2015 World Championships: Where the Kids Are

It’s a Rocky Mountain sugar high around Vail and Beaver Creek

Editor’s note: This is the third in a series of articles guiding visitors through activities and events at 2015 World Alpine Ski Championships. Looking for more adult-friendly activities? Check out our 2015 dining guide and après guide.

Beaver Creek

In addition to being a world-class ski race venue, Beaver Creek is known as one of the most kid-friendly ski resorts in the world. Where else do guests receive free chocolate chip as they slide into the base area? But the sugar rush doesn’t end there. Take a whirl through this guide for ideas on how to keep the kiddos smiling between races.

Candy Cabin

Remember feeling like a kid in a candy store? This winter, that feeling comes to the slopes of Beaver Creek with a cozy new on-mountain Candy Cabin at the top of Strawberry Park Express Lift and Upper Beaver Creek Mountain Express Lift. Designed to look and feel like an old fashioned candy store, it’s stocked with penny candy alongside Custom Colorado-based Mootz Chocolates and classic Pepsi products made with real cane sugar. From the race finish, the Candy Cabin is a quick ride up Larkspur express. Take the catwalk directly skier’s left and follow it all the way to Strawberry Park.

Children’s Mountain Attractions

Beaver Creek’s mountain attractions offer fun family adventures for the young and young-at-heart. From Jack Rabbit Alley to Buckaroo Bowl and the Okee Dokee Korral, explore your child’s favorite runs — they may not be on your trail map. Discover tree skiing trails in the attractions in Bachelor Gulch, and stop by Ripperoo’s Retreat. Other attractions include Gold Mine Bear Cave, Tombstone Territory (which has a race course), Ghost Town and Buffalo Bumps. Finding these places is half the fun. If you’re really at a loss, ask an on-mountain staffer or ski patroller to point you in the right direction.
Photo: Dan Davis

Haymaker Tubing Hill

Beaver Creek’s lift-served tubing hill offers sliding fun for all ages. The dedicated Haymaker Tubing Hill features multiple lanes of fun for sliders 36 inches and taller, plus kid-sized tubes for littler ones. Mom and Dad can partake or watch from the deck at the Ranch. A covered surface lift makes the hilltop accent effortless. The Chuck Wagon at the Ranch is outside on the snow, offering grab-and-go items such as pizza slices, premade sandwiches and more.

Beaver Creek’s Ivy League Ski School: World Championship Lesson Experiences

Kids ages 7 and up can get small-group coaching with special emphasis placed on race fundamentals. They’ll watch and learn from the best athletes in the world as they compete at the World Championships with instructors providing individual coaching to help improve race technique and tactics.

Photo: Jack Affleck

Family Programming

Beaver Creek delivers seven nights of complimentary activities for families to get out and enjoy the winter outdoors after the lifts close. From rail jams and disco skate night to family snowshoe tours followed by cocoa and cookies. Meanwhile, Thursday Night Lights, the glowstick-ski-down and fireworks are intended for kids to experience a variety of activities.

Full schedule

Ski with a Ranger

If you’ve ever wondered what type of animal tracks grace the snow under a chairlift, or why a porcupine chews on tree bark, you’re the perfect candidate for Beaver Creek’s Ski with a Ranger program. Led by a U.S. Forest Service volunteer, these environmental education tours lead interested skiers and snowboarders of all ages and ability levels through a journey of the mountain’s ecology, wildlife (including birds of prey), area history and forest management in the White River National Forest. Open to all ages, the on-snow tours meet at the interactive Environmental Learning Center on the mountain and explore a different theme every week. A lift ticket is required to participate, but otherwise it’s free.

Vail’s Adventure Ridge

Just because the day is over doesn’t mean the fun has to end. Play well into the night at Adventure Ridge with ski bikes, a kids’ snowmobile track, a slippery slope of rip-roaring tubing lanes and more. Adventure Ridge is a snow park the size of a football stadium on top of Vail Mountain, with family food at Bistro Fourteen. The Eagle Bahn Gondola runs from breakfast until night.

Here are some of the activities at the top…

Jack Affleck

Tubing: Grab a tube, hop on the lift, get a rush. Vail’s multi-lane tubing hill whisks you downhill while the easy-access surface lift takes you back up quickly for maximum tubing per hour.
Jack Affleck

Snowbiking: Part bike. Part skis. All adventure. Snowbiking is a great activity for anyone who’s ever wondered what it would be like to shred a mountain bike down a ski run or for people who enjoy skiing but wish they had a seat with them at all times. Reservations are recommended. Call (970) SKI-VAIL (754-8245).
Jack Affleck

Kid’s snowmobile: Cruise around the Blizzard Speedway in specially crafted mini-snowmobiles for children.
Zipline: Who doesn’t love being hurled uncontrollably through the air? The four-line, 1,200-foot zipline tour at Adventure Ridge is a new and unique way to see the mountain from an entirely different point of view.

If you’re planning to go to Adventure Ridge while the mountain is open to skiers and riders during the day, you’ll need to purchase a Scenic Ride Ticket: $34/adults, $21/kids. The Eagle Bahn Gondola is free after 3:30pm.

The Vail Resorts press office contributed to this report.