Thanks again for all the comments and suggestions. Stayed 5 or 6 nights each at Grand Hyatt Vail a week ago, Hyatt Place Park City couple of weeks ago and Hyatt Place Keystone a month ago. (Lots of skiing this season, making up for zero skiing last season.) Comments posted on the HP Keystone and HP Park City threads shortly after check-out from each hotel, GH Vail comments pending. My shift this season from ski area Hiltons (DT Breckenridge, DT Park City, Hilton Whistler, HI Jackson Hole) to ski area Hyatts and my shift since the 2018-2019 season (when Epic Pass was first offered to Military at a fantastic rate in honor of the Epic Pass 10th anniversary and the 10th Mountain Division - 2 of whose WWII veterans founded Vail) to almost all Epic Pass resorts has been fun, interesting and a little challenging.
FWIW, I booked again at the HP Keystone next week and HP Park City in 3 weeks, both had availability at the incredibly generous Healthcare Friends and Family rate and I’m a sucker for an inexpensive hotel room. At least now I know exactly what to expect.
Originally Posted by
pdisme
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Dr Jabadski if you end up doing something else at Vail would love to hear which property you choose and how it goes. While I really enjoy Grand Hyatt Vail and the ease of lift access, my family (us and seven year old) really like some of the trails in Blue Sky basin and especially the Champagne Glades and options under Skyline on the back side, so getting there means a morning routine of Cascade, Pride, Avanti (huge choke point), Mountaintop, some polling down Timberline since my kid can't carry enough speed to get through there, Sourdough, Skyline and then we can finally start doing laps on Skyline and Earl's. That wastes probably 90 minutes in the morning and of course means we have to cut the day off early to ensure we can catch Wildwood before it closes.
Agreed that for a Blue Sky Basin skier GH Vail may not be the best location although Blue Sky Basin is time consuming to reach from any of the base areas, minimum of 3 front side lifts. I see it as just 1 or 2 more lift rides than anyplace else and I don’t mind skiing between lifts. Agreed that Timberline is a pain. At a certain age, after almost 60 years of skiing, skiing mostly solo (although I did spend 2 days of this trip trying to keep up with my 25 y/o niece and 22 y/o nephew who were very easy to keep up with when they were 5 or 10 years old
) I’m quite happy with skiing blue squares all day, I’ll ski black diamonds when conditions are excellent and my knees are cooperative
. My 5 days skiing at Vail saw little new snow, I spent 80-90% of my time on blue groomers, only skied Blue Sky for an hour one day and a few hours another day.
Don’t know how to best address your concern. Probably only a few more years until your 7 year old is bombing down the mountain well ahead of you, even on a flat catwalk. Several years ago I stayed in the Golden Peak base area, that might be the easiest “commute” to Blue Sky, Riva Bahn to Highline to Sourdough, but obviously no Hyatt in Golden Peak. As
Tonyr4 wrote, Game Creek Bowl might be a viable option. Unfortunately, as with almost everything else, there’s no perfect ski area and no perfect place to stay at any ski area, everyplace and everything has its pros and its cons.