Summer Projects

[Wookie]

No place in particular. To some degree, if you've seen one big Colorado resort you've seen them all. ....

I don't know if I would agree with that. Particularly along the I-70 cooridor I think each of the resort areas has it own flavor and the storms dump heavenly pow on one resort and neglect the mountain down the road (not that you can predict that). My quickie observations (at least for I-70):

Beaver Creek = the most expensive but quietest of the I-70 resorts. More high end dining and services. The best grooming in the world and more Green/Blue terrain available at high elevation (more snow/colder/snow making). Parking is free and shuttle service is great.

Vail = Open bowl skiing that you cannot find at other CO resorts. A good balance of casual and luxury amenities and dining. Parking in Vail is a bitch and the shuttle service can be weird

Breck = By far the best night life of the I-70 ski towns. Breck tends to be a younger crowd and more crowded but the place is so huge it's easy to find a quiet place to ski if you are a skilled rider.

Copper = Some of the most challenging terrain and quieter than the Vail resports.

A Basin = A ridiculously long season due to high elevation and a great place to get away from my wife (she gets altitude sickness at those high elevations and won't go there ... ). Perhaps the most casual big resort in Colorado, for me it's like skiing in PA, NY, NH, or VT with that small ski hill feel coupled with big mountain CO snow.

Keystone & Loveland = I have only skied each once so not enough experience to form an opinion but both were crowded when I was there (March Spring Break).

.... If we happened to stumble on a deal somewhere (say, generally, around Frisco or Silverthorne), we'd be interested. There may be no deals to be had, property in that country is higher than giraffe balls, but you never know. All these lodges want you to book for weeks at a time, months in advance. Having a spot to go whenever the urge struck would be nice.

Frisco or Silverthorne would give you a good base of operations without being directly in the valley under one of the big resorts. It would also be a nice place to vacation in the summer. The Dillon reservoir is beautiful in the summer. You're right about resort stays and real estate prices. I was fortunate to luck into a fractional ownership of a property in Avon and we have tried to expand it or buy an investment property with no success. For the times we want to tack on a few days to our stays in Avon with stops in other ski towns I have just lucked into VRBO openings where someone has less than a week between two bookings and is will to relax their "5 or 7 day minimum" rules to fill a gap.