Skiing Beaver Creek

The high altitude ski village of Beaver Creek offers an expensive mix of fabulous skiing and snowboarding combined with luxurious accommodation.

Beaver Creek was first developed as a ski resort in 1980 by Vail Associates (now Vail Resorts), the company than also operates Vail, Breckenridge, Keystone and Heavenly. The resort was modeled on a typical European ski village, and scores highly for attractive architecture, character, and charm. In 1989 the profile of the resort was raised dramatically when it was chosen to host a World Cup skiing downhill race. Nowadays Beaver Creek is one of the few Word Cup venues to offer all 4 disciplines (Downhill, Slalom, Super G and Super Combined) over the same weekend. Advanced skiers can experience some of the thrills of the downhill by venturing onto the double black Golden Eagle trail which shares a lot of terrain with the Birds of Prey WC downhill course.

Though if you’re not quite up to 70mph breakneck speed, there’s a huge number of trails to suit everyone. The skiing is spread across three mountains – Beaver Creek Mountain (11440ft), Grouse Mountain (10688ft), and Arrowhead Mountain (9100ft).

Beginners have access to lots of nursery trails just above the village on lower Beaver Creek mountain. The ski school is also conveniently situated here. After you’ve gained a modest proficiency, venture up the Centennial Express chairlift, and head down the Cinch trail, long and easy-angle.

Intermediates can test themselves on Beaver Creek’s longest run, the 2¾ mile Centennial Trail. It’s thrilling and adrenaline-pumping , with some surprisingly steep sections.

Grouse Mountain is the favorite for many Advanced skiers. To name a couple of guaranteed hits, Royal Elk Glades gives an exciting powder tree run, and Screech Owl’s moguls are short but heart-pumping.

Good Snowboarders can try the expert terrain recently opened in the Stone Creek area. Here you’ll find short, very steep tree-lined chutes - a great place to be after fresh snowfall. If you're into parks there are 5 to choose from: Park 101, Lumber Yard, Zoom Room, Moonshine and Halfpipe.

There’s a variety of accommodation in the Beaver Creek ski village, from high-end hotels to simpler condos, but it’s all very pricey. Slightly more affordable is to stay lower down in Avon town. Here the new Riverfront express gondola links to the Lower Beaver Creek lift, which heads up Arrowhead mountain.

Nightlife is a little on the quiet side, the emphasis being on fine dining. Slightly more lively, and worth a special mention is the Coyote Cafe in Beaver Creek village – not quite Coyote Ugly, but at least you’ll get energetic DJs and music.