’s so idyllic that a quaint pipeline called I-70 was installed through the middle of it all to share the wealth and increase the life value of Front Range folk and ultimately the world at large.
The resulting lift line wait has increased connectedness among skiers and snowboarders. Steve, a novice skier and Millennial from Iowa who is still on his parents’ insurance, even tearfully credited the improved conversation time as having “allowed me to finally break through to my mother about my trajectory as a brewpub server while I save money to start my own travel company. I can’t thank the resort enough.”

Or you could explore new areas of Colorado.

For a state with over 25 ski resorts, most within a couple hours drive of each other, ski hamlets abound away from the crowds. Take places like Crested Butte, Monarch, Telluride, Steamboat Springs, and Wolf Creek, for starters. You may have to drive a little farther or fly into a different airport and, God forbid, live without Whole Foods for a week or so, but the end result will mean shorter lift line and actual time with your friends or family, or yourself if you’re a lone wolf.
You may even save a few dollars while you’re at it. When you book a hotel and lift tickets together, you can get tickets as cheap as $40 a day. It’s a good deal and lucky you, that can all be done on GetSkiTickets.com.