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ID.4: Visiting different ski areas in Colorado

Shelby and Andrew

• 6 min read
ID.4: Visiting different ski areas in Colorado

So how does an EV do driving to ski areas around Colorado? That was our mission to find out. Ski areas visited in our ID.4 in 2022:

  • Arapahoe Basin
  • Aspen
  • Breckenridge
  • Crested Butte
  • Hidden Valley
  • Keystone
  • Monarch mountain
  • Park City
  • Vail
  • Winter Park

As always, this is partially possible because we are able to charge at our home, which makes it easy to start a trip with as much battery as necessary. Until charging infrastructure is further extended to apartment complex parking lots, rental homes, and street parking it will not be as easy for anyone to own an EV and go on these types of trips.  

Details on our ID.4:

RWD Pro version; 260 miles rated range. We had winter tires (Continental Viking Contact 7) on our stock 19" wheels, and a ski rack on the crossbars. In winter our long term average was 2.6 mi/kWh, about 200 miles.

Arapahoe Basin

This one is typically not an issue from the Denver Metro area. For us it is 110 miles round trip. In our experience, while there is a lot of elevation gain, if you start and end at the same location, the regenerated energy on the way down basically makes up for the extra energy going up, and it doesn't have a significant impact. Depending on temperature, it typically takes 50-60% in the ID.4.

But what makes it even easier? Arapahoe basin recently installed a bunch of level 2 chargers. They will probably not be free for the 2022-23 season (which may be for the best), but they will significantly reduce the anxiety of winter EV driving if you are skiing there for the day.

Arapahoe Basin's EV charging row. Front row parking and free charging, what is better?

Aspen

There are a lot of ways to make Aspen work in an EV. Fortunately the drive to Aspen from the Denver area is well covered with chargers, and growing by the year. Getting to Aspen is no problem.

In Aspen? There are fast chargers in town, and the town has level 2 chargers scattered around. Hotels have chargers. Literally chargers everywhere. Charge overnight, or plug in while you ski. Highlands garage has chargers. Snowmass parking has chargers. Ajax has charging near the base.

Plugged in at the Highlands garage.

Breckenridge

This one is tighter for a day trip for a lot of EVs. In our ID.4 it took around 68% battery, from our home in Golden. The good news? EV chargers. The paid parking garage has a bunch of them, seriously like 15 or 20. There are also chargers available at the ice rink lot, which is free (get to base area via shuttle).

It ain't free, but getting the ski boots on in a warm garage while getting some juice is not the worst thing.

Crested Butte

You may have found that this is one of the more challenging parts of the state to get to during summer trips... how about winter? Cottonwood pass is closed, blocking off access to Buena Vista, the fastest way to get to CB from the Denver metro area. This means going over Monarch Pass, with no place to fast charge between Salida and CB. This resulted in our closest call yet.

We stopped in Buena Vista and charged to 71%, planning on skiing at Monarch (and using their level 2 charger, so no need to get a higher charge). When we arrived at the top of the pass, the winds were unreal - no visibility, freezing cold, and we decided we would probably have a better time at Crested Butte. We were down to 41% and cutting off our charging stop, but we did some math and thought we could make it.

And we did. at 8% we drove up to Mt. Crested Butte, to park and charge while we skied. Side note - Crested Butte had just had their snowiest December in 30 years, and was still digging out. We eyed the chargers, atop this uncovered parking lot up a steep – unplowed – hill. Our RWD ID.4 had yet to fail us, so we gained some momentum and worked our way up the hill. We made it within 8 feet of the chargers, but then sank.

We were stuck.

With no ability to reduce traction control, and a very heavy 2WD vehicle, it took a ton of effort (and several percent battery) to get unstuck and out of the lot. Now we were at 5% battery and no access to our planned charger.

So we parked and went skiing! Afterwards we drove back down to town to the fast charger and everything turned out fine. Crested butte has a (slower than ideal) fast charger in the downtown area, which is pricy but can be used. The better option is to park in one of the skier shuttle lots in town; two have level 2 chargers to use. Then you can charge all day while you ski and come back to a full battery. We also stayed at a lodge that had level 2 charging. Since the fast charger is not the best, level 2 charging is the way to ski at Crested Butte.

Charging in some of the Crested Butte lots. As you can see... this was during a serious snowstorm.

Hidden Valley

We instructed a backcountry ski class at Hidden Valley this year, but RMNP is no problem for most EVs. It took us about 59% battery for the trip(41% there, 18% back).

Keystone

Surprisingly Keystone does not have any public Level 2 chargers available for skiers. Fortunately this one can typically be done on a single charge from the Denver metro area, but there is fast chargers available in Frisco (or Silverthorne for Teslas), with more planning to open in the coming years.

Monarch Mountain

Monarch Mountain has two level 2 plugs (one J1772, the other a tesla destination charger) at the base of the mountain. More would be nice, but it is always great to get a charge while you ski. We gained 43% while we skied fantastic snow for a few hours. There are fast chargers in Salida as well, in case those are unavailable or you need some more charge to get up the pass. The Salida chargers are priced much better than the Buena Vista chargers.

Big snowstorm at Monarch Mountain, had to dig out the charger. 

Park City

This one took some effort - due to covid concerns we drove to Park City instead of flying. Our ID.4 charged much more slowly in the cold, extending this trip more than we expected. we did 1138 miles, at 2.7 mi/kWh. It took about 3.5 hours of charging in each direction due to slower charging in the winter, about 55 kW (compared to up to 125 kW in the summer). Nevertheless, it is possible with a lot of highway miles.

Vail

Going to, and getting home from Vail was about as far as we felt comfortable on a single charge from the Golden area. It is not an easy place to park for free; but if you are willing to pay for parking, there are a bunch of EV chargers in the garage. There is even a DC fast charger in one of the garages. We paid for parking here during a day of skiing to continue on further into the mountains without having to wait at a fast charger; but the level 2 chargers make it stress-free getting home if you day-trip from the Denver area.

Look for the green walls at Vail - tight spots but they are near the door which is nice.

Winter Park

Winter park can be pretty easily done as a day trip from the Denver metro area. There are a few chargers in one of the paid parking garages, but they are slow (3 kW), and probably only worth your time in a PHEV or a lower range vehicle. There are fast chargers in the town of Fraser.