Breckenridge Extends the Ski Season

Breckenridge granted its 50th wish on Wednesday: It will stay open an additional two weekends this season.

Season passes will remain valid during the extended season, and the resort is coupling the additional skiing with $50 lift tickets and free parking.

The announcement came on a day when temperatures soared into the 50s in the Town of Breckenridge and snow melted in towns and at Summit County resort base areas.

Resort officials appear to be hinging their bet on the expectation of snow in April, which isn't out of the norm for Summit County.

“This is a great way to end our 50th anniversary season,” said Pat Campbell, Breckenridge senior vice president and chief operating officer. “April is typically one of the snowiest months of the season and we have excellent conditions which we expect to last through the end of April. This is an opportunity for our season pass holders and skiers from around the world to take advantage of a few extra days, and enjoy more of the spring skiing we all love here in Breck.”

This final wish is the culmination of the resort's 50 Wishes campaign, which granted wishes all season to celebrate the ski area's 50th anniversary season.

“We had one wish left to grant, and asked our guests and fans via our social media channels what they wanted us to grant for our final 50th wish,” said Campbell. “We heard loud and clear from many fans like Lisa Doane and Jason Brooke that they'd love to see us wrap up this season-long promotion in the best way possible: by extending the season.”

This is the first time Breck has extended its season since merging with Vail Resorts in 1996. Breck is the only ski resort in Colorado that has announced plans to extend their season so far this year.

“We are trying to reward those guests and pass holders with extra time to get turns in this season,” Breckenridge spokeswoman Austyn Williams said.

On the final two weekends, Peak 8 lifts and terrain — including Imperial Express SuperChair — will be the only mountain operations. On Friday, Saturday and Sunday, April 20-22 and April 27-29, guests can ski from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Additional services for Breck's guests during the extension include special lesson prices, with half-day adult lessons starting at $59 and full-day children's lessons for $99.

Some restrictions to regular season promotions, season lesson passes and discounts may apply. A full list of services for the extended weekends is up online now and will continue to be updated at http://www.breckenridge.com/info/extended-season.

A short video showing Breckenridge in the winter

Here's a link to a short video I did of Breckenridge in the winter:

http://www.hdhathomes.com/tours/1627_tourb.html

Enjoy.

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974 Range Road, Breckenridge, Colorado 80424

Using shoulders looked to for another I-70 fix

Local and state highway officials returned from a trip to Minnesota last week armed with a new, and surprisingly simple idea to help ease weekend congestion on Interstate 70: Use the shoulders.

Highway shoulder space has been successfully transformed into an extra lane of travel to help increase traffic flow on Interstate 94 between Minneapolis and St. Paul, a concept officials say might work on I-70.

“We're excited,” Colorado Department of Transportation engineer Peter Kozinski. “It's a way of using the pavement we have.”

A hard shoulder lane on I-70 would run from the U.S. 40/Empire Junction to the Twin Tunnels, where an eastbound three-laning project is already funded and in the works, and would be used only during peak traffic times to help maximize capacity.

But the concept would require additional research, an environmental process and an estimated $30 million to implement. CDOT is far from giving it the green light.

“What we need to do is then carry on conversations with the locals and see what it really means,” Kozinski said. “It's not something we're walking away from at this point, but it's also not something we're just going to charge into blindly.”

Though CDOT is beginning to discuss the concept with locals and look at early feasibility research, a hard shoulder lane is not something drivers are likely to see by this summer, or even next summer, Kozinski said.

Not a zipper lane

The hard-shoulder concept, officials say, is not a zipper lane.

The controversial zipper lane idea would have reverted a westbound lane to be used for eastbound traffic during peak travel times, posing safety risks and impacting westbound traffic.

A shoulder lane would have no impact on the opposite side of the highway. With some re-striping, it would allow traffic to use the space on the outside of the highway during heavy traffic times.

The Federal Highway Administration paid for CDOT officials as well as Summit County Commissioner Dan Gibbs and Clear Creek County commissioners to travel to Minnesota last week to observe the hard-shoulder lane system first hand.

“I'm sold on it,” Gibbs said this week after returning to Summit County. “In my opinion, that's a real early-action item. That's something that could happen.”

A 12-foot shoulder is considered ideal to allow emergency vehicles to bypass traffic to respond to accidents.

The hard shoulder lane as it is implemented in Minnesota, however, preserves 3 feet of bypass space, which, Gibbs said, still turns out to be enough.

“Folks do their best to get out of the way as quickly as possible,” Gibbs said. “It might increase the timeframe for emergency services to get to someone by a couple minutes, but it's not a huge gap. It's minimal.”

In Colorado, highway shoulders are also used for snow storage when CDOT is plowing the roads. Kozinski said the shoulder lane wouldn't be operational during heavy winter storms.

Though CDOT director Don Hunt has warned Coloradans to be prepared for tolling to be a part of new highway capacity projects in the future, the transportation department hasn't had any discussions on whether a shoulder lane on I-70 would be tolled, according to Kozinski.

“That's a much larger conversation,” he said. “We really haven't given that any thought at this point in time.”

Congestion-priced tolling is used on hard shoulder lanes in Minnesota, with higher prices during peak hours to encourage drivers to travel during off-peak times.

Courtesy Summit Daily News

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Google Takes to the Slopes of Breckenridge

Instead of a figure walking, there's a little skier in the lower right corner of the Google Maps page, in street view mode. Google has added the slopes of Breckenridge Ski Resort to its Street View special collections, a page that includes world landmarks, business highlights and parks of the world. They say Arapahoe Basin, Keystone and Beaver Creek will also be included in the collection. The idea is to enable browsers to “tour some of the world's most beautiful ski terrain right from your browser,” according to a press release. “Whether you're planning your annual trip to your favorite resort or hunting for a new adventure, Street View can transport you to your desired destination.” Current resorts on the docket include: several locations at Whistler/Blackcomb, the Gold Coast Face at Squaw Valley and Four O'Clock run at Breckenridge, as well as Deer Valley and Crystal Mountain in Washington. All snow view imagery was captured by the Street View snowmobile, which made its debut two years ago at the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. The growing gallery of special street view collections takes browsers from the snow to the beach to city life. Courtesy Summmit Daily News