Colorado First timer to Colorado last week of November - options with novice wife

[mikel]

For spring trip, Easter 2024 is march31, relatively early. Unfortunately customer behavior is tied to easter and therefore operations get correlated as well, so agree if lessons are required you can't gon't go too late into April in 2024. That being said, I think April will still have better options avail than Nov.

another good and important point

 

[dred pirate]

I in

Don't like the making 2 mediocre trips vs having 1 great trip.
Why not swap the tropical trip to Nov or March/April and hold the Feb slot for skiing. I think you should be able to find lots of scuba options in Nov.

If you're deadset for a Nov ski trip, I agree don't commit to anything until the slopes open and be flexible. Pass options should also still be avail, so you don't need to commit to passes either, although you won't be getting lowest price.
You could also do something else in Nov other than ski.

For spring trip, Easter 2024 is march31, relatively early. Unfortunately customer behavior is tied to easter and therefore operations get correlated as well, so agree if lessons are required you can't gon't go too late into April in 2024. That being said, I think April will still have better options avail than Nov.

completely get that - appreciate the advice. I have never gone skiing that early in the year- think will try to push ski to January (location TBD and then first week of April at Breck or late march based on work allowances (the joy of working at a hospital- spring break is always crazy with others requests - plus prices are stupid high everywhere to fly). Reason I was sorta holding feb for tropical is I found some killer deals with my miles to Hawaii - and was looking to exploit that and making it a longer trip. Ironically I have more time off than money to spend on the trips! haha

I definitely do appreciate you all - also depends on if some friends join us or not on their time/location.

 

[LiquidFeet]

....
The other thing to consider is ski schools will effectively close before the resort does. So if you want to do a lesson, late March/early April are the latest you can go. Past 2nd week of April, Breck ski school closes and/or greatly reduces offerings.
....

@dred pirate, no matter when you go, your novice wife will probably need to ski on beginner/novice terrain and she will want to take at least one lesson if not more.

In November and December, when coverage is iffy, some (maybe not all) mountains focus on opening their expert terrain first, and leave the beginner hill and easy greens for later. With that terrain not open, the ski school will probably not be offering beginner or novice lessons, although they may offer upper level lessons. Ski schools may also not offer the lessons you need when it's late season as well, as mentioned by @Selcomski above.

I'd suggest calling around now to the ski schools you are considering in order to find out what instruction is likely to be available before you decide to make this trip in November/early December, or in mid-to-late April.

If no one is there to answer your questions, there are ways to find historical information on when the mountains open, but not much is available on when the ski schools get their beginner terrain open. You'll need to talk to someone who works in the ski school, I think.

 

[Mike King]

Snowmass. The beginner area will definitely be open. Then there’s the town.