Winter Park Resort - Discovery Chair area for beginners

[@heynoway1384]

Thanks for the upload! I’m a beginner skier heading up to winter park next week and trying to plan my way around haha

[@Nflguy4949]

We won’t have a car while in winter park. I had read reviews that there is a resort bus stop by our hotel (best western) . But a person at the private lessons office said the bus system is terrible and tough to know when a bus will be by your stop. She also mentioned no Uber service in town and gave me contact info for a place called CK transport instead. I’m curious if you used the bus system and if so what your experience was like.

[@seaskiandme]

Sorry, I was just there for the day. I actually stayed over by Blackhawk, and also skied at Keystone and Loveland that week. Both of my visits to Winter Park have been day trips in a rental car.

[@haloking1988]

Found a nice tree run. I just uploaded it on my KZbin

[@seaskiandme]

I just saw, but comments are turned off. Snow looks great and I can hear it squeaking! I'm jealous!👍

[@Nflguy4949]

I’m taking my kids (9 and 15) next week. I went skiing once 23 years ago so we’re all beginners. I booked a half day private ski lesson for us. Hopefully that’s enough to be comfortable on the easy/beginner areas.

[@seaskiandme]

Good luck, and reply back how you did! I'd say its a good start. A multi-day set of lessons to keep improving is better. Sometimes after a single half day, you may only be only be on the surface (carpet) lift. Hopefully by your lesson end you get some instruction on a chair lift. If you can swing it, I'd highly recommend a 2nd half day of lessons.

[@Nflguy4949]

@@seaskiandme So day one of half day private lesson wasn’t great. The instructor had us walking around in skis expending a ton of energy. When we finally took the Gemini lift my daughter and I were able to ski right away and didn’t need help from the instructor. My son had an awful time and was unable to get down the slope without the instructor holding out a pole for him to hold on to. In short it sucked and wasn’t worth the insane money I paid. However, I decided to get him a private lesson the next day and hoped the instructor would be better. Well, he was WAY better. He was much younger then the first instructor and connected better with my son. After the 2nd lesson ended we skied discovery over and over about 10 times then skied all the way down to the base and took Gemini lift back up then skied all the the way to base again. It was awesome!!

[@seaskiandme]

@@Nflguy4949 Glad to hear it worked out in the end and you had a good time!

[@ciara9930]

@@seaskiandmeis there any small slopes that you can walk up without a ski lift. We only want to snowboard 2 hours so I do think $125 pp is justified

[@seaskiandme]

@@ciara9930 I'm not aware of ANY ski resort where can you "practice" on their snow for free. You will have to sign a waiver to do so, which is usually done during the ticket purchase either explicitly or implicitly. HOWEVER, many resorts offer a "beginners only" lift ticket that limits the areas where you can ride/ski (perhaps only serviced by a magic carpet, tow rope. poma, etc.) Those are usually much more affordable. Alternately, a number of resorts that offer night skiing have more affordable night ski/ride tickets (can only use after 5PM or so. Note that it's usually much colder at night, but less crowded.) If you are a very experienced rider/skier, then for "free" you'd be looking at backcountry areas to hike/skin up to ride down. However, never do that alone or if not experienced due to avalanche and other dangers.