Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month and other winter weekend wonder

Closing out winter break, getting ready to make good on some of your snowier resolutions, or just looking to get your shred on? There's snow in the forecast for tomorrow at most Colorado ski areas and plenty of good excuses to get up there and get after it, as if...

By Colin Bane

January 3, 2014

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Closing out winter break, getting ready to make good on some of your snowier resolutions, or just looking to get your shred on? There's snow in the forecast for tomorrow at most Colorado ski areas and plenty of good excuses to get up there and get after it, as if you need them. Read on.

"We already had a fantastic powder day on New Year's Day for the resorts along and north of I-70, and we might have another great day for the same areas on Saturday," reports Joel Gratz, of OpenSnow.com. "Snow will start late Friday night for Steamboat and slowly move south to I-70 by 5 a.m. Saturday morning. The Saturday morning snow reports might not show a lot of new snow (with the exception of Steamboat), but I expect heavy snow to fall after the 5 a.m. reports through at least late morning."

Join the club! If you've been missing out on the most awesome thing about living in Colorado, then January's Learn to Ski & Snowboard Month is the perfect time to cross something new off your bucket list. Deals associated with the promotion include a $50 gift certificate to Skis.com or Snowboards.com for any newcomer who takes a ski or snowboard lesson and sends in a receipt. Colorado Ski Country has a nice guide to some of the local specials on beginner packages. The best of the deals is at Copper Mountain, where the Easy Rider magic carpet surface lift is free and open to the public and tickets for the Pitchfork bunny slope chairlift are just $15.

Go on the prowl! Already way beyond the bunny slope? Loveland opened Chair 9 just in time for New Year's, which means The Ridge is now open. To make the most of it, look for the Ridge Cat, offering free snowcat rides to some of the best in-bounds terrain in Colorado. Bring your lift ticket or Loveland season pass to the pass office at the base of the mountain to pick up a Ridge Cat Access Pass and get more information.

Bring your optimism! Copper Mountain's popular Snow Day Pass -- a previous Best of Denver Best Ski Pass Deal winner -- is back for the 2013-2014 season. The $119 pass is good for free skiing or riding any day Copper is reporting 4 or more inches of fresh snow, plus guaranteed access on Superbowl Sunday (February 2) and Closing Day (April 20).

School's out for the winter (well, for one more weekend, anyway)! Beaver Creek's running out the last of winter break with its annual Beaver Creek Loves Kids WinterFest, which concludes on Saturday in Village Plaza with a winter parade, a special raptors exhibit from Nature's Educators featuring some of the birds many of the runs at Beaver Creek are named after, and a Family FunFest from 4 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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