FREE Skiing for 5th & 6th Graders in Colorado – Two Different Programs
We are so lucky to live in Colorado in the wintertime, where it is so easy to take a short drive and hop on the ski slopes. For families, this can be an especially fun outing as parents share their passion with their kids.
I love that the Colorado ski resorts love to share that passion too. Like me, the resorts believe that skiing should be a rite of passage for every child lucky enough to live in Colorado. To help make that happen, they offer two different free programs so that 5th and 6th graders can learn and enjoy the sport.
The two programs are:
The 5th and 6th Grade School of Shred Pass, which offers four free days of skiing at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin. In addition to free skiing, this pass also includes one complimentary first-timer ski lesson and rental equipment at all the resorts except Arapahoe Basin.
Colorado Ski Country USA’s 5th Grade Passport Program, which provides participants with three free days of skiing or snowboarding at each of their 20 member resorts. That could be 60 days of skiing this season for free.
Colorado Ski Country also offers a First Class Program in January, which includes one full-day beginner lesson and rental package for any 5th grader who has never experienced skiing or snowboarding before. And, for sixth graders, they offer a 6th Grade Passport, which costs $99 and gives participants four days of skiing at each of the CSCUSA resorts. That could be 80 days of skiing for under $100. That’s a crazy good deal.
For the School of Shred Pass, students must sign up by Nov. 24, 2013. All they have to do is bring their 5th or 6th grade report card to a Resort Season Pass Office, a special event or to a Front Range sales location, such as Colorado Ski & Golf’s Aurora and Littleton stores, as well as Colorado Ski & Sports in Park Meadows.
They’ll get their photo taken and go home with their pass. Then, all they have to do is go to the lift on each day they plan to ski or ride a snowboard. Lessons and rentals are provided from Dec. 2 to Dec. 15, 2013, and again from Jan. 5 to Jan. 31, 2014.
The deadline to apply for the CSCUSA program is Jan. 31, 2014, and applications can be submitted online or through the mail.
After you receive the pass card in the mail, it’s easy to use. Just take it to the ticket office to obtain one child lift ticket per day. The resort will hole punch the back of the card so it’s always clear how many days are left on the pass.
The CSCUSA passes are good at Arapahoe Basin, Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain, Buttermilk, Copper Mountain, Crested Butte, Durango Mountain, Eldora, Howelsen Hill, Loveland, Monarch, Powderhorn, Ski Cooper, Snowmass, Ski Granby Ranch (previously SolVista), Steamboat, Sunlight Mountain Resort, Telluride, Winter Park Resort, and Wolf Creek Ski Area.
For more information about this program, visit http://www.coloradoski.com/passport.
Hope this helps get you to the slopes with your kids this winter. We hope to see you there!