When? I am sitting in Chicago, as we speak, heading back to Florida from Big Sky and it was amazing skiing. The size of the mountain alone is reason enough for me to go back. Granted, we had amazing conditions since it snowed some every day we were there and heavily the first two days.
Colorado. Fly into Denver and you’re only a a couple Hours from Loveland , a basin , eldora .... it’s the Rockies , man
Nice..don't go go Big Sky for the town or nightlife, but the mountain is awesome. We flew into Bozeman and were a little over and hour from the base of the mountain where we stayed.
Jackson Hole Park City Denver --> You know, extea curricular activities that aren't legal everywhere if you're into that.
It wasn't terrible, but transportation from the mountain to "town" was tough. No Uber and not many cabs. Best mode of transportation were the city busses. The resort area at the base of the mountain had a number of bars and restaurants that we enjoyed, but did hear a lot of people complaining about the lack of transport and feeling trapped there. Wouldn't be a problem, of course, if you plan to rent a car as the town center is only a few minutes from the base.
Jackson Hole would be #1 on my list for skiing and night life Wolf Creek for just skiing, something about everything being back country style and the amount of snow they get is usually unreal., If you are going during the week Denver isn't a bad idea, if you are trying to travel from Denver to the ski resorts on the weekend the 1.5 hr drive can easily be 3hrs and a lot of sitting in the traffic. Salt Lake is also not a bad place to be , you can be to a lot of good areas in an hr. Park City is awesome, but its $$$$
Colorado, Utah, WY, all good. All have lots of different mountains, but for a short trip like that you could also hit Lake Tahoe or Mammoth in CA. Those 2 are basically 1 mtn towns, but very big mtns...plus good night life. Have fun..
My son just got back from a 4 day bachelor party at Loveland. They had a blast and it was very affordable.
I did one of those at Breck 2 winters ago. Good time...good times. 18 guys...Spent about 5k on booze and uh legal green stuff...
One guy has already been to Jackson Hole, and while he is not opposed to going back, he was thinking of going somewhere different We would be flying in on a Thursday and flying out on a Monday. Do you think that would skirt the Denver traffic? How much $$$ are we talking for park city?
Breckinridge and Vail are both good for nightlife. Wolf Creek, Crested Butte, Loveland, A Basin, are all great as far as the skiing goes. If you like to party I’d steer clear of Utah.
Lift tickets at Park City will be ~$150 per day. Depends on the day and how many days you buy in advance. Rooms in the Park City area can get stupid expensive for slopeside and up in Deer Valley, but you can get a good room at hotels for $300/ night easy. The bus system is free up there if you want to go that route. Park City is the largest resort in the United States, has terrain for newbs and experts. Night life there is just like Vail, but no legal weed if that is necessary for your group. Vail and Park City are part of the same resort group. The cottonwood resorts have better terrain, but not the same night life options. Solitude has a nice resort lodging area, and skiing either Brighton or Solitude is easy from that base. Snowbird also has nice resort amenities, and if you ski you can hit Alta for the best terrain and snow in the United States. If you had a vehicle, you could ski a different area each day...if you were coming primarily for the skiing. If you want the experience, Park City is your place in Utah.
Mammoth has gotten hammered with snow this year. Was just there last weekend and it’s incredible right now. Edit: I should add that mammoth isn’t easy to get to but if you can fly to the mammoth airport and especially since you’ve got 4 days to ski it’s worth it. I’ll caveat that as well and say if there is a storm coming in they get high winds so it’ll close the mountain but damn I’ve ridden all over and there are parts of I still haven’t seen. It’s truly a neat place. Also great for summer backpacking.
Other sugggestion I know it’s supposed to be lower 48, which I’m assuming means you don’t have a passport. However, if you do you should look into Revelstoke. Fly to Calgary and drive west. You’ll thank me later. Only do this if your a fairly decent snowboarder/skier. It’s too steep for a lot of people.
My son did basically exactly what your describing. They had no traffic issues, no lodging issues (Airbnb house) and the skiing at Loveland was $80 a day including full rentals. He sent me a video of them skiing and it looked like they were the only ones on the slope.
