Nearly every December for the past 20 years I've joined a group going out west to ski. The goal of these trips has been to get a week of good skiing at a good price. Initially, when most of the group was young and had meager financing, it was a drive out trip where we stayed in whatever economical lodging a member of the group could find. We usually found some place in the summit area of Colorado that gave us good value for our money and easy access to a variety of ski resorts. The lodging and transportation costs for these trips have varied from really cheap to somewhat expensive depending on choices we made. These choices include driving in a larger vehicle such as a motor home or a 2 passenger car versus flying; and using a time share exchange availability versus a regular condo rental. The price range for these choices has probably been from about $200 to $500 over the years. The size of the group has varied from as few as 4 to as many as 30 when the trip was organized as an Inland Ski Club trip.

This year, thanks to Winter Ski & Sport and East West Resorts, I was able to add 2 extra days of skiing to our normal week long trip. One of the door prizes at a reception hosted by the Winters and Vail Resorts after the 2004 CMSC Trip Seminar was two nights free lodging in a 2 bedroom condo at Vail Spa in Vail's Lionshead Village. These were beautiful, plush accommodations within walking distance of the Vista Bahn Gondola. Unfortunately extending our stay there for a week didn't fit in with our goal of an economical ski week. Fortunately, my membership in a timeshare exchange program came in handy and a 3 bedroom condo at The Christie Lodge in Avon near Beaver Creek Ski Resort was available for our planned ski week. I estimate that the cost of having this as a vacation option is about $1100 per year when initial purchase, maintenance fees, and exchange program dues and fees are added up. I arranged to spend Thursday and Friday at the Vail Spa and then move to the Christie Lodge in Avon for the following week.

Five guys took me up on the invitation to use these accommodations for 8 days of skiing. A total of 15 people formed our December ski group for the remaining 6 days. The rest who stayed in Dillon were composed of a group of 7 guys who found a 3 bedroom condo via the Internet, a couple who reserved a condo via their time share exchange program, and one person who had purchased a second home in Dillon.

For transportation, I've usually checked the Internet to find the cheapest flights in recent years. This year since one person in our condo hated flying, 3 of us decided to drive out with him in his extended cab pickup truck. With its thirsty gas tank the cost for gas for the truck was about $40 per person each way. We agreed to take the extra time to stop overnight rather than driving straight through, so taking leisurely stops for lunch and dinner made the drive a lot less exhausting. Finding cheap lodging overnight was no problem. On the way out, we drove as far as North Platte, Nebraska and stopped at an inn where we got 2 rooms for $49 each. The price included free long distance phone calls and a continental breakfast. The return trip stop was only slightly more expensive at $55 per room. The 5th person in our group flew round trip to Denver for about $200 and took the Rocky Mountain Shuttle between the Denver Airport and Vail at a cost of $136 round trip.

Before the trip, 2 of us ordered Entertainment Gold C Coupon books for the Denver, Colorado area through a toll free number -- 888-231-7283. They cost $10 each plus a $5 shipping fee and contained lift ticket discounts for most major Colorado ski areas. The coupons we used were good through December 17th . Each book had 2 coupons for $29 lift tickets at each of Keystone and Copper Mountain, 2 coupons for $37 lift tickets at Breckenridge, and 6 coupons for $49 lift tickets at Vail or Beaver Creek. The discounted lift ticket cost increased after the 17th.

We arrived at Vail on Thursday afternoon during a snow storm. The flyer in our group got in early enough to throw his luggage into a storage room, change and head out to the slopes for the afternoon. The rest of us were happy to have an experienced driver and 4 wheel drive to get us through the snow packed mountain passes on I70 and safely to our lodge. We parked the truck in the indoor garage at the Vail Spa and got settled in for our two nights stay. After getting a description from our flying buddy of the powder skiing that we had missed, we used the free Vail shuttle to go into Vail Village for dinner and a walk around town.

Friday we had a great day of skiing the 11” of new snow at Vail. We shopped and had dinner at Lionshead that evening. Saturday we loaded up the truck and drove up to Beaver Creek to ski so we could check in at The Cristie Lodge in Avon afterward. We took advantage of the Subway Restaurant inside of our lodge complex for dinner.

The rest of our Inland group arrived Saturday night and we arranged via cell phones to ski Copper Mountain on Sunday. Using our walkie talkies the whole group of 15 managed to meet up at Copper. Some of us skied together but we all met for lunch at Two Elks Restaurant. For the rest of the week we arranged to meet up at the same ski areas for skiing and/or lunch all around the Summit, including Keystone, Breckenridge and Vail. There was only one day when our group split up to ski at Beaver Creek, Loveland, Keystone or Copper Mountain, or take the day off. It was one of our best weeks of December skiing with practically all of Vail open and a majority of ski terrain open at the other resorts.