Greetings, Rocky Mountain sliders!

Who said no news is good news?!?!? ALL the news is good when we're talking about snowriding, and we've got some especially good news for you this week. The holidays are over, the crowds have diminished, and the resorts are celebrating that January is now officially declared Colorado Winter Sports Month. It's a great time, between now and the Martin Luther King Day holiday, to get in a weekend of big carves, big bumps, big glades, and big deals!

Congratulations to this week's winners of the CO-SOTC random lift tix-pick

narzog [at] netzero.net
goldglove255 [at] hotmail.com
thep [at] videophoto.com
amy_mac22 [at] hotmail.com
Contact slidingcheap [at] aol.com to claim your freebies.

The CO-Snow Repo':
The most believable weather link I've found to date originates with the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration at iwin.nws.noaa.gov/iwin. The Front Range and Divide are under winter storm watch tonight and through tomorrow morning, isolated snow showers Friday, clear and cold Saturday, with another little front moving through Sunday and Monday. Western Colorado forecasts cloudy and snowy and I predict champagne powder in time for Sunday brunch.

Tip o' the Ski Week:
If you haven't yet joined AAA, the American Automobile Association, it's well worth the nominal fee. In return, they'll give you free roadside assistance and towing (and how handy is that when your SUV gets stuck in a ditch), free maps, free resort guides, package deals to exotic places (for the summertime when there's no snow to ride), and best of all, any lodging bearing the AAA approved sign will give you at least a 10% discount off the pre-tax lodging price. www.aaa.com.

Featured this week (and could be EVERY week) is Aspen/Snowmass:
Make a run for your money. In fact, make many runs for your money. Having just spent the weekend at Aspen/Snowmass, I am pleased to say that if you haven't been there yet, you don't know what you're missing. Snowmass has the most interesting terrain I've ever ridden in the US, and the natural berms, benches, cascades, and interspersed glades woven in and out of the trails, be they steep or not-so-steep, are visually and athletically stellar. The Silver Queen gondola on the front of Aspen Mountain will have you up Ajax in 14 minutes, quite a change from the 45 it used to take according to the locals. Run some laps on Copper Cut-Off/Copper Trail/Copper Connector/Copper Bowl/Little Nell (it's 3 miles and over 3200 feet of vertical) and Feel the Burn. Best of all, there were NO lift lines, so you truly do get more bang for your buck. And holy cheap lodging, Batman, Aspen lodging for $80 a night? At the downtown Hotel Durant, you say? Affordable Aspen is the buzzword this season (check out the deals at www.aspen4u.com. - you'll be floored!); combined with the mellow locals, classy town life, and four mountains to ride, you've an unforgettable weekend waiting for you. All it takes is a phone call. And don't forget the Aspen Ski Plane for $99, includes air and ground transportation and lift ticket - skip the drive, the Eisenhower Tunnel, and let your skis do the flying. One intrepid Aspenrider booked a motel near the airport in Denver and took the Ski Plane three days in a row - now THAT'S riding wizardry! www.aspensnowmass.com.

Copper Mountain:
Copper's January Getaway package gives you one night lodging for two in a studio condo and two lift tickets, costing $65/pp. Single day lift tix alone are $57, so the calculator says the room is costing all of $16. Who's getting the short end of that stick? www.ski-copper.com.

Crested Butte:
The Last Great Colorado Ski Town truly is - the old mining town is Colorado's largest historic district and still offers the best night life. And still the best prices - stay two nights at the Sheraton for $67/pp/pn/dble occupancy and get two days lift tickets to boot. Kids stay free and kids 5-16 pay their age per day for lift tickets all season long. www.skicb.com/book/hotdeals.

Howelsen Hill:
The Mouse That Roared! Howelsen Hill's 8th annual Winter Carnival takes place in Steamboat Springs 2/6 - 2/10. Join them for snowshoe races, tubing parties, ski jumping (and Howelsen is an Olympic-style adrenaline pump!), fireworks, and more. A big apology also to the gracious folks at HH: I incorrectly listed their URL on the inaugural CO-SOTC newsletter. The correct URL is www.steamboat-springs.net/recreation/howlesen.htm.

Vail/Breck/Beaver/Keystone Resorts:
Okay, so raise your ski glove if you really enjoy driving I-70 to the resorts. What? No one? Then have I got the scoop for you - Colorado Adventure Mobile offers a shuttle bus from Denver to the mountains for $15/pp/rt and includes refreshments up and back. This Saturday the shuttle goes to Breck (for a schedule of other trips, visit www.coloradoadventuremobile.com. Bus leaves from Heritage Square parking lot at 7 AM and returns from the resorts around 4 PM. Keystone is still offering their Forest Deluxe special - a 2 BR condo, sleeps four, for $169/night, translating to $43/pp/pn, and includes free snowshoeing, XC skiing, and ice skating. And since Keystone offers one of the largest pieces of night skiing terrain in the country, (235 acres, 17 trails, and five lifts), riding for 11=BD hours is not only possible, it's expected! Remember the deals with both the Perfect 10 Pass and PEAKS discounted lift tickets? You could be riding Key's Threes for as little as $2/hour! www.keystoneresort.com.

Tell-U-Ride:
It's finally here - Prospect Bowl is opening this weekend, adding another 733 acres to the already outstanding terrain at the resort. Festivities are over-the-top, headliner including Big Head Todd & the Monsters. It gets better - Shawn Colvin, apres-ski parties, torchlight parade, street dancing, a 3530-foot vertical drop through north-facing bowls and glades, and Tell-U-Ride now totals 81 trails, 16 lifts, 25% beginner, 36% intermediate, and 39% expert. Check out the hot stay 'n' ski deals at www.tellurideskiresort.com/hotdeals, or better yet, ski Tell-U-Ride for half-price every day when staying in one of the neighboring towns. Cortez, Durango (don't forget Durango Mountain!), Montrose, Ouray (go ice climbing), Ridgway, and Norwood all have spectacular deals on lodging/lift packages, and you can do your morning java jolt in the car on the way up. Visit www.tellurideskiresort.com, click on Plan a Vacation, Lodging, Ski Telluride Half Price, in that order.

Winter Park:
All I wanna do is have some fun, and I gotta feeling Winter Park's the one. First of all, the lodging - the LOWEST rates in town, this weekend only, are at the Winter Park Mountain Lodge, home of the Moffatt Station Microbrewery - book any forest view room at the special rate of $79/night, with no minimum stay required. Make your reservations by calling 1-800-979-0332. And the ever popular Chef's Cup Dinner Dance is this Friday night - for $25 you'll get a sampling of all the great foods Winter Park restaurants have to offer (book through the Competition Center at 970-726-1589). And since you'll be up here Saturday anyway, join Mad Mary's party Janeside from 2:30-5:30 at Pepperoni's and groove to the sound of The Freaks. Did I really say "groove?" Look for more deals at www.skiwinterpark.com.

Backcountry/Nordic:
Best cat-ski deal to date is offered by El Diablo Snowcat Skiing, out of Durango and operating in the San Juan Mountains. $125 will get you an individual day, or bring nine other people and it's $850/day, or $85/pp. Now I don't know about you, but I'd pay $85 for a full day of virgin powder, fresh tracks and 13,000 vertical. www.snowcat-powder.com. or 1-877-241-9643

Till next week, stay low, stay smart, and stay luz,
Martha
skibabeage [at] hotmail.com